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Editor for this issue: Martin Jacobsen <martylinguistlist.org>
cc.helsinki.fi>In Finland, the all-European tradition of "translating" foreign Christian names obviously started to dwindle sometime in the end of the 19th century and is now practically dead. I still remember reading an old children's history book where even Finnicized names of historical persons like "Yrj Washington" appeared - for today's Finns, this sounds completely absurd. The names of more ancient European royalty, saints and other (especially religious) celebrities are still known in a Finnicized form: the kings of France are always called "Ludvig", never "Louis", and "Martti Luther" has long traditions, but I don't remember ever having seen "Juhana Sebastian Bach" or "Kaarle Marx". Royalty is an exception in Finnish, too, although there seem to be many competing practices. Scandinavian monarchs' names are (almost) always translated: the King of Sweden is "Kaarle Kustaa" (occasionally, "Carl Gustav" is also used). For rulers of more distant countries, there seems to be more variation: the Queen of England is sometimes "Elisabet", sometimes "Elizabeth" (strange in-between spellings also appear...). If I remember it right, a few years ago the Finnish Language Board decided that the names of contemporary kings and queens (outside Scandinavia, at least) should still be Finnicized in case there have been historically known rulers of the same name. Thus, the present King of Spain is Juan Carlos (not "Juhana Kaarle"), but if Prince Charles becomes King of England, he will be called "Kaarle" like his predecessors of the same name. Note that this concerns only ruling monarchs; I have never seen Prince Charles being called "prinssi Kaarle". And, of course, even the overwhelmingly Lutheran (or secularized) Finns know the Pope only as "Johannes Paavali". More research would be needed to clarify why (the common people's increasing command of foreign languages?), in what kind of cases (royalty? rulers? religion with its connections to Biblical names?) and when the practice of translating Christian names is given up. An all-European comparison would be extremely interesting. I have a feeling that in Hungary the tradition of translating Christian names lived a little longer than in Finland: in addition to "Luther Mrton" they also have - or used to have - "Marx Kroly". (Note that also the order of the Christian name and the surname had to be reversed, like in native Hungarian names.) - - Johanna Laakso <Johanna.LaaksoMail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue
mta.ca>Re: Julia Fernandez Cuesta's question about 'It looks good'. 'Look' is followed by an adjective because it is a copula verb, like the verbs ' be, become, get' and 'taste'. The object of a copula is always a noun phrase, and the predicative is typically an adjective phrase. Wendy Burnett Department of Modern Languages and Literatures Mount Allison University Sackville New Brunswick CanadaMail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue
STMARYS.CA>In regard to Benji Wald's discussion of the placement of stress in nominals such as stone wall (vs. stonewall) or apple pie (vs. apple sauce), the question can be neatly resolved, it seems to me, by recourse to the theory of lexicalization. That is, when a noun phrase becomes lexicalized, it takes on the traditional initial syllable stress pattern of English nouns. That is, stone wall consists of two lexemes, the meaning of which is deducible from the meanings of the two constituent lexemes, stone and wall. However, the verb "to stonewall" has been lexicalized, i.e., has become one lexeme with a non-obvious meaning that must be learned as a unit. Similarly, apple pie is just one kind of fruit pie, similar to cherry pie, peach pie, etc., and is thus a noun phrase, a construction consisting of two lexemes. Apple sauce is not merely one kind of sauce. It is something which, in our house, is eaten with pancakes or porkchops, and has nothing to do with, say, soy sauce or plum sauce. Apple sauce has therefor been lexicalized and must be analyzed as a single lexeme with a meaning that must be learned separately from the independent meanings of apple and sauce. =================================================================== Dr. Ronald Cosper Linguistics Program Department of Sociology Saint Mary's University Phone: (902)420-5874 923 Robie Street Fax: (902) 420-5121 Halifax, NS B3H 3C3 Internet: Ronald.CosperMail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue