Study On Textual Functions Of Nominalization In EST

As a characterized style in modern English, English for Science and Technology (EST) is distinguished by objective, exact and abstract expression. One of the typical features on the lexical-grammatical level is the abundance of nominalization. The "modular construction" involving nouns, compound nouns, nominal phrases and nominalization, as well as clauses without verbs serves as the crucial conveyor of information. The thesis is designed to analyze the textual function of nominalization based on the detailed description of typical nominalization patterns in EST to attract people’s attention to the language phenomenon, providing them with practical learning and teaching strategies to improve the efficiency of EST reading.In spite of a series of research on nominalization from different perspectives conducted by scholars at home and abroad, a vast majority of them are restricted within the theoretical discussion, and there is a lack of systematic research of nominalization in EST in depth. Based on the systemic functional approach of Halliday, this thesis adopts an integration of qualitative and quantitative method of research.30scientific texts are selected from American authoritative magazines Science and Scientific American, from which the sentences containing nominalization are chosen as the focus of the study. With previous study outcomes and delicate analysis of typical nominalization patterns in EST, the author discusses the textual function of nominalization in EST in terms of theme-rheme structure, information structure and lexical cohesion.The results of the research are interpreted from three aspects:theme-rheme structure, information structure and lexical cohesion. Firstly, nominalization usually acts as the unmarked simple theme in EST, and in multiple themes interpersonal theme has the least likely occurrence. Nominalization mainly achieves coherence by linear thematic progression. Secondly, nominalization improves the information density with the most economic approach and contributes to the coherence, conciseness and objectivity of the text. Besides, nominalization helps to highlight the macrostructure and the core information of the passage, making it easier for readers to catch the main idea of the text. Thirdly, nominalization achieves lexical cohesion through repetition, synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy.