Abstract

As an important grammatical resource, nominalization has drawn many scholars’ attention, in which the most representative one is Halliday’s research on nominalization, and the breakthrough of his study is chiefly reflected in the researches about scientific discourses. Inspired by Halliday, many researchers have carried out various empirical researches on nominalization in different discourses. This study reviewed four types of empirical studies on nominalization, which are nominalization in academic discourse, nominalization in non-academic discourse, comparison of nominalization in different discourses and translation of nominalization. Through reviewing these studies, limitations concerning research methodology, research materials and analysis procedures are discussed. Finally, the analysis suggests that researchers should take all types of nominalizations into consideration and further elaborate their functions in different discourses, moreover, researches should focus more on practical significance of the study in the future and try to offer learners more advice on the use of nominalization and construction of academic writing.

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