In contemporary onomastics the usage of the full name – given name and surname – lends a certain formality or seriousness to an utterance. It is often assumed that such pragmatics in the employment of names may be easily transferred to the ancient world, but we should none the less confirm our assumptions with textual evidence. This paper will present evidence from the letters between Marcus Aurelius and Marcus Cornelius Fronto which demonstrates not only that the fuller Roman name (...) was used for formal occasions, but also that it could, as in the contemporary world, be employed in an ironic, mock-formal manner to intimate rather the opposite of formality, friendship. (shrink)

Le nom du devin gallois Myrddin a reçu plusieurs étymologies qui satisfont plus ou moins : Myrddin viendrait de *moridunon « Forteresse de la mer », de *mŏrĭi̯īn- « celui de la Mer » ou mirzin / milzin « délicat ». Par ailleurs, le nom roman de Merlin serait celui d’un oiseau, français « merle » ou « Faucon ». Cette étude phonétique, lexicale et mythologique tente de montrer comment Myrddin et Merlin dérivent de la thématisation, bien attestée, du vieux (...) celtique *mero « fou » et que cette appellation a dû signifier « le Maître de la folie », c’est-à-dire « l’Inspiré ». The name of the welsh seer Myrddin has received many etymologies which are more or less satisfactory: Myrddin would come from *moridunon “Fortress of the sea”, from *mŏrĭi̯īn “One of the Sea” or from mirzin / milzin “delicate”. Moreover, Merlin’s roman name would be that of a bird, “Blackbird” or “Falcon”. This phonetical, lexical and mythological analysis try to show how Myrddin and Merlin are connected with the well attested old Celtic stem *mero “mad” and that this designation would have been “The Master of the madness”, which means “The Inspired”. (shrink)

In his paper the author argues that interdisciplinary research and collaboration between different scientific branches are important in ensuring that research captures the wider picture. The author ascertains common points in history, ethnology, dialectology, and folkloristics by looking at various examples of onomastic research conducted in Slovakia. The research findings are part of broad pan-Slavic research and are important in Slovak Slavistics as well.

The formulacognomen + nomen, as portrayed inLatronis enim Porcii, the first double-name reference withoutpraenomenin Seneca the Elder's work, emerged as a result of the radical changes which the Roman onomastic system began to experience at the end of the Republic. On account of a wide variety of factors, both social and linguistic, thecognomenseized the role of diacritic name and individual signifier, having oustedpraenomenfrom its ancient throne; the relatively limited number ofpraenominain common use contributed substantially to their waning. The formulae of (...) two constituents visibly reflected the progressive decline ofpraenomina; during the Early Principate double names still represented the usual formal means of reference, but it mostly consisted ofnomen + cognomenrather thanpraenomen + nomenorpraenomen + cognomen. The formulanomen + cognomen, which developed once personalcognominabegan to spread among the lesser classes, was primarily crafted for addressing men of ambiguous status,peregriniand freedmen. Thus, Cicero tends to avoid its use in naming members of the nobility, whom he refers to with a clear preference for the older, lustrous conjunctionpraenomen + cognomen. (shrink)

Stating that Olympias and Eurydice fought the first war ever between women, Duris of Samos explained the behaviour of Eurydice by reporting that she learned the art of war from Cynnane ‘the Illyrian’.

In a forthcoming article, Willy Clarysse presents an overview of the name Socrates in Egypt. He argues for an evolution from a ‘normal Greek name’, with no specific reference to the Athenian philosopher (Ptolemaic period), to a Greek name with Egyptian connotations (Roman period).

Stefano Predelli defends a semantics of proper names which has simplicity and common sense in its favour: proper names are non-indexical devices of rigid and direct reference. He grounds this view in accounts of the shape and form of names, and of their introduction within language use, and he responds to widespread misconceptions and objections.

This book is the first systematic account of the syntax and semantics of names. Drawing on work in onomastics, philosophy, and linguistics the author examines the distribution and subcategorization of names within a framework of syntactic categories and considers how the morphosyntactic behaviour of names connects to their semantic roles in a range of languages.

