Names and Naming: People, Places, Perceptions and Power (Multilingual Matters, 163, Band 163) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1783094915 ISBN 13: 9781783094912

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

This book explores international trends in naming and contributes to the growing field of onomastic enquiry. Naming practices are viewed here through a critical lens, demonstrating a high level of political and social engagement in relation to how we name people and places. The contributors to this publication examine why names are not only symbols of a person or place, but also manifestations of cultural, linguistic and social heritage in their own right. Presenting analyses of geographically and culturally diverse perspectives and case studies, the book investigates how names can represent deeper kinds of identity, act as objects of attachment and dependence, and reflect community mores and social customs while functioning as powerful mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. The book will be of interest to researchers in onomastics, sociology, human geography, linguistics and history.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Guy Puzey is Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK. His research interests include language policy, linguistic landscapes and geosemiotics, critical sociolinguistics and toponomastics, particularly in the contexts of Scotland and the Nordic countries.

Laura Kostanski is Director at Geonaming Solutions Pty Ltd & Address Exchange Pty Ltd, and is based in Australia. Her research interests include toponymy, human geography, geospatial systems, crowd sourcing, government policy and Indigenous cultural heritage.

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Names and Naming

People, Places, Perceptions and Power

By Guy Puzey, Laura Kostanski

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2016 Guy Puzey, Laura Kostanski and the authors of individual chapters
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78309-491-2

Contents

Contributors, 
Acknowledgements, 
Trends in Onomastics: An Introduction Laura Kostanski and Guy Puzey, 
Part 1: The Varied Identities of People and Places, 
1 Internet Personal Naming Practices and Trends in Scholarly Approaches Katarzyna Aleksiejuk, 
2 Visitor Experiences of Aboriginal Place Names in Colonial Victoria, Australia, 1834–1900 Ian D. Clark, 
3 Introduced Personal Names for Australian Aborigines: Adaptations to an Exotic Anthroponymy Michael Walsh, 
4 Personal Naming and Community Practices in the Western Isles of Scotland: Putting Names in the 'Gaelic Sense' Ellen S. Bramwell, 
5 Signs of/on Power, Power on/of Signs: Language-Based Tourism, Linguistic Landscapes and Onomastics on Norfolk Island Peter Mühlhäusler and Joshua Nash, 
Part 2: Attitudes and Attachment, 
6 The Controversy of Restoring Indigenous Names: Lessons Learnt and Strategies for Success Laura Kostanski, 
7 Attitudes to Street Names in Helsinki Terhi Ainiala, 
8 Linguistic Landscape and Inhabitants' Attitudes to Place Names in Multicultural Oslo Maimu Berezkina, 
9 Attitudes to Scots: Insights from the Toponymicon Maggie Scott, 
10 Slang Toponyms in Hungary: A Survey of Attitudes Among Language Users Erzsébet Gyo"rffy, 
Part 3: Power, Resistance and Control, 
11 Renaming as Counter-Hegemony: The Cases of Noreg and Padania Guy Puzey, 
12 Naming Parks, Footpaths and Small Bridges in a Multicultural Suburban Area Staffan Nyström, 
13 Personal Names in Language Policy and Planning: Who Plans What Names, for Whom and How? 197 Justyna B. Walkowiak, 
14 Is the Official Use of Names in Norway Determined by the Place-Names Act or by Attitudes? Aud-Kirsti Pedersen, 
15 The Power of Administration in the Official Recognition of Indigenous Place Names in the Nordic Countries Kaisa Rautio Helander, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Internet Personal Naming Practices and Trends in Scholarly Approaches

Katarzyna Aleksiejuk

Introduction

Personal naming on the Internet has so far received only modest interest in the field of name studies. Work in this field has presented general descriptions of this phenomenon and categorisations (Bechar-Israeli, 1995; Kolodziejczyk, 2004; Naruszewicz-Duchlinska, 2003; Rutkiewicz, 1999; Sidorova, 2006; Swennen, 2001; Van Langendonck, 2007). However, research on usernames, although still not sizeable, constitutes an important element of the study of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and Internet linguistics. I would like to offer an overview of the literature to date related to naming practices on the Internet that I find representative of an array of viewpoints and approaches applied in this field, to see how personal naming works online, and to demonstrate selected similarities between online and offline naming practices.

