NOMINALISATION

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 Read the sentences on the left and right.
Which ones do you think are more academic? Why?

LESS ACADEMIC MORE ACADEMIC

• He failed and it made his parents
angry.
• The exam was difficult, so many
students performed poorly.
• Spain refused to take part in the
military campaign. This annoyed
other European countries.
• His failure caused his parents’
anger.
• The exam’s difficulty resulted in
poor student performance.
• Spain’s refusal to take part in the
military campaign led to other
European countries’ annoyance.
 Nominalisation means the use of noun forms of words. It is frequently
used in academic writing to convey an objective and impersonal tone.

Read the examples again and underline the parts of speech

that are nominalised on the right.
• He failed and it made his parents
angry.
• The exam was difficult, so many
students performed poorly.
• Spain refused to take part in the
military campaign. This annoyed
other European countries.
• His failure caused his parents’ anger.
• The exam’s difficulty resulted in poor
student performance.
• Spain’s refusal to take part in the
military campaign led to other
Europeancountries’ annoyance .
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Nominalisations can appear both in the subject and object
positions of sentences.
Read the sentences below and identify the nominalisations.

1. Many different factors contributed to the invention of telephone.

2. The development of a country mostly depends on the level of education.
3. Teenagers’ love of fast food is the cause of obesity.
4. The rise in the body temperature may be an early sign of pregnancy.
5. Lack of motivation affects student success negatively.

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 There are different ways to nominalise words.
• Suffixes
Some examples:
- ment (development, employment, etc.)
- tion (education, production, etc.)
- ance, ence (annoyance, appearance, etc.)
- ness (happiness, tiredness, etc.)
- ing (listening, eating, etc.)
• No suffix (Zero- Derivation)
Some examples:
- increase (e.g. recent tax increases),
- search (e.g. the search for survivors)
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 What are the noun forms of the words given?

Other forms Nouns

o refuse o refusal
o different o difference
o valuable o value
o order o order
o react o reaction
o investigate o investigation
o similar o similarity
o concerned o concern
o die o death
o decrease o decrease
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 Complete the sentences with the noun forms of the words given.
The nutriotional __ of milk is quite high. (valuable)
The nutriotional value of milk is quite high.
I agree about the great __of early child education. (important)
I agree about the great importance of early child education.
There is a striking __between their companies. (similar)
There is a striking similarity between their companies.
We are celebrating the __of our staff. (achieve)
We are celebrating the achievement(s) of our staff.
There has been a steady__of temperature. (decrease)
There has been a steady decrease of temperature.
The __ of the data is going to take a lot of people. (analyze)
The analysis of the data is going to take a lot of people.
Rewrite the sentences by nominalising the underlined
parts.
1. He educated young children. It was not easy at all.
The education of young children was not easy at all.

2. Life is difficult, but it shouldn’t stop us from enjoying it.

The difficulty of life shouldn’t stop us from enjoying it.

3. She is intelligent and this helps her to become very successful.

Her intelligence helps her to achieve great success.
4. The scientists have invented a new machine that can predict earthquakes.
The invention of a new machine has made earthquake predictions possible.
5. Student numbers are increasing rapidly and the university is becoming
concerned about it.
The rapid increase in the student numbers is causing concern at the university.
6. Two children have died on the school bus. The police department is
investigating the event.
The death of two children on the school bus has led to police investigation.
7. The Ministry of Education requires teachers to evaluate the courses.
The evaluation of the courses is a requirement of the Ministry of Education.

Sentence 5 adapted from http://aeo.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/Files/Nominalization/Nom%20LOC.html