Syntactic Patterns of English and Polish Fixed Phrases with Proper Names
Abstract
This paper focuses on English and Polish fixed phrases involving personal and place names. First, the definition of a name and the distinction between proper and common nouns or proprial lemmas and proper names are provided, following a short overview of theories that constitute the basis for any discussion related to proper names. Next, subcategories and sources of names, together with their linguistic characteristics are presented, followed by the working definition of phraseological fixed units. Afterwards, the study is undertaken of personal and place names in fixed phraseological units, surveying a broad list of English and Polish fixed entities that are classified according to five syntactic patterns: phrases with (1) NPs, (2) VPs, (3) PPs, (4) clauses, and (5) similes. Additionally, the biblical, literary, classical, cultural and historical origins of these expressions are pointed out. Finally, in the light of the examined data, the predominance of personal over place names is noticeable, while the items with NPs constitute the vast majority of the phraseological units. Investigating corpus and dictionary evidence, fixed elements typical either of English or only of Polish, or those common to both English and Polish are listed. The most frequent are the units from biblical and mythological sources, while the least popular are the expressions with historical and literary background, as these aspects are unique for each country. With regard to the meaning of the fixed phrases containing proper personal and place names, the data reveal that the units do convey information, recall connotations that arose some time ago in relation to the biblical, mythological, literary, cultural, and historical background, and are still relevant today.
References
Adalberg S. and Krzyżanowski J.: Nowa księga przysłów i wyrażeń przysłowiowych, Warszawa, 1969-1978.
Anderson J.M.: A Notional Theory of Syntactic Categories, Cambridge, 1997.
Anderson J.M.: On the structure of names, “Folia Linguistica” 37(2003), pp. 347-398.
Anderson J.M.: On the grammatical status of names, “Language” 80(2004), pp. 435-474.
Anderson J.M.: The Grammar of Names, Oxford, 2007.
Bach K.: What's in a name?, “Australasian Journal of Philosophy” 59(1981), pp. 371-386.
Bally Ch.: Traité de stylistique française, Genève 1909 [1951].
Bąba S.: Innowacje frazeologiczne współczesnej polszczyzny, Poznań 1989.
Bąba S. and Liberek J.: Słownik frazeologiczny współczesnej polszczyzny, Warszawa 2001.
Bing J.: Names and honorific pronouns in Gborbo Grahn, “Current Issues in Linguistic Theory” 100(1993), pp. 119-130.
Braun D.: Katz on names without bearers, “The Philosophical Review” 104(4)(1995), pp. 553-576.
Carroll J.M.: Toward a Functional Theory of Names and naming, “Linguistics” 21(1983), pp. 341-371.
Chalmers D.: Two-dimensional semantics, in: The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language, ed. E. Lepore and B. Smith, Oxford 2006, pp. 574-606.
Chomsky N.: Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Cambridge (Mass.) 1965.
Cieślicka A.: Formulaic language in L2: storage, retrieval and production of idioms by second language learners, in: Cognitive Processing in Second Language Acquisition: Inside the Learner’s Mind, eds. M. Pütz and L. Sicola, Amsterdam–Philadelphia 2010, pp. 149-168.
Clark R.W.: The Life of Bertrand Russell, London 1975.
Coates R.: Properhood, “Language” 82(2006), No 2, pp. 356-382.
DeRosset L.: The Causal-Historical Theory of Reference, Spring 2011. Accessed May 4, 2014. http://www.uvm.edu/~lderosse/courses/nnn/caus_ the or.pdf
Dunkling L.A.: First Names First, Ontario 1977.
Frege G.: On sense and reference, in: Translations From the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege, ed. P. Geach and M. Black, Oxford 1952, pp. 56-78.
Gläser R.: The stylistic potential of phraseological units in the light of genre analysis, in: Phraseology, ed. A.P. Cowie, Oxford 1998, pp. 125-143.
Hockett Ch.F.: A Course in Modern Linguistics, New York 1965.
Irwin T.H.: Aristotle’s First Principles, Oxford 1988.
Jarząbek K.: Poles and Poland in Polish proverbs, “Parémie Národů Slovanských” 6(2012), pp. 70-78.
Kalkonova T.: Sociology of proper names in Sofia since 1970, “International Journal of the Sociology of Language” 135(1999), pp. 83-98.
Katz J.J.: Semantic Theory, New York 1972.
