What can Verbal Derivation Tell us about Proper Names?

Abstract

Proper names are always defined in relation to common nouns. No agreement on their definition has yet been reached. Following Philippe [2020: 445], the study explores the hypothesis that proper names are not nouns but borrow from the semantics, morphology and syntax of nouns, through a contrastive analysis of denominal verbs originating from proper names and verbs originating from common nouns. Because morphological or phonological variables cannot account for the difference between these two categories, the focus is on the correlation between the type of the base and the metonymic processes involved in verbal derivation, following Janda [2011]. The analysis finds that the number of metonymic processes at stake during denominal verbal derivation depends on the type of the base, and that verbs originating from proper names need an extra cognitive step during verbal derivation. However, this difference between proper names and common nouns may rather be linked to derivational semantic constraints than to a definitional difference between proper names and common nouns.

Keywords

• metonymy
• derivation
• denominal verb
• proper name
• common noun