Nominal style
The nominal style uses many nominal groups and only a few full verbs in its sentences . The verbal style, on the other hand, uses many verbs and only a few nouns.
Function and effect of verbal and nominal styles
The verbal style corresponds more to the colloquial language and is considered more lively, but also more lengthy and less concise. It is often found in fiction .
The nominal style is widespread in scientific, official and technical texts, not least for reasons of linguistic economy , diversity in expression and reduction of syntactic complexity - it often enables the saving of subordinate clauses - while at the same time increasing information density. But it is considered to be inanimate. Many style guides advise avoiding it.
When converting a sentence from the verb to the noun style, a verb is replaced by a related noun. In the main clause, this noun takes the place of the subject, which gives the sentence an impersonal character. A sentence “She opens the door.” Becomes, for example, “The door is opened through her.” Since the original verb is lost during the transfer, a new verb must be inserted (here: “take place”). The subject becomes the object. The nominal style in the passive voice has a particularly impersonal effect: “The door has to be opened.” There is no person in either the subject or the object. If a verb of the subordinate clause is replaced by a noun, the subordinate clause can be saved. For example, the sentence "She published the document to provide the information." Can be transformed into the sentence "She published the document to provide the information."
The sociolinguistics deals among others with gender characteristics in the speech behavior. It has been known since the 1990s that women tend to use the verbal style while men tend to use the nominal style.
Comparison of nominal and verbal style
| Stylistic devices | Nominal style | Verbal style |
|---|---|---|
| Nouns of verbs | The minister's refusal led to a dispute in the coalition. | The minister refused, which led to a dispute in the coalition. |
| Functional verb structures , collocations instead of sole full verbs | I considered taking a measurement. | I considered measuring. |
| Nominalizations of functional verb structures | It took until the law came into force. | It took a while for the law to take effect. |
| Prepositions instead of verbal style, especially genitive ones | I did so by the use of my mind. | I acted this way because of my reasoning ability. |
| subordinate genitive - Attributes | The plan of the meeting of the ministers of the federal states failed. | The ministers of the federal states planned to meet, which failed. |
See also
literature
- Arne Ziegler, Karl-Heinz Best , Gabriel Altmann : Nominalstil. In: etc. Empirische Text- und Kulturforschung 2 (2002), pp. 72–85 ( PDF file; 3.9 MB ( Memento from May 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive )).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Carsten Könneker , Wissenschaft Kommunikation: A manual with many practical examples . John Wiley & Sons, 2012, pp. 21, 24. u.ö .; Duden , Praxis Rhetorik , Mannheim 2014, p. 40.
- ↑ Angelika Linke u. a .: Study book linguistics. 5th edition. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2004, ISBN 3-484-31121-5 , Chapter 8 Sociolinguistics, 8.5.1 Preferences in the language behavior of men and women, p. 361 ff.
