Nominalization in the lexical-grammatical and discursive representation in Chilean history and social sciences textbooks

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the lexical-grammatical and semantic-discursive operation of nominalizations in two history and social science textbooks that have won a contest led by the Ministry of Education in Chile and been distributed to the municipal and private-subsidized system. In particular, we examine the impact of this variety of ideational grammatical metaphor in the units that present the coup d’état (1973) and the subsequent violation of human rights that took place during the military civil dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). Specifically, we describe the operation and the lexical-grammatical productivity of nominalized constructions and identify the effects of meaning expressed through nominalization to represent the actors, processes, and events selected in the interpretation of the historical period identified.