Name and Naming: Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives aims to analyse names and the act of naming from an intercultural perspective, both synchronically and diachronically. The volume is divided into four main parts (Theory of Names, Anthroponomastics, Toponomastics, Names in Society), which are, in turn, organised into thematic chapters and subchapters. The book sets to offer a bird's-eye view of names and naming; this synthesis is made possible, on the one hand, by the blending of synchronic and diachronic viewpoints in the (...) investigation of language facts and, on the other, by the fruitful conjunction of modern and classic theories. The originality and the novelty of the subject lies in the multi-disciplinary approach, in which the field of onomastics merges with that of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, pragmatics, history, literature, stylistics, religion, etc. The thematic diversity also derives from the meeting, within the pages of this book, of specialists (35 linguists and literati) from 11 countries on three continents. (shrink)

Comparative modeling is necessary for semiotic inquiry. To better theorize such pursuits, a reflexive turn is in order: comparative modeling needs comparative modeling. In search of experientially grounded analogies better suited for understanding, validating, scrutinizing, and accounting for the situation of the semiotic inquirer, this paper applies insights from Peircean process semiotics and Göran Sonesson’s extended theory of cultural semiotics toward two ends: one theoretical, the other applied. First, I undertake a critical review of recent scholarly and creative works that (...) attempt to adapt concepts of “parallax” as a source domain for comparative modeling activities. I do this in order to continue laying groundwork for a more complex, systematic theory of reflexive semiotic modeling in human inquiry, building on my earlier work. Second, I explore a specific case study of comparative intercultural modeling: namely, nationalist ethnic classification strategies in China and Vietnam. While many researchers have considered the onomastic and geopolitical dimensions of state-sanctioned ethnic categorization programs in these two countries, little has been done to unpack the powerful visual and narratological strategies employed by both; and little has been done to compare the intercultural categories these strategies serve to legitimize. The Vietnamese classification program is clearly modeled on its Chinese counterpart historically, but important categorical mismatches emerge between the two that indicate the presence of hidden diversity. Comparing the two systems also leads to a number of discoveries with implications for further developing the theory of cultural semiotics. Ultimately, the function or purpose of parallax modeling is shown to both comprehend and point beyond nascent intercultural and intracultural models toward more complex blends, by holding all such relations in a comparative frame, not as irreconcilable positions but as a more developed composite sign indicating the presence of yet more deeply buried dynamic objects to be searched out through further collateral experience. (shrink)

This book explores international trends in naming and contributes to the growing field of critical onomastic enquiry. The contributors to this publication examine why names are not only symbols of a person or place, but also manifestations of cultural, linguistic and social heritage in their own right.

The Cratylus’ main concern is to outline and evaluate the competing views of language held by two characters, Hermogenes and Cratylus, who disagree about whether convention or nature (respectively) are the source of onomastic correctness. Hermogenes has been thought to hold two radically different views by different scholars, one extreme conventionalism whereby all names are correct relative to their speakers, and another modest conventionalism according to which distinct naming actions – establishment and employment – explain why some names are correct (...) and others are not, depending on the speaker. In this paper I argue that, though Hermogenes ultimately endorses a conventionalism of the latter kind, it is a mistake to assign him this position from the outset. Rather, to understand the structure of the conversation about conventionalism, we must view Hermogenes’ position, and Socrates’ understanding of it, as developing instead of settled. For it is only by discussing the matter that Hermogenes comes to express a moderate conventionalist view and Socrates comes to appreciate the position Hermogenes actually holds. (shrink)

In the past, no research has been found on onomastics from a mystical perspective in literature. This study investigated onomastics in the tetralogy of novels by Ki Padmasusastra. The main point of view is the meaning of Javanese cosmology. Qualitative methods are used as research guidelines. The primary data are four Javanese novels. Hermeneutic techniques and content analysis are applied to analytical strategies. The results showed that the onomastics in TNKP are symbols of Javanese cosmology. This element (...) of Javanese cosmology has transformed onomastics through three things: the novel title, figure's name and location name. The symbolisation of the onomastic is implicit because it is wrapped in the aesthetics of the literary language. The name structure of each onomastic subsection has no clear meaning because the name element is intended for the sense of 'the other'. Names have an explicit function, namely as hypertextual fragments of symbols that transcend the narrative text structure. An important implication of this investigation is that onomastics can promote the transdisciplinary aspects of religion in international theology in the study of narrative texts. The cosmological transformation of Java can be reflected in various parts of culture, including in novels. TNKP is a cross-disciplinary meeting: fiction, linguistics, mystical, social, cultural and philosophical, contributing to further theological studies.CONTRIBUTION: This article contributes to the purpose of HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies to promote the transdisciplinary aspects of religious studies in the international theological arena of hermeneutic and philosophical studies behind the narrative text. (shrink)

In this study, Levin explores Plato's engagement with the Greek literary tradition in his treatment of key linguistic issues. This investigation, conjoined with a new interpretation of the Republic's familiar critique of poets, supports the view that Plato's work represents a valuable precedent for contemporary reflections on ways in which philosophy might benefit from appeals to literature.

