0 INTRODUCTION

0. INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 offers a review of the literature on the topic. It provides a definition of the term
‘nominalization,’ delimiting the object of study, and deals with the problematic issue of its
categorization. Furthermore, it also offers a summary of the main approaches to
nominalization found in the literature.
Chapter 2 is devoted to –ing nominals, since they are by far the most controversial
among the nominalizations analyzed in this study. Their fuzzy nature, especially during the
period under analysis here, justifies the inclusion of a chapter explaining which –ing
formations have been taken into account in this study and the reasons for this decission.
Thus, this chapter discusses the origins and development of –ing nominals, focusing on
their syntactic behaviour during the EModE period.
Chapter 3 discusses the issues of argument structure and nominal complementation,
and reviews the literature on the topic. In addition, it gives a detailed overview of the
nominal dependents that nominalizations can take.
Chapter 4 deals with the rhetoric of scientific writing and examines the status of
science during the EModE period since, as is well known (Atkinson 1999: xviii, Pahta and
Taavitsainen 2011: 1-2), the influence of the sociohistorical context has been proved to be
very important when dealing with linguistic variation. In connection with this, issues such
as the language of science, audience and scientific community, as well as the role of
literacy and the printing press will be discussed in detail. An in-depth account of medical
writing will also be provided, as a background for Section 6.3, which will be devoted to
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