Onomastica

This paper addresses an interesting issue in name theory, specifically the relationship between toponyms and spatial representations, as well as the cultural differences manifesting themselves in connection with these. Studies have shown that the name model (a general knowledge of names) created based on the mental representation of names is partly language and culture dependent. Thus, the knowledge of the speaker on how reliably the toponyms correlate with the actual features of the landscape or whether they should only be considered as labels identifying an area is culturally determined. This, in turn, influences the extent to which name-users may rely on them in structuring space and in creating a cognitive map.

In the second part of the article, the history of standardization programmes concerning the names of physiographic objects is discussed. The basis of the standardization programme currently followed by the Commission on Names of Localities and Physiographic Objects is described. The paper also presents the criteria of linguistic correctness adopted by the previous standardization commissions as well as by the present one. Issues of linguistic correctness of geographical names with dialectal properties and of names borrowed from minority languages are discussed. Attention is paid to some structural discrepancies in the approaches to the issue of correctness taken by the Commission on Names of Localities and Physiographic Objects and by local authorities.

The aim of the article is an attempt to trace the fate of several appellatives grouped in the lexical field around the hyperonym świnia ʽpig, swine’ (wieprz ʽhog’, knur/kiernoz ʽboar’ and prosię ʽpiglet’) as the motivation of many names in Polish onymy, mainly in anthroponymy and toponymy. My research has been conducted along the lines of historical anthropology. Proper names in this approach play an important role in the reconstruction of the past. The field of interest of this article includes mainly names belonging to the old onymic layer. Proper names arise from the lexicon of a given language, which is why my analysis is based on lexical and semantic methodology. My point of departure is the meaning (often reconstructed) of appellative lexical units, including their semantic modifications in the proprial layer. I interpret proper names on the basis of findings regarding their origin and motivation. The first names motivated by the lexeme świnia were associated with the economic organization of the Piast state. In the article I present the history of their creation. I go on to discuss the other lexemes which became the basis of many names belonging to different naming categories. The presence of etymons of interest to us in so many proper names during the Middle Ages allows us to draw the conclusion that pigs played an extremely important role in the lives of our ancestors.

The main purpose of this article is an attempt at the description of the role of roadside shrines and crosses in geographical names. The study encompasses more than 1,000 microtoponyms collected in the years 2011–2017 in the area around the village of Wręczyca Wielka near Kłobuck (Silesian voivodeship). The analysis also offers a justification for the onyms, as well as stories and legends elicited during informal conversations with the middle and the oldest generation of inhabitants of the explored area. The author uses the research tools of cultural onomastics. The objects of sacral architecture which appear in geographical names frequently have a number of functions. Mostly, roadside shrines and crosses help to locate or mark fields, meadows, forests and paths. Furthermore, the data that shed light on the motivation of microtoponyms document the relationship between the abovementioned examples of sacral architecture with the surrounding physiographic objects, highlighting the role of these forms in folk culture. Both roadside crosses and shrines commemorate past events and preserve the elements of rural customs. The few specimens of sacral architecture functioning as the motivation for microtoponyms also confirm the fact that, for the oldest generation of village inhabitants, religion is still one of the most important values.

There are many ways of choosing or creating a name, the ways of which vary from culture to culture, and from language to language. Chinese onyms are usually constructed of one or more elements, being mostly lexical items (morphemes or words), and retaining in most cases their own lexical meaning in a name, therefore they are usually semantically transparent. However, the “true” significance of some names is sometimes very difficult to discover, and the conclusion is often based upon guesswork. What is evident, Chinese onyms are not random combinations; they usually have a certain underlying significance, reflecting the reason or reasons why particular lexical items are used in the naming process. Chinese researchers usually do not mention “the meaning” of names as a criterion for their semantic divisions. Their classifications are mainly based upon the variously termed “reasons”, “methods”, “motivations”, or “sources of naming”. Therefore, this paper deals with some selected, typical and untypical, “methods” of creating Chinese names, especially given names and place names.

The article discusses basic issues related to Polish anthroponomastic terms, their development and frequency, taking into account the variability of terminological units and the co-existence of native and foreign forms (usually Greek or Latin). It presents problems related to defining a term, determining its scope or (in particular cases) status, indicating preferred, permissible or non-recommended variant forms, selection (reduction) of sub-terms, the existence of doublets with a grammatical number, acceptance or rejection of new terms, etc. In the text, among others, the following sources were used: the dictionary “Osnoven sistem i terminologija na slovenskata onomastika” [“Basic system and terminology of Slavic onomastics”] (1983), an article by Mieczysław Karaś “W sprawie polskiej terminologii onomastycznej” [“On Polish onomastic terminology”] (1968), studies by Henryk Górnowicz (1988) and Ewa Jakus-Borkowa (1987), encyclopedia “Polskie nazwy własne” [“Polish proper names”] (1998), the compendium “Słowiańska onomastyka” [“Slavic onomastics”] (2002–2003) and selected articles published in the journal “Onomastica”. The second part of the article presents the history, scope and definitions of the term ethnonym // ethnic name (based on selected compendia, monographs and contributory studies), paying attention to the types of names it covers. In addition, a preliminary structure of an entry in the terminological dictionary has been outlined, including such elements as: the term, its definition, variability // equivalent term, origin // explanation, its English equivalent, examples // usage, context of use, and additional aspects.

