Representing actions with nouns
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Examples from a variety of text types | page 6 of 10 |
Newspaper headlines
In the following headlines, the nominalisations 
have been highlighted:
Education plan may hit grades (SCMP 16/3/93)
Blood test plan by AIDS Foundation (SCMP 15/3/93)
Lookout seized during raid (SCMP 16/3/93)
Suspects in death brawl (SCMP 16/3/93)
Viet inmate moved after assault threat (SCMP 16/3/93)
Some comments concerning these headlines
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Because newspaper headlines use a number of conventions, eg present
simple tense for past events, infinitive for future reference, and a great deal of ellipsis , they can be even more
difficult to process than normal text. The presence of nominalisation is a further
complicating feature; therefore, students need to be able to unpack
the meaning while they read. |
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It is interesting to note that some of these nominalisations refer to a
physical object, rather than simply representing an action. For example, plan is
likely to refer to a paper document, probably a report which someone has written, ie it is
the outcome of the process of planning; grades refers again the outcome of the
process of grading, to the actual marks made by a marker on an examination script rather
than the action of grading. |
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The words lookout and suspects refer to people, yet they are still nominalisations (of the action "looking" and of the mental process of "suspecting"). The lookout is the person who looks out, and suspects are those people who are suspected of having done something wrong. |
Introduction
Newspaper headlines
