Comparative Study of Nominalization in Applied Linguistics and Biology Books

This study explored nominalized expression types in an applied linguistics book and a biology book as 2 distinct disciplines. The books were carefully read, the nominalized expression types were identified, the frequencies of the nominalization types were counted, and eventually chi-square was administered. Results revealed no significant difference in using nominalization. Furthermore, the density of nominalization was calculated by dividing their frequency by the total number of words. Results acknowledged the greater concentration of nominalization in the applied linguistics book. Furthermore, the proportion of nominalization to grammatical metaphor was calculated. Results demonstrated the greater tendency towards nominalizing scientific information in the applied linguistics book. This research can contribute to a better understanding of nominalization in academic textbooks and, thus, improve English for Specific Purposes learners’ use of nominalization in their writing. However, further research is needed to see how nominalization is exploited in other genres and other disciplines.