nominalizer

A nominalizer is a morpheme, word, or syntactic element that turns a verb, an adjective, or a clause into a noun or noun phrase. In linguistics, nominalization is the process, and nominalizers are the devices that create nominal forms from other parts of speech.

In English, nominalization occurs with affixes and word-forming processes. Derivational suffixes such as -ment (development), -tion (formation), and -er (teacher) convert verbs into nouns denoting action, result, or agent. The -ing form can function as a gerund, as in "Running is fun," where the verb is treated as a noun. Noun phrases can also be formed from clauses, as in "the idea that she left," where a determiner and a head noun nominalize the clause.

Nominalizers that operate on clauses enable speakers to refer to events, propositions, or descriptions without repeating a verb clause. For example, "That he left surprised us" can be recast as "The fact that he left surprised us," or more concisely as "His leaving surprised us," the latter using a nominalized form of the verb to create a noun phrase.

Cross-linguistically, languages vary in how explicit their nominalizers are. Japanese uses particles such as no (の) and koto (こと) to convert clauses into noun phrases; other languages employ dedicated nominalizing affixes or patterns. These devices interact with syntax, taking determiners or forming compound nouns to express notions of event, description, or proposition.

See also nominalization, verbal noun, gerund, participle.