On the historical origins of nominalized process in scientific text

Grammatical metaphor in the form of nominalized processes is widely recognized as an important feature of scientific writing. It is also believed that this development began with Newton in the late 17th century. Linguistic development must however be seen against the background of the context in which it is produced. One of the elements which must be taken into consideration in the case of Newton is the fact that he also wrote Latin. Consideration of a short extract from Newton’s Latin Principia Mathematica, in comparison with Motte’s 1729 English translation, shows that nominalizations in Motte’s translation are paralleled by nominalizations in the Latin original. Consequently the possibility of Latin influence on the early development of scientific English cannot be ruled out.

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