NominalizationandWordOrderinNominalGroups

i) Nominalization

Nominalization is a linguistic process whereby verbs, adjectives and circumstances are

transformedintonounphrases.Inthiswayprocessesorpropertiesarereformulatedfrom
averbalprocessinvolvingvariousparticipantsintoanominalgroup,ascanbeseeninthe
followingexamples:

i) Theyrelyon Theirrelianceon
ii) Ifullyendorse Myfullendorsement
iii) Theyentirelyagree Theirentireagreement

Thisprocessoccursinmostlanguagestoacertainextentbutitisatypicalcharacteristicof
EnglishandhashighfrequencyinScientificEnglish.Halliday
1
claimsthatnominalization
isafeatureofthegrammarofthemosthighlyfavouredclausetypeinscientificwriting and calls
it a dominant grammatical motif in modern scientific English. The phenomenon had already
begun to develop in the 18
th
Century when scientists desired to make of English a
language as capable of scientific descriptions as Latin. Isaac Newton in his Treatise on
Optiksfrequentlyusedlongnounphrasesbothbeforetheverbandafterit,ascanbeseen
in the following sentence taken from the same Treatise: TheunusualRefractionistherefore
performdbyanoriginalpropertyofrays.
The nominalization of this process contrasts with the previous description of the same
process where it is not nominalized: some rays are constantly refracted after the usual
manner,andothersconstantlyaftertheunusualmanner.
Nominalization is a process that helps to make a scientific text more impersonal and
detached since emphasis is laid on the entities rather than the actions. In fact, a nominal
expressioningrammarrelaysaprocessasanobjectifiedentity.Inhiswellknownexample
of crack growth rate, Halliday
2
shows how nominalization can transform active processes
intolongnounstringssothatprocessesbecomethings.

i) glasscracksmorequicklytheharderyoupressit
ii)cracksinglassgrowfasterthemorepressureisputon
iii)glasscrackgrowthisfasterifgreaterstressisapplied
iv)therateofglasscrackgrowthdependsonthemagnitudeoftheappliedstress
v)glasscrackgrowthrateisassociatedwithappliedstressmagnitude
3
.

1
Halliday M., The Construction of Knowledge and Value, in Advances in Written Text Analysis, Coulthard M., (ed.)
Routledge,1994, p.150.
2
Halliday M., On the Language of Physical Science, Ghadessy, 1988, pp.162-178.
3
It can be seen how the passive voice supports nominalisation in making a detached, impersonal statement. See also
The Passive Voice, pp. 66-72.
Thefirstsentencei)hastwoactiveverbformsreferringtoprocesses(cracks/press).Thelast
sentence v) has one passive verb form of a relational type
4
(is associated). The active
materialprocessesofsentence(a)havebeentransformedintonominalgroupsinsentence
v): subject glass crackgrowth rate and object applied stress magnitude.. The final sentence is
moredetachedandimpersonalthanthefirstandthusverysuitedtoscientificdiscourse.
Nominalization allows a concentration of information. Information otherwise
communicated by way of relative clauses, active verb forms and prepositional phrases is
condensedintoasinglenounphrase,ascanbeseeninthefollowingexamples:

i) thehealthcaresystem thesystemthatcaresforpeopleshealth
ii) thediscriminationresponses howpeoplerespondinadiscriminateway
iii) DNAfragmentation thewayinwhichDNAfragments
iv) psychological dependence syndrome a syndrome manifesting a dependence that is
psychological

The frequent use of nominalization leads to greater lexical density in scientific texts than
in, say, a narrative text. Lexical density is estimated by the proportion of structural
(grammar or function) words, such as article, prepositions, conjunctions, as in the, in,of,
but,so,tolexicalwords,whicharewordswithrecognisablephysicalorabstractreferents,
as in cell, protein, analysis. In the following example, there are more lexical words (24)
compared to function words (12 in bold), and therefore the sentence has high lexical
density.