In the Middle Ages, several name-formation processes played a role in the creation of the anthroponyms in Hungarian. The main name-formation mechanisms were:

1. Semantic name-formation. Within this mechanism, the anthroponym develops through the use of internal elements of the language in such a way that the anthroponymic meaning is created without any change in morphological structure. In Old Hungarian naming practices, the most frequent types of semantic name-formation were:

a. metaphoric name-giving (e.g. farkas ʽfarkas’ [wolf] > anthroponym Farkas),

b. metonymic name-giving (e.g. when an “instrument” of a profession becomes the name of the person practising the given profession; ökör ʽökör’ [ox] > anthroponym Ökör as the name of a butcher),

c. semantic split: e.g. ethnonyms, names of professions, etc., often become anthroponyms without the use of any morphological tool (kovács ʽkovács’ [smith] > anthroponym Kovács).

2. Morphematic construction. In the Old Hungarian period, several suffixes contributed to the creation of anthroponyms, among which the most common ones were: -d(i) ~ -t(i), -s, -a/-e etc. This morphological solution was the most important tool for adapting foreign names in the Middle Ages: Petrus in Latin > Petr-i, Pet-e, Pet-i, Pet-es in Hungarian.

3. Syntagmatic construction. This process, through the combination of two existing lexemes, creates an anthroponym composed of two constituents, in which both elements provide a certain information about the named person.

In this essay I provide an overview of the typical name-formation processes characterising the formation of anthroponyms in Old Hungarian.

The aim of this paper is to discuss selected formal and pragmatic aspects of the Austro-Hungarian military name policy in the last quarter of the 19th and in the early 20th century. In the introductory section the proprial status of the names of military units (which constitute a part of military chrematonymy) is discussed. An attempt is made to outline the location of these names on the classificatory map of chrematonomastics as well. A brief discussion of the historical and terminological background of the Austro-Hungarian military unit names follows. The most important concepts of the theory of name and naming policy are outlined. The presentation of the analysed onymic material covers unit names included in the officer lists (Schematismen) of the Austro-Hungarian forces as well as names present in the paper seals (Verschlussmarken). On the basis of the material, polymorphism of the discussed names is shown in the sense that obligatory and facultative elements of the names may appear in different ways and within various syntactic name models, depending on the context (including continuous text within which a name is used). Two main syntactic models of the discussed names are proposed. The orthographic and syntactic rules of unit numbering and the ways of embedding geographical names and names of patrons and honorary regiment owners (Inhaber) into unit names are outlined. The meaning and spelling of the expressions imperial-royal (k.k. = kaiserlich-königlich) and imperial and royal (k.u.k. = kaiserlich und königlich) are explained.

The article discusses one of the categories of marketing chrematonyms — the names of cafés, which constitute a colourful element of the naming landscape of Upper Silesia. The analysis has several research aims: 1) discovering the naming techniques and types, 2) the presentation of structural models, 3) identifying the changes of meaning and the (con)textual functionality of linguistic units which serve as a commercial medium of evaluation. The names of cafés are presented from the perspective of cultural linguistics, sociolinguistics and pragmalinguistics, as well as the theory of semantic fields. This combined methodological approach enables the author to draw conclusions about marketing chrematonyms in the sphere of culture and language, whereas the structural-semantic analysis of the onymic description of Upper Silesian cafés reveals tendencies that confirm the fact that naming models are created in a serial way. The material presented indicates that commercial chrematonyms belong to semantically and structurally diversified naming categories. The structures show the repetitiveness of naming, the tendency for language internalization and the use of native material, including local dialects.

This article examines the localness of commercial names in Finland and focusses specifically on the names of grill food kiosks and products. There are two research objectives: firstly, to determine the number of local names that occur in the material, and secondly, to analyse how these names work as indexes of localness. This article explores the claim by sociolinguist Barbara Johnstone that particular linguistic forms can index meanings along a variety of dimensions and some forms may index locality. Furthermore, these types of linguistic forms can be used in discourses that shape people’s senses of place and the social identities associated with place. Of the 15 names of kiosks, almost all names, a total of 13 names, can be interpreted as manifesting local characteristics. Most of the kiosk names include a local place name. Of the product names, more than half (46 out of 84 names) are to be construed as describing something local. Although most of the local names in the group of product names include a local place name, personal names are also rather common. In addition, local dialect or slang is also visible in the product names. Another type of reference to a region appears in two kiosk names and in some of the product names. These names constitute a special case and demonstrate how local history can be incorporated in names creatively.

