GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR (NOMINALIZATION) (Based on Gerot & Wignell, Bloor and Bloor and Thompson)

1. GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR (NOMINALIZATION) (Based on Gerot & Wignell, Bloor and Bloor and Thompson)

2. Plan for the class I) What we have studied so far: the basic resources of the language II) Introducing the concept of Nominalization as an extended resource III) Nominalization as Grammatical Metaphor IV) Effects of Nominalization V) Summing up the procedure for packing and unpacking nominalizations

3. I What we have studied so far: the basic resources of the language

4. Transitivity resources and Tactic and Logico-semantic resources So far we have studied basic resources of the language, namely, • transitivity resources (processes, participants and circumstances) and their configurations, that give rise to clauses that express experiential meaningand • tactic and logico-semantic relations, that give rise to clause complexes that express logical meaning

5. Basic resources of the language and typical, natural, congruent realization of meaning Basic resources of the language involve a typical, natural, congruent relationship between meaning and form whereby

6. Typical, natural, congruent realization of meaning illustrated The witness openly refused to testify yesterday because she was afraid of possible reprisals.

7. Typical, natural, congruent realization of meaning illustrated

8. II Introducing the concept of Nominalization as an extended resource

9. Nominalization as an extended resource Apart from the basic language resources we have studied so far, language has extended resources, resourcesit creates to expand its meaning potential (= its capacity to make meaning). One such resource is nominalization, which extends the meanings language can make only with the basic resources.

10. Nominalization defined Nominalization can be defined as the resource whereby a meaning which is not typically encoded/realized/expressed by a noun (say a Process, a Quality or a Logico-Semantic relation) comes to be expressed by a noun.

11. Nominalization illustrated

12. Nominalization illustrated: more examples of processes

13. Nominalization illustrated: more examples of processes

14. Nominalization illustrated

15. Nominalization as a Noun-Group Examples on previous screens reflect how the nominalization of a Process, a Quality, a Logico-semantic relation results not just in a Noun but in a Noun-Group, with the structure typical of NGps The first important personal decision [[he made]] Deictic Num Epithet Classifier ThingQualifier

16. Nominalization as a Noun-Group illustrated

17. Nominalization as a Noun-Group illustrated

18. Nominalization: further transformations noted It is important to note that nominalization usually results in a whole clause being turned into a NGp (with the nominalized Process, Quality or Logico-Semantic relation as Head or Thing in it) or two or more clauses in a clause complex being first nominalized independently and turned together into a single clause. See examples on next screen

19. Nominalization: further transformations illustrated Britain industrialized in the 18th c. (clause) Britain’s industrialization in the 18th c. (NGp) Peter is resilient (clause with AdjGp as Attribute) Peter’s resilience (NGp)

20. Nominalization: further transformations illustrated He was depressed because his marriage failed. (a clause complex) The failure of his marriage was the cause of his depression. (a single clause with two clauses and the conjunction transformed into nominalizations)

21. Summing up Nominalization I In sum, nominalization can be defined as the resource whereby a meaning which is not typically encoded/realized/expressed by a noun (say a Process, a Quality or a Logico-Semantic relation) comes to be expressed by a noun. Such nominalized meaning usually becomes the “Thing” in a NGp and meanings associated with it take up other positions in the NGp.

22. Summing up Nominalization II Through nominalization clauses with Processes and Attributes become NGps (Britain industrialized  the industrialization of Britain; Peter is depressed  Peter’s depression) and clause complexes joined by conjunctions can become NGps or single clauses (His marriage failed because he was depressed  his depression due to the failure of his marriage (NGp); The cause of his depression was the failure of his marriage (single clause))

23. III Nominalization as Grammatical Metaphor

24. Why is Nominalization referred to as grammatical metaphor? Just as metaphor in literature (= My verse is a wounded deer), Nominalization is an alternative, non-typical, non-congruent, way of expressing a meaning. Since the changes involved in Nominalization are not so much lexical as grammatical, it is referred to as Grammatical metaphor .

25. Grammatical metaphor as more encompassing than Nominalization GM is a more encompassing notion than nominalization. GM can be defined as a non-natural, non-congruent, non-typical realization of meaning. Nominalization is one of the many resources that can express meaning non-congruently in the language.