Recentdevelopmentsincommunitybasedmentalhealthservicesandmoreeffectivebiologicaland
psychosocial treatments have failed to prevent the accumulation of a substantial number of
severelyillpatientswhorequirelongtermcareinnonhospitalResidentialFacilities(RFs).

Functionwordshavethejobofaidingcomprehension,ascanbeseeniftheaboveexample
isdenominalised.

Recentdevelopmentsinservicesthat arebasedin thecommunityand thatregardmentalhealth

and more effective treatments that are biological and psychosocial have failed to prevent a
substantialnumber of patients, who are severely ill and who require care that is longterm in
facilitieswherepeoplelivebutwhicharenothospitals,fromaccumulating.
(27lexicalwordsv.29grammarwordsinbold)

As function words assist comprehension, it follows that nominalization, in leading to

greater lexical density, obliges the reader to lend greater effort to unravelling and
understandingthemeaningofcomplexnounphrases.Ontheotherhand,ascanbeseenin
the original sentence form, it is an extremely economic way of giving information. As

4
Hatim B. and Mason I., in The Translator as Communicator, Routledge, 1997, pp. 225-6, identify three main verbal
processes that can be represented in a sentence: a) a physical or material process, e.g. John shaved his beard. b) a
mental process, e.g. John saw Jane. c) a relational process, e.g. Such a perspective is lacking.
Quirk
5
has pointed out, obscurityexistsonlyforthehearerorreaderwhoisunfamiliarwiththe
subjectconcernedandwhoisnotthereforeequippedtotoleratetheradicalreductioninexplicitness
thatpremodificationentails.
AlthoughnominalizationisafeaturealsofoundinItalian,nominalizednounphrasestend
to bemore frequent andcomplex in Englishinalltexttypologies. Moreover,in Scientific
Englishthereis,ashasalreadybeenpointedout,afargreateruseofnominalizationthan
in many other text types with a high percentage of noun phrases containing 3 or more
elements. In other text types it is uncommon to find more than three elements in a noun
phrase.
In order to understand the relationship between the words in a noun phrase, it may be
usefultoanalysethecomponentsasfollows.
Adjectives found in nominalization correspond to adverbs in the corresponding clause
form.

i) TheprofessorspokebrilliantlyTheProfessorsbrilliantspeech
ii) ThegroupdiscoveredrecentlyThegroupsrecentdiscovery

Theheadnouncorrespondstotheverbinthecorrespondingclauseform:

i) thescientistconqueredthediseaseThescientistsconquestofthedisease
ii) YoucanrectifythisfaultimmediatelyImmediaterectificationofthisfault

When a phrasal verb

6
is nominalised, the particle becomes a prefix, as can be seen in the
followingexamples:

i) toflowover(traboccare)overflow(sovrabbondanza,eccesso)
ii) toputout/in(emmettere/immettere)output/input
iii) topassunder(passaresotto) underpass(sottopassaggio)

ItcanbenotedfromthelastexamplethatItalianhasasimilarsyntacticalpattern.
Within the scientific text itself, nominalization is often used to refer back, almost as if it
were a summary, to a process already mentioned previously in the text as an active
process.Therefore,inatheme/rhemeorganisation
7
,itiscommontofindnominalizationin
theme position, picking up the given information mentioned previously in the rheme of
the previous sentence. The condensation of information which nominalization produces
hastheadvantageofeconomyandisalsosuitedtothespecificpurposeofascientifictext,
which aims at clarity in its informative function. This can be seen in the following
examples:

5
Quirk R., op.cit. p.1330
6
See p.73 and note 17.
7
For the definition of theme/rheme see p.67 note 4. The organisation of discourse so that the rheme of one sentence
becomes the theme of the following sentence has been called by Hausen Blas the basic type of linear thematic
progression which produces a strictly cohesive and therefore coherent text. See Hausen Blas K., A short paper on the
theme theme , Csk literatura, 17, 1969, pp. 3-10.
i) These patterns of twin correlations suggest substantial heritabilities accounting for about half
(between 30% and 66%) of the variance of teacher assessments. These substantial heritability
estimatesexceedheritabilitiesfoundfortestsofacademicachievement.

