Many of us are familiar with this conventional grammar wisdom: turning verbs into nouns—or what is termed “nominalization” in linguistics—is bad for the health of our prose. The evidence that this is true is, of course, painfully clear. Take this particularly turgid example of bureaucratic writing: “The conclusion of this interim faculty performance evaluation committee is that there has been an inadequate information dissemination effort with respect to the new instruction performance standards as mandated and enforced by the Department of Education effective January 1, 2004.”
The sentence above is obviously not only difficult to comprehend but also sounds vacuously authoritative. Yet not a few academics and bureaucrats think they are doing a great job by making such convoluted sentences. They don’t realize that for every verb they assiduously convert to a noun-form, they erect just one more tough barrier to effective communication.
Let’s check precisely what have been “nominalized” in the sentence in question. The following verbs were converted to nouns—“conclude” to “conclusion” and “disseminate” to “dissemination.” And this nominalization binge inevitably gave rise to these outcomes: (1) a passive sentence in which nobody seems to be doing anything, and (2) long noun-strings whose constituent nouns already cross-modify themselves into near incomprehension even before the adjective can do its own modifying job, like “interim faculty performance evaluation committee” and “inadequate information dissemination effort.” In short, the horrible “-ion” words multiplied like rabbits.
Is there a way out of this semantic rigmarole? Yes, of course—by restoring the nominalizations into their active verb-forms, and by clearly establishing who or what the doers of the action are in the statement.
Here’s the original statement now rigorously de-nominalized: “This interim committee has ascertained that the new standards for measuring the teaching performance of faculty members have not been properly disseminated. Faculty members have not clearly understood the new instruction standards put in force by the Department of Education last January 1, 2004.”
We mustn’t think, however, that nominalizations have no value whatsoever in exposition. They can actually prove useful in at least these five semantic ways:
Nominalization can make an abstract thing more concrete and credible. When done sparingly and with restraint, it can actually make abstract statements more convincing. Unnominalized: “The woman couldn’t believe
that her son’s decision was a wise one.” With “wise” nominalized to “wisdom”: “The woman couldn’t believe
the wisdom of her son’s decision.”
Nominalization can provide smooth transition by serving as a subject that refers to an idea in a preceding sentence. “The election losers
finally accepted defeat after a perfunctory protest filing.
This acceptance paved the way for better governance in a country notorious for unceasing politics.”
Nominalization can attenuate extremely harsh or forceful statements. It’s often prudent to use a nominalization instead of its more direct and vigorous verb form. Too pointed and insensitive: “The prison officials
will electrocute the convict tomorrow at exactly 9:00 a.m.” More prudent with the verb “electrocute” nominalized: “The prison officials
set the electrocution of the convict tomorrow at exactly 9:00 a.m.”
Nominalization can identify more clearly the object of its verb-form. Without nominalization: “The job applicants
are not aware of what are required by the newly created position.” Smoother, more concise with “what are required...” nominalized to :”requirements: “The job applicants
are not aware of the requirements of the newly created position.”
Nominalization to avoid awkward “the fact that....” phrases in sentence constructions with a very long noun clause as subject. Convoluted: “
The fact that she was able to convert a virtually certain defeat to a resounding victory is a miracle of sorts.” Shorter sentence with a more elegant transition: “
Her conversion of a virtually certain defeat into a resounding victory is a miracle of sorts.”
Knowing now that nominalizations aren’t all that bad for the health of our prose, let’s not hesitate to let them do their job sparingly when the semantic situation calls for it.
This essay, 2145th of the series, appears in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the April 6, 2023 digital edition of The Manila Times
, ©2023 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.Read this essay and listen to its voice recording in
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Making nominalization work for our prose (Next:
The noun-to-verb conversion syndrome) April 13, 2023
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