[lit-ideas] Naming Practices -- Among the Eskimo
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 10:24:11 EDT
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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