What's in a Name? Linguistics, Geography, and Toponyms

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4486433
AutoresLisa Radding (Ethnologist/linguist with Ethnic Technologies, South Hackensack, New Jersey 07606.), John Western (professor of geography at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244.)
Ano2010
Volume100
Fascículo3
Páginas394-412
Data de publicação2010-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoGeographical Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0016-7428 • E-ISSN: 1931-0846
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1931-0846.2010.00043.x
OpenAlexW2050082069
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas33
Referências citadas14

In differing ways, linguistics and geography each observes that a name's significance is connected to a society. According to lexical theory, a word is arbitrary: Its sound and meaning have no intrinsic link; its function is grammatical. Names are, however, special words. We bestow names based on how they sound or on what they may already have come to represent; names are not arbitrary. In turn, toponyms are special names, and as example we discuss a specific one, “New Orleans.” Far from an arbitrary pairing of form and meaning, this toponym reveals that names reflect the experience of the people who use them

Epistemology · Function (biology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Onomastics · Proper noun · Sociology · Sound (geography · Toponymy · Categorization, perception, and language · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Lexicography and Language Studies · Philosophy