Internet Personal Naming Practices

In every culture, naming is an institutionalised or conventionalised practice. There are always more or less explicit regulations related to both the act of naming (e.g. when in the individual's life it takes place, who is involved, how the names are selected) and the structure of the personal name (e.g. how many elements it consists of, what each of them refers to, how they differ for different groups of people), and in many societies names are required for official registration (Alford, 1988: 1; Vom Bruck & Bodenhorn, 2006: 2–3). Similarly, to become a member of a virtual environment, one needs to choose a name (username) and, in many cases, undergo a registration process. The username serves as a form of address and reference used by interlocutors as well as by operators in formal announcements ('user ... has entered the chat-room', 'user ... has left', 'user ... is inviting you to a private room') and in warnings related to misbehaviour.

Although typically users select their names, usernames need not be self-selected or self-invented. It is common for official names or student and staff numbers to be used as default identifiers by institutions. Also, in unofficial communication participants may, for example, utilise their legal names or nicknames as usernames.

In its written form CMC enables the use of unpronounceable names (^_^, ???), visual effects (cLoNehEAd, m@d) and digits (me33, 123654) (Bechar-Israeli, 1995; Kolodziejczyk, 2004; Naruszewicz-Duchlin'ska, 2003). However, the choice of username is not completely unrestricted: typically, usernames must be unique, their length is limited and not all keyboard symbols are allowed. In some domains usernames cannot start with digits (Swennen, 2001: 19), while other domains use filters to block swear-words. Such policies on name creation may significantly affect the form of the name; for example, where the number of characters is severely restricted, users might apply 'shortening' strategies such as abbreviating or merging words, like whathell (what the hell) (Bechar-Israeli, 1995) or BlueAdept (Danet et al., 1997), both of which are used on Internet Relay Chat (IRC), where usernames may contain only up to nine characters. Elsewhere, usernames might be long and include decoration, like ***CO-LEADA OF THA GANGSTA BOYZ***, Snowboarder Boy Creator of the Hard Core Snowboarders, ~§~Prin(c)ess ºf the Night~§~ (Scheidt, 2001: 18–20). Moreover, in some environments usernames may be changed at any time. Again in IRC: 'To choose a nick one must enter the following command: /nick "nickname". Nicks can be changed at any time, even every few seconds, by repeating the same command' (Bechar-Israeli, 1995). In others, enrolling with a new username requires re-registration (Stommel, 2007: 148).

Usernames are generally recognised by users to be the property of a user. When one username is shared by two or more users, typically the senior user is permitted to keep it (Bechar-Israeli, 1995). However, cases of impersonation (unauthorised adoption of somebody else's username or pretending to be that person) have been recorded (Swennen, 2001: 20). Many services enable usernames to be protected by passwords so that only someone who knows the password can log on under a particular name. Some websites offer certified registration of usernames (e.g. http://nicknameregister.com and http://nick-name.ru). Official regulations vary between countries; for example, Polish law provides the same level of protection to usernames as is provided to personal names, pseudonyms and brands (Sa d Najwyzszy, 2008).

The Role of Usernames

Impressions generated by personal names have been compared to the impressions generated by appearance, including 'grooming, clothing, accessories, etc.' (Mehrabian, 1997: 19). A change of name can support a shift in a person's identity or status (e.g. through marriage, parenthood or accomplishments) in the same way that a change in status can be conveyed by audiovisual means (e.g. clothing or even song) (Alford, 1988: 86).

On the Internet, where identities are mainly constructed linguistically, names play a particularly important role as a means of constructing identities, establishing one's status and shaping relationships with other participants. Usernames do not just supplement, they substitute...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1783094915
• ISBN 13: 9781783094912
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 284
• Herausgeber: Puzey Guy, Kostanski Laura
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland