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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2009When adjectives become nouns
What is the name for the process by which adjectives become nouns e.g. nuclear, dairy, overweight? Is this happening more often? > What is the name for the process by which adjectives become nouns e.g. > nuclear, dairy, overweight? Is this happening more often? Surely "dairy" as a noun is older than as an adjective so it's the opposite process. I'll admit that I have not checked the OED. Is nuclear a noun? I can't recall ever seeing it used that way.  SignatureJames Silverton Potomac, Maryland >> What is the name for the process by which adjectives become nouns e.g. >> nuclear, dairy, overweight? Is this happening more often? > >Surely "dairy" as a noun is older than as an adjective so it's the >opposite process. I'll admit that I have not checked the OED. Is nuclear >a noun? I can't recall ever seeing it used that way. You're right that "dairy" started life as a noun. I expect the OP is referring to the attributive use of the word in "dairy products" being shortened to just "dairy". The noun "overweight" is probably older than its use as an adjective, so that is not an example of the process. The process could be called "nominalization", although that refers to any part of speech becoming a noun. Another good example of an adjective becoming a noun is in fact the word "adjective". James > On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:38:45 -0500, "James Silverton" > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > James Has overweight been used as a noun for a long time in the US? It has only appeared, or re-appeared, in British English recently - from the medical literature. On Jan 24, 3:38 pm, "James Silverton" <not.jim.silver...@verizon.net> wrote: > <barkerpl...@hotmail.com> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > James Silverton > Potomac, Maryland Sorry, I should have been clearer about 'dairy' - I am referring specifically to its use to denote 'dairy products'. Few people outside North America spoke of 'dairy' when they meant 'dairy products' until recently. I don't think 'dairy' used in this way comes directly from the noun meaning a place where mik products are processed. but rather from the adjective. In the same way, 'nuclear power', 'solar power' and 'wind power' have been contracted to 'nuclear', 'solar' and 'wind' although obviously wind was a noun already. Maybe, dairy, in this sense, has done a full circle here, going from noun to adjective to noun? On Jan 24, 3:38 pm, "James Silverton" <not.jim.silver...@verizon.net> wrote: > <barkerpl...@hotmail.com> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > James Silverton > Potomac, Maryland Many of the CNN talking-heads use nuclear and solar in this way when talking about alternative energy. Another example is 'dental' as in 'Family Dental'. When I first saw this outside a dentist's office, I thought it was a mistake - family dental what? > On Jan 24, 3:38 pm, "James Silverton" <not.jim.silver...@verizon.net> > wrote: [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > 'Family Dental'. When I first saw this outside a dentist's office, I > thought it was a mistake - family dental what? The "dental" is a good example. But the CNN example is where context is already present, and I think that's a bit different. For example in here - once we've established that varieties of English are being talked about - we could use British or American or Australian or whatever as nouns. But really they'd still be adjectives with the nouns elided. "British uses pavement and American sidewalk" is equivalent to "Nuclear doesn't produce Carbon Dioxide". SignatureOnline waterways route planner: http://canalplan.org.uk development version: http://canalplan.eu > What is the name for the process by which adjectives become nouns e.g. > nuclear, dairy, overweight? Nominalisation. DC -- > > What is the name for the process by which adjectives become nouns e.g. > > nuclear, dairy, overweight? > > Nominalisation. I nominalisate that as the correct answer. SignatureBob Lieblich Maintaining UK spelling for consistency >> > What is the name for the process by which adjectives become nouns e.g. >> > nuclear, dairy, overweight? >> >> Nominalisation. > > I nominalisate that as the correct answer. Not only a correct, but a substantive answer. SignatureRoland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food. NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it. |
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