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also 142 Nominalisation and 175 Formation of nouns (nominalisation)

NOMINALISATION

142

Noun phrases are often used in academic style as an alternative to longer, clausal

constructions, thus enabling the writer/speaker to integrate a considerable

amount of information into the noun-phrase subject slot or object slot in the

clause. This process, using a noun phrase to express a meaning more typically

associated with an item from another word class, is called nominalisation.

Nominalisations include nouns which express verb-type meanings and adjective-

type meanings. They are more frequent in written academic styles than in spoken:

[IR = the academic discipline International Relations]

The result was an IR canon, of the ‘Plato to Nato’ variety, which was

substantially anachronistic. 

Its dismantling over the last twenty years has

much to do with efforts in the area of conceptual history. Despite this, and the

keenness of post-positivist IR theorists to display an historical consciousness,

IR and history maintain an uneasy 

association. 

(compare: It was dismantled over the last twenty years, and this has much to

do with efforts in the area of conceptual history. Despite this, and the fact that

post-positivist IR theorists are keen to display the fact that they are historically

conscious

, IR and history continue to be associated uneasily with one another.)