A Study Of Nominalization In The SOLAS Convention Based On SFG

The nominalization refers to the process by which any element of the clause transferred to the language unit that has such syntactic function as noun or noun phrase. The nominalizations serve a solemn, objective and precise style, which is a typical feature of official articles, legal documents, social science works, and reviews of newspapers and periodicals and something like that, and have a close relation with our ordinary life. The present study aims to investigate its usage in The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea in terms of Systemic-Functional Grammar proposed by Halliday. The result shows that:Nominalization is a very universal language phenomenon in the SOLAS Convention, taking up an important proportion. The three nominalizations, namely, lexical nominalization, phrasal nominalization and clausal nominalization have slight difference, but most of them act as objects. Besides, from the point of view of transitivity, the most frequently used is relational process in the phrasal nominalization, while in the clausal nominalization represented, the mental process has the most frequent use.Moreover, nominalizing the verbs that designate process, from the study of ideational function, can make clause complex condense into clause, and the originally logical relation can be realized through converting the original textual marker to process verbs. In this way, not only the information remains still but also the expression becomes more succinct and precise. Furthermore, in the new clause, the nominalized theme and subject can make some uncertain things accepted by the readers naturally, difficult to negotiate.From the study of interpersonal function, for the mood system, nominalization can delete the subject and finite elements, and in doing so, the agent who stipulates the rules become obscure, making the content in the Convention more objective. As for the modality system, by nominalizing can facilitate the drafter show his attitude in an invisible way, which helps the public accept the information as a fact without any doubt.From the study of textual function, nominalization can encapsulate a lot of information to be the theme of next clause, as a result promoting the information flow smoothly and achieving the cohesion and coherence. In that case, on the one hand, it can presuppose the information and play an emphatic effect; on the other hand, it can also be the background information to highlight the end of focus. Nominalization can make the structure optimize and more official.Through the analysis of nominalization in the SOLAS Convention, some revelation can be obtained. Firstly, the application of the nominalization is closely related to the formality of the style, the more frequently the nominalization is used, the more official the style is. Secondly, it is of help to better understand and know the SOLAS Convention or other maritime documents by learning about some knowledge of nominalizaion; in a word, the use of nominalization can bring a lot of benefit, so it needs to learn to make use of it creatively.