This paper sheds light on the significance of gastronomy as an emblem of cultural identity in Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child. It shows how Morrison imbues the narrative with instances of food and drinks which reflect certain racial stereotypes to which Lula Ann is prone during her struggle to reach self-definition. The colour, taste, diversity, quality and manners of food are all rigorously woven to portray Lula’s Journey. Onomastically, some characters and places are purposefully named after food such as (...) Sweetness, Whisky land, Raisin, and Mrs. Queen Olive; all of them represent an outstanding stage in Lula’s identity development. Finally, food takes a further dimension in the way it reflects the spiritual food that Lula receives throughout her journey. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Postmodernism:A Self-InterviewIhab HassanThe following interview did not take place in Ihab Hassan's study in Milwaukee, with a view of Lake Michigan, rippling turquoise, blue, and mauve under a sky of fluffy paratactical clouds.Interviewer: You are sometimes known as the Father...Hassan: Please! At most, the Godfather of Postmodernism, though I don't know who the Godmother is. Maybe Madam Hype?I: Why hype?H: Because postmodernism began as a genuinely contested idea and (...) is fading as a form of media hype.I: Can you define it, however tentatively?H: I would prefer not to. In fact, I cannot, no more than I can define romanticism or modernism in a sentence or paragraph. Such definitions are best left to some onomastic genius. Once, I offered a table of features contrasting modernism with postmodernism. Once is quite enough.I: Why is that?H: Because it was as widely cited as pounced upon, nearly everyone ignoring my pointed disclaimer: "Yet the dichotomies this table represents remain insecure, equivocal. For differences shift, defer, even collapse; concepts in any one vertical column are not all equivalent; and inversions and exceptions, in both modernism and postmodernism, abound."I: Well, if we can't define postmodernism, how can we talk about it? [End Page 223]H: The way we talk about everything else: say, freedom, justice, love, spirit, happiness.... We talk about postmodernism by using the word in various verbal contexts—Wittgenstein would have said "language games"—and seeing what happens.I: What happens?H: Some discussions engage postmodernism and clarify it in certain perspectives, without actually defining it: for instance, the works of Hans Bertens, Charles Jencks, Andreas Huyssen, even Fredric Jameson....I: Why even Jameson?H: Because Marxism has a tenuous relation to contemporary reality, as everyone knows except some Western academics.I: Some would say that the entire phenomenon of postmodernism is an exercise of Western academics.H: That's a bit of a non sequitur but true enough, true up to a point. Remember, the phenomenon has overflowed its theoretical origins to become a kind of ironic cultural awareness, a mode of historical reflexivity—if you wish, a perpetually anxious exercise in self-definition.I: But Western, always Western, right?H: Japan has contributed vigorously to postmodernism, especially in art and architecture. So, instead of saying "Western," let's say high-tech, mass-media, omni-consuming societies.I: That, in effect, excludes four fifths of the world, wouldn't you say?H: Yes—and no. You see, cultural postmodernism has mutated into geopolitical postmodernity. By the latter, I mean both globalization with its thousand faces (multinational capitalism, cyber technology, cultural imperialism, "Americanization"), and counter-globalization with as many masks (local knowledge, old cultural traditions, postcolonial ideologies, anti-Western resentments). It's the monster phenomenon of our time.As I have written a good deal about this phenomenon, most recently in Angelika, I won't repeat myself here. The point, however, is that postmodernity is a planetary process, postmodernism is not.I: That suggests a political dimension, which some say you have slighted in your work. How would you respond to that criticism?H: Writing in the late sixties and early seventies about postmodernism, I lacked the benefits of hindsight. For instance, I focused on high culture, Beckett and Borges and Nabokov and Barthelme and Barth. I did not foresee then that postmodernism would become a media phenomenon, involving pop and kitsch. And I recognized the emergent process of globalization only in the Seventies, in Paracriticisms (1975).But I "slighted" the political only in the sense that I did not give it [End Page 224] priority, did not make it an "absolute horizon." In fact, I believe that a primary emphasis on politics flattens, impoverishes our lives. The current paradigm in the humanities ignores the inner cost of "politics."I: Forgive me, but that's another example of what some colleagues in the profession perceive as your contrary or cross-grained character. Can you explain why politics impoverishes our lives?H: Conformists—remember Harold Rosenberg's quip about "the herd of independent minds"?—are quick to discover perversity everywhere. But never mind that. The gravamen is that politics... (shrink)