rheme. substantialheritabilitiesaccountingforabouthalf(between30%and66%)ofthe
varianceofteacherassessments.
nominalisedthemeThesesubstantialheritabilityestimates

ii) The bully moves from the passive object of parental hostility to being the person in power, the
tormentor.Thismanicmechanismallowsthechild
rheme movesfromthepassiveobjectofparentalhostilitytobeingthepersoninpower,the
tormentor.
nominalisedthemeThismanicmechanism

Itisalsocommoninscientifictextstofindthefollowingsentencepattern:

nominalgroup(subject)+relationalverb+nominalgroup(object)

In this pattern, as can be seen in the following examples, the experiential content is
contained within the two nominal groups and the verbal group sets up the relation
betweenthem.Therelationalverbalgroupismarkedinbold.

i)Thisunprecedentedconquestofhumanknowledgewill haveatremendousimpactonhuman
health.
ii)Twotheoriesinthefieldofmotivationandachievementresultinconflictingrecommendations
forenhancingstudentsmotivation.
iii)Theextracellularmatrixcanbeconsideredasacompositeofinsolublefibres.

Itisclearfromtheseexamplesthattheverbs(willhave,resultsin,canbeconsidered)serveto
make a simple link between the nominalized subject and its object and are not used to
express active processes, which are contained within the nominalization itself (conquest,
impact,transductiongrowtharrest,composite).The above examples may be compared to the
following examples taken from narrative texts where the verb assumes an allimportant
roleinexpressingtheactiontakingplace.Theverbsaremarkedinbold.

i)Foranhouronthisrainynight,Michaeltossedandturned,wrackedwithhisownignorance.
Finallyhegot up, turned onthelight,slippedintothelivingroomandfoundthevolumeofthe
WonderlandofKnowledgemarkedMinPea.
8

ii)Despiteherselfshebegan to cough,abarked,repressedsoundwhichshookthroughher.The
boyflungawayandrolledover,leavinganarrowchannelbetweenthemaswordswidth.The

8
Hamill P., Snow in August, Warner Books, 1997, p.164.
youngwomanturnedonherback,breathedinasdeeplyasshecouldandfeltreliefripplethrough
herbody.
9

The typical syntactical pattern of scientific texts (i.e. complex nominal group + relational
verb + complex nominal group) reenforces the effect that nominalization has in making
thetextmoredetachedandobjective,sinceverbstendtolosetheirusuallydynamicnature
andprocessesarefrozenintonounphrasesasentitiesandnotactions.
Halliday,
10
whocallsnominalizationthinginess,expresseshisconcernabouttheincreasing
trendtowardsthisphenomenoninallvarietiesofEnglish.Hefeelsthatitisanalienating
structure that will produce a world made entirely of things if abused. However, it is
undoubtedly a useful instrument in Scientific English because, besides being an
impersonal,detachedforminitself,itiscompactandmeaningdense.Taylorhaspointed
out,nominalisationsarethesteppingstonesofscientificdiscourse
11
.

ii)Wordorderinnominalgroups

As has been pointed out above, nominalization is a distinct and common feature in all
types of scientific texts and complex noun phrases are frequent in such texts. Nouns are
oftenpremodifiedbythreeor moreelements,thusformingwhatistermedasanominal
group. Words that premodify a head noun assume a precise position in the syntactical
layoutaccordingtotheirfunctioninthenominalgroupandtotherelationshiptheyform
with that head noun and with the other elements. It is the order of the words in the
nominal group that dominates the construction of meaning itself, as can be seen in the
following: tumour cell and cell population. The main guideline to word order in nominal
groupshasbeendefinedbyHalliday
12
astheprogressionfromlefttorightofelementsthat
haveincreasinglypermanentattributes.To illustrate his point he gives a simple example: A
newredtennisball.Thepermanentattributethatisunlikelytochangeistennis(atennisball
isaparticulartypeofball),thecolourredismorepermanentthanthequalifyingadjective
new (a red ball could be old, worn, flat, expensive, cheap and many more things besides,
but a red tennis ball could not be green or blue). Therefore, as Halliday states, it is
impossible to propose the order a red new tennis ball or tennis new red ballor even new
tennisredball The patterns regarding word order of the elements of nominal groups will
nowbeconsidered.
Awiderangeofgrammaticalitems(particles,adjectives,verbparticiples,adverbs,nouns)
canprecedeanounheadandmodifyit,thusforminganominalgroup.Premodifiersfall
intotwocategoriesclassifiersandqualifiers.

