Nominalization--An Adaptation-based Approach

Nominalization is a frequently used linguistic device in English, especially in written English. Different linguists try to account for the phenomenon from different approaches, arriving at different conclusions. This thesis is a pragmatic analysis of nominalization, which is understood as a realization of human beings' adaptation to the general purpose of successful communication in written English. The aim of the study is to uncover the deep mechanism that underlies the choice of nominalization in written communication, hoping to dig out all the potential contextual factors that prompt the language user's preference for the linguistic device. The theoretical framework of the present study is based on Jef Verschueren's linguistic adaptation theory (1999). In accordance with the theory, nominalization is understood as a kind of linguistic choice and a linguistic strategy that can be exploited by the language user to achieve or get adapted to some of his communicative goals.The dissertation is divided into five chapters:Chapter One gives a brief introduction to the object of the present research. Information about the definition of the object, the rationale of the research and the objective is presented. In the present study, nominalization is not only a morphological process but also a grammatical process. Our interest in this topic results from the existence of motivations behind the employment of nominalization and the lack of a guiding principle for the manipulation of nominalization. The objective of the study is to explore all the contextual factors that prompt the language user to choose nominalization as a powerful device for various kinds of expressions in written English.Chapter two reviews different approaches to nominalization. Jespersen's study (1924) serves as a first attempt on nominalization. The other researches are mainly done within the framework of transformational grammar, a position which is represented by Chomsky (1957; 1970), Lees (1960), Fraser (1975), etc., concentrating on the relationship between verbs and their corresponding nominalizations, and within theframework of systemic-functional grammar, a position which is represented by Halliday (1994), whose treatment of Grammatical Metaphor (GM) is regarded as the beginning of conscious study of nominalization from the functional perspective. Despite great contributions made by these previous researchers, some limitations still exist. For example, concentrating on the product of language, they fail to notice that in many cases, nominalization is a highly conscious act of linguistic choice helping the language user to achieve various kinds of communicative goals in written discourses. All the potential contextual (social, cultural and cognitive) variables that influence the use of nominalization are waiting to be identified. Seeing this loophole, the present study presents an adaptation-based approach, an approach based on Verschueren's linguistic adaptation theory (1999), aiming to find answers to such a question as "What are the motivations leading to the use of nominalization?", hoping that all the relevant linguistic, social, cultural, and cognitive factors can be involved in the pragmatic analysis of nominalization.Chapter Three is devoted to the theoretical framework of the present study, in which Verschueren's linguistic adaptation theory is described and its implications to nominalization is discussed. Distinct from the component view of pragmatics, which is treated as a core component of a theory of language, on a par with phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, Verschueren defines pragmatics as a general cognitive, social and cultural perspective on linguistic phenomena in relation to their usage in forms of behaviour (1999: 7). In accordance with the theory, the process of using language consists of the continuous making of linguistic choices, consciously or unconsciously, for language-internal and/or language-external reasons (Verschueren 1999: 55-6). These choices can be situated at any level of...