Analysis of nominalization in research article abstracts

S HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES  FL4227 English Language Analysis Class 124109 K64 ANALYSIS OF NOMINALIZATION IN RESEARCH ARTICLE ABSTRACTS By Full name: Trần Thị Lan Anh Student code: 20193486 March 2023 Table of contents I Introduction II Literature Review Nominalization Research article abstract III Analysis Data: research article abstracts Analysis 2.1 Frequency 2.2 Nominalization suffixes 2.3 Function of nominalization in nominal structure IV Conclusion and implication ABBREVIATION REFERENCES 10 DATA REFERENCES 11 I Introduction Nominalization is a common linguistic occurrence There are many studies addressing this phenomenon in various genres of discourse, but it is still limited in the field of research, particularly in the abstracts of research papers This essay aims to: Analyze the frequency and the suffixes of nominalizations in research article abstracts Clarify the function of nominalizations in nominal structure II Literature Review Nominalization Definition Nominalization is noun form of the word “nominalize”, which means “to form a noun from a verb or adjective”, according to Cambridge Dictionary In the book “A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics”, Crystal (1997) writes that the process of producing a noun from other word class, or the formation of a noun phrase from an underlying clause, is known as nominalization Janigova (2008), as cited in Taher (2015), explains that nominalization is the act of transmitting a verb-related meaning via a noun phrase with a clausal underlying structure To summarize, there are numerous notions of nominalization; nonetheless, "any word class that functions as a noun" is nominalization Classification There are many distinct forms of nominalization depending on different conceptions According to Crystal (1997), there are two types of nominalizations, deverbal noun and verbal noun A noun which derived from a verb, or an adjective is called deverbal noun, and the derivation of a noun from an underlying clause is verbal noun Chomsky (1970) divides nominalization into two groups: 1a Gerundive nominal of: a John's being eager to please b John's refusing the offer c John's criticizing the book 1b Derived nominals of: a John's eagerness to please b John's refusal of the offer c John's criticism of the book In this research, I apply the classification theory of Zariquiey et al (2019) that there are two kinds in term of nominalization classification: 1c Lexical nominalization: the English word sing-er 1d Grammatical nominalizations: John’s recklessly shooting trespassers [angered the entire community] And just focus on the lexical nominalization that “creates nominalized forms with lexical status”, by adding affixes (usually suffixes) on the root For example, the word nominalization itself is nominalized from the verb nominalize, by adding the suffix -ation on the base nominalize Research article abstract Research article Hempshire.edu (n.d) states that research is a systematic inquiry process that includes data gathering, documenting of key information, and analysis and interpretation of that data/information in accordance with appropriate procedures established by certain professional domains and academic disciplines Therefore, a research article is a journal article in which the authors report on the findings of their research Abstract An abstract is a brief overview of a research paper or a complete thesis It must be completely self-contained and understandable without additional reference to outside sources or the actual document It emphasizes important topic areas, study objectives, job relevance or importance, and main outcomes The abstract's purpose is to summarize all the paper's sections (Writing an abstract, n.d) III Analysis Data: research article abstracts The data used in this investigation was collected from five randomly selected scientific publications published in World politics, Journal of monetary economics, American sociological review, Nature, Handbook on implementation science, and Chemical engineering progress All of them are scientific journals, published books, and credible sources Analysis Below are some results from data analysis on the frequency of occurrence, the suffixes in nominalization, and the functions of nominalization in NP 2.1 Frequency As far as this essay concerned, the nominalizations taken are lexical nominalization, and their frequency is shown in the table below: Abstract Year No of words no No of Percentage nominalizations 1997 166 14 8.43 2009 148 13 8.78 2000 188 17 9.04 2011 91 8.79 2020 125 13 10.40 718 65 Total TABLE 1: FREQUENCY OF NOMINALIZATIONS (SOURCE: DATA) Through the five research abstracts with 718 words, there are 64 words of nominalization with the percentage approximate 10 – not a significant amount However, comparing with research of Sarfo-Adu (2015), the percentage is around three times than that in Sarfo-Adu research He does the investigation on 50 research article abstracts of science and humanities then finds out that the total instances of nominalizations are about 3.35% Back to this research, the frequency of nominalization has significantly risen According to survey data, the nominalization percentage in the 1997 paper is 8.43, whereas that in the 2020 publication is 10.40 2.2 Nominalization suffixes The survey also investigates the process of nominalization in abstract of research article The suffixes are included in the table below: SUFFIXES FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE 22 10 11 10 3 65 33.85 15.38 16.92 15.38 4.62 3.08 4.62 1.54 3.08 1.54 100 - ATION - MENT - ENCE - ING - SION - TION - ITY - EDGE - HOOD - AGE TOTAL TABLE 2: NOMINALIZATION SUFFIXES (SOURCE: DATA) The most frequent suffix is -ation with approximately one third of the total The three groups of suffixes -ment, -ence, -ing are almost the same, about 16% The other suffixes including -sion, -tion, -ity, -ility, -edge, -hood, -age remain less than 5% According to the book English Lexicology (2018), -ation is a Latin suffix which means the “state of being X-ed” These are some example from the data: 2.2.a) We conclude that moderniz-ation need not generate democracy but democracies survive in countries that are modern moderniz-ation: being modernized 2.2.b) Normaliz-ation Process Theory identifies and explains the oper-ation of mechanisms that characterize implement-ation processes normaliz-ation: being normalized oper-ation: being operated implement-ation: being implemented The number of suffixes in nominalization is not the same because of the classification of vocabulary in research article: abstract and tend to process and events “One feature of nominalizations is their function of treating processes and events as abstractions and reducing human participation thereby making the text detached and objective”, said by Sarfo-Adu (2015) 2.3 Function of nominalization in nominal structure This research also investigates the functions of nominalization words in Noun Phrase structure The NP structure is shown below: NP Nominal structure Determiner Pre.mod HN Post.mod In NP structure, the nominalization words are the intermediate constituent of nominal structure Their functions in detailed is presented in the table: Function Pre.mod HN Post.mod Total Frequency Percentage 10 50 65 15.38 76.92 7.69 100.00 TABLE 3: FUNCTION OF NOMINALIZATION IN NP (SOURCE: DATA) Because nominalizations can be considered as a noun form of other word-class, so they can function as pre.mod, head noun, and post.mod These functions will be analyzed by some examples extracted from research abstracts 2.3.a) modernization theorists from Karl Marx to Daniel Bell Nominal structure Pre.mod HN Post.mod modernization theorists from Karl Marx to Daniel Bell 2.3.b) close relation between levels of economic development and the incidence of democratic regimes Nominal structure Pre.mod close HN Post.mod relation between levels of economic development and the incidence of democratic regimes In 2.2.a), the nominalization modernization is the pre-modifier of the head noun theorist and modify the meaning of theorists: the t theorists about being modernized In 2.3.b), the nominalization relation is the head noun of the nominal structure, and development, incidence are the post-modifiers to the head noun relation In addition, development is also the post-modifier of nominal structure level of economic development and incidence is the head noun of nominal structure incidence of democratic regimes Therefore, these two nominalizations can function as post-modifiers of this nominal structure as well as head nouns or post-modifiers of another nominal structure, simultaneously IV Conclusion and implication In conclusion, this essay illustrates the frequency and the suffixes of nominalization in abstracts of research article This also states that nominalization words can be any functions in a nominal structure Besides, the knowledge of nominalization contributes to teaching and learning of teacher and students Teachers should apply instruction of nominalization process for students to gain the diversity of vocabulary and expression In addition, this also encourages undergraduates become acquainted with academic writing, because, according to Sarfo-Adu (2015), a consequence of using nominalization is “writing becomes more abstract, formal and elevated.” ABBREVIATION Abbreviation Meaning NP Pre.mod HN Post.mod Noun phrase Pre-modifier Head noun Post-modifier REFERENCES Cambridge Dictionary (2023) nominalization definition: the process of making a noun from a verb or adjective the process of making a noun from a … Learn more https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/nominalization Chomsky, N., Jacobs, R A., & Rosenbaum, P S (1970) Remarks on nominalization 1970, 184, 221 Crystal, D (1997) A Dictionary of Linguistic and Phonetics Oxford: Blackwell English Lexicology (2018) Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Department of Applied Linguistics and British-American studies Sarfo-Adu, K (2015) Nominalizations in research article abstracts: A comparative study European journal language studies, 2(1) Taher, I I (2015) The problematic forms of nominalization in English: Gerund, verbal noun, and deverbal noun English linguistics research, 4(1), 30-40 What is Research? (n.d.) Hampshire College https://www.hampshire.edu/what-research Writing an abstract (n.d) The University of Melbourne https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/resources/report-writing/writing-anabstract Zariquiey, R., Fleck, D W., & Shibatani, M (2019) Nominalization in languages of the Americas Nominalization in Languages of the Americas, 1-670 10 DATA REFERENCES Przeworski, A., & Limongi, F (1997) Modernization: Theories and facts World politics, 49(2), 155-183 Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., Robinson, J A., & Yared, P (2009) Reevaluating the modernization hypothesis Journal of monetary economics, 56(8), 1043-1058 Inglehart, R., & Baker, W E (2000) Modernization, cultural change, and the persistence of traditional values American sociological review, 19-51 Mardis, E R (2011) A decade’s perspective on DNA sequencing technology Nature, 470(7333), 198-203 May, C., Finch, T., & Rapley, T (2020) Normalization process theory In Handbook on implementation science (pp 144-167) Edward Elgar Publishing 11