: The written renderings of Turkish names, so frequently encountered in the history of the pre-modern ruling dynasties of the Central and Eastern Islamic lands, suffered badly in the past from the deformations of authors and copyists, mainly Arabs and Persians, who did not themselves know Turkish. Moreover, these renderings have often been perpetuated by modern historians of Islam, few of whom have bothered to elucidate these names and to set forth their correct forms and meanings. The present study discusses (...) some of the very diverse principles behind medieval Turkish onomastic and uses these specifically for a consideration of the names of some prominent military commanders of the Great Seljuq sultans, ruling essentially in Persia and Iraq during the 11th and 12th centuries. (shrink)

Extending the author’s previous studies of Chinese onomastics, this paper examines the true meaning of a large group of medieval Chinese personal names containing the character chou, “ugly.” Contrary to conventional interpretation, it is found, based on contemporary inscriptional data, that these names actually marked the birth-year of the name-bearers. Further, they represented a special case of theophoric names newly introduced from Iranian-speaking Central Asia, and reflected the deification and anthropomorphization of the twelve-animal cycle. The paper also provides a (...) succinct description of the general genre of Chinese opprobrious names, which are found to be closely related to similar names in Central Asia. Both findings help illustrate pre-Islamic Iranian-Sogdian cultural influence in China. (shrink)

The discovery of three erotic inscriptions in a quarry in the south of the island has a limited interest from the point of view of Thasian onomastics. On the other hand, the ancient lettering of at least one of the names makes it possible to date the quarry face and thus the end of the exploitation of this part of the quarry to the 5th c. BC. The rediscovery of a nearby site mentioned by Baker-Penoyre and interpreted as a (...) bastion, could thrown light on the meaning of the inscriptions, linked here as at Kalami to a military context. An analysis of the engraving and a reinterpretation of an inscribed block on the acropolis do not rule out another hypothesis: that they were quarrymen's jokes. (shrink)

This book is the first systematic account of the syntax and semantics of names. Drawing on work in onomastics, philosophy, and linguistics John Anderson examines the distribution and subcategorization of names within a framework of syntactic categories, and considers how the morphosyntactic behaviour of names connects to their semantic roles. He argues that names occur in two basic circumstances: one involving vocatives and their use in naming predications, where they are not definite; the other their use as arguments of (...) predicators, where they are definite. This division is discussed in relation to English, French, Greek, and Seri, and a range of other languages. Professor Anderson reveals that the semantic status of names, including prototypicality, is crucial to understanding their morphosyntax and role in derivational relationships. He shows that semantically coherent subsets of names, such as those referring to people and places, are characterized by morphosyntactic properties which may vary from language to language. His original and important investigation will appeal to scholars and advanced students of linguistics and philosophy. (shrink)

In her extant poetry, Sappho uses fourteen female personal names, four of which are not attested elsewhere. The essay is the first attempt to provide a comprehensive analysis of all of them. The results challenge the opinion, still prevailing in scholarship today, that Sappho’s companions were adolescent girls forming an educational or initiatory group, led by the poetess, that prepared them for respectable marriages. As a matter of fact, the female proper names in Sappho belong to four categories: ethnics, abstract (...) nouns, nicknames and mythological names. According to the onomastic conventions of ancient Greece, names of all these categories typically denote females as slaves and courtesans, at least until the Hellenistic period. Thus it is argued that Sappho’s nomenclature creates a ‘reality effect’, implying furthermore that her use of the term hetairai - and likewise of kalai and philai - could also point to the status of courtesans in the technical sense. This best fits the emphasis put on female beauty, seductiveness and musical skills, but also on invective and rivalry. Under the auspices of Aphrodite and from a female perspective, Sappho’s poems feature erotic experiences with lovers of both sexes as well as the reflection of those loves’ vicissitudes. The world imagined and displayed in her songs would therefore be mainly related to the symposion as the dominating realm of archaic poetry. This is how Sappho’s work was actually received in antiquity. (shrink)

