Nominalisation

Wisdom in proverbs, sayings ‘Courage is not the absence of fear. It is acting in spite of it.’ -Mark Twain ‘The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean’ Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes ‘The death of Dr. Hudson is a loss to the republick of letters.’ William King Quotes Source: Letter ‘Books are humanity in print.’ Barbara W. Tuchman Quotes ‘Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.’ C.S. Lewis Quotes http://www.worldofquotes.com/topic/Literature/index.html

everyday, informal, spoken Register continuum everyday, informal, spoken technical/abstract; formal/impersonal; written Spoken language emphasises action (verbs) decide – activity argue - celebrate – discover – understand – explore - Written language emphasises things and concepts (noun groups) decision - thing argument - celebration –

Verbs to nouns Once something has been ‘nominalised’ it can be: described eg presentation ceremony quantified (counted) eg last ceremony classified eg wedding ceremony qualified eg poorly advertised ceremony specified eg 2103 merit ceremony Language for greater abstraction and technicality

AC English: Expressing and developing ideas (sub-strand) in the Language strand Year 8 CD: Understand the effect of nominalisation in the writing of informative and persuasive texts (ACELA1546) Glossary support Nominalisation: a process for forming nouns from verbs (for example, ‘reaction’ from ‘react’ or ‘departure’ from ‘depart’) or from adjectives (for example, ‘length’ from ‘long’, ‘eagerness’ from ‘eager’) a process for forming noun groups/phrases from clauses (for example, ‘their destruction of the city’ from ‘they destroyed the city’) nominalisation is a way of making a text more compact and is often a feature of texts that contain abstract ideas and concepts

Expressing and developing ideas (sub-strand) in Language strand…. Year 10 CD: Analyse how higher order concepts are developed in complex texts through language features including nominalisation, clause combinations, technicality and abstraction (ACELA1570) Also refer to the content elaborations for this content description….

References Beverly Derewianka: A New Grammar Companion (2nd edition) e:lit PETA 2011 www.decd.sa.gov.au/literacy -various resources on secondary literacy, grammar & AC David Crystal publications: eg How Language Works Google search = nominalisation