A Cognitive And Social Study On Place Naming Mechanism Based On EPM Model

Toponym is a proper noun for a particular place,it is what the residents conventionalized its particular position and form,then these place names are gradually familiar to most people in other regions and widely used.Toponym is not only a reflection of the local geographical features but also a product of historical culture.It mirrors the socio-cultural background and human cognition in some way,and the historical tradition and values could be explored behind these place names,so it is fair to say that toponym is a rich and extensive cultural system.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the cognitive process and historical culture behind place names,which is of great help to understand the meanings and origins of place names.As a matter of fact,the research about toponymy began a long time ago,many scholars have conducted the research from the aspects of toponymy,etymology,lexicology,phonetics and folklore but rarely delved into the place naming mechanism from the sociolinguisitc aspect,they are kind of superficial without exploring the historical background and social reality hidden behind these place names in a large social environment,and these results are relatively dispersed and unsystematic lacking support of database.The EPM naming model(E stands for Event-domain Cognitive Model;P stands for Prominence Theory;M stands for Metonymy)is tentatively proposed from the cognitive sociolinguistic perspective by integrating the Event-domain Cognitive Model with Prominence Theory by means of Metonymy,with social environment added.And a self-closed database covering 450 items of Native American place names in Mississippi has been established to study the place naming mechanism and these 450 place names are regarded as the research object.According to 450 items of Native American place names in Mississippi,the thesis concludes 21 place naming patterns and further extracts the most common 13 place naming patterns,they are place naming Pattern PLANT,Pattern INGREDIENT,Pattern CREEK,Pattern ANIMAL,Pattern FIGURE,Pattern TRIBE,Pattern PLACE,Pattern RIVER,Pattern PRODUCT,Pattern OBJECT,Pattern TRADITION,Pattern LOCATION and Pattern GEOMORPHY respectively.And these most common 13 place naming patterns are further put into analysis under the framework EPM,with the prominent element and metonymy as well as historical culture being explored.It can be found that the main prominent elements include the plant,ingredient,creek,animal,figure,tribe,place,river,product,object,tradition,location and geomorphy,and all the place naming will be finished by the mechanism of metonymy which can be further categorized into part-for-whole metonymy,whole-for-part metonymy and part-for-part metonymy.At the same time,after the exploration of historical culture behind these place names,the three main historical and cultural connotation in Native American can be found,namely,the three social aspects of Indian's worship and reverence for nature and tribalism in Indian culture as well as their admiration for heroism are fully reflected in these Native American place names in Mississippi.