9
Bragg M., The Soldiers Return, Sceptre, 1999, p.5.
10
Halliday M., New Ways of Meaning, in Thirty Years of Linguistic Evolution, Putz M. (ed.), John Benjamins, 1992, pp.
59-95.
11
C. Taylor, Language to Language, Cambridge University Press, p.123.
12
Halliday M., An Introduction to Functional Grammar, Arnold, 1994, p.187
a)Classifiers

Anywordthatclassifiestheheadnounandthusindicatesaparticularsubsetofthenoun
inquestionisalwaysplacedimmediatelytotheleftoftheheadnoun.Classifiersreferto
themostpermanentqualitiesofthenounheadandformasemanticunitwithit.Themost
common pattern of this type of nominal group is composed of two nouns as in the
followingpattern:

classifyingnoun+headnoun
e.g.studyhabits/braindominance/goaltheory/egoorientation/ananxietyapparatus
noiseinstructions/adultdonors/computersimulations/groupdynamics

Intheexample,studyhabits,thewordhabitsisthesetexpressedasaheadnounandstudy
is the classifying premodifier, placed to the left of the head noun. It is possible to say
strangestudyhabitsbutnotstudystrangehabits.Similarlywefind
Workhabits,drughabits,holidayhabitsetc.Inexaminationstudy,however,studysisthehead
noun and the noun examination is the classifying premodifier describing the precisetype
ofstudybeingcarriedout.
As is seen in the above examples, classifying premodifiers are very frequently nouns
themselves but their position to the left of another noun makes them function in the
nominal group as if they were adjectives. A glance at ParoleStranierenellaLinguaItaliana,
Garzanti, 2001, shows how the Italian language is rapidly absorbing such English noun
phrasesyntaxinloanwordsfromEnglish.

e.g.taxday/beautycase/netgeneration/internetcaf/informationtechnology
breakdance/topmodel/sciencefiction/touroperator/dayhospital/energymanager

In scientific texts it is common to find two or three nouns both with classifying function
premodifying the head noun, although the relationship of the two modifiers with the
head noun is different. The first modifying noun or nouns relate to material, means,
instrument, space or other adverbial relations. The second relates to the head noun as an
objectrelatestoaverb.

noun(s)inadverbialrelation+nouninobject/complementrelation+headnoun
e.g.lifetime prevalencerateestimates/familyassessmentmeasure/borderlinepersonality
disorder/childhealthprofessionals/hospitalemergencydepartments

It can be seen inthefollowing examplesthat theorder insuchacomplexnoun phrase is

thereversetothewordorderhadthesentencebeenwritteninpostmodifiedform:

i) Family support services services that give support (object) to the family
(adverbialrelation)
ii) Childhoodanxietydisordersdisordersthatcauseanxiety(object)duringchildhood
(timeadverbialrelation)
iii) Chain reaction analysis an analysis that causes a reaction (object) in a chain
(spaceadverbialrelation)
iv) Home environment influences influences that come from the environment
(complement)athome(spaceadverbialrelation)
v) The World Health Organization (WHO) the organization that organizes health
(object)intheworld(spaceadverbialrelation)

