[lit-ideas] Naming Practices -- Among the Eskimo

[Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 8/1/2004 6:02:56 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
phatic@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
First  names 
gave a false sense of self.

----
 
A minor (logical) problem here is for people like the late Jorge Luis  
Borges. I would say "Jorge Luis" contrasts with "Borges" (last name, surname).  
But 
I would call "Jorge" only the _first_ name, while "Luis" would be the  'middle 
name', yet not what the Romans called a 'cognomen'. People (like H. P.  
Grice) started their careers signing as "H. P. Grice" and later chose the  
_middle_ 
name as the 'first' name: the author-line for books like his _Studies  in the 
Ways of Words_ being "Paul Grice", not "Herbert Paul Grice", or "H. Paul  
Grice". 
 
In French, the problem is solved by using the hyphen, "Jean-Paul Sartre"  may 
be said to consist of a _surname_ (Sartre) and a 'first' (double) name,  
"Jean-Paul".
 
Then there is the problem of more than two _given_ names: like A. J. P.  
Taylor, or Sarah Jessica Millie Parker. 
 
In logical terms, I think one would consider that "Herbert Paul Grice"  
refers to Herbert Paul Grice. So I'm not sure that 'first names give a false  
sense 
of self'. "Herbert" does not really _refer_ (in "Herbert Paul Grice"),  
neither does "Paul". "Grice", interestingly, refers (to Grice), but only in a  
context where it is known that the referent is H. Paul Grice, rather than, say, 
 
his brother Derek.
 
Cheers,
 
JL
 

 


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[lit-ideas] Naming Practices -- Among the Eskimo

[lit-ideas] Re: Naming Practices -- Among the Eskimo