Cognitive Effects Of Nominalization In EFL Reading

INominalization is a common language phenomenon in English. Many linguists of different schools approach to nominalization from different perspectives. The thesis studies cognitive effects of nominalization in English as foreign language reading from a general cognitive perspective.The cognitive effects of nominalization are a controversial topic. Most people believe that nominalizations increase the difficulty of the text and some teachers even avoid nominalizations in organizing input materials. Based on Goatly's green grammar theory and Sperber &Wilson's Relevance theory, the thesis put forward different hypotheses on the cognitive effects of nominalization in English reading:Appropriate use of nominalization in text will increase the relevance of the corresponding text, and will not bring about obstacles in understanding. Cognitive effects of nominalization in reading are complex phenomena that the only factor of difficulty cannot encompass the whole picture.Through a reading test and a questionnaire investigation, the present study proved the hypotheses. In the experimental group, the participants got more cognitive effects with less cognitive effort in reading the text with nominalizations. At the same time the text with nominalizations bring about different cognitive effects on the readers, compared with the text in congruent form. The cognitive effects are a complex psychological phenomenon, which at least includes stylistic effects and social effects. The text with nominalization can bring the succinct, condensed, and formal effects on readers, and this make nominalization is preferable by the scientific and academic style. On the other hand, nominalizations in text can encode ideology and values in an implicit way, and this is often employed by some propagandists and politicians to objectify their opinions to convince people their disguising real motives.The results of the study may provide a different perspective to perceive the common linguistic phenomenon in English and enlighten the English teachers and learners to treat nominalization in a proper way in their reading process.The thesis consists of five chapters. In chapter one, a general introduction is given to the present research, including the information about nominalization, perspective and purposes of the present studies. Chapter two introduces the related studies on nominalization, and different approaches are introduced and compared. The achievements and limitations are pointed out and the purpose of the present study is presented. Chapter three is devoted to the theoretical reasoning and hypothesis generating. Sperber and Wilson'relevance theory and Goatly's Green grammar theory are introduced as the foundations of the present study. Based on the above theories, the writer put forward the idea that nominalization, as other lexical metaphors, are instrument of thinking and a mode of human cognition. Then two hypotheses on the effects of nominalization are postulated. Chapter four is the empirical study part of the study, a practical verification of the hypothesis. A test experiment will be conducted and the data will be analyzed and discussed in detail. Chapter three and four are the core parts of the thesis. The last chapter includes the summary of the study, the limitation and implication of the study, and also the suggestions for future studies.