| 释义 |
nominal, a. and n.|ˈnɒmɪnəl|
Also 5 -alle, 6–7 -all.
[ad. L. nōmināl-is, f. nōmin-, nōmen name. So F. nominal (1521).]
A. adj.
1. Gram. Of the nature of, pertaining to, a noun or nouns. (See also quots.)
c1430Art Nombryng 8 The nombre to be multipliede resceyvethe a nominalle appellacioun, as twies .5.;—5. is the nombre multipliede, and twies is the nombre to be multipliede. 1843Proc. Philol. Soc. I. 27 Their scheme of terminations..is more or less applicable to every case of nominal inflexion. 1874Sayce Compar. Philol. ii. 80 Accadian seems to have nominal as well as verbal roots. 1924O. Jespersen Philos. of Gram. ix. 120 Here we first encounter the so-called nominal sentences, containing a subject and a predicative, which may be either a substantive or an adjective. 1928H. Poutsma Gram. Late Mod. English (ed. 2) i. i. 2 Predicates are of two kinds, viz.: (a) verbal predicates..; (b) nominal predicates, i.e. such as are made up of a copula or link-verb and a nominal. 1929Ibid. x. 557 And is used to..bring about a junction of a sentence with an undeveloped nominal- or infinitive-clause. 1939L. H. Gray Foundations of Lang. 230 There is only one case in which the sentence does not require a verb, i.e., the nominal sentence of the type of the Latin omnia praeclara rara ‘all splendid things (are) rare’... Contrary to popular opinion, the nominal sentence does not omit the copula, and none is to be supplied. 1949Archivum Linguisticum I. 183 The hybrid nature—nominal-verbal—of the participle. 1954Pei & Gaynor Dict. Ling. 147 Nominal sentence, a sentence in which the principal part..is a noun or nominal form. 1973Archivum Linguisticum IV. 3 Some verbal forms occur as nominal modifiers, others not.
2. Belonging or pertaining to the nominalists; holding views akin to these. rare.
1528Tyndall Obed. Christian Man Wks. 104/1 One is reall, an other nominall. What wonderfull dreams haue they of their predicamentes, uniuersales, &c. 1663Butler Hud. i. i. 155 Profound in all the Nominal And Real ways beyond them all. 1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. ii. ii. 257 Others, one may say, are only nominal Moralists, by making Virtue nothing in itself, a Creature of Will only.
3. a. Of the nature of, consisting in, pertaining or relating to, a name or names (in distinction to things).
1620T. Granger Div. Logike 158 Primortiues are either nominall and simple, or reall and compound. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iii. vi. §2, I call it by a peculiar name, the nominal essence, to distinguish it from that real constitution of substances, upon which depends this nominal essence. 1727–38Chambers Cycl. s.v. Character, Nominal characters are those we properly call letters, which serve to express the names of things. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 232 The time, however, is anticipated..that all nominal distinctions shall be lost in the general and honourable name of Americans. 1887Max Müller Sci. Thought x. 595 By nominal attributes I mean those by which a name stands or falls. 1898J. Hutchinson Arch. Surg. IX. 305, I will not venture on any diagnosis of the disease, whether nominal or essential.
b. nominal definition: (see quot. 1864).
1697tr. Burgersdicius' Logic ii. i. 2 Nominal definition appears to be threefold. 1725Watts Logic 160 Those propositions whose predicate is a nominal or real definition of the subject. 1864Bowen Logic iv. 86 A Nominal Definition is a distinct explication of all the Marks which are connoted in the name of the Concept by general consent, as evinced in the use of language.
4. a. Existing in name only, in distinction to real or actual; merely named, stated, or expressed, without reference to reality or fact.
1624Ld.-Kpr. Williams in Fortescue Papers (Camden) 203 Whereby he may be a nominall Judge of the Common Pleas, with his place in Wales, he disclayminge from all fees and profitts of the place in the Common Pleas. 1701Lond. Gaz. No. 3758/3 We shall at all times be most ready..to assert Your undoubted Right to these..Realms.., against the Nominal Prince of Wales. 1747Chesterfield Lett. cxix. I. (1792) 323 Thus seduced by fashion, and blindly adopting nominal pleasures, I lost real one's. 1776Adam Smith W.N. i. v. (1869) I. 34 Labour, like commodities, may be said to have a real and nominal price. 1799Monthly Rev. XXX. 128 Their Pacha..is an officer tolerated and nominal, but neither obeyed nor respected. 1833H. Martineau Manch. Strike v. 57, I said the nominal amount of your wages mattered little. I said nothing about the real amount. 188319th Cent. May 890 The nominal effect of this treaty was to place Annam at the complete dependence of France.
b. With limiting words, as mere(ly, only, but, or with implication of these, denoting entire contrast to something real or substantial.
1799Sporting Mag. XIV. 175 An action for mere nominal damages. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. vii. 592 To this, with only a nominal modification, the Council agreed. 1849–50Alison Hist. Europe I. Introd. §23. 18 The Franks acknowledged but a nominal allegiance to their chief. 1863D. G. Mitchell Sev. Stor., My Farm of Edgewood 300, I bought a cord or two at a nominal rate. 1885Law Times Rep. LIII. 484/2 Where an insolvent sues as a mere nominal plaintiff, as a mere shadow of another person, security is required.
