nominal (adj./n.) (nom, NOM)

A term used in some GRAMMATICAL descriptions as a substitute for NOUN (e.g. nominal group = ‘noun phrase’). In a more restricted sense, nominals refer to WORDS which have some of the attributes of nouns but not all, e.g. the poor are many, where the HEAD word of this PHRASE does not pluralize (*the poors). Nominalization refers to the process of forming a noun from some other WORD-CLASS (e.g. red + ness) or (in classical TRANSFORMATIONAL grammar especially) the DERIVATION of a noun phrase from an underlying CLAUSE (e.g. Her answering of the letter . . . from She answered the letter). An affix which does this is a nominalizer. The term is also used in the classification of RELATIVE clauses (e.g. What concerns me is her attitude). Some linguistic theories use the term in a more general sense, as in COGNITIVE GRAMMAR, where ‘nominals’ (‘things’, chiefly noun phrases) are distinguished from relational expressions.