nounsnominal

Nounsnominal is a coined term in linguistics used to describe a word form that behaves both as a noun and as a nominal marker within the noun-phrase structure of a language. The concept is theoretical and not part of standard grammar descriptions, but it has appeared in typological and experimental discussions about how nouns and nominal classifiers interact.

In a nounsnominal system, a single item may function as the head of a noun phrase and, in other contexts, operate as a marker that qualifies or quantifies the noun without introducing a separate determiner. This distinguishes it from ordinary nominalization, where a verb or adjective is turned into a noun head while a separate determiner or classifier remains unchanged. Nounsnominal analysis seeks to account for languages where a single morpheme or word form carries both head-noun function and a determiner-like or classifier-like role within the same phrase.

Syntactic and morphological properties that may be described under nounsnominal include the ability to appear bare as NP heads, to take number marking, and to combine with modifiers such as adjectives or demonstratives. In some discussions, nounsnominal items are proposed to interact with numeral systems or classifiers in ways that reduce or blur the distinction between noun heads and nominal markers.

Example (hypothetical): In a fictional language, the nounsnominal form kit means “book” when used as the head of an NP (kit is a book), and the same form appears after numerals in a numeral-nounsnominal construction to function like a classifier or determiner (two kit meaning “two books”). The exact behavior is language-specific.

See also: Nominalization, Noun phrase, Determiner, Classifier.