The names of stations in the Way of the Cross may be used as titles of pictures and sculptures, each corresponding to a particular event in the Passion of Christ, or as titles of meditations. The article focuses on the second meaning, but the trends of the development of both kinds of names are similar. The study is based on material consisting of about 200 texts of the service that have been published from the beginning of the 20th century to the present (2020). The purpose of the article is to describe the changes that have taken place in the 20th century, a period of particularly turbulent changes in religious discourse. The article deals with the function, syntactic structure and features of style, such as the use of archaic or colloquial vocabulary. These properties are considered in connection with social and cultural changes. At the beginning of the analyzed period, it was customary to use relatively long titles, which informed the participant or reader about a particular event using expressive and evaluative lexis. Those titles gradually gave way to short, schematic names. Since the Second Vatican Council, titles of a new type have appeared. Their purpose is to attract the attention of the recipient. They are based on a riddle, a contrast, allusions, etc. Therefore, the recipient derives satisfaction from deciphering the puzzle or finding the source of the quote or allusion. These phenomena are known from research on the language of press or fiction, but they can also be linked to current trends in the so-called new evangelization.

The onymic image of the world in a translation through an intermediary language as exemplified by the anthroponyms in a collection of short stories “Baummoos pflücken” (lit. “The Lichen Collector”) by Zhang Wei.

The article addresses the issue of the linguistic image of the world — reflected in proper names — and of its translation. Chinese onyms and their related forms of address contain information about mutual relations between the speaker and the named object, thus offering a better insight into social relations in small language and cultural communities. The challenge for the translator is not only to translate these onyms, but also to preserve their social function in the text. This has been exemplified in the article by a translation of a collection of short stories from Chinese to Polish through German, where the intermediary language adds another coherence layer. The theory of the linguistic image of the world and proper names per se are a starting point for a critical analysis of this specific translation in view of the translation of onyms and of their potential for conveying the image of the world. Emphasis is placed on the transfer of the social functions of onyms into the target language. The influence of onyms and of their consistent treatment in the translation on the coherence of the studied text has also been taken into account.

The aim of the article is to present the attestations of contemporary Polish surnames of Lithuanian origin which are absent from the dictionary of Lithuanian surnames (“Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas”, LPŽ), excerpted from the anthroponymic index card files that have been stored in the Lithuanian Language Institute in Vilnius and continually enlarged for several decades now. The files contain data excerpted from historical sources of the 16th to 19th centuries and consist of about 200,000 index cards (the actual number of excerpted anthroponyms is lower since some recur in various sources). Due to space limitations, generally only directly attested names have been included in the article, to the exclusion of those whose relationship with the researched name can be inferred rather than considered proven. Each listed attestation of an anthroponym (probably not in all cases an already established hereditary surname) is accompanied by information concerning its location and year (or time bracket), wherever available in the card index file. Given names or other details (e.g. the role of the person mentioned in documents, such as godmother in the data excerpted from baptismal registers) have only been included occasionally, if there was some reason to do so.

The text, inspired by the book in question, is devoted to contemporary investigations of Slovak terrain names, presenting them to the Polish reader. The main questions discussed are perspectives of a study of the archaic lexical stock, chiefly of Slavic origin, conserved in Slovak toponymy, as well as the current organization of the dictionary entry, which is judged to be far from optimal. Some corrections to the entries in A- regarding concrete etymological solutions are suggested as well.

The article presents the achievements of professor Aleksandra Cieślikowa in the field of word-formation of proper names. The most important issues concerning the creation of anthroponyms in the Old Polish era selected from monographs and scientific articles are detailed. These issues include the problems of motivation in onomastic word-formation, the onimization process and the way of describing non-derivatized words by word formation and the participation of paradigmatic derivation in the emergence of Old Polish personal names. The views of Aleksandra Cieślikowa regarding Old Polish anthroponymy contributed to the development of onomastic word-formation, an integral part of the grammar of proper names and gave methodological foundations for the description of Old Polish personal names from a synchronic perspective.

The text is dedicated to the outstanding Polish researcher of proper names — prof. Aleksandra Cieślikowa, author and co-author of many significant monographs and onomasticons, which went beyond the limits of previous onomastic studies. The most important, selected her scientific achievements and expert activities at the Polish Language Council and the Commission on Names of Localities and Physiographic Objects were presented.