Nominalization as an ‘interpersonally-driven’ system

This paper analyzes different types of deverbal -er nominals and factive nominalizations and argues that they can only be fully described and generalized across if, in addition to their ideational properties, the interpersonal categories which they realize are also considered. It is shown that interpersonal functions such as Subject/person deixis, finite/non-finite grounding and the Mood-relation between them are not exclusively clausal categories, but that they are equally operative at word level and in the nominal group. In factive and -er nominalizations, they set us on the track of the systems’ basic grammatico-semantic characteristics: the link which deverbal -er nominalizations establish between an entity and a process turns out to be strikingly similar to that realized by the Subject and the Finite at clause level; the analysis of the internal, interpersonal properties of that-factives, the fact that-constructions and gerundive factives confirms their downranked or ‘nominal’ nature and enables us to define factivity more accurately.

Published online: 27 June 2002
https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.8.2.06hey