Monday, August 14, 2017

Day Nr. 1 of ICOS 2017 in just two weeks !!! Are you ready?

I've already booked and bought everything I need.

Right now I am tinkering with my presentations.

Let's have a look what kind of talks will be given and where would I go to, if I were not limited in time and space, nor bound by obligations of presenting, chairing and whatever)))

First, we start with plenary session where Grant W. Smith will talk about The symbolic meanings of names. It should be very interesting. I am aware that Professor of English has already studied the phonetic symbolism of proper names (see "The political impact of name sounds" in the journal 'Communication Monographs', Volume 65, 1998). The results of this study confirm that reasonably accurate predictions of election results can be made on the basis of selected phonetic features in candidates’ names. Besides that, he wrote a solid chapter "Theoretical foundations of literary onomastics" in The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming (ed. by Carol Hough, 2016), where he discussed the question of symbolic references and gave examples of iconic, indexical and symbolic associations of names. Well, I am pretty sure, it will be amazing!

Second, in the paper session 1, I've stumbled upon a very deplorable fact. Because of my presentation, I will be missing that of Professor Richard Coates who is going to present Meaningfulness in literary naming within the framework of The Pragmatic Theory of Properhood (TPTP). Oh, shame on me((( The principal feature of this theory is that properhood is defined by usage, as a mode of reference, and not as a structural feature by means of which nouns or names are sorted into proper and common ones a priori. I suggest he will continue his work from "A concise theory of meaningfulness in literary naming within the framework of The Pragmatic Theory of Properhood" (Journal of Literary Onomastics, Vol.4, 2015). Can anybody make a video for me?)))

Third, I will hesitate between The system of Slavic onomastic terminology (creation, existence,
neuralgic points, revision) by P. Odaloš, E. Vallová and


The endonym – exonym
question. A question of locality vs. Globality? by Peder Gammeltoft. The latter is well-known Danish toponymist who is in the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. His papers always are of great interest! But the topic of the onomastic terminology concerns me directly as I treated this question in my works as well (comparison of the terminology for modified proper names). Moreover, it will be about the Slavic terminology and I cannot forget my Slavic background))). Professor Odaloš is specialist in the contemporary Slovak language, onomastics and sociolinguistics. Dr. Elena Vallová is terminologist and she published "Current Trends in Terminology" (in: Evolution and Transformation of Discourses: Linguistic, Philological and Socio- Cultural Aspects. Samara 2014). So, what should I do? What do you think?

Fourth, I would choose Cognitive and Functional Characteristics of Names in the Novels “We” by E. Zamyatin and “Brave New World” by A. Huxley by Veronika Robustova.  My choice is to be affacted by several factors at once. I am fan of the novel "We" by Evgeny Zamyatin whose forename is actually the mine))) Veronika is working at the Moscow Lomonosov University MGU and she worked on such promising points as cognitive and functional particularities of proper names, realization of anthropocentric principle in the onomastic nomination, mythonyms in the contemporary socio-cultural space, onomastic variations, proper names as mean to verbalize concepts, etc. By the way, the novel describes a world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state! Very actual, don't you think?)))

Fifth, I prefer to follow Malgorzata Mandola who presents Classifications onomastiques slave et française. It is in French and it reflects my PhD interests. Our CVs are pretty similar, however, she is more successful. She started as teacher of French in Poland, continued her research at the Rennes 2 University and then was hired by the Denis Diderot University as FLE Teacher. I've read her "French exonyms for Polish geographical names".

Sixth, after the lunch, I want to listen to Artur Gałkowski who is going to discuss Les onomasticons globaux dans une perspective théorique. Well, it is in French as well, and such an intresting title promises a fondamental scholar approach. I know Prof. Gałkowski as a perfect Italianist, working at the University of Lodz and publishing a lot about onomastics inter alia.

Seventh, to take a delight in the British English and great historical research, I would go to listen to The locality and globality of Anglo-Saxon ethnonyms by Dr. John Baker. He is lecturer in Name-studies at the University of Nottingham. His expertise is in place-names in general, with particular focus on their potential as tools for understanding past landscapes and Anglo-Saxon society and culture. I am pretty much interested in the transition Germanic - Anglo-Saxon (I caught this 'infection' from Prof. Udolph who posted about it on Facebook). John is also co-editor of the journal Nomina.

And the last, but not the least, I am going to finish the first day by visiting the presentation of Prof. Natalia Vasileva  who talks about Onymic implicatures in literary text perception. She is working at the Institute of Linguistics (Russian Academy of Sciences) and is well-known Russian onomatologist. At my place in Germany, I do have several books of Prof. Vasileva. Her habilitation thesis "Proper name in the text: integrative approach" (in Russian) helped me a lot in my PhD ideas.

So far, the day 1. If I find  a bit more time, I will analyse Day 2)))

Good luck in your getting ready!!!

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