Katz J.J.: Names without bearers, “Philosophical Review” 103(1)(1994), pp. 1-39.
Kripke S.: Naming and Necessity, Cambridge 1980.
Krzyżanowski J.: Dzieje przysłowia polskiego w toku pięciu wieków [The history of Polish proverbs in the course of five centuries], in: Nowa księga przysłów i wyrażeń przysłowiowych polskich [A New Book of Polish Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions], t. VII-XXXIX, red. J. Krzyżanowski, Warszawa 1969.
Latusek A. (red.): Wielki słownik frazeologiczny, Kraków 2009.
Lawrence L.T. and Vinogradov V.V.: The history of the Russian literary language from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth, Madison (Wisc.) 1969.
Leyew Z.: Amharic personal nomenclature: a grammar and sociolinguistic insight. “Journal of African Cultural Studies” 16(2)(2003), pp. 181-211.
Lévi-Strauss C.: The savage Mind, London 1966.
Lieberson S.: What’s in a name? …some sociolinguistic possibilities, “International Journal of the Sociology of Language” 45(1984), pp. 77-87.
Lipka L.: An Outline of English Lexicology, Tübingen 1992.
Locke J.: entry by W. Uzgalis in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, accessed on December 12, 2014 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Encyclopedia_of_ Philosophy
Longobardi G.: Reference and proper names: A Theory of N-Movement in syntax and logical, “Linguistic Inquiry” 25(4)(1994), pp. 609-665.
Marks H.: Biblical naming and poetic etymology, “Journal of Biblical Literature” 114(1)(1995), pp. 21-42.
Marmaridou A.S.S.: Proper names in communication, “Journal of Linguistics” 25(1989), pp. 355-372.
McArthur T.: The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford 1992.
Mill J.S.: A System of Logic. Ratiocinative and Inductive, New York 1882.
Moon R.: Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English. A Corpus-Based Approach, Oxford 1998.
Murray L.: Abridgment of Murray’s English Grammar, London 1829.
Pierini P.: Opening a Pandora's box: proper names in English phraseology, “Linguistik online” 36(4)(2008), accessed April 27, 2014. http://www.linguistik-online.de/36_08/pierini.html
Pietarinen A.-V.: Peirce's Pragmatic Theory of Proper Names, “Transactions of the Charles” 46(3)(2010), pp. 341-363.
Plato: Cratylus, Accessed April 14, 2015. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-cratylus/
Pulgram E.: Theory of Names, Berkeley 1954.
Quirk R., Greenbaum S., Leech G. and Svartvik J.: A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, London 1985.
Russell B.: The Philosophy of Logical Atomism, in: Logic and Knowledge, ed. R. Marsh, New York 1956.
Rymes B.: Naming as social practice: the case of little creeper from Diamond Street, “Language in Society” 25(2)(1996), pp. 237-260.
Sainsbury R.M.: Russell, London 1979.
Saussure F. de: Course in General Linguistics, eds. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, in collaboration with Albert Reidlinger, trans. Roy Harris, La Salle (Ill.) 1983.
Searle J.: Proper Names, “Mind” 67(266)(1958), pp. 166-173.
Seidl J. and McMordie W.: English Idioms and How to Use Them, fourth ed., Oxford 1978.
Skorupka S.: Słownik frazeologiczny języka polskiego, t. I-I, Warszawa 1967.
Sørensen H.S.: The Meaning of Proper Names, Copenhagen 1963.
Stalnaker R.: Assertion, in: Syntax and Semantics, vol. IX: Pragmatics, ed. P. Cole, New York 1978.
Taylor J.R.: Cognitive Grammar, Oxford 2002.
Thrane T.: Referential-Semantic Analysis: Aspects of a Theory of Linguistic Reference, Cambridge 1980.
Van de Velde M.: Agreement as a grammatical criterion for proper name status in Kirundi, “Onoma” 37(2010), pp. 127-139.
Van Langendonck W.: Theory and Typology of Proper Names, Berlin 2007.
Wee L.: Proper names and the Theory of Metaphor, “Journal of Linguistics” 42(2)(2006), pp. 355-371.
Weinreich U.: Problems in the Analysis of Idioms, in: Substance and Structure of Language, ed. J. Puhvel, Berkeley–Los Angeles 1969, pp. 23-81.
Copyright (c) 2015 Roczniki Humanistyczne
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
