Passivization and Nominalization - 221216 - 010644

Passivization and
Nominalization:
Introduction:
•Discourse is not entirely innocent. It has
strategies of meaning making.
•Behind every discourse there is an
ideology that imposes itself (what is to be
said and what's not to be said).
•Just like writers use language to express
something, they also use it to hide/conceal
something.
•Passivization and nominalization are two
strategies of concealment, meaning,
these two help hide/conceal, downplay
(make (something) appear less
important than it really is.), or even
delete elements like the agent {doer of
the action}, when, where, who was
affected by the action {the patient}, and
how.
Passivization:
Definition: it is the process of changing a
statement from active voice to passive
voice and it is not used as an innocent
grammatical structure but rather used for
ideological purposes.
Definition2: the process of changing a
verb or sentence into the passive: The
subject of the sentence is hard to identify
because of passivization.
The Agency:
Agency (doer) can be concealed through
the usage of passive verbs.
Example:
1/ the civilians were killed during a
bombing raid. {we don't know who killed
the victims = concealment= deleted}.
2/ the civilians were killed during a
bombing raid by the American bombers.
{agent is backgrounded = downplayed =
mentioned at the end}.
If we want to reveal the agent and make
it clear who did the action, we need to use
active sentences, like so:
3/ the Americans bombers killed the
civilians during a bombing raid. { clear
representation of the actors "the
Americans bombers" , the process "killed",
and the goals of the action "the civilians"}.
More details on backgrounding:

•The passive voice is useful for
backgrounding who performed the action
represented by the verbal process.
Example: Students' fees have been
increased by four per cent.
•Here those behind the increasing would
prefer to use such form to avoid saying:
We increased...
Nominalization:
Definition: it is the process of replacing
verb processes with a noun construction,
which can obscure agency and
responsibility for an action (what exactly
happened and when it
took place).
Important side note: Active agent
deletion can be done through
nominalization.
Definition2: A nominalization is a verb

(or adjective) that functions as a noun.
For example, as nominalizations, the
verbs state and assume become the
nouns statement and assumption. Words
that end in -ment, -ion, -ence, -ance, -ity, -
ent, -ant, and -ancy are often
nominalizations.
Example: the killing of civilians during the
bombing raid.
In this case all sense of agency is deleted,
the act of killing is represented as a
nominalization.
Very important to keep in mind:

=>When we include the agent: we know
who did the action (example: the
American bombers did the killing).
=>When the passive form is used: the
agent
is either backgrounded (example: by the
American bombers) or completely deleted
(no presence of agency).
The nominalization further obscures
the agent and also distances the event
from any moment in time.
Example:
1. The global economy was changed.
{passive form; concealment of agency}.
2. The changed global economy. {passive
form; nominalization; there's no question
of who changed it and when: it simply has
changed}.
Side note: the word "globalization" is
used as nominalization when in fact it has
its agents responsible for its occurrence: it
is the result of political decisions. The
sentence {the nominal group} simplifies
what it actually means.
Effect of nominalization:
The removal of the doer of the action
=> the
responsibility of the action gets also
removed which makes it seem like events
just happen.
Examples:
1. The student lost his school work and
was rather upset.
2. The student was upset about the loss of
his school work.
1. I am sorry I have failed to return my

assignment on time.
2. I am sorry about the failure to return my
assignment on time. (Suggests other
reasons than forgetting).
1. Analysis of statistics has

shown...{objective and valid}.
2. We analyzed the statistics and it has
shown...{subjective and personal interest}.
1. Demonstrations must no longer be

allowed to disrupt teaching and learning.
2. Students demonstrating against
increased
fees must no longer be allowed to do so
as it disrupts teaching and learning.

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Passivization and

More details on backgrounding:

Definition2: A nominalization is a verb

Very important to keep in mind:

1. I am sorry I have failed to return my

1. Analysis of statistics has

1. Demonstrations must no longer be

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