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What& #39;s a nominalization?
Well it& #39;s when you turn a non-noun word into a noun.
Like "requirement." This actually comes from a verb (to require) and we just like ret-con that sucker into a noun.
So why do we care?
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Well it& #39;s when you turn a non-noun word into a noun.
Like "requirement." This actually comes from a verb (to require) and we just like ret-con that sucker into a noun.
So why do we care?
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Well, these nominalizations have a way of confounding us since they act like & #39;things& #39; but aren& #39;t really & #39;things.& #39;
Let& #39;s take a word like "safety." Safety isn& #39;t really a thing.
It comes from an adverb (safe) and so the origin of the concept is like "I want to feel safe."
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Let& #39;s take a word like "safety." Safety isn& #39;t really a thing.
It comes from an adverb (safe) and so the origin of the concept is like "I want to feel safe."
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But if instead I say "I& #39;m worried about my safety" we *kind of* have a similar semantic value here, except we& #39;ve gone from
"I desire to experience a somewhat subjective state"
to
"I& #39;m focused on the sufficiency of an abstraction."
Which is like... odd.
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"I desire to experience a somewhat subjective state"
to
"I& #39;m focused on the sufficiency of an abstraction."
Which is like... odd.
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These nominalizations are a bit less actionable - if we are talking about "safety at school," for example, we are now using a rhetorical form that implies objectivity.
Yet is a derivative of a subjective, experiential state.
And this causes many problems.
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Yet is a derivative of a subjective, experiential state.
And this causes many problems.
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In fact it& #39;s the sort of thing untrained couch philosophers spend a lot of time talking about.
"What is Safety?"
"What is Freedom?"
"What is Liberty?"
They& #39;re nothing, you nitwits - just linguistic artifacts that you keep stubbing your toe on.
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"What is Safety?"
"What is Freedom?"
"What is Liberty?"
They& #39;re nothing, you nitwits - just linguistic artifacts that you keep stubbing your toe on.
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I& #39;d say like half of what shrinks do is just unwinding people& #39;s internal mental framework to unbind nominalizations from concepts they have been lexically indexed to so that they are capable of thought again (note: the other half of the job seems hard).
Anyhow, I digress.
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Anyhow, I digress.
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Most of the stuff everyone is so bent around the axle about with finance is also like half nominalization-derived.
Inflation/deflation, of course. Various bits of the Fed& #39;s clerical activity.
Oh - and a "store of value."
Because that phrase is a double nominalization.
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Inflation/deflation, of course. Various bits of the Fed& #39;s clerical activity.
Oh - and a "store of value."
Because that phrase is a double nominalization.
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"I store potatoes in the pantry to eat them a week or two later." That makes sense.
"My pantry is an excellent store of potatoes." Eh... I mean... is it?
For how long? How many potatoes can it hold? How does it compare to other stores of potatoes?
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"My pantry is an excellent store of potatoes." Eh... I mean... is it?
For how long? How many potatoes can it hold? How does it compare to other stores of potatoes?
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You see the minute you nominalize something that& #39;s not really a noun, you& #39;re in trouble.
Because since it& #39;s *not* a noun, it means something different to everyone based on how they& #39;ve indexed it inside their head.
And so we talk past one another.
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Because since it& #39;s *not* a noun, it means something different to everyone based on how they& #39;ve indexed it inside their head.
And so we talk past one another.
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Because we& #39;re each projecting onto that non-noun thing whatever properties we have (personally) assigned it.
This is harder to do with real nouns. It& #39;s hard to just give arbitrary properties to, say, a grape. People will call you down pretty fast.
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This is harder to do with real nouns. It& #39;s hard to just give arbitrary properties to, say, a grape. People will call you down pretty fast.
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But if it& #39;s something like "freedom" you can just talk about what freedom means to you personally for hours and write slam poetry about it and everyone will clap when you& #39;re done.
Denominalizing things can help.
"I feel more free to eat edibles in Colorado vs New York."
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Denominalizing things can help.
"I feel more free to eat edibles in Colorado vs New York."
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What about a Store of Valueâą?
Well... we& #39;d need to know how long we& #39;re storing it (duration) how much "it" there is (quantity) who needs to value it once the storage period expires (counter party) what options we have for un-storing it along the way (liquidity)...
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Well... we& #39;d need to know how long we& #39;re storing it (duration) how much "it" there is (quantity) who needs to value it once the storage period expires (counter party) what options we have for un-storing it along the way (liquidity)...
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Oh well - would you look at that!
Turns out once we denominalize "Store of Value" and start examining its properties, it looks a lot like...
...well, just a normal old trade, really.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ" title="Kusshand zuwerfendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Kusshand zuwerfendes Gesicht">
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Turns out once we denominalize "Store of Value" and start examining its properties, it looks a lot like...
...well, just a normal old trade, really.
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