0 INTRODUCTION

4. RHETORIC AND THE WORLD OF SCIENCE IN THE EModE PERIOD
affix. Thus, when readers of a scientific text find a noun created from a verb and one of
the suffixes analyzed in this study, they will immediately understand that the noun refers
to the process or action of the base verb. Take, for instance, some nominalizations found
in the corpus analyzed. The meaning of nominalizations such as discovering can easily be
inferred since it is clear that it refers to the action of their base verb, discover. Even the
meaning of nominalizations such as apertion ‘opening’ (< aperīre ‘to open’), which are
opaque since their base is a Latin verb, can be somehow reconstructed. They can be
classified as action nouns. However, it must be noted that the fact that suffixes have
broadened their meanings over time can lead to polysemy. Thus, the nominal apertion
does not only refer to the action of the verb aperīre, but also to the result of that action
(see further Chapter 5 below).
Another factor favouring the use of nominalizations has to do with a preference for
conservatism in the EModE period. Scientists from the 17 th and 18 th centuries had to face
the problem of giving names to new realities and also renaming others that, up to that
time, had vague names that might lead to confusion or misunderstanding. In order to do
so, they usually borrowed from the classical languages to achieve greater monoreferentiality
for the new terms (Gotti 2003: 41). There was a preference for using words
from the classical languages, such as transpiration or vitrification, to avoid the lexis of
the general language.
In short, nominalization is a device that allows the naming of new ideas and
processes when there was a need for new specialized vocabulary. They have the property
of being transparent, since nominalizations are easily recognized as action nouns due to
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