nominalizant

Nominalizant is a term used in linguistics to refer to an element—such as a morpheme, word, or syntactic construction—that produces nominalization, the process by which a word or clause is converted into a noun or noun phrase. In practice, a nominalizant can function at different levels of the grammar, from affixes that form nouns from verbs or adjectives to whole clauses that are rephrased as nouns.

Types and examples

- Morphological nominalizers: affixes that create nouns from other word classes. Examples include the English suffixes -tion, -ment, -ness, -ity, and -ing used as gerunds or nominalizations (e.g., construction, development, happiness, priority, running).

- Agentive nominalizers: suffixes such as -er or -or that yield agent nouns from verbs (e.g., writer from write, runner from run, actor from act).

- Lexical nominalizers: existing nouns that function to nominalize related content, such as fact, idea, event, or occurrence, which can introduce a dependent clause (the fact that he left, the idea of leaving).

- Syntactic nominalizers: constructions that turn clauses into noun phrases, such as that-clause or infinitival phrases (the fact that it rained, the plan to leave).

Function and usage

Nominalizants enable speakers to discuss actions, events, properties, or ideas at a higher level of abstraction. They are central to topics such as argument structure, sentence compression, and information focus. The same base may yield multiple nominalizations via different nominalizants, producing related but distinct nouns or noun phrases.

Cross-linguistic notes

Different languages vary in how they realize nominalization. Some rely heavily on affixes to create new nouns from verbs, while others use dedicated nominalizing words or more syntactic strategies. The concept of a nominalizant encompasses these devices, unified by their role in forming nominal expressions from non-noun material.