Re: CHAT: cultural interpretation [was Re: THEORY: language and the brain]

En réponse à Ian Spackman :


>I knew I read about this somewhere.  According to the Encyclopaedia 
>Britannica:
>
><<The next important law was passed in France. The French Revolution first
>gave complete freedom in naming; the result was some very fanciful given
>names like Mort aux Aristocrates, Racine de la Liberté, or even Café
>Billard. To stop this, a law was passed in 1803 that restricted given names
>to "names of persons known from ancient history" and "names used in various
>calendars." Again, the law was successful in its main intention; in
>addition, it prevented the spread of controversial given names such as
>Marat and Robespierre and of literary names such as Aramis, d'Artagnan, and
>Romeo. Very reasonably, the law never was interpreted too narrowly, so that
>feminine given names such as Jeanette and Henriette, for example, have been
>admitted, though they were not legal because no calendar contains them.
>This law is still valid in France.>>
Incorrect. I don't know what their sources are, but the only rule we have 
is that the name mustn't be demetrial for the child. Full stop!

>The point is it's not a list as such, but a rule for judging whether the
>name is appropriate, so things like "Kevin" aren't outlawed.  And as it
>says, it has been liberally applied: I've read an account of someone (I
>forget who) who had a fanciful name; her parents got it by the law by
>maintaining it was a variant on an established saint's name.
The parents of my friend Goulwenn ("bird" in Breton) could never have used 
such a rule, since the name cannot be established as the variant of any 
other name, and yet they never had even a person asking them for a 
justification for such a name. As I said, there is *no* other rule than a 
rule identical to what exists in Sweden.

>(Always assuming these sources are accurate, of course!)
Well, in this case they are not. We have no list of accepted names and no 
specific rule except the rule that the name mustn't be demetrial to the child.

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.