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 grammatical and semantic characteristics of the noun.
Theoretically, any part of speech can go into the category of a noun, but more often this phenomenon can be observed among adjectives and participles.
Types of Substantiation
Using constantly in our speech some nouns, you no longer pay attention to the fact that they were once adjectives. From the adjective, such words have only their form. The grammatical signs, and often the lexical meaning, in the former adjectives changes. This type of substantiation is called "complete substantiation". Incomplete substantiation is manifested in the fact that a certain part of speech, existing in the language at the moment, in a certain context can be used as a noun.
The adjective is the part of speech that has a large number of similar attributes (grammatical and semantic) and is most used for substantiation. Substantive adjectives in the scientific literature also have the synonym "substantivates". Such adjectives in the Russian language can be both normal and occasional.
Adjectives that have become nouns
With full substantiation, adjectives can turn into a noun definitively, that is, such words cannot form phrases in which they would act as an agreed definition. Examples of such substantiated adjectives in the Russian language will be words such as "insect", "architect", "universe," pavement ", etc. Such words have an independent form of gender and number.
Substantive adjectives
This group of words is formed by words that can be used both as nouns and as relative adjectives. For instance:
- sick - a sick person;
- home slippers;
- Worker - work overalls, etc.
Normal substantive adjectives are fixed in explanatory dictionaries, where the gender of such a word is indicated. Among this group of substantive adjectives, the following thematic groups can be distinguished:
- Person (military, acquaintance, beggar, scientist, forester).
- The room (teacher's, bathroom, walk-through, operating room).
- Medication (laxative, antipyretic, sleeping pills).
- Document (gift, invoice).
- Abstract concept (past, beautiful, worthy, past).
Occasional substantive adjectives
Occasional substantivates, by virtue of their stylistic features, take advantage of colloquial speech:
- What did they ask us in English?
Such words are formed by omitting the phrase noun. In dictionaries, unlike usual ones, this variety of adjectives is not fixed.
Among occasional substances, the following thematic groups can be distinguished:
- Face (Villagers rushed to the bus. The youngest did not want to go to bed.).
- Institutions (He left Sklifosovsky. I turned towards Technological.).
- Color (Dyed in yellow hair. Lady in black.).
- Language (French, German, Polish).
Grammatical categories of the noun acquired by substantiated adjectives
As you know, grammatical categories such as gender and number for adjectives are inconsistent. With substantiation, the gender category for adjectives becomes constant. For instance:
- dining room (feminine);
- aspic (middle gender);
- sick (masculine);
- sick (feminine).
In some cases, the category of number also becomes unshakable. Examples of substantive adjectives are words such as “home” (plural), “jellied” (singular). Like nouns, they act as the definable word in the phrase. For instance:
- my homework;
- severe patient.
Substantive adjectives can be combined with whole and collective numerals. For instance:
- three sentries;
- two waybills.
The syntactic functions characteristic of a noun are also characteristic of substantiated adjectives:
- Subject ("My family loves to drink tea with cherry jam in the evenings.").
- Supplement ("The doctor prescribed the patient bed rest.").
The declension of substantive adjectives is adjective.