Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

nominal clause                                complement

Writing novels | is | not easy.

subject verb

nominal clause

I        | know | 

what you mean. 

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Nominalisation

Nominalisation Involves forming a noun from other parts of speech, most

commonly from verbs or adjectives (flying ➛ flight, bright ➛ brightness,

long ➛ length, industrial ➛ industrialisation

).

The nominalised form offers the possibility of a more formal expression of

the equivalent verb or adjective meaning:

I was dazzled by the

extremely bright lights.

I was dazzled by 

the extreme brightness of the lights.

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541 Index for individual terms not in the Glossary

Glossary | 911

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Nominative

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Case

Non-count (or uncountable) A grammatical distinction of nouns which denote

things that are treated as indivisible wholes, for instance, materials and liquids,

states of mind, conditions, topics, processes and substances (water, cheese,

music, information, sand, love

). With non-count nouns there is no contrast in

number between singular and plural:

They gave us some 

information.

(They gave us some informations.)

Non-defining relative clause (or non-restrictive relative clause) This is a clause

that describes or gives additional information to the head noun in a noun

phrase. A non-defining clause usually begins with a relative pronoun who,

whom, which, whose

, and is marked off by a comma in writing:

———————————————————|

Have you ever heard of 

Guy Preston, 

who had a hit song with ‘Loving Ways’

?

(describes or gives extra information about Guy Preston)

Non-defining relative clauses are contrasted with defining relative clauses.

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Postmodification

Non-finite Non-finite clauses contain a verb which does not indicate tense, for

example, an infinitive (We queued up early so as to get a good seat.), an -ed

participle (You should read the parts highlighted in yellow.) or an -ing form

(Coming round the corner, we spotted the old house.).

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Finite

Non-gradable Refers to adjectives or adverbs that cannot be graded on a scale of

‘more’ or ‘less’ in terms of the property they describe (dead/alive, male/female,

truly, main, married

). Non-gradable adjectives and adverbs cannot take the

comparative or superlative inflection, nor can they be preceded or premodified

by words like more, most, quite, rather, so, very (more male, rather dead, very

truly, very married 

are not possible).

Non-gradable is contrasted with gradable.