A Comparative Study of Nominalization in English, Korean and Myanmar

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a comparative analysis of nominalization structures in English, Korean and Myanmar. Nominalization is the process of making a noun from a verb or an adjective with or without morphological transformation. The term can also refer specifically to the process of producing a noun from another part of speech via the addition of derivational affixes. This study is to show that the three languages have same markers for indicating the degrees in the strength of nominal characteristics. Two types of nominalization are found in English: one type requires the addition of a derivational suffix (the suffix ‘-ation’ or the suffix ‘-ing’ known as a English gerund, etc.) to create a noun. The other type uses the same word as a noun without any addition morphology. This second process is referred to as Zero-derivation. In Korean, to make a noun from a verb, the Korean nominalization morpheme ‘-ki’ or ‘-um’ is used with different restrictions. Although ‘-ki’ is attached directly to a verb stem, it indicates the act of doing. The suffix ‘-um’ is attached to a verb stem or its tense marker to indicate the fact of doing or the state of being. The nominalizer ‘-ki’ is often used, but ‘-um’ is limited in use. And the nominalizer ‘-n kes’ is most colloquial and used widely. Myanmar is a language which is particularly rich in nominalization structures. It has two nominalization structures―one type is the nominalization of verbs and predicates (e.g. the derivation of nouns from verbs and adjectives) and the other type is the nominalization of clauses (e.g. complement clauses, relative clauses). This thesis will argue that clausal nominalization is the basic structure underlying many of the nominalizing constructions in Myanmar and illustrate the presence of derivational nominalization. Theis thesis will conclude by comparing and contrasting them with English and Korean Nominalization.