Socio-onomastics

Terhi Ainiala
Table of contents

Names are part of language. However, as elements of language, they are very special in nature and defining them scientifically is not easy. It often takes only our linguistic insight to recognise whether an expression is a name, i.e. a proper noun (Helsinki, Queen Street) or an appellative (city, street). When drawing the line between proper nouns and appellatives, the function of the expression has usually been considered the most central criterion. Proper nouns are monoreferential, which means that they only have one referent in the outside world. While appellatives classify as expressions, proper nouns are used unambiguously for identification. (See, e.g., Algeo 1973: 51; Debus 1977: 12.)

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