Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

morpheus · Joined: 28 Mar 2006 Posts: 13

hi
i need a small text which includes both examples of passivation&nomnalisation, and with anlyize to it pls

Eric Thompson · Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 8:46 pm Post subject:

Sorry, Morpheus, I don't use either of your two words. I couldn't find "nominalization" in the dictionary, which does say "passivation" is a chemical word dealing with coating something that is chemically active. I recommend that you don't use either word, when you study English. Stick to the more basic words. Cool

battlecryorsilence · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 19

Hi Morpheus,

I believe that you might be asking about two phenomena:

(1) passivisation: the expression of a verb in the passive voice instead of the active voice.

Example: She fed the dog. Passivised: The dog was fed by her.

(2) nominalisation/nominalization: the creation of a noun from a verb. The resultant noun is called either a "nominal", a "nominalization", or a "nominalized verb"; any of these terms is acceptable.

Example: the verb "announce", if nominalized, becomes the noun "announcement".

There are also such things as nominal expressions. These expressions are built around a nominalized verb.

Example: If we replace the verb with a nominal expression, the sentence "She explained the problem" becomes, "She gave an explanation of the problem."

The two linguistic phenomena have similar effects on sentences: both passivisation and nominalization tend to de-emphasize the verb expressing the main action in a sentence.

Let me know if these are in fact the subjects about which you were asking, and, if so, whether you need more information. I'd be happy to offer more help.