The oldest record of the notion of “mercy”, raḥmān, in Aramaic is known from a bilingual text in which the word is the translation of the Akkadian rēmēnû. The latter is used in Mesopotamian onomastics, hymns and prayers, which delivered the oldest formulae of calls for the mercy of gods, especially in a recurrent expression: “the merciful god, that is good to pray,” translated verbatim in the Aramaic text of the statue of Tell Fekheryeh. Almost a thousand years later, (...) the same wording has been inherited unchanged in Palmyrene Aramaic. Nevertheless, the Palmyrene interest on the divine epithet raḥmān and its revival in Palmyrene epigraphy may be explained by the influence of the new Roman concept of clementia. Meanwhile, this contribution proposes to outline a chronology of the Aramaic inscriptions from Syria and Palestine, in which raḥmānāʾ is either the main substitute for the divine name, or a major divine epithet. As the Akkadian phonetic assimilates the consonant to the laryngeal but preserves the velar, the supposed East Semitic root was rḥm, not rḫm. On the contrary, in the Arabian Peninsula, the earliest attested root is rḫm, as evidenced by South Arabic onomastics or toponymy. A late use of rḥm in South Arabic as a verb or noun is the result of a loan from Aramaic and does not appear until the fifth century AD. The first South Arabian inscriptions naming the monotheistic god raḥmānn are preceded by the Palmyrene inscriptions by almost two centuries and are contemporary with the Jewish-Aramaic inscriptions in the Palestinian synagogues, which call the God Raḥmānāʾ. Late, the Aramaic epithet was transferred to the Arabic al-raḥmān, through South Arabian. (shrink)

This article is the first in a series devoted to nicknames of well-known people in Greece of pre-Hellenistic times. In it general considerations are primarily expressed about the role of nicknames in human societies, relations of nicknames to personal names and divine epithets, terminology of nicknames among the Greeks, and the possible reasons for not very broad development of the practice of nicknaming in Greece during this period. A nickname is a fundamental phenomenon of the history of culture, and its (...) real significance has not yet been appreciated. Nicknames in particular served as means of distinguishing individuals within any society. The names of the ancient Greeks had originally resembled nicknames as much as possible. Onomastic units in Greek poleis were mostly meaningful. Nicknames can be assigned—not from a semantic but rather from an emotional point of view—to three basic types. We deal with nicknames of a) a positive, exalted character ; b) a negative, pejorative character ; c) a neutral character—those that show a certain characteristic appearance of an individual, or some kind of memorable detail of his biography. Another interesting thing took place in pre-Hellenistic times. Nicknames were more often connected not with politicians and state figures but with people from cultural spheres—poets, philosophers. (shrink)

The article is devoted to the problem of studying the relationship between language and ethnic culture. It analyzes Bashkir toponyms associated with the cult of fire. The Bashkirs, like many nations, including the Turkic and Mongolian, have thought that fire symbolized home and was the protector of the family. The Bashkirs worshiped fire as cleansing and healing power, while at the same time the fire represented formidable and dangerous force. Fire in the Bashkir mythology is closely related to its opposite (...) element - Water, with the gods of the upper world - the Sun and the Moon and the deity of Earth, geographical names of Bashkortostan testify this. On the material of Bashkir toponymy and related beliefs it was attempted to do a semantic etimological-onomasiological reconstruction of the Bashkir deity of fire Otukan, which dates back to the old Turkic deity Yduk Otuken//Otukan. In Mongolian mythology, it corresponds to the deity Etugen//Otuken, associated with the cult of the mother goddess, earth and fire, and in Japanese mythology - with the god, the owner of the land, - Ootukonu-si-no kami. According to the author, the formation of names connected with ‘fire‘ in the Bashkir toponymy was promoted by the worship of the deity of fire, the tribal fire, the tribal habitat and the family by Tatar-Mongols. Interesting is the fact, that the base ‘ut‘, which is connected with the ancient Turkic beliefs, also builds a theonym, a toponymic term, a geographic name, an ethnonym and anthroponym, i.e. it permeates the entire onomastic and appellative vocabulary. However, at the appellative level, this lexical item has no religious significance. For example, Otukan, TÓ©kÓ©n, Ò®tәgәn, Ò®tәk, otaq in Turkic languages have the meanings of ‘home‘, ‘yurt‘, ‘mountain valley‘, ‘flat place in the mountains on the hillside‘, ‘southern winter quarters‘. This relationship is explained by the fact that, initially, perhaps, yet there was the worship of a female deity Otukan that embodied fire and was associated with the earth, with the habitat and the ancestral hearth, where the original base morpheme was ‘fire‘, then it was associated with the deification of family and tribal territory, and later with the deification of the person of the ruler, this lexic item has spread throughout the onomastic vocabulary and in the appellative lexicon within the meaning of the place of residence. (shrink)

