Form and Function of Proper Names (original) (raw)

Proper names (PN) are presumably a universal class of expressions which comprise prototypically anthroponyms and toponyms. There is a long standing tradition of scientific research of PN particularly in philosophy and onomastics. Philosophers were mostly interested in PN as referential expressions and in the nature of this kind of reference vis-à-vis definite descriptions. On the other hand, onomastics as a sub-discipline of linguistics was mostly interested in the etymology of PN and the implications for historical linguistics and the historical reconstruction of languages. General linguistics and in particular linguistic typology has almost completely neglected the study of PN (some exceptions are recent publications such as VAN LANGENDONCK 2007 und ANDERSON 2007). There is no systematic comparative study of the internal and external morphosyntax of PN or proper name phrases (PNP). The same lack of research holds for the usage of PN in discourse (exceptions are recent publications by DOWNING 1996; SCHWITALLA 1995; PEPIN & ELWYS (eds.) 2010). Although anthroponyms and toponyms are prototypical classes of PNs, they are so different in functional and formal respects that they are better treated separately. Therefore, the present paper deals with the grammatical properties of anthroponyms leaving aside toponyms for later research. The goal of this paper is to present a typologically informed systematic overview of the essential functional and formal properties of anthroponyms. Anthroponyms are not only terms of address and reference. They often encode certain semantic and social meanings that go beyond the pure referential function. The dimensions of these secondary meanings/ functions will be explicated in this paper. Formally, anthroponyms are not only simple words, but show an enormous internal and external complexity. Especially the external syntax of anthroponyms, i.e. the phrase structure and the usage of anthroponyms as argument of the clause will be dealt with. A proper name phrase will be postulated that is different form a classical NP. Further dimensions of typological variation such as anthroponyms and the problem of parts of speech, and anthroponyms within the Animacy Hierarchy will be discussed. The data for this study are taken from grammatical descriptions of a wide array of languages.