Abstract
Chamorro illustrates how Special Onymic Grammar can be shaped in a given language. It is shown that the rules that determine the morphosyntactic behaviour of common nouns cannot be generalized over onyms. Anthroponyms and toponyms differ markedly from common nouns within the NP and beyond. In addition, there are also structural differences that separate anthroponyms from toponyms so that it makes sense to speak of Special Anthroponymic Grammar as opposed to Special Toponymic Grammar. These differences come to the fore in the domain of pre-nominal markers, the formal distinction of cases, case government in PPs, and the functions of zero-marking. It is shown that the latter phenomenon is prominent with toponyms in journalistic prose where zero-marking competes with the use of the phonologically realized toponymic marker. On the basis of the Chamorro facts, topics for follow-up studies are put forward.
Acknowledgments
This study forms part of the research activities conducted within the project Morpho-syntactic typology of place names (TypTop) financed from March 2023 until March 2026 by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (grant number: STO 186/27-1, 516330900). Earlier versions of this paper were presented as talks on occasion of the workshop Text matters: looking (far) beyond German, 13 May, 2022 in Bremen/Germany and the 28th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS), 19–23 August, 2024 in Helsinki/Finland. We are grateful to our audiences for their thought-provoking comments. We are equally grateful to Kevin Behrens, Julia Nintemann, and Maike Vorholt for reading and commenting upon the draft version of this article. It almost goes without saying that we authors assume the sole responsibility for any remaining shortcomings in form and content.
Abbreviations
- 1/2/3
-
1st/2nd/3rd person
- abs
-
absolutive
- advp
-
adverbial (phrase)
- agt
-
agent
- anth
-
anthroponym(ic marker)
- antip
-
antipassive
- appl
-
applicative
- appos
-
apposition
- ben
-
benefactive
- caus
-
causative
- com
-
comitative
- cont
-
continuative
- coord
-
coordination
- cplm
-
complement
- dct
-
direct case
- def
-
definite
- dem
-
demonstrative
- dir
-
directional
- dist
-
distal
- erg
-
ergative
- excl
-
exclusive
- exist
-
existential
- foc
-
focus
- fut
-
future
- G
-
Guam variety
- gen
-
genitive
- incl
-
inclusive
- indef
-
indefinite
- inf
-
infinitive
- ins
-
instrumental
- interr
-
interrogative
- ints
-
intensive
- lk
-
linker
- loc
-
locative
- n
-
noun
- neg
-
negation
- NP
-
noun phrase
- npl
-
non-plural
- nr
-
nominalizer
- obl
-
oblique
- oblig
-
obligation
- pass
-
passive
- pat
-
patient
- pl
-
plural
- poss
-
possessive
- PP
-
prepositional phrase
- prog
-
progressive
- pred
-
predicative
- prep
-
preposition
- proh
-
prohibitive
- prox
-
proximal
- pst
-
past
- rel
-
relativizer
- S
-
Saipan variety
- SAG
-
Special Anthroponymic Grammar
- sbj
-
subject
- sg
-
singular
- SOG
-
Special Onymic Grammar
- sr
-
subordinator
- STG
-
Special Toponymic Grammar
- topo
-
toponym(ic marker)
- vp
-
verb phrase
- x
-
general variable
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Grammatical name marking in Chamorro
- A cross-linguistic analysis of cross-clausal associations: Counterfactual conditionals
- Non-core case marking in Batanic languages
- Psych construction types in Arabic as root-based in templatic morphosyntax
- Comment
- A note on Jaradat, A. (2024) From nominal source to demonstrative: a case of grammaticalization in Standard Arabic
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Grammatical name marking in Chamorro
- A cross-linguistic analysis of cross-clausal associations: Counterfactual conditionals
- Non-core case marking in Batanic languages
- Psych construction types in Arabic as root-based in templatic morphosyntax
- Comment
- A note on Jaradat, A. (2024) From nominal source to demonstrative: a case of grammaticalization in Standard Arabic