The ancient centre of Pistiros, where archaeological excavations have been taking place since 1988, was founded in the 5th century BC in the Marica valley. The article examines the epigraphical evidence from this site and suggests some changes and clarifications in the reading of the text of the Vetren inscription, published in BCH 118 (1994) by the late professor V. Velkov and the author of this article. An analysis of the epigraphical evidence (4 inscriptions on stone and over 140 graffiti (...) on fragments of pottery) shows that in the 5th-4th centuries BC, representatives of various Greek poleis involved in trade lived there alongside the Thracians. The inhabitants of Pistiros worshipped different gods and heroes (Apollo, Kore [Persephone], Demeter, Zeus, Hera, the Mother of Gods, Heracles, Maron) and above all Dionysus, the supreme god of the Thracians (mentioned in the Vetren inscription). They had strong links with the oracle of Dionysus in the Rhodope mountains and were dependencies of the Thracian kings. Judging from the epigraphic, onomastic and archaeological evidence, the varied population of Pistiros was educated and used Greek in both official documents and everyday life. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:J. H. Hexter 1910–1996Donald R. KelleyJ. H. Hexter, one of the leading intellectual historians of this century and a close associate of this Journal, died on 8 December 1996. Jack Hexter was a great scholar, talented writer and polemicist, devoted baseball fan, and authentic American humorist, who made wit and facetiousness part of his historiographical tool-kit. He was also an American character, as he made insistently clear in his (...) writings, especially his autobiographical account, “By Any Other Name,” which explained (among other things) why he came to be called “Jack,” why he resisted advice to change it, and other onomastic adventures.Jack taught at Queens College (N.Y., not, he pointed out, the one in South Carolina), 1939–57; Washington University (St. Louis, not Seattle or George Washington U.), 1957–64 and again 1978–86; and Yale University (one did not have to add, “New Haven”) 1965–85, where he was Director of the Center for Parliamentary History. At Washington University he was founding Director of the Center for the History of Freedom, which was devoted to a collaborative, multi-volume study of the history of liberty in the West that would realize the dream that Lord Acton called his “madonna of the future”—the difference being that Jack’s vision is already on the way to fulfillment, with the publication of the volume edited by him on Parliament and Liberty from the Reign of Elizabeth to the English Civil War (1992), followed by seven more volumes up to 1996, with more to come.Hexter published books and articles in a variety of fields, finding notoriety especially in his essay of 1958, “Storm over the Gentry,” and later in public jousts with Christopher Hill and others and more retrospective censures of (among others) A. W. Pollard and R. H. Tawney; and he was a master of the Macaulayan art of the review-essay (collected in On Historians, 1979). His article on “Braudel and le monde braudelien” was a mischievous masterpiece of satire which, according to a private communication to Jack, Braudel himself enjoyed in his Olympian way, including the good-natured charge of excessive appetite for facts—“Je vais me dire: ne joue pas trop au Rabelais, sois sage, ne mange pas tout, n’aie les yeux plus gros que le ventre!” (personal letter, 8 February 1973). Several generations of graduate students learned what was involved in doing history from his “The Historian and his Day” (1954), which (like “Storm”), he enjoyed recalling, was rejected by the AHR. He was amused, too, at learning that his article on “The Rhetoric of History” (written for the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences) was a harbinger of the rhetorical turn taken a few years later signalled by the historiographical work of Hayden White and others. He was a pioneer, too, in the intensive study of political languages (Visions of Politics on the Eve of the Reformation, 1973), though he lamented the fact that his work on Machiavelli’s and Seyssel’s political vocabulary had to be carried out before the age of computer technology.My first contact with Jack came through my mentor Garrett Mattingly, who was the contemporary historian Jack “most admired” (as he made plain in his contribution to Mattingly’s festschrift). In 1962 Mattingly told me that the plan to publish Hexter’s translation of Seyssel’s Monarchy of France for the Columbia Records Series had to be abandoned because of the first (I think) of Jack’s several heart attacks. I was able to use the mimeographed version for some years before Jack asked me to take over this project, originally visited on him by C. H. McIlwain. It was his suggestion that [End Page 349] we dedicate the collaborative volume, with nice ambiguity, to both McIlwain and Mattingly (who had also been a student of McIlwain) from “two of their deeply devoted students.”In this brief and perhaps overpersonal note (though nothing could be “too personal” for Jack) I will not add further to the store of Hexterian anecdotes, which I began collecting at Queens College, where Jack had already left the makings of a legend in the 1950s. I would just add... (shrink)