26. More instances of Non-Congruent realizations of meaning In the light of the notion of Grammatical metaphor, we can add two further non-congruent realizations of Logico-semantic relations, which are not nominalizations proper, but VGps or PPs used instead of conjunctions. See next two screens for revised correspondences

27. Types of Nominalization

28. Types of Nominalization

29. IV Effects of Nominalization in text

30. Effects of Nominalization in text I • Nominalization effaces human agents/obscures agency (= who carries out an action). The text thus becomes more impersonal and abstract in nature, because concrete people tend to disappear from texts and inanimate objects tend to be the main participants. • Information becomes condensed, more tightly packed and the text is thus more complex to decode (think of scientific articles and administrative language, for example)

31. Effects of Nominalization in text II • The text becomes more lexically dense, i. e. the proportion of content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, especially nouns like “the cause/reason”; verbs like “was caused/brought about”; “led to”) is higher than the proportion of function words (especially conjunctions like “because” “when” as opposed to content words above)

32. Texts that favor the use of nominalization • Written texts are more heavily nominalized than spoken texts. Spoken texts have more clauses with their participants, processes and circumstances, whereas written texts have more nominalizations. Written texts are thus more impersonal, abstract and more lexically dense. • Among written texts, scientific papers in experimental and social sciences and academic papers tend to favor nominalization more than, for example, letters.

33. V SUMMING UP THE PROCEDURE FOR TURNING CLAUSES INTO NOMINALIZATION AND FOR UNPACKING NOMINALIZATIONS

34. Summing up the procedure for producing nominalizations 1) Whenever possible, turn every process or quality within a clause with associated participants into a nominalization (a nominal group), seeking to include all the information except for general, vague or obvious information (especially agents that are vague or obvious “people”, for example) 2) Turn a clause complex into a single clause as far as possible by using verb groups of causation/ consequence for logico-semantic relations (was caused/was brought about/led to/was replaced by), or the verb “be” with nouns like “cause” “reason” (The cause for industrialization was the demand for goods) or prepositional phrases (The higher demand for goods was due to the increase in population … )

35. The procedure illustrated 1) Whenever possible turn every process or quality within a clause with associated participants into a nominalization (a nominal group), seeking to include all the information except for general, vague or obvious information (especially agents that are vague or obvious “people”, “manufacturers” in previous slides) When Britain industrialized, people migrated to the cities. the industrialization of Britain migration to the cities (“people” has been left out) If you can show the results are reliable, then they will be accepted. the reliability of the results acceptance

36. The procedure illustrated 2) Turn a clause complex into a single clause as far as possible by using verb groups of causation/consequence for logico-semantic relations, or the verb “be” with nouns like “cause” “reason” or prepositional phrases When Britain industrialized, people migrated to the cities. The cause of pople’s migration to the cities was industrialization. (using a noun of causation) The industrialization of Britain caused/brought about/led to migration to the cities. (using a verb of causation and turning the time relation into a cause-effect relation) After the industrialization of Britain, there was migration to the cities. (using a prepositional phrase for the logico-semantic relation of time)

37. Procedure for unpacking nominalizations 1) Whenever possible, turn the nominalization into a clause with participants, process and circumstances and restore participants missing in the nominalization (mainly agents). 2) If the nominalization is part of a clause with other nominalizations linked together by a verb of causation or the verb “be” or any other verb, turn each nominalization into a clause and link the clauses by means of the conjunctions that best suit the meanings being made

38. Procedure for unpacking nominalizations illustrated 1) Whenever possible, turn the nominalization into a clause with participants, process and circumstances and restore participants missing in the nominalization (mainly agents). Her announcement that her husband’s spirit had contacted her caused general disbelief. She announced that her husband’s spirit had contacted her Nobody believed her If you can show the reliability of the results, your paper will meet general acceptance. the results are reliable people will accept the paper

39. Procedure for unpacking nominalizations illustrated 2) If the nominalization is part of a clause with other nominalizations linked together by a verb of causation or the verb “be” or any other verb, turn each nominalization into a clause and link the clauses by means of the conjunctions that best suit the meanings being made Her announcement that her husband’s spirit had contacted her caused general disbelief. When she announced that her husband’s spirit had contacted her, nobody believed her OR She announced that her husband’s spirit had contacted her, but nobody believed her If you can show the reliability of the results, your paper will meet general acceptance. If you can show the results are reliable, people will accept your paper.