Nominalization in Academic and Bureaucratic Prose in Malaysian Malay

Academic and administrative Malay frequently turns actions into nouns: melaksanakan dasar “implement a policy” becomes pelaksanaan dasar “implementation of the policy,” while menilai permohonan “assess applications” becomes penilaian permohonan “assessment of applications.” This nominal style allows several processes to fit inside one noun phrase, but it also changes what the sentence foregrounds—and what it can conceal. The nominalization guide introduces the derivational system; here the focus is what long chains do in advanced prose.

The goal is not to replace every verb with a noun. Effective formal writing moves deliberately between nominal and verbal styles. Nominalization packages an activity as a topic, stage, object of measurement, or institutional procedure; a finite clause restores actors, time, and responsibility. English uses similar nouns such as “implementation” and “evaluation,” but English habits do not determine which Malay affix or participant construction is natural.

The main event-noun patterns

Two highly productive frames dominate formal prose: peN-...-an and per-...-an. Their surface forms vary through regular morphophonemic processes, and particular bases conventionally select particular forms. The derived noun can refer to a process, its result, an institutional activity, or an abstract domain.

Here penilaian permohonan behaves as a noun phrase: it can be the subject of akan bermula. The nominalization treats assessment as a bounded administrative stage rather than telling us directly who assesses what.

The verbal rewrite adds an actor and makes the commitment easier to assign. Neither version is inherently superior. The first suits a timetable organized by stages; the second suits an instruction or accountability statement.

How nominalization suppresses or relocates agents

A verb naturally opens positions for participants. Once the event becomes a noun, those participants become optional modifiers. This is why nominalization can be useful—and politically consequential.

Who was supposed to implement it, and who postponed it? The sentence does not say. That may be appropriate when the decision, not the decision-maker, is the topic. It may also evade responsibility.

The finite clause names the responsible institution. A critical reader should ask whether the actor was omitted because it is irrelevant, already known, legally unspecified, or strategically inconvenient.

Malay can add an actor with oleh:

The oleh phrase identifies the assessor. It does not turn the event noun into a finite passive clause. Compare the complete passive Permohonan itu dinilai oleh panel bebas “The application was assessed by an independent panel.”

With a source, contributor, or originating party, daripada is often more appropriate:

The public supplies the complaints; they do not perform the institution's act of receiving. Substituting oleh orang awam would push the phrase toward an agent reading and alter the relationship.

Building—and parsing—dense noun phrases

Malay noun phrases normally place a head before following modifiers. Formal writers can recursively embed one event noun inside another:

One useful bracketing is:

• [penyelarasan [pelaksanaan [program [pembangunan [keusahawanan [belia luar bandar]]]]]]

The broad head is penyelarasan: coordination is what requires cooperation. What is coordinated is pelaksanaan; what is implemented is a program. The remaining nouns progressively identify the programme. A reader should work from the leftmost head while testing conventional multiword units such as pembangunan keusahawanan and belia luar bandar.

The same content can be made verbal:

The rewrite is longer, but it reveals actors, purpose, and clause boundaries. Dense nominal style is efficient for headings and named workstreams; the verbal version is usually better when readers must know who will do what.

Unpacking one administrative sentence into three clauses

Consider this constructed (bureaucratic) sentence:

Its nominal layers are grammatically possible, but the chain forces readers to recover several events. Unpack it into exactly three finite clauses:

The unpacked version contains three main clauses: (1) pemohon mesti menyerahkan, (2) urus setia akan menerima, and (3) urus setia akan mula memantau. It identifies the applicant as submitter and the secretariat as recipient and monitor. The remaining event noun pematuhan now has an explicit participant, pemohon, and functions as the stable object being monitored rather than as one layer in an opaque chain. The original makes the procedure the grammatical subject and postpones the only overt actor until an oleh phrase.

When nominal style is the right choice

Nominalizations are valuable when the event itself must be classified, counted, compared, scheduled, or referred to repeatedly:

Penggunaan bahasa is the object being compared; turning it back into a clause would be cumbersome. Academic prose also needs stable labels such as pengumpulan data, penganalisisan data, and pengesahan dapatan for methodological stages. These are (academic) terms, not empty decoration.

Parallel nominal heads make the timeline easy to scan. A procedural instruction, however, should often name the researchers: Penyelidik mengumpulkan data dari Januari hingga Mac dan mula menganalisisnya pada April.

Nominal density is not a measure of formality

English-speaking writers sometimes imitate English institutional prose by stacking abstract nouns. Malay has its own highly developed bureaucratic style, but clear official Malay can still be verbal and direct.

This is fully (formal). Recasting it as Penyemakan dokumen hendaklah dibuat sebelum pelaksanaan kelulusan pembayaran adds nouns without adding precision. The verbal sentence states responsibility more plainly.

Nominalization also affects aspect. An event noun itself does not tell us whether the event is planned, ongoing, completed, repeated, or merely discussed. That information comes from the governing predicate and context: pelaksanaan akan bermula, pelaksanaan sedang dipantau, pelaksanaan telah selesai.

Common Mistakes

Treating every English “-tion” noun as a cue for Malay nominalization.

Using oleh for a source rather than an agent.

Hiding a necessary actor in an accountability statement.

Assuming more nouns make a sentence more formal.

Key Takeaways

Nominalization lets formal Malay package processes as stable objects of discussion. It also turns core participants into optional modifiers, so it can redistribute or suppress agency. Use nominal chains when their heads label real stages or analytical concepts; rewrite them as finite clauses when actors, sequence, modality, or responsibility must be unmistakable.