0 INTRODUCTION

6. FINDINGS
taken into account that this category of text shows a preference for native nominalizations
due to its long vernacular tradition (see Section 4.5.2.3 above) and hence the introduction
of Romance formations is not as strong as in other text categories.
(206) If Acrimony of humours, boiling of the blood, want of rest and
sleep, accompany Diseases of the Lungs and Brest, you may add to
the Emulsions two drams of White Poppy-seed, (...) (E3 1678
Charas Royal pharmacopoea Remedy)
(207) (...) and they will break flesh easily, and prevent Torments and
Agues, and other Griefs, which usually accompany their coming
forth. (E3 1700 Woolley Supplement to the compleat servant maid
Remedy)
(208) Boyle it with the flowers, and by it selfe in honied water or wine,
and drinke it to swage the hote burning and fretting of the bowels,
or seethe it in water, and take it with a glister for the same purpose
(E2 1597 Langham Garden of health Remedy)
Despite the previous qualifications, it must be noted that there is a remarkable
increase in the degree of Romance nominalization in E3 (see examples [209] and [210]
below). A plausible explanation for this might perhaps be the influence of other medical
categories, where the use of Romance nominalization is much higher than the use of native
–ing-nominalization. Not surprisingly, Joseph (1998: 364) claims that “the spread of
morphological innovations is subject to social factors governing the evaluation of an
innovation by speakers and its adoption by them.” Therefore, if authors of remedy books
started to perceive Romance nominalizations as a descriptive feature of scientific or
medical writing, it may make sense that they introduced them in their writings, as a mark
of genre.
(209) Mixtures are also sometimes made of a more thick consistency, not
much unlike that of ordinary Opiates, which is for the
accommodation of such Patients, as cannot take Remedies in
Drink. (E3 1678 Charas Royal pharmacopoea Remedy)
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