Insuchnominalgroupsthereisaconcentrationofinformationthatneedstobeunravelled
and the nouns correctly related one to another. If there is a risk of ambiguity or
incomprehension it is always possible to use a postmodified form which makes the
relationshipsmoreexplicit.
A classifying function in a nominal group can also be satisfied by an adjective following
thepattern:
Classifyingadjective+headnoun
e.g.mentaldisorders/seriouscases/psychiatricsurveys/clinicalvalue/nonaffectivepsychoses

orbythepresentorpastparticipleofaverb:

Classifyingparticiple+headnoun
e.g.unmetneeds/untreatedcases/gamblingbehaviour/trainingprogramme
unidentifiedflyingobject(U.F.O.)/perceivedcredibility/scanningdevices

Attentionmustbegiventothepositionofapremodifyingparticiple.Ifitisclassifying,it
must be placed immediately to the left of the head noun, as is shown in the above
examples. If, on the other hand the participle has a qualifying function (see below) it is
placedbeforeanyotherclassifyingword,ascanbeseeninthefollowingexamples:

i) arareflyingobjectv.devastatingbackpain

In the first nominal group, the present participle flying classifies the object and therefore
mustimmediatelyprecedeit.Inthesecond,thepresentparticipledevastatingqualifiesthe
painwhereasthewordbackclassifiesthecategoryofpain.

ii) anuninterruptedtherapeuticsessionv.variousstructuredinterviews

Inthefirstnominalgroup,thepastparticipleuninterruptedhasaqualifyingfunction.The
adjective therapeutic has a classifying function and thus precedes the head noun. In the
second phrase, the past participle structured has a classifying function and therefore
precedesthenounheadinterviewandfollowsthequalifiervarious.

b) Qualifiers

Whenawordhasaqualifyingfunction,itdescribesaqualityorattributeofthenounhead.
Qualifying adjectives therefore refer to qualities that are less permanent than classifying
adjectives, which, as has already been stated, refer to permanent characteristics of the
noun head and form a semantic unit with it. One means of understanding whether an
adjectivehasaclassifyingoraqualifyingfunctionistoseeiftheadjectivecouldbeusedin
a comparative form. If it can, it is qualifying. For example, an electric circuit cannot be a
more electric circuit (therefore electric is a classifier) but a fast circuit can be a faster circuit
(thereforefastisaqualifier).
When adjectives are used as qualifying premodifiers in a nominal group they can have
twodifferentfunctions.Onefunctionistodescribeanobjectivepropertyoftheheadnoun,
for example; awhitecylinder/interpersonal violence/asmalldiameter.The other function
of adjectives is to express the attitude of the speaker/writer towards the head noun., for
example: perfect conditions, an interesting introduction, a revolutionary approach. The
sequence of adjectives depends on these two different functions. An adjective expressing
attitude is always placed before an adjective expressing objective property as in the
followingpattern:

adjective expressing attitude + adjective expressing objective property + head
noun
e.g. perfectclinicalconditions/poornutritionalhabits/aninterestingbriefintroduction/
thisrevolutionaryweeklytreatment/specialenvironmentalfactors

However, itispossible to find within thesamenominalgrouptwo qualifying adjectives

with the same function. In this case, there is an internal order to respect. Qualifying
adjectivesexpressingobjectivepropertywhicharederivedfromverbsornounsareplaced
after those which are not derived as such, but are what could be termed as pure
adjectives:

nonderivedpureadjectives+derivedadjectives+headnoun
e.g. long wavy lines / a quiet sleepy animal / hard aggressive attacks / slow sensitive
techniques

If a nominal group contains more than one pure adjective, there is no fixed order. The
positioning of the adjectives is largely arbitrary, although there is a tendency to follow a
pattern of adjectives that describe size, height or length preceding other nonderived
adjectives.