This study reports the geographical distribution of personal names in the Land of Israel and Transjordan during the Iron II Period. In contrast with previous onomastic studies, the emphasis here is geographic and therefore only names from archaeological excavations are used. 799 names from 66 sites are collected and grouped as theophoric names, hypocoristic theophoric names, or other. The theophoric names are further sorted into seven subgroups comprising the five theophoric elements yhw, yh, yw, bʿl, ʾl, divine appellatives, and god (...) names other than Yahweh. Finally, the data are presented in a series of maps showing the geographic distribution of name types and its evolution over time. This work shows how names can be used to track historical ethnic trends. yhw and yh are unique Judean elements. Furthermore, names from major Judean sites show a characteristic mixture of theophoric elements that is substantially unchanged across all the Judean sites studied but different from that found in Samaria. Additionally, yw is an element unique to Israel and the bʿl element is also found there. ʾl is a dominant but not unique Ammonite element. Qws is a unique Edomite element. The use of god names other than Yahweh in ancient Israel was very limited. (shrink)

Apart from the names of Jan Baudouin de Courtenay (1845-1929), Mikołaj Kruszewski (1851-1887), and, later, Jerzy Kuryłowicz (1895-1978), Polish linguists and Polish linguistics generally have been little known in the West. The first two were mentioned with approval by Saussure in an unpublished paper, and this reference was picked up by Roman Jakobson and others many years later. Kuryłowicz, for his part, made himself well known in the West through his important work as Indo-Europeanist, even Semiticist, and as a general (...) linguist. The present volume is a first attempt to broaden the perspectives on the Polish contribution to linguistics both inside and outside of Poland during the past centuries. Specialists in their respective fields contributed chapters on the origins and development of general linguistics (Z. Wąsik), applied linguistics (F. Grucza), lexicology (T. Piotrowski), dialectology (St. Gogolewski), and onomastics (S. Gala), followed by five chapters presenting the theories of the arguably most remarkable Polish linguistic thinkers, from Baudouin de Courtenay (A. Adamska-Sałaciak), Kruszewski (F. M. Berezin), and Kuryłowicz (W. Smoczyński) to Mikołaj Rudnicki (1881-1978) and Ludwik Zabrocki (1907-1977) (both written by J. Bańczerowski). Detailed individual bibliographies, a full index of names (with life dates of Polish linguists from the Renaissance to the present day), and a thorough index of subjects and terms make this volume an important reference tool for anyone wishing to acquaint himself with the rich heritage of Polish linguistic thought. (shrink)

According to the priority the modern anthropocentric direction, as well as the fact that the ontological existence of toponymic system merges with its mental existence, the consideration of the Bashkir toponymy from the standpoint of cognitive linguistics in the aspect of representation by toponymic system of toponymic identity and mental structures of a native speaker becomes inevitable. In connection with the goal and objectives of the work. certain methodological framework is settled that determines the classification of generalizing the results, as (...) well as possessing heuristic power, while allowing, on the one hand, to discover new aspects in the framework of the study subjects, on the other, establishing the new semantic links between previously known lexical units. It is proved that the Bashkir toponymic system should be considered as an organized fragment of a language picture of the world. It is stated that the ethno-linguistic study of toponymy Bashkir Ural-Volga region within ethno-ontological, interpretation to date still remains poorly known horizon of onomastics science. The article deals with the disclosure of the mentioned problems that are analyzed: ideographic classification as a framework of the cognitive process, cognitive approach to language etc. (shrink)

1. I have fond memories of the Linguistic Society of America meeting in New Orleans just after Christmas in 1988, the last time I was able to see all my humanist friends from graduate school who were attending the concurrent meeting of the MLA. Shortly after that, the LSA decided to forego the company of humanists and assemble by itself during the first week of January. It's hard to fault the decision. Over and above the obvious practical advantages, like not (...) having to wait in line for forty-five minutes outside popular restaurants, the groups had been growing apart intellectually for some time. Few linguists bothered to cross town for MLA sessions on topics like onomastics, English usage, and the history of lexicography. Nor for that matter were those sessions drawing many MLA attendees, either. Literary people didn't seem to be much interested in language study anymore; what filled their ballrooms now were the sessions on deconstruction and other poststructuralist enthusiasms. It was like going back for your annual drink with your high-school sweetheart and finding that you had less and less to talk about. They didn't know what subjacency was and we didn't know what alterity was, and neither seemed to care. If you were of a mind to look for milestones, you could take that as the time when linguistic semantics definitively cut itself loose from its philological roots. Like a lot of semanticists, I had mixed feelings about the break. It's undeniable that linguistic semantics couldn't have come of age as an autonomous empirical discipline if it hadn't.. (shrink)

