A.

Nominalization
According to Tallerman, Nominalization means ‘making something into a noun’;
specifically, we are talking here about the process of turning a verb into a noun. That
noun, plus any modifiers it has, then occurs in typical noun phrase positions, such as the
object or subject position in a sentence.
English, in fact, has such a strategy, for example:
a. Kim hated [Lee(’s) losing his licence].
b. [Lee(’s) losing his licence] surprised Kim.
The noun losing is a NOMINALIZED form of the verb lose. We can tell that losing is a
noun here because of the (optional, and perhaps slightly formal) possessive -’s marker in
Lee’s, which only occurs in a noun phrase. From the example a, the bracketed phrase is
the object of hated, and in the example b, the subject of surprised. These nominal -ing
constructions are traditionally known as GERUNDS in English.
According to Paul L. Krogger, a noun derived from a verb is called a deverbal noun. In
addition to abstract deverbal nouns, which refer to the event itself, many languages have
nominalizers which name specific participants or aspects of the event: agent, patient,
instrument, location, manner, cause, etc. Here are some examples of Malay that used the
same prefix, peN-, but with different meanings. (The N- here represents a nasal sound
which changes according to its environment, and may also trigger changes in the
following consonant.)
a. Malay actor nominalizations
Root Derived Form
tulis ‘write’ penulis ‘writer’
bantu ‘help’ pembantu ‘helper’
nyanyi ‘sing’ penyanyi ‘singer’
pimpin ‘lead’ pemimpin ‘leader’
dengar ‘hear’ pendengar ‘listener’
mohon ‘request, apply’ pemohon ‘applicant’

b. Malay instrumental nominalizations

Root Derived Form
gali ‘to dig’ penggali ‘spade, shovel’
sapu ‘to sweep’ penyapu ‘broom’
tapis ‘to filter’ penapis ‘a filter’
cukur ‘to shave’ pencukur ‘razor’
tuai ‘to harvest (rice)’ penuai ‘harvesting knife’

The prefix peN- has another use as well. It can be added to a verbal or adjectival root to
derive a noun naming a person or thing that is characterized by the property named by the
root, as illustrated below.
c. Malay characteristic nominalizations
Root Derived Form
malas ‘lazy’ pemalas ‘lazy person’
takut ‘afraid’ penakut ‘coward’
jahat ‘bad, wicked’ penjahat ‘bad person’
besar ‘big’ pembesar ‘big-shot, dignitary’
diam ‘quiet’ pendiam ‘quiet person’
malu ‘shy’ pemalu ‘shy person’
mabuk ‘drunk’ pemabuk ‘drunkard’
lupa ‘forget’ pelupa ‘forgetful person’