Nominalization

Nominalization is the linguistic process by which a word, typically a verb or an adjective, is turned into a noun. In many languages, nominalized forms allow speakers and writers to refer to actions, events, qualities, or relations as entities that can be discussed or evaluated as a whole.

Nominalization can occur through morphology, using affixes such as -tion, -ment, -ure, -ance, -ancy, and -al to create nouns from verbs or adjectives (for example, investigation from investigate, destruction from destroy, beauty from beautiful). It can also occur through zero derivation or conversion, where a word changes category without an overt affix (for example, run becoming a noun in Running is fun). The -ing form of a verb can function as a gerund, a verbal noun with syntactic properties of both verb and noun, as in The running of the engine.

In syntax, nominalizations often shift focus from agents and processes to events or states themselves. They enable longer noun phrases and allow the discourse to abstract away from specific actors, contributing to formality or generalization. For example, The investigation into the matter contrasts with Investigating the matter revealed new evidence; the former emphasizes the event, the latter emphasizes the action.

Nominalization is widespread in many languages and varies in productivity and style. In English, it is a common tool in formal and academic writing but can lead to heavy or opaque prose when overused. In other languages, nominalization may rely more on morphological markers or distinct nominalizers.