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Deverbal Nominalization as Layered Metaphorical Construal: An ECMT-Cognitive Grammar Account
LI Lu, GAO Wencheng
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2026.10.007
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
This paper proposes an integrated framework that combines Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory (ECMT) and Cognitive Grammar (CG) to explain deverbal nominalization in English and Chinese. It argues that deverbal nominalization is not a mere profile shift from process to thing, but a grammatically induced realization of the image-schema metaphor EVENTS ARE ENTITIES, unfolding across four cascading levels: image schema, domain, frame, and mental space. Context and embodiment are constitutive rather than peripheral, especially at the mental-space level. English conventionalizes reification morphologically through suffixes such as -tion, -ment, and -ance, whereas Chinese, lacking overt nominalizing morphology, compensates through zero-derivation, metonymic shift, and online mental-space construction. The contrast reveals a typological principle: Morphosyntax interacts with metaphorical layering to shape nominal semantics.
deverbal nominalization, Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Cognitive Grammar, construal, contextual adaptability
Journal of Literature and Art Studies, October 2026, Vol. 16, No. 10, 840-843
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