Onomastics in Contemporary Public Space

Abstract

Topan reviews Onomastics in Contemporary Public Space edited by Oliviu Felecan and Alina Bughesiu.

Oliviu FELECAN, Alina BUGHESIU (eds.), Onomastics in Contemporary Public Space, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013, 621 p.

It is in the nature of every human being to assign words that serve to identify the people, places and objects found around them. Curiosity, more than anything, makes one analyse and go the extra mile to discover the meanings and reasons behind names, actions, objects, places, etc. The naming process, in its complexity, connects the most diverse of fields - linguistics, psychology, sociology, history, politics, literature, anthropology, economy and others. Therefore, in order to understand names and name-giving, one must often turn to these other fields, too. Many approaches of this kind to onomastics have led to relevant, valuable studies and books. One such book is Onomatics in Contemporary Public Space, edited by Oliviu Felecan and Alina Bughesiu. Much like Name and Naming (Oliviu Felecan, ed.) - which dealt with the subject from an intercultural viewpoint, both diachronically and synchronically -, this book is a collective work. Although it also uses an intercultural perspective, it does so in the context of contemporary public space, seen as distinct from the private one, and controlled by means of regulations and laws.

The forty-one articles are diverse and they cover much ground, as regards language (the corpus) and geography. The forty-nine contributors for this book are researchers from eighteen countries: Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom and the USA. The book is divided into five parts. The first one, entitled Theory of Names, consists of four studies. Irina Kryukova, in Functions of Advertising Names in Different Types of Russian Texts, deals with names used in the world of advertising, both referring to organisations and the like, and to trademarks.

Ephraim Nissan follows with two articles. In Classes of Proper Names within Misantonyms, he deals with words created by means of false opposition or analogy. In On a Few Categories of Personal Names Considered to Be Apt or Paradoxical , Nissan focuses on anthroponyms used as basis for puns.

Stefan Oltean, in On the Semantics of Proper Names, analyses the descriptional and nondescriptional approaches to proper names.

The second part of Onomastics in Contemporary Public Space-Names of Public Places (Linguistic Landscapes)-shifts towards toponyms and focuses on different geographical areas. Yuan Jiang and Kazuko Tanabe, in A Quantitative Study of Linguistic Landscape in Some Asian Urban Neighbourhoods, deal with the strong connection between language and society in this age of globalisation.

In Onomastics in the Public Space of Barcelona: A Compared Study between the Old City and the Eixample District, Joan Tort-Donada draws our attention to the toponyms encountered in the urban street system.

The third part of the book, entitled Names of Public, Economic, Cultural, Religious and Sports Institutions, is divided in its turn into three sections. Section number one, Names of Business Establishments, consists of six articles.

Location-based company names and their potential for building the identity of a business are analysed by Angelika Bergien in From Solar Valley to Shadow Mountain: Identity Construction in Location-Based Company Names.

Barbara Czopek-Kopciuch directs the reader's attention to polish commercial onomastics in the article Names of Companies in Poland.

Sergey Goryaev and Olga Olshvang deal with Russian company names that contain European (i.e. English, French and German) etiquette words, providing numerous clear examples, in Company Names as Imitations of Personal Names: Models with a Borrowed Etiquette Word.

The implications of assigning a name related to a foreign entity to a commercial place and the functions it performs for the business it designates are discussed by Michel A. Rateau in The Influence of the Idea of Prestige of a Foreign Country as Regards Naming Commercial Entities and Urban Microtoponyms.

Paula Sjöblom focuses on the commercial nomenclature as observed in Turku, Finland, in the article entitled Commercial Names in Finnish Public Space.

Aude Wirth-Jaillard deals with deonyms deriving from trade names in Baxter, Gyproc and Passe-vite: Deonyms from Commercial Names in Belgian French .

The second section of this part includes two articles on the topic of Names of Religious Institutions (Places of Worship) and Cultural Associations.

Oliviu Felecan and Nicolae Felecan, in Names of Romanian Places of Worship, discuss certain aspects pertaining to the act of attributing the name of a patron saint to a religious establishment.

Adelina Emilia Mihali, in Identity/Alterity in Names of Romanian Associations in America and Asia, brings into discussion the matter of cultural and linguistic identity and alterity as it concerns the Romanians living in America and Asia.

The third section of this part, Names in Journals and Magazines, consists of only one article, namely The Articles and Notes in NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics as a Window into Current Research Interests in Onomastics, written by Frank Nuessel, where nineteen issues of this publication (currently the only journal of onomastics included in the prestigious Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge) are reviewed and categorised.

The fourth part, Names of Objects/Entities Resulting from Various Processes in Public Space, has six distinct sections. The first one, Names of Foods, Drinks and Food Brands, consists of ten studies.

In Innovation and Creativity in the Coinage of New Names for South African Wine: A Few Case Studies, Bertie Neethling analyses various aspects of the complex situation of creating a commercial name in the field of oenology in this multilingual country.

Paola Cotticelli Kurras also focuses on brand names, but this time in Italy, in the article Italian Commercial Names: Brand and Product Names on the Globalised Market .

