[Lingtyp] nouns denoting months and days of the week

[Christian Lehmann]

If one searches the web with the question "Are nouns denoting days of 
the week proper names?", some pages know that the answer is 'yes'. 
However, their argument is circular: Since English orthography requires 
the capitalization of such nouns, they are categorized as proper names; 
and since they are proper names, they are to be capitalized.

I use the following definitions: A common noun is a noun which 
designates an entity by subsuming it under a notion. A proper noun or 
name is a noun that refers to an entity without subsuming it under a 
notion. Consequently, a common noun can be defined; a proper noun cannot 
(over and beyond the onomastic category that it belongs to, like 
anthroponym or toponym).

Now an entity like Tuesday can easily be defined as the second day of 
the week; and likewise an entity like February. By this criterion, such 
entities appear to be notions, and the nouns designating them 
consequently common nouns.

If such nouns are proper nouns, then why are nouns like /midnight/ and 
/morning/ not?

What do the semanticists say? And are there structural/distributional 
properties distinguishing proper and common nouns which decide the 
alternative for designations of months and days? Are there nouns taking 
an intermediate position between common and proper?
-- 

Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
Rudolfstr. 4
99092 Erfurt
Deutschland

Tel.: 	+49/361/2113417
E-Post: 	christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
Web: 	https://www.christianlehmann.eu
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