Substantivaatio

Substantivaatio, or nominalization, is the linguistic process by which words from other parts of speech, most commonly verbs and adjectives, are converted into nouns. This allows speakers to refer to actions, processes, states, or abstract qualities without introducing a separate lexical noun. In many languages, nominalization also affects how the resulting noun behaves in sentences, including its possible inflection, modifiers, and syntactic role.

In Finnish, nominalization is highly productive and commonly realized through affixation. A typical pattern is turning verbs into process nouns with the suffix -minen, as in tekeminen (the act of doing) or puhuminen (the act of speaking). Adjectives can yield abstract nouns through various suffixes, such as -us or -ys, producing words like kauneus (beauty) from kaunis (beautiful). Other productive formations include loan-derived or compound-based nominalizations, such as kommunikaatio (communication) from kommunikoida (to communicate). Nominalizations often function as the head of a noun phrase and can take determiners, modifiers, and case inflections in inflected languages.

Across languages, nominalization uses different mechanisms. English frequently forms nouns from verbs and adjectives with suffixes such as -tion, -ment, and -ing (creation, arrangement, running). German and Dutch use suffixes like -ung and -ing, while Romance languages employ -ción, -ment, or -ismo equivalents. Some languages rely on conversion or zero-derivation, where a word is used as a noun without adding a distinct morpheme.

Substantivaatio is a key tool for abstract expression, argument organization, and discourse cohesion. It can increase precision and compactness but may also raise complexity or reduce immediacy if overused.