A Cognitive-Functional Approach to Nominalization in English

✍ Scribed by Liesbet Heyvaert

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 304
• Series: Cognitive Linguistics Research [CLR]; 26
• Edition: Reprint 2015
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The book presents a systematic theoretical account of the fundamental constructional mechanisms that underlie deverbal nominalization in general, and it makes an original descriptive contribution by discussing a number of nominalization systems in detail.

The main theoretical motif is that nominalization strongly calls for a functional rather than purely structural approach. The book goes more deeply into a number of functional constructs needed to model nominalization (drawn from Cognitive Grammar and Systemic-Functional Grammar) and it elaborates on the internal functional organization of nominal and clausal structure [e.g. the notions of type specification, instantiation and grounding (Langacker 1991) are discussed in detail and shown to be crucial for the analysis of deverbal nominalization]. It is argued that deverbal nominalizations are basically re-classifications of verbal predicates into nominal constructions. This re-classification either applies at word rank or it involves the rank shift (Halliday 1966) of a clause-like unit, with its internal structure preserved (e.g. signing the contract quickly). The re-classified unit then adopts a specific nominal strategy, with some form of nominal determination and quantification (e.g. her signing the contract quickly).

The descriptive part of the book zooms in on nominalizations that are derived at word rank (deverbal -er nominals) and on nominalizations applying to 'a temporal clausal heads' (e.g. John's playing the piano) and finite clauses. Of the gerundive and finite types of nominalization, those that function in factive contexts are focused on. In the analysis of deverbal -er nominals a case is made for a 'subject' analysis of the system and an elaborate discussion of the clausal middle construction (e.g. this book reads easily) - which is argued to show systematic resemblances with non-agentive -er nominals - is included. Of the remaining nominalization types (John's playing the piano; playing the piano; the fact that he plays the piano; that he plays the piano ), especially the nominal behaviour (e.g. proper name vs. common noun strategy) and (in the case of gerundive nominals) the various structural and semantic subtypes that can be distinguished among them are discussed.

✦ Table of Contents

Part I Towards a theoretical-descriptive approach to nominalization
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Theoretical assumptions
1. Language: The relation between system and usage
1.1. A usage-based approach to language
1.2. Cognitive Grammar: The interface between system and usage
1.3. The language system as network
2. The natural symbolic relation between lexicogrammar and semantics
2.1. A natural description of language
2.2. The natural or non-arbitrary relation between grammar and meaning
3. Constructions: Composition, classification and function
3.1. A functional approach to composition
3.2. Levels of functional analysis
3.3. A functional approach to classification
3.4. Composition and classification: Conclusion
4. Functional layers of organization
5. Constructions and the relations between them
5.1. Agnation and enation: A definition
5.2. Agnation and enation: Theoretical significance and heuristic value
6. Theoretical assumptions: Conclusion
Chapter 3: Nominalization
1. A usage-based account of nominalization
1.1. Schematization and extension
1.2. Entrenchment
2. Nominalizations as non-arbitrary symbolic units
3. Nominalizations as composition and reclassification
3.1. Constructions as assemblies of symbolic units
3.2. Nominalization as functional reclassification
4. A multifunctional account of nominalization
5. The role of agnation in the analysis of nominalization
5.1. Networks of agnation
5.2. Agnation as a descriptive heuristic
5.3. The schematic nature of agnation
6. Towards a theoretical-descriptive approach to nominalization: Conclusion
Chapter 4: The functional organization of nominal and clause
1. From noun type specification to nominal
2. From process type specification to clause
2.1. The clausal head
2.2. Instantiation and quantification of the clausal head
2.3. Clausal grounding
2.4. The speech-functional role of the Subject
2.5. The functional organization of nominal and clause: Conelusion
3. Nominalization as functional reclassification
Part II Deverbal -er nominalization
Chapter 5: Deverbal -er suffixation: Towards a descriptive position
0. Introduction
1. -er nominalizations: Agent names or Subject names?
1.1. Agentivity and salience
1.2. Non-agentives as external arguments
1.3. -er nominalizations as Subject names
2. Lexicalization versus ad hoc nominalization
3. Towards a coherent account of deverbal -er nominaliza tions
Chapter 6: The middle construction
1. Middle formation: A state of the art
2. The representational versatility of the middle formation
3. Towards a semantic typology of middle constructions
4. Middle constructions and modality
4.1. The modality of ‘letting’
4.2. The middle as ‘letting’ construction
5. Conclusion
Chapter 7: A multifunctional approach to -er nominalization
0. Introduction
1. Representational semantics
1.1. Agentive-er nominalization
1.2. Non-agentive-er nominalization
2. A semantic typology of non-agentive -er nominalizations
3. The constructional properties of -er nominalization
3.1. Lexicalized -er nominalizations
3.2. Ad hoc nominalizations
3.3. The constructional properties of -er nominals: Summary
4. Deverbal-er suffixation as Subject-profiling
5. Conclusion
Part III Factive nominalization
Chapter 8: Factive nominalization: Towards a descriptive position
0. Introduction
1. Factivity as truth presupposition
2. Factivity as embedded projection
2.1. Embedding vs. taxis
2.2. Projection vs. expansion
2.3. Facts as embedded projections
2.4. Conclusion
3. Delineation of the fact category
3.1. Ambiguity and vagueness
3.2. Gerundive nominalizations: Acts or facts?
4. Towards an internal, nominal analysis
4.1. Halliday’s dependency analysis
4.2. Type vs. instance nominalization
Chapter 9: A functional analysis of factive nominalizations as 207 nominal constructions
1. that-factives: From finite clause to proper name strategy
1.1. Downranking as functional reclassification
1.2. The nominal paradigm
2. the fact that-constructions: A case of apposition
2.1. The structural characteristics of the fact that-constructions
2.2. The functional properties of the fact that-constructions
2.3. the fact that-structures: Conclusion
3. Gerundive facts: From atemporal clausal head to common noun or proper name strategy
3.1. From atemporal clausal head
3.2. ...to common noun or proper name strategy
3.3. Factive gerundive nominalization: Integrating the clausal and nominal paradigms
3.4. Factive gerundive nominalization: Conclusion
4. The internal organization of factive nominalizations: Conclusion
Chapter 10: Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
References
Index