Grammatical Metaphor of Nominalization in Historical Discourse

高楠

【Abstract】Historical discourse is the significant stage where language displays its magical power and creates meanings， this paper firstly explains the features of historical discourses and the nominalization through examples， finally analyzes the language in historical discourse from the perspective of Grammatical Metaphor of Nominalization

【Key words】Grammatical Metaphor； Nominalization； Historical Discourse

1. Historical Discourse

History is the narration of the past， recording events， key figures， cultures in the past and passing down what happened or existed in the past from generation to generation. Language in historical recordings is of great significance in describing， representing， transmitting messages to people， and it has drawn close attention from scholars who try to better interpret history through the study of language. The prominent features of the language in historical discourse are generalization， abstraction， technicality， explanation and impersonality.

2. Nominalization in Grammatical Metaphor

Nominalization is regarded as the single most powerful resource for creating grammatical metaphor （Halliday， 2004）. By this device， processes （congruently worded as verbs） and properties （congruently worded as adjectives） are reworded metaphorically as nouns； instead of functioning in the clause as process or attribute they function as thing in the nominal group. Lets look at an example.

（a） He died and we were sad.

（b） His death saddened us.

In （a） he died is nominalized into his death in （b）； Attribute sad in （a） is incongruently realized as a mental process sadden in （b）. Thompson （1996） points out that nominalization is the most important type of grammatical metaphor because it involves realignment of all the other elements of a clause.

3. Nominalization in Historical Discourse

Gu （2008） has found out that the phenomenon of nominalization is increasing in historical discourse. The following example shows us the nominalization in the language of historical discourses.

（a） Mao Zedong ascended to the paramount leadership of the CCP in this period.

（b）This period also saw the ascendancy of Mao Zedong to the paramount leadership of the CCP.

In the above example， the verb “ascend” is nominalized into noun “ascendancy”. The language in historical discourses has the same drift of nominalization in grammatical metaphor.The following passage and the analysis is quoted from Doc Gus paper in 2004.endprint

“The strength of the Roman military establishment at the beginning of the third century seems to have been about 300， 000. It was greatly increased under Diocletian； and considerable additions were made in the course of the fourth century. The data of the Notitia dignitatum would lead to the conclusion that about A.D.”

In this historical discourse， all the words underlined with single line are the nominalization in grammatical metaphor. Strength shows us the properties are reworded metaphorically as nouns； establishment， beginning， additions， conclusion show us the processes （congruently worded as verbs） are reworded metaphorically as nouns. With nominalization， the congruent mode of expression is metaphorized into new mode of representation. Lets look at another example.

“Men had a new awareness of the beauty， the richness and the variety of life. Most of all， the study of man himself caught the imagination of scholars， scientists， artists and craftsmen. Renaissance man rebelled against authority， tradition and repression， for he was aware of his own individuality and strove to realize its fullest expression.”

In this passage， all the italics words are nouns， these nouns can clearly indicate the language features of historical discourse which are generalization， abstraction， technicality， explanation and impersonality. To sum up， nominalization possesses the power of reconstructing experience through the reorganization of different semantic elements. As a collection of experience， historical discourse is a language product where nominalization has been commonly used.

4. Conclusion

As a product of language， the writing of history was studied from the perspectives of writing style and language use by many scholars. They find that grammatical metaphor is an important linguistic resource for historian to construe abstraction and technicality. Nominalization helps to represent the past as a wonderful world with vitality and stability in a language system with both narration and creation. In this way， teacher can better explain the development and meaning of history while the students can produce their own appropriate writing and understand history better.

參考文獻：

[1]Coffin，Caroline.History as Discourse：Construals of Time，Cause and Appraisal[D].Sydney：University of New South Wales.2000.

*項目名稱：從順應論看習近平主席外訪演講中的語用移情，項目編號：XSYK17024， 咸陽師范學院專項科研計劃項目。endprint