Substantiation is the process of transition of words of other parts of speech into the category of nouns. As a result of such a transition, words are formed with the grammatical and semantic characteristics of a noun.
Theoretically, any part of speech can become a noun, but more often this phenomenon can be observed among adjectives and participles.
Types of substantiation
When you constantly use some nouns in our speech, you no longer pay attention to the fact that they were once adjectives. From the adjective of such words, only their form remained. The grammatical features, and often the lexical meaning, of the former adjectives change. This type of substantivation is called "full substantivation". Incomplete substantiation is manifested in the fact that a certain part of speech, existing in the language at the moment, in a certaincontext can also be used as a noun.
An adjective is a part of speech that has a large number of similar features (grammatical and semantic) and is most used in substantiation. Substantiated adjectives in the scientific literature also have the synonym "substantives". Such adjectives in Russian can be both usual and occasional.
Adjectives definitively converted to nouns
With full substantiation, adjectives can turn into a noun completely, that is, such words cannot form phrases in which they would act as an agreed definition. Examples of such substantiated adjectives in Russian are words like "insect", "architect", "universe", "bridge", etc. Such words have an independent form of gender and number.
Usual substantive adjectives
This group of words is formed by words that can be used both as nouns and as relative adjectives. For example:
- sick is a sick person;
- home - house slippers;
- working overalls, etc.
Usual substantivized adjectives are fixed in explanatory dictionaries, where the gender of such a word is indicated. Among this group of substantive adjectives, the following can be distinguishedthematic groups:
- Person (military, acquaintance, beggar, scientist, forester).
- The room (teacher's room, bathroom, checkpoint, operating room).
- Medicine (laxative, antipyretic, hypnotic).
- Document (gift, waybill).
- Abstract concept (former, beautiful, worthy, past).
Occasional substantive adjectives
Occasional substantives, due to their stylistic features, are used advantageously in colloquial speech:
What did they ask us in English?
Such words are formed by omitting the noun in the phrase. In dictionaries, unlike usual ones, this kind of adjectives is not recorded.
Among occasional substantives, the following thematic groups can be distinguished:
- Face (The villagers hurried to the bus. The youngest did not want to go to bed.).
- Institutions (Left Sklifosovsky. Turned towards Technological.).
- Color (Hair dyed yellow. Lady in black.).
- Language (French, German, Polish).
Grammatical categories of a noun acquired by substantiated adjectives
As you know, such grammatical categories as gender and number for adjectives are inconsistent. With substantiation, the category of gender for adjectives becomes permanent. For example:
- dining room (feminine);
- aspic (neuter);
- sick (masculine);
- sick (feminine).
In some cases, the category of number also becomes unshakable. Examples of substantiated adjectives would be words such as "domestic" (plural), "jellied" (singular). Like nouns, they act as a defined word in a phrase. For example:
- my home;
- heavily ill.
Substantiated adjectives can be combined with whole and collective numbers. For example:
- three sentries;
- two invoices.
Syntactic functions inherent in a noun are also characteristic of substantiated adjectives:
- Subject ("My family is very fond of drinking tea with cherry jam in the evenings".).
- Addition ("The doctor prescribed bed rest for the patient".).
Declination of substantiated adjectives is adjective.
