Word Formation Processes within the English Naming System

INTRODUCTION

It is not known when humans began using names though the practice is certainly very old , probably extending far into prehistory. Although all cultures use names , naming customs vary greatly from people to people. In some cases they are very simple , such as those of many Indonesians who use just a single name . On the other hand , Chinese naming practices are very complex. Chinese males are given different names at various points in their lives , in addition to a surname and sometimes a generation name .

Far from disagreeing with Shakespeare’s words :

“What’s in a name ? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet”

( William Shakespeare , Romeo and Juliet , ),

an attempt to point out the roots and meanings of names such as the present work aims at showing the correspondences between social, historical or cultural , in a word objective circumstances and the individual as part of them. Seen from this point of view names are a way in which the individual relates to the world around . Apart from being indispensable as a means of identifying people , names express ideas , attitudes , mentalities which often belong to an entire community , nation or even to the universal patrimony. History has probably had the greatest impact upon naming , either global or national. The fame of some historical figures can extend far beyond the borders of a country and reach the hearts and minds of millions of people all over the globe. When we speak of history we do not refer only to its prominent figures ,but also to events such as invasions which have considerably shaped naming systems , this being the case of the English one.

The present work studies more than 150 traditional names and about 140 modern names, its basic purpose being to reveal where they come from , how they have evolved semantically and which are the cotemporary trends in naming. It is structured into three chapters :

Chapter one looks into the historical circumstances in which the English language was born ,the invasions and their influence . The historical background is interesting to see because almost all waves of invaders have imprinted their special features upon the English names , and by features we do not mean only linguistic characteristics but also attitudes and mentalities .

Chapter two deals with a brief history of personal names and offers an insight into various patterns of naming and also into the development of family names. The first subchapter points out the importance of etymological studies within the area of linguistic studies ; the second deals with the science of personal names ; the third traces the general evolution of first names; the fourth presents various patterns of naming belonging to languages other than the European ones and the fifth presents patterns of naming originating in the Indo-European system with a brief presentation of the evolution of last names .

Chapter three is a survey of the most important languages that have influenced and enriched the English naming system : the Germanic languages , Latin , Greek, French, and the languages that have developed on the British Isle . The study is based on etymological and lexicological criteria .I have selected the most important languages that have served as borrowing sources for English names and applied some semantic criteria to the names chosen as most representative. I have also presented several sources based on formal changes within names .

Chapter four deals with sources of modern names . These have been analyzed only according to structural criteria since it seems that the modern trend is ignoring the meaning and juggling with forms . In this respect I have taken into account the most important word-processes that I have observed as working inside the English modern names : contraction from among the minor ones ; affixation and composition from among the major ones ; also I have dealt with the very prolific process of changing the spelling of a traditional name in order to obtain new ones.

Chapter 1

An Approach to the Origins of the English Language

1.1 Socio – Historical Background to the Birth of English

Language is a socio-historical phenomenon. It has evolved at the same time with the human society and has been affected by all of its transformations , either synchronic or diachronic . We will begin our study on English names with a brief presentation of the processes that have led to the rise of the English language as we know it today and the first aspect to be taken under consideration is the waves of invaders which have left the European continent to be a part of the English history.

The Celts

The first people to leave linguistic traces in the English language were the Celts who began to arrive about 700 B.C. .They came from central Europe and even farther, from southern Russia and " continued to arrive in one wave after another over the next 700 years" ( McDowall, 1989, p.7) . They are the ancestors of the inhabitants of Highland Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Cornwall .