Ebook: What is nominalization? Towards the theoretical foundations of nominalization

This paper discusses foundational issues in nominalization, focusing on
empirical, conceptual, and theoretical problems that have plagued the field
for years. Current definitions of nominalization are based on narrow
observations on verbal-based nominalizations, while languages across the
globe display nominal-based ones, many of which share morphology with
the former. Nominalization morphology in many languages also applies to
units larger than words, yielding grammatical nominalizations besides
lexical nominalizations. The imbalance in the past studies, which have
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focused on so-called relative clauses at the expense of grammatical
nominalizations, has resulted in a lopsided view on the relationship between
the two. This, in turn, has led to the mishandling of different manifestations
of nominalizations as if they are derivatives of relative clauses, as suggested
by the widely used terms such as “headless relative clause” and “internallyheaded relative clause”. It is shown that a clear distinction between
structures and their use is a theoretical prerequisite in arriving at a
satisfactory understanding of the nature of grammatical nominalizations and
their role in grammar.