Proxeny decrees and military catalogs found during the excavation of an early byzantine basilica at Agia Paraskévi in Chaeronea In this article are presented 5 proxeny decrees et 7 military catalogues of Chaeronea. These inscriptions were found by Georgios Sotiriadis in his excavation at the early byzantine of Agia Paraskévi in the south of Chaeronea. This publication was made possible thanks mostly to the photographs made by the epigraphist Michel Feyel at the end of the thirties. These inscriptions provide important (...) information about the foreign relationships of Chaernea, the prosopography, onomastics and demography of this city. (shrink)

The article presents the concept of ASMR from a general and a linguistic perspective. The definition of the notion and a review on the state of research is followed by a classification of ASMR triggers based on the senses which constitute the source of experiencing the ASMR effect. The author argues that touch and smell be included in the classification of the triggers. The linguistic analysis focuses on the following issues: the phonetic properties of the voice triggers, onomastics – (...) a grammatical and conceptual study of the 17 classes of medionyms which were distinguished in the present research, and the ASMR discourse as the space where phatic and social functions are carried out on the part of ASMRtists as factors developing bonds within the ASMR community and where evaluative and persuasive functions are prominent in the comments of the recipients. (shrink)

The inscription published here, found in 1985 at Haliartus in Boeotia, is a three-sided stele, broken from top to bottom, bearing lists of proper names. It can be dated to about the middle of the 3rd c. BC from the engraving, and particularly from the majority presence of patronymic adjectives. In spite of the lack of a title, due to the break in the stone, it may be said with probability that it concerns one or more lists of conscripts. If (...) a prosopographical study does not permit a sure conclusion, an onomastic analysis is rather more rewarding. Thus it is possible to distinguish three layers of names: the first comprises names current throughout the Greek world, the second names that were properly Boeotian, in particular theophoric ones like Πτωιόδωρος, and the third rare names, like Πέρμιχος and Πέρμων. (shrink)

Les études anthroponymiques visent généralement à faire du nom un outil pour comprendre les usages sociaux et culturels dans un espace donné. Le statut spécifique des femmes dans la société du haut Moyen Âge invite donc à s’appuyer sur leurs noms pour comprendre quelle était leur condition. La rareté de la documentation ne facilite pas cette tâche. Néanmoins, en s’appuyant sur les noms, il est possible d’analyser le rôle des femmes dans la parenté : il s’avère qu’elles ont plus de (...) peine à transmettre leurs noms et qu’elles transmettent également les noms de leurs ancêtres plus difficilement que ne le font les hommes, sauf dans de rares cas d’hypogamie. Il serait toutefois imprudent de postuler l’existence de différences radicales entre noms des hommes et des femmes, et tout aussi dangereux d’attacher aux noms une sémiotique genrée. (shrink)

Space is one of the most fundamental concepts over which scientific knowledge has been constructed. But it is also true that space concepts extrapolate by far the scientific domain, and permeate many other branches of human knowledge. Those are fascinating aspects that could di per se justify the compilation of a long bibliography. Another one is the passion for books. My interest in some physical, historical and philosophical problems concerning the concept of space in Physics, and its properties, can be (...) traced back to the early 1980. Since that time, I have being studying, with several collaborators, the influence of space dimensionality in different physical phenomena, like the Casimir Effect, neutron diffraction, Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation and the stability of Schrödinger’s and Dirac’s hydrogen atom in arbitrary number of dimensions, as well as epistemological aspects of the works of Kant, Ehrenfest an others on this particular subject. Meanwhile, I gave lectures about the History of the Concepts of Space in Physics at the Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas (CBPF), at the Program of History of Sciences, Technics and Epistemology of the Federal University of Rio the Janeiro (UFRJ) and also at the Physics Institute of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). As a consequence of both this interest and my love for books, I continuously bought books on space for my personal library which contains now quite one half of all the books quoted here. In 1996, Roberto Moreira and I published the Sources for the History of Space concepts in Physics: From 1845 to 1995 in the series Notas de Física of the CBPF (NF # 084/96), which is still available online. This was a first initiative to share our bibliography on space. At that time, it contained 1075 references, including 414 books entirely devoted to space, 380 articles in periodical journals and proceedings and 281 miscellaneous citations. After fifteen years, I decided to focus my attention here to collect what in my opinion are the 601 essential books which could be useful for anyone interested on learning about space. An important restriction is imposed here by language: only texts written in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin were considered. References are given in chronological order covering the period between 1739 and 2010. For each year, the books are listed in alphabetical order of authors’ name. An onomastic index is included at the end of the book. -/- Francisco Caruso Rio de Janeiro, October 2011 . (shrink)