Onomastics in Poland
From 19th-century beginnings to the present
The paper deals with onomastics as a branch of linguistics, its subject matter, scope of research, methodology, and relations to other branches of linguistics, such as language history, dialectology, as well as other fields, for example, history. The second part of the paper presents particular periods of onomastic research in chronological order. A systematic development of the discipline is shown through bibliographic examples and mention of the most important scientific organizations and institutions. The essence of the qualitative development of Polish onomastics consists in undertaking ever new problems which attest to the broadening of the scope of research to include new classes of speech signs recognized as nomina propria. Also essential is undertaking theoretical issues – the place and function of proper names in the system of language. A list of research desiderata concludes the discussion.