Morpho-syntactic typology of place names (TYPTOP)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Stolz
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 516330900

The history, etymology, and internal structure of place names form part of the research domain of onomastics. The behaviour of place names in syntax, however, has hitherto been largely neglected by onomasticians. The project aims at proving that it is worthwhile linguistically to study the morpho-syntax of place names in-depth by way of comparing cross-linguistic data from a wide range of genetically, areally, and structurally diverse languages. Previous studies conducted by members of the TYPTOP project-team reveal that in many languages from different parts of the world, place names obey to rules which differ markedly from those which determine the ways in which common nouns and/or person names can be employed in syntax. A structural trait shared by probably hundreds of languages across the world map is the possibility of leaving spatial relations such as Place, Goal, and Source unspecified in constructions which involve a place name whereas the same categories must be expressed overtly if the construction involves a person name or a common noun. In Maltese, for instance, it is widely common to drop the preposition fi ‘in’ in combinations with a place name as in it-tifla marret Ø il-Belt ‘the girl went to Valletta’ (where Ø marks the absence of the preposition). In contrast, if il-Belt ‘Valletta’ is replaced with a person name or a common noun, the use of prepositions is obligatory as in it-tifla marret għand Pawlu ‘the girl went to Paul’s’ or it-tifla marret f’il-kċina ‘the girl went (in)to the kitchen’. Unrelated languages like Aromanian, Tswana, Matlatzinca, etc. reflect similar patterns. Seemingly unpredictable commonalities between otherwise dissimilar languages call for closer inspection from the perspective of language typology. Moreover, place names differ from person names and common nouns not only in the case of zero-marking of spatial relations but there are further sectors of grammar in which evidence of Special Toponymic Grammar (STG) can be found such as the use of different prepositions for identical functions (German ich fahre nach Köln ‘I go to Cologne’ as opposed to ich fahre zu Dieter / zur Kirche ‘I go to Dieter’s / the church’). As yet, there is no comprehensive catalogue of STG phenomena. TYPTOP is intended to fill this gap. To this end, pertinent data are extracted from the descriptive grammars of 250 languages representing all macro-areas and 76 language families (including isolates) to build a first empirical data-base. More often than not, descriptive grammars tacitly pass over place names and their properties so that it is necessary to consult directly with language experts to complement the data collection. Native speakers of the sample languages are invited to comment upon the raw data as well as their analysis. The results of TYPTOP promise to impact the extant typological theories of word-class distinctions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants