NAMES

‘What’s in a name?’ is a question that has occupied philosophers of language for centuries. Plato was concerned with whether names were ‘natural’. Though the question did not bother Adam when he named the animals; Humpty dumpty thought his name meant his shape, and in part it does.

      Usually when we think of names  we think of names of  people or places, which are proper names. We do not think of Canis familiaris as being named ‘dog’. Still, the old view persists that all words name some object, though that object may be abstract. This view presents difficulties. We are unable to identify the objects named sincerity or forgetfulness, not to mention into, brave, and think.

      Proper names can refer to objects. The objects may be extant, such as those designated by

            Edward Gough Whitlam

            Lake Macquarie

            Ayers Rock

or extinct, such as

            Boadicea

            Troy

or even fictional

            Jane Eyre

            Sherlock Holmes

            Oz

      Proper names are definite, which means they refer to a unique object insofar as the speaker and listener are concerned. If I say

            Mary smith is coming to dinner.

My spouse understands Mary smith to refer to our friend mary smith, and not to the one of the dozens of Mary Smiths in the phone book.

      Because they are inherently definite, proper names are not in general preceded by the:

            *the John Smith

            *the Queensland

There are some exceptions, such as the names of rivers, ships, and erected structures :

            the Hawkesbury                      the Opera House

            the Queen Mary                      the Dandenongs

and there are special cases such as the John Smiths to refer to the family of John Smith. Also, for the sake of clarity or literary effect, it is possible for an article to precede a proper name if the resulting noun phrase is followed by a modifying expression such as a prepositional phrase or a sentence:

           

            The Paris of the 1920s…

            The New York that everyone knows and loves…

      Proper names cannot usually be pluralized, though they can be plural, like the Great lakes or the Blue Mountains. There are exceptions, such as the John Smiths mentioned above, or expressions like the Linguistics department has three Bobs, meaning three people named Bob, but they are special locutions used in particular circumstances. Because proper names generally refer to unique objects, it is not surprising that they occur mainly in the singular.  

      For the same reason, proper names cannot in general be preceded by adjectives. Many adjectives have the semantic effect of narrowing down the field of reference, so that the noun phrase  a red house is a more specific description than simply a house; but what proper names refer to is already completely narrowed down, so modification by adjectives seems peculiar. Again, as in all these cases, extenuating circumstances give rise to exceptions. Language is nothing if not flexible, and we find expressions such as young John used to discriminate between two people named John. We also find adjectives applied to emphasize some quality of the object referred to, such as the wicked Borgias or the brilliant Professor Einstein.  

      Names may be coined or drawn from the stock of names that the  language provides; but once a proper name is coined, it cannot be  pluralized or preceded by the or any adjective (except as cited above), and it will be used to refer to uniquely, for these rules are among the many rules already in the grammar, and speakers know they apply to all proper names, even new ones.