378 MARY L. NUNES
the earth is dying]) or infinitives (e.g. Cindy's promise to her mother [to stop
seeing Fred]). Having identified the parameters of this study, the discussion
now turns to an explication of two general types of vNPs. The terms typi
cally used to refer to these vNP types are "process nominal" and "result
nominal."1.2 Process vs. resultThe term "process nominal" is used fairly consistently in the literature to
identify nominals which name the action or process denoted by verb
sources. In other words, a process nominal retains the action or process
sense of the verb: the invention of the light bulb, the documents' destruction
by North, the translation of the poem by John, the invasion of the killer bees.
In spite of the straightforward definition, distinguishing a process sense
from a result sense is not always straightforward. Therefore, following the
review of "result nominal" definitions, three tests which have been used in
the literature to help make the distinction are cited.
In contrast to the term "process nominal," "result nominal" has been
given various definitions. In its broadest and most widely used sense, it
refers to nominals which "name the output of a process" rather than the
process itself (Grimshaw 1986: 13). Lebeaux suggests that "in some intui
tive, pre-theoretical sense, [a result nominal] refers to some existing 'thing'
in the world," such as the vN in The examination was eight pages long
(1986:231). Levi (1978), in her transformational analysis of nominalized
verbs, distinguishes further among three types of non-process nominals.
nominals of one type are derived from "product nominalizations." These
vNs name "that which is produced by (the act of)..." Examples include:
error(s), produced by the act of erring; amendment(s), produced by the act
of amending; or designs, produced the act of designing.^5 A second type of
non-process nominal refers to vNs derived from what Levi calls "agent
nominalizations," where the nominalization incorpororates a verb's x-agent
into the vN head: sorter, such that [x sorts] y; analyst, such that [x analyzes]
y; or planner, such that [x plans] y. Levi's "patient nominalizations," on the
other hand, incorporate a verb's y-patient into the vN head: invention(s),
such that χ [invents y]; appointee(s), such that χ [appoints y]; or
employee(s), such that χ [employs y]. A fourth derivational process discus
sed by Levi, "act nominalization," realizes nominals which correspond to
Grimshaw's and Lebeaux's process nominals.