2025-07-06 Prose stagnates when abstract noun‑clusters (“modernization,” “implementation”) smother action. Verbs rekindle movement; yet over‑animating prose can turn acrobatic. Seek sentences that pulse, not preen. | A | **Anomaly (problem)** – English is turning “noun‑heavy”: nominalisations, noun‑strings and preposition‑chains smother verbs, making prose static. | | D | **Develops (diagnosis/remedy)** – Re‑balance the sentence’s two poles. Push energy back in with live, finite verbs; reserve big abstract nouns only where they genuinely clarify. | | G | **Grows (evidence/examples)** – See ledger below: Newtonian science, Kate Moss’s motto, Bishop’s black‑list, Woolf’s journal line, McPhee’s Hebridean place‑names, Bourland’s E‑Prime, etc. | | C | **Contribution (take‑away)** – _Maxim # 4_ in action: “The bones of a sentence are a noun and a verb.” Master the sliding scale from “nouniest noun” (nominalisation) to “verbiest verb” (finite, transitive) and you control motion. | ### Example Ledger — Ch. 3 | # | Example (quoted or paraphrased) | Purpose | | --- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | | 1 | _Friction, repulsion, acceleration_ – physics nominalisations | Show how verbs fossilise inside nouns | | 2 | _Transport → transportation, time → temporality_ | “Noun‑gravy” demo | | 3 | Noun‑strings: _supply‑chain resource issues; website content‑delivery platform_ | Clotted corporate prose | | 4 | Elizabeth Bishop’s “avoid these words” list (creativity, sensitivity, etc.) | Authoritative ban | | 5 | Christopher Lasch on _lifestyle_ | Social‑science bloat | | 6 | Newton’s apple → “descent was a result of gravitation” | How nominalisation hides action | | 7 | Kate Moss: “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” | Abstract nouns used artfully | | 8 | Virginia Woolf: “Thinking is my fighting.” | All‑verb sentence with punch | | 9 | David Bourland’s **E‑Prime** (purge _to be_) | Extreme verb‑bias thought experiment | | 10 | Robert Macfarlane’s call to “rewild” lost nature nouns (bluebell, cowslip, …) | Concrete‑noun advocacy | **Where the three maxims sit inside Ch. 3** |Maxim|Explicit locus| |---|---| |**#4 noun + verb bones**|Central thesis of the chapter (see Woolf & Moss examples)| |**#9 love the full stop**|Shown indirectly via warnings against long noun‑phrases that delay the main verb and therefore the full stop| |**#13 vary length & music**|Section on cumulative sentences and free modifiers (Christensen) encourages rhythmic expansion/contraction|