[Lingtyp] Query on sentential names/Satznamen

Thu Jun 20 10:21:03 UTC 2019

Dear Iker,

Hebrew is a source for numerous examples of this, many of which are 
familiar around the world, though their etymologies may not be. If you 
can think of a name that ends with "-el" or "-iah", chances are it's a 
SN in which the "-el" or "-iah" bit refers to God.  For example

Daniel < dan-i-el [judge.PAST.3SGM-1SG.OBJ-God] 'God judged me'

I suspect that you may wish to broaden the definition of SN to include 
also clause-like cases involving a "zero" copula, such as

Michael < mi-xa-el [who-like-God] 'Who is like God'

Also, since Hebrew has pronominal marking on the verb, you might wish 
also to include forms such as

Isaac < yiṣħak [3SGM.FUT.laugh] 'He will laugh'.

I'll stop here, as I assume that there is a large literature on this 
subject.

(Note: for convenience sake, I've provided the transcriptions and 
glosses as per Modern Hebrew, though since these names are Biblical, 
they should really be represented in Biblical Hebrew.)

Best,

David

On 20/06/2019 19:52, Iker Salaberri wrote:
> Dear colleagues, dear fellow typologists,
>
> I'm currently looking for cross-linguistic data on a specific kind of 
> name: sentential names (SNs), a.k.a. clausal names, phrasal names and 
> (in their widespread German use) /Satznamen/. van Langendonck (2007: 
> 277-278) defines SNs as names consisting (minimally) of a verbal stem 
> and a noun phrase (NP) or an adverb, where the NP is either the direct 
> object or the subject of the verb stem. Here are some examples of SNs 
> I have found so far:
>
> (1) Shona (East Bantu): /Chaitamwarihachirambwi /'What God has done 
> cannot be rejected', from /mwari /'God' and the verb root -/it /'to 
> do' (Mapara 2013: 103)
>
> (2) Basque (Language isolate): /Euridakargaina /'The summit which 
> brings rain', from /euri /'rain' and the verb root -/kar /'to bring' 
> (Salaberri 2008: 733)
>
> (3) Warrongo (Pama-Nyungan): /Galonggo balban banggarra/ '(The place 
> where) mice rolled blue tongue lizard', from /galo /'mouse' and /balba 
> /'to roll' (Tsunoda 2011: 22)
>
> (4) Northwest Sahaptin (Sahaptian): /Xátkapsha /'Leans unexpectedly', 
> from /tkap/ 'to lean' and /xa/- 'unexpectedly' (Hunn 1996: 14)
>
> (5) Mandarin (Sino-Tibetan): /Chuán-wén/ '(The one who) transmits 
> culture', from /chuán /'to transmit' and /wén /'culture' (Wiedenhof 
> 2015: 92) (sorry if the tone markers are inaccurate)
>
> (6) Eastern Apurímac Quechua (Quechuan): /Waqcha kuyaq/ '(The one who) 
> esteems the poor', from /waqcha /'poor' and /kuya/- 'to esteem' 
> (Fonseca 2012: 98)
>
> (7) German (Indo-European): /Hassdenpflug /'Hate the plow', from 
> /hassen /'to hate' and /Pflug /'plow/plough' (Heintze 1908: 160)
>
> I'm writing to ask for your help in tracking down more instances of 
> this kind of name: I have found so far that SNs are common in 
> (subsaharan) Africa, North America and Europe, in decreasing order, 
> and far less common in Asia, Oceania and South America. That is why I 
> would be extremely grateful for any information on SNs in languages 
> from Asia, Oceania and South America. I would be very grateful for any 
> pointers to grammars, language descriptions or other mentions of SNs 
> in the literature.
>
> References:
> Fonseca, Gustavo S. 2012./Introducción a un tesoro de nombres quechuas 
> en Apurímac/. Lima: Terra Nuova.
> Heintze, Albert. 1908. /Die deutschen Familiennamen: Geschichtlich, 
> geographisch, sprachlich/ (3rd edition). Halle an der Saale: Verlag 
> der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
> Hunn, Eugene. 1996. Columbia Plateau Indian place names: What can they 
> teach us? /Journal of Linguistic Anthropology/ 6(1). 3-26.
> Mapara, Jacob. 2013./Shona sentential names: A brief overview/. 
> Bamenda: Langaa Research & Publishing.
> van Langendonck, Willy. 2007. /Theory and typology of proper names/. 
> Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
> Salaberri, Patxi. 2008. Satznamen direlakoen inguruan: Erlatibozko 
> perpausetan jatorri duten toponimoak aztergai [On so-called Satznamen: 
> Investigating toponyms which originate in relative clauses]. In Xabier 
> Artiagoitia & Joseba A. Lakarra (eds.), /Gramatika jaietan: Patxi 
> Goenagaren omenez/, 725-741. Bilbao/Bilbo: University of the Basque 
> Country.
> Tsunoda, Tasaku. 2011. /A grammar of Warrongo/. Berlin/Boston: Mouton 
> de Gruyter.
> Wiedenhof, Jeroen. 2015. /A grammar of Mandarin/. 
> Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
>
> Best,
>
> Iker Salaberri
> Public University of Navarre
>
>
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-- 
David Gil

Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany

Email: gil at shh.mpg.de
Office Phone (Germany): +49-3641686834
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81281162816

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