Onomasiology (from Greek: ὀνομάζω onomāzο 'to name', which in turn is from ὄνομα onoma 'name') is a branch of linguistics concerned with the question "how do you express X?" It is in fact most commonly understood as a branch of lexicology, the study of words (although some apply the term also to grammar and conversation). Onomasiology, as a part of lexicology, starts from a concept which is taken to be prior (i.e. an idea, an object, a quality, an activity etc.) and asks for its names. The opposite approach is known as semasiology: here one starts with a word and asks what it means, or what concepts the word refers to. Thus, an onomasiological question is, e.g., "what are the names for long, narrow pieces of potato that have been deep-fried?" (answers: french fries in the US, chips in the UK, etc.), while a semasiological question is, e.g., "what is the meaning of the term chips?" (answers: 'long, narrow pieces of potato that have been deep-fried' in the UK, 'slim slices of potatoes deep fried or baked until crisp' in the US). Onomasiology can be carried out synchronically or diachronically, i.e. historically.
Definition Onomasiology was initiated in the late 19th century, but it received its name only in 1902, when the Austrian linguist Adolf Zauner published his study on the body-part terminology in Romance languages. It was by linguists studying Romance languages that the most important onomasiological works were written. Early linguists were basically interested in the etymology of expressions that were clearly defined, unchangeable, or concrete objects or actions. Later, the Austrian linguists Rudolf Meringer and Hugo Schuchardt started the Wörter und Sachen movement, which emphasized that every study of a word needed to include the study of the object it denotes. Schuchardt also underlined that the onomasiologist, in tracing back the history of a word, needs to respect both the dame phonétique ('prove the regularity of sound changes or explain irregularities') and the dame sémantique ('justify semantic changes'). Another branch that developed from onomasiology and at the same time enriched it in turn was linguistic geography (areal linguistics) since it provided onomasiologists with valuable linguistic atlases. The first ones are Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reiches by Georg Wenker and Ferdinand Wrede, published beginning in 1888, the Atlas Linguistique de la France (ALF) by Jules Gilliéron (1902–1920), the Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz (AIS) by Karl Jaberg and Jakob Jud (1928–1940), the Deutscher Sprachatlas (DSA) by Ferdinand Wrede et al. (1927–1956). The atlases include maps that show the corresponding names for a concept in different regions as they were gathered in interviews with dialect speakers (mostly old rural males) by means of a questionnaire. In English linguistics, onomasiology and linguistic geography have played only a minor role—the first linguistic atlas for the US was initiated by Hans Kurath, the first one for the UK by Eugen Dieth. In 1931, the German linguist Jost Trier introduced a new method in his book Der deutsche Wortschatz im Sinnbezirk des Verstandes, which is known as the lexical field theory. According to Trier, lexical changes must always be seen, apart from the traditional aspects, in connection with the changes within a given word-field. After World War II, few studies on onomasiological theory have been carried out (e.g. by Cecil H. Brown, Stanley R. Witkowski, Brent Berlin). But onomasiology has recently seen new light with the works of