A Sociolinguistic Study On Street Naming In Guangzhou City

By calculating, analyzing and sorting the street names of the four key districts inGuangzhou City synchronically, this paper focuses on exploring the structures of thestreet names, ways of naming and the characteristics of the city reflected in the streetnames. We draw a conclusion that the names of the streets reflect the unique regionalcharacteristics and culture of the city. Basing on this, we analyze the changes of thosestreet names diachronically, and find that there are three different phenomena in theirevolvement: following the old names, adding new names or abandoning the old ones, andreplacing with a new name.In conclusion, the changes of the street names reflect the changes of social politicsand economics; the essential reason that causes the changes is the practical function andaesthetical function and the relations of each other.In the last part of this paper, we suggest that: in order to benefit the development ofthe city, the naming or changing of names of streets should obey their objective principles,reflect the unique regional characteristics and humanistic aspects, and attain a perfectunification of the connotation and structures.