Substantivization

the process of forming a noun from another part of speech. A noun may also be derived from a word combination without changing the word combination’s phonemic composition; examples in Russian are porinoi (“tailor”), a substantivized adjective, and zaveduiushchii (“manager”), a substantivized present active participle. In Russian, substantivization is most common with adjectives and participles.

Substantivization may be occasional, that is, occurring only in a specific context; an example is kuplennoe [a past passive participle] lezhit v sosednei komnate (“that which has been bought is in the next room”). Examples of substantivization as a result of word formation are stolovaia (“dining room”), slepoi (“blind man”), and chasovoi (“sentry”), all three words being identical in form to the adjectives they are derived from. Proper names as well are formed by substantivization, for example, Shuiskii and Mikhailovskoe. In some languages, words may be substantivized from other parts of speech; for example, in German and Spanish, infinitives can be substantivized.