Year: 1978
Type: article
Abstract: MORPHOSYNTACTICSTUDIES OF English names have concentrated on external grammatical relationships.In his excellent monograph On Defining the Proper Name, John Algeo has cited the three morphosyntactic characteristics distinguishing proper names from common nouns: 1 (1) proper names are not used in the plural;(2) proper names are used without articles;(3) proper names do accept restrictive relative clauses.However, these are external characteristics applying to the name as a unit.Studies of the internal grammar in proper names of more than one constituent are less developed.Vivian Zinkin has examined multi-constituent place-names with respect to generic and specific constituents.2 In Zinkin's sample the generic noun is actually present in most of the names, e.g., Long Swamp.There are only a few examples where the true generic has been suppressed.They involve adjective-noun constructions, which do not require connective morphology in English.The three examples in Zinkin's sample reflect the adjective-noun order most common in English syntax.Ethiopian place-names offer an interesting opportunity to examine internal grammar.For this study I have chosen a set of two-constituent place-names.The more than 50 forms included are primarily Amharic, the official national language, although their location is not confined to Amharic-speaking areas.Many of these names were assigned within the last two centuries.Sometimes an old place-name from an indigenous language exists side-by-side with the Amharic form, e.g., Debre Zeyt, which is also known by its older Cushitic name Bishoftu, especially 1 John Algeo, On Defining the Proper Name (Gainesville:
Source: Names
Author: Greta D. Little
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2017290938