nonderived adjectives of size, length, height + other nonderived adjectives + head

noun
e.g.smallwhitecylinder/largeredspots/alongyellowishtrail/atallfatman/alargeblack
bruise

iii)Submodification

In scientific texts it is frequent to find submodification within the nominal group. Sub
modificationreferstoawordthatdoesnotclassifyorqualifytheheadnounbutratherthe
noun immediately following it. It is common to find submodification marked by a
hyphen.AmericanEnglish,however,usesthehyphenlessthanBritishEnglishandsothe
reader of a scientific text written in American English may have a harder task in
unravellingnounstringsthanareaderofascientifictextwritteninBritishEnglish.Infact,
the use of hyphens is a clear and visible indicator of submodification and allows the
reader to correctly link the modifier with the noun it modifies, as can be seen from the
bracketingofthefollowingexample:

i) alifespacearea[[lifespace][area]]

The hyphen indicates that life qualifies space and not area. Similarly it can be seen in the
followingexamplesthatthehyphenservestoindicatethatthewordprecedingthehyphen
qualifiesthewordfollowingit,sotwoqualifiesfold,crossqualifiessectional,etc.

e.g. the twofold orientation / crosssectional survey / shortterm prospects / problemfocused

coping/aoneyearprospectiveEDcohort/selfreportsurveys/flowchartstylereminders

Somehyphenedtermsarewellestablishedand,assuch,itispossibletofindthemwritten
withoutahyphen.

e.g. last()minute departures / well()developed coordination capacity / one()way energy flow /

verbalshort()termmemory/pain()killingeffects

Adverbs in nominal groups submodify the word that follows and may or may not be
hyphenated
e.g.
i. naturallyoccurring degrading microorganisms degrading microorganisms that
occurnaturally
ii. significantlydifferentresultsresultsthataresignificantlydifferent
iii. rapidlyevolvingtechnologytechnologythatisrapidlyevolving
iv. Thethenroutinearteriallegationsurgeryarteriallegationsurgery that was routine
then(atthattime)

Thepossibilityanadjectivehasofsubmodifyingawordfollowingitorofpremodifying
a noun head may be problematic, particularly if hyphens have not been used in the sub
modification.Inordertounderstandwhichwordisqualifiedorclassifiedonemustoften
rely on the logical meaning of the noun phrase rather than a grammar rule. This is why
premodificationcanbeusedefficientlyonlyifthereceiverofthemessageisintheknow;
that is, if he has sufficient knowledge of the contents to be able to reconstruct the
relationships that are masked by the premodification. The following two phrases show
how,intheidenticalpatternof adjective+noun+headnoun, theadjectivehasdifferent
modification:

i)carpaltunnelsyndromeii)importantbrainchanges

Thedifferentmodificationisclearifthephrasesarechangedintoapostmodifiedform:

i) Itisasyndromethataffectsthecarpaltunnel.
ii) Thereareimportantchangesinthebrain.

Bracketingintomeaningfulgroupsalsohelpstoclarifythemodification:

[[carpaltunnel]syndrome] [important[brainchanges]]

Inthefirstphrasetheadjectivesubmodifiesthepremodifyingnountunnel,inthesecond
theadjectivereferstotheheadnounchanges.
Herefollowotherexampleswheretheadjectivesubmodifiesthepremodifyingnoun:

i) LiberalArtsCollege(LiberalmodifiesArtsnotCollege)
ii) The comfortable interpersonal distance test (comfortable modifies the interpersonal
distancenottest)
iii) Afiveminutespeechsample(fiveminutesmodifiesspeechnotsample)

To conclude, an amusing example of this difficulty is offered by Quirk

13
in the phrase
Frenchonionsoup.Forsomeonenotexpertincuisine,thisnounphrasecouldmean:
i) SoupmadefromFrenchonions
ii) Frenchsoupmadefromonions
iii) OnionsoupmadeintheFrenchmanner.

The difficulty in understanding the phrase lies not within the phrase itself but in the
knowledgethereaderhimselfbringstothetext.SoitiswithScientificEnglish;whatmay
seemtothelayreadertobeaverycomplexnominalgroupmayinfactbesimpleandeasy
todecipherforthepersonexpertinthefield.

13
Quirk, R. op.cit p.1343.