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[[Nominalisation]] is the act, as adored by solicitors as it is loathed by anyone having any kind of fondness for the English language, of emasculating a perfectly usable verb by making it into a noun and jamming a more boring verb in front of it. The ''cause célèbre'' of nominalisations — an attorney’s very favourite — is “to be applicable”. Here the very respectable noun “apply” is saddled with a ghastly suffix and made to give up its exciting role as a “doing” word, for the comparative lassitude of being a person place or thing — an abstract thing, at that — while that irregular catchall “to be” has all the fun (as it so often does — or does not; for ''that'' is the question). | |||
But at what cost to the reader? Without thinking on it, choose your favourite: | |||
''This clause '''applies'''.'' <br> | |||
''This clause '''is applicable'''.'' <br> | |||
=== | ===[[Effect]]ing a nominalisation: grammatical cross-dressing=== | ||
The worst kind of nominalisation goes a step further: not only must the poor verb dress up as a noun; an equally unsuspecting noun must behave like a verb. “[[Effect]]” is this kind of nominalisation. | The worst kind of nominalisation goes a step further: not only must the poor {{tag|verb}} dress up as a noun; an equally unsuspecting {{tag|noun}} must behave like a verb. “[[Effect]]” is this kind of nominalisation. |