Jérémie Delorme, in Dish Names Constructed on Non-Standard Lexemes and Obscure Proper Nouns: Semantic Opacity as a Selling Point to Satisfy Ingenuous Tourists' Appetite, analyses names of dishes as found in the restaurant menus of a tourist resort in a specific area-Le Grand-Bornand.

Lee Cher Leng, in Names of Chinese Hawker Stalls and Foods in Singapore , draws attention both to the bilingual names of these open-air establishments and of the food they offer.

In Antonomasia, Lexical Usage and Permanence of Brand Names, Marcienne Martin focuses on the creation of brand names and how many such terms have entered everyday language, becoming the hyperonyms of a class of objects.

In the following article, The Pizza and the Pitta: The Thing and Its Names, Antecedents and Relatives, Ushering into Globalisation, Ephraim Nissan and Mario Alinei analyse the name variations of different kinds of pizza that have become global.

Mihaela Munteanu Siserman establishes a typology of onyms of culinary products, using different viewpoints, in the article entitled Names in Romanian Gastronomy.

From Acentino to Villa Gusto: Italian-Sounding Brand Names in the German Food Industry is the study where Marie Antoinette Rieger discusses the influence of Italian cuisine in Germany.

Laurel A. Sutton talks about names of beverages that try to emulate well-established brands in Coca-Cola, Chek Cola, or Rally Cola?: A Comparison of Famous Name Brand Sodas and Their Private Label Imitators.

Tu y yo, Prendi e vai, Saveurs d'ici: How Brand Names Mirror Socioeconomic Conditions in Romance Languages is the title of the article written by Antje Zilg, and it explores brand names viewed in communicative and socioeconomic contexts.

The second section of this part of the book discusses Code Names (of Collaborators in Secret Service Organisations).

Wolfgang Dahmen and Johannes Kramer aim at giving an overview of the different types of names given to Romanian informants during communism, in Cover Names of Securitate Collaborators.

In Aspects of Naming and Sociolinguistic Behaviour in Code Names , Georgeta Rus also discusses the Romanian communist regime and analyses code name-giving, especially as regards intellectuals and informants mentioned in the records found at the Securitate archives.

The third section of this fourth part explores Names in Literature.

In The Carnivalistic Aspect of Character Names in Literature, Anna Fornalczyk draws attention to children's literature and to the fact that the theory of carnivalisation can offer insight when analysing literary proper names and the naming process.

Gheorghe Glodeanu delves into the issue of place names in Esoteric Meanings of Toponymy in Mircea Eliade's Prose.

In Translation of Literary Proper Names, Georgiana Lungu-Badea focuses mainly on the interlingual transfer of names of characters and titles of literary works.

The fourth section, regarding Nicknames/Bynames/Pseudonyms in the World of Politics, High-Life, Art and Sport, contains three articles.

Daniela Cacia, in Nicknames of Football Champions in Italy, talks about the extent of semantic transparency as regards nicknames and the most frequent types encountered.

In Contextual Variation of Surnames and First Names of Political Figures in Romanian Public Space, Margareta Manu Magda makes use of pragmatics and sociolinguistics, while analysing anthroponymic constructions found in the media.

In Polish Artistic Pseudonyms, Kinga Zawodzinska-Bukowiec explores the means of creating such names, their structure and characteristics, but also the motivation behind such pseudonyms.

The fifth section of this fourth part of Onomastics in Contemporary Public Space, entitled Names in Virtual Space, consists of two studies.

In Italian Students' E-Mail Nicknames: When the Private Enters the Public Space, Davide Astori defines, characterises and classifies such onymic expressions.

In User Names as Unconventional Anthroponyms, Daiana Felecan and Alina Bughesiu analyse naming patterns in virtual Romanian.

The sixth section, Zoonyms, has only one article: Cat-Breed Names in Contemporary Romanian, written by Adriana Stoichitoiu Ichim and Melania Roibu. The authors identify and analyse the naming practices and patterns that are involved in this type of names.

The fifth and last part of the book, entitled Miscellanea, contains six studies. In Graphemic Puns and Software Making Them Up: The Case of Hebrew vs Chinese and Japanese, Yaakov HaCohen-Kerner, Daniel Nisim Cohen, Ephraim Nissan and Ghil'ad Zuckermann delve into computational humour.

In Naming Your Car: Personalised Number Plates in Malta, Joseph M. Brincat draws attention to possible readings and meanings of plates, which are used by many people in order to add a personal touch to their cars.

In Onomastic Maltreatment as a Symptom of Discrimination, Ricard Morant and Arantxa Martín bring into focus the act of misusing a name and its possibly discriminatory implications.

In Charon's Semantics. Naming Weather Systems: Between Scientific Tradition and Media Lore, Nicola Reggiani regards the matter of naming atmospheric phenomena and analyses its history, but also the semantics of the names chosen in the context provided by the media and the internet.

In Names as Commercial Values: Names of Celebrities, Andreas Teutsch discusses the names of famous people and the social impact they have, and also the marketing value they might have.

First and foremost, this book is a valuable resource for anyone studying names, as it discusses the most diverse of topics relating to onomastics, which mirror the complexity of contemporary public space. Moreover, it is a useful addition to the library of anyone interested in linguistics in general, onomastics in particular and any of the other fields merged in the analyses.