SSSActions can appear as either verbs or nouns. Actions that appear as nouns are called nominalizations. In the two examples below I have boldfaced the nominalization and italicized the verb.
The student had a memory for twenty names.
The student had memorized twenty names.
Jack and Frank have love for Jill.
Jack and Frank love Jill.
SSSThere are various ways to form nominalizations below are some examples.
|
An Action Appearing as a Nominalization (Noun) |
An Action Appearing as a Verb |
| dependent | depend |
| difference | differ |
| walking | walk |
| administer | administration |
| classify | classification |
| memorize | memory |
| worry | worry |
| influence | influence |
| love | love |
Nominalizations: The Good
● A nominalization at the end of a paragraph’s first sentence can introduce a topic later developed in the paragraph:
In The Colours of Love (1973), John Alan Lee identified three primary love styles. These styles are: Eros, Ludos, and Storge. Erotic love focuses on another’s beauty. This style depends on intuition or “chemistry” and may occur quickly as in falling in love at first sight. Ludic love thrives on the chase and may be brief. Storgic love grows as a friendship deepens. This style depends on commitment, trust, and the possibility of marriage and children.
Above the first sentence ends with the nominalization “love styles,” a topic later developed in the paragraph. Worth noting is that with the exception of the first clause, the subjects of all the remaining verbs are “love” or “style.” To help you see this, I’ve bracketed all the subjects.
In The Colours of Love (1973), [John Alan Lee] identified three primary love styles. These [styles] are: Eros, Ludos, and Storge. Erotic [love] focuses on another’s beauty. This [style] depends on intuition or “chemistry” and may occur quickly as in falling in love at first sight. Ludic [love] thrives on the chase and may be brief. Storgic [love] grows as a friendship deepens. This [style] depends on commitment, trust, and the possibility of marriage and children.
SSSBy the way, your high school English teacher may have recommended not repeating a word such as “style” and instead introducing variety as in using “approach,” “pattern,” or “way.” Ignore this recommendation when writing for psychologists!
● When placed at the beginning of a sentence, nominalizations can link that beginning to the previous sentence’s ending. Consider this pair:
Because Jack had reinforced Jill’s affiliative behavior with a variety of reinforcers, Jill tended to approach Jack. This tendency was strong even after Jill had recently accessed several of these kinds of reinforcers.
The nominalization “tendency” links the second sentence’s beginning with the first sentence’s ending “tended to approach Jack.”
● Nominalizations, of course, must be used when writing about love, worry, images, cognition, or memory. But note, that concerns about such nouns extend beyond writing clearly.
Nominalizations: The Bad
SSSNominalizations can produce two problems. Placing actions in nominalizations instead of in verbs lengthens sentences and reduces the action’s force. Again, I’ve boldfaced nominalizations and italicized verbs. Do the actions appear more forceful when occurring in verbs? Read these sentence pairs slowly:
Original: Fear extinction has a dependency on the infralimbic prefrontal cortex.
Revision: Fear extinction depends on the infralimbic prefrontal cortex.
Original: We suggest that D2 receptors produce the facilitation of extinction.
Revision: We suggest that D2 receptors facilitate extinction.
Original: The findings indicate that stimulus complexity has an influence on reaction time.
Revision: We found that stimulus complexity influences reaction time.
Original: The parents have great love for their child.
Revision: The parents greatly love their child.
Original: The interaction between seat belt use and drivers’ age has implications . . . .
Revision: The interaction between seat belt use and drivers’ age implies . . . .
Original: The current study was a replication of Baron and Journey’s study (1989).
Revision: The current study replicated Baron and Journey’s study (1989).
Original: In the fluency condition participants made rapid progress.
Revision: In the fluency condition participants rapidly progressed.
Original: I have set nominalizations in boldface and verbs in italics.
Revision: I have boldfaced nominalizations and italicized verbs.
Characters and Actions
SSSJoseph Williams notes that every paragraph and sentence tells a story. Williams advises making the story’s characters appear as the subjects of verbs and making the story’s actions appear as verbs. This advice is disregarded below. I have made the character implicit in the adjective “Our” and I have nominalized some actions. To help you see this, I’ve boldfaced all the nouns and italicized all the verbs:
Original: Our lack of data prevented us from making the prediction about the outcome.
Revision: Because we lacked data we could not predict the outcome.
SSSIn the original “data” is the subject of the verb “prevented” and the actions “lack,” “make,” and “predict” appear as verbs. In the revision the character “we” is the subject of the verbs “lacked” and “could not predict.” And the nominalized action “prediction” now occurs as the verb “could not predict.” Isn’t the revision easier to understand?
Let’s examine another sentence and its revision:
Original: An extension of their study of memory was conducted by Horowitz, Chilian, and Dunnigan (1969).
Revision: Horowitz, Chilian, and Dunnigan(1969) extended their study of memory.
In the revision the nominalized action in “extension” appears in the verb “extended” and the characters (Horowitz, Chilian, and Dunnigan) are no longer the object of the preposition “by” but are the subject of the verb “extended.” “Study” and “memory” remain as nominalizations but, isn’t the revision easier to understand?
Coherence
SSSTo the extent its sentences “hang together,” a paragraph is coherent. To produce coherence use a consistent set of characters. Usually, these characters best appear as subjects of verbs. To help you see this, all the subjects of verbs appear in blue:
In The Colours of Love (1973), John Alan Lee identified three primary love styles. These styles are: Eros, Ludos, and Storge. Erotic love focuses on another’s beauty. This style depends on intuition or “chemistry” and may occur quickly as in falling in love at first sight. Ludic love thrives on the chase and may be brief. Storgic love grows as a friendship deepens. This style depends on commitment, trust, and the possibility of marriage and children.
With one exception, all the subjects of verbs are the characters “love” or “style.” If you also consider the adjectives that modify “love” and “style” (“erotic,” “ludic,” “storgic,” “these,” and “this”) then the paragraph is clearly about three love styles. Most importantly, the paragraph is coherent.
SSS Can the paragraph be edited so a set of inconsistent characters appear as the subjects of verbs? I’ve accomplished this by nominalizing the actions. Again all the subjects of verbs appera in blue. How did I do?
In The Colours of Love (1973), the identification was made by John Alan Lee of three primary love styles. These styles are Eros, Ludos, and Storge. The focus of erotic love is on another’s beauty. The dependency of this love is on intuition or “chemistry” and the occurrence of love at first sight is possible. The thriving of ludic love is from the chase and this love may be brief. The growth of storgic love is from a friendship that has increasing depth. The dependency of this style is on commitment, trust, and the possibility of marriage and children.
The paragraph is very incoherent. As we read the subjects of the verbs we may first think the paragraph is about “identification,” later about “styles,” later about “focus,” later about “dependency,” etc.
SSSSo, to help your reader understand your sentences it is usually best to make actions appear in verbs, not in nominalizations. Also, make the characters, what the sentence is about, appear as the subjects of verbs. To help your reader understand your paragraphs use a consistent set of characters.
SSSPerhaps this page alone has helped you. But research indicates that you would learn more if you also practiced editing and received feedback. Although I have not developed practice units for all of the issues above, troublesome nominalizations are in the units that address wordiness. These units are below. Start with the first unit because those texts are less complex than those in the second unit.
SSSI constructed the units with PowerPoint so you will need PowerPoint on your computer. When you open a unit a security warning will appear; click the “Enable Button” and then run the unit as a slide show. The first nine slides describe how you can use the unit. Some texts texts might require a dozen revisions, over a few weeks, before you judge them ready for your readers. So store a unit so you can later revisit and revise texts.