nominalized

Nominalization is the process by which a word or phrase, typically a verb or an adjective, is turned into a noun or a noun-like form. A nominalized item behaves syntactically as a noun, able to take determiners, measure phrases, and sometimes plural markers in many languages. The term “nominalized” can describe both the process and the resulting form.

In English, nominalization occurs through affixation (for example, suffixes such as -tion, -ment, -ance, -ence, -ity to create nouns like creation, movement, importance), zero derivation (the noun form created directly from a verb without an overt suffix, as in run → run), and the use of gerunds or verbal nouns with -ing (the running of the engine). Some nominalizations denote events, others states or processes.

Nominalized clauses and phrases can function as single noun phrases. Examples: “That he left” can be nominalized to “his leaving,” or “the fact that he left.” Fully nominalized clauses may serve as subjects or objects: “Leaving early surprised us” versus “His leaving surprised us.” Nominalizations can carry modifiers: “the rapid growth,” “the destruction of the city.”

In many languages, nominalization is a productive morpho-syntactic process with dedicated affixes or particles. English relies on a mix of affixes and word-formation strategies, while other languages may rely more on dedicated nominalizers (for example, no in Japanese). Nominalization often abstracts away from the original argument structure, enabling focus on the event, result, or property.