5. a. Containing explicit mention of a name.
1788in E. D. Dunbar Soc. Life (1865) I. 392 Nominal prayers for the King are to be authoritatively introduced.
b. Consisting of, containing, a set of names.
1802James Milit. Dict., Nominal Call, which corresponds with the French appel nominatif; and, in a military sense, with our roll call. 1844Regul. & Ordin. Army 178 A Nominal Return of such Men as from time to time join the Depôt. 1884Manch. Exam. 30 Sept. 4/6 The Secretary..has forwarded to us a nominal list..of the officers and crew of the gunboat Wasp.
c. Giving the names of persons dealt with.
1849Fruse Comm. Class-bk. 105 The nominal accounts will show, without constant reference to the Store or Warehouse books, the value of goods sold.
d. Assigned to a person by name.
1869Bradshaw's Railway Manual XXI. 369 The nominal capital now consists of 92,000 original shares of 5l each; 38,000 preference shares of 4l each: and 32,000 obligations of 4l each. 1882Times 8 Feb. 11/1 These shares are still nominal, and the original subscribers, as well as subsequent holders are liable on them. 1964Lebende Sprachen IX. 98/2 The amount of capital stated in the memorandum of association which a joint-stock company may issue is called nominal or authorized capital.
e. nominal note = nominal n. 3.
1884Encycl. Brit. XVII. 103/2 Sounds of a higher pitch than the nominal note, in fact the harmonics, of which the nominal note is the fundamental.
6. (See quot. 19702.)
1966Aviation Week & Space Technology 5 Dec. 30/1 The mission is to launch the 800-lb. Prime vehicle to effect a nominal re-entry at 400,000 ft. following injection at 26,000 fps. 1970N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon vi. 124 An example of misuse is our use of the word ‘nominal’, which most of the English-speaking world interprets as meaning small, minimal—and we usually use it in the sense of being average or normal. 1970R. Turnill Lang. Space 94 Nominal, a favourite word, meaning within prescribed limits; anything from ‘perfect’ to acceptable. 1972Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 26 July 3/1 As one engineer said, ‘She is phenomenally nominal’—nominal being space jargon for operating-as-planned.
B. n.
1. A nominalist. Now rare or Obs.
1519W. Horman Vulgaria 93 The wey of the nomynallys and reals is dyuers. 1565Jewel Repl. Harding (1611) 294 He should haue remembred..That Scotus is against Thomas:..and the Nominals against the Reals. 1604[see real C. 1]. 1640H. Glapthorne Wit in Constable ii. Wks. 1874 I. 187 The Nominalls, the Thomists, all the sects Of old and moderne Schoole-men. 1680Baxter Answ. Stillingfl. Pref. A 3 b, A Nominal, who contracteth all his Syllogisms into simple terms of art. 1725Watts Logic ii. iii. §4 (1892) 235 In the colleges of learning, some are for the nominals, and some for the realists. 1772O'Halloran Introd. Hist. & Antiq. Irel. i. iv. 38 William Halloran, head of the Nominals at Oxford.
†2. A thing existing in name only. Obs. rare.
a1625Boys Wks. (1629) 261 Deuills are not Nominals onely but Reals. a1626[see real C. 2]. 1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. 134 Euery Religion hath its bare Nominals.
3. Mus. A note giving its name to a scale.
1811Busby Dict. Mus. (ed. 3), C, the nominal of one of the two natural modes. 1895Pall Mall Mag. VII. 191 The tones of nominals, fundamentals, and hum-notes, seem to move, as it were in three separate spheres.
†4. (See quot.) Obs. rare—1.
a1813A. Murray Hist. Europ. Lang. (1823) II. 281 Nominals are verbs formed from nouns which undergo the addition of the consignatives peculiar to the future participles.
5. Gram. (See quot. 1972.)
1928H. Poutsma Gram. Late Mod. Eng. (ed. 2) i. i. 2 A nominal (a noun or adjective) or a nominal equivalent (i.e. a word or word-group doing duty as a nominal). 1935H. Straumann Newspaper Headlines 49 Words of these formal characteristics will be called nominals. 1961Amer. Speech XXXVI. 159 It is customary to describe the English nominal as consisting of a sequence of constituents: predeterminers, determiners, adjectives, the noun head, and finally certain postnominal modifiers, such as relative clauses. 1968J. Lyons Introd. Theoretical Linguistics 347 Let us..draw a distinction between what we will call first-order and second-order nominals in English, and say that only second-order nominals may occur in sentences whose underlying structure is Nominal + Time. 1972Hartmann & Stork Dict. Lang. & Ling. 151/2 Nominal, a name given..to a word which functions as a..noun, but does not have all the formal characteristics of a noun (i.e. in English the distinction between singular and plural and between common and possessive cases). 1974Nature 25 Oct. 705/1 One could defend the thesis that sentences are remembered by forming an associative structure linking representations of their nouns and verbs by arguing that the associative machinery deals with nominals derived from verbs in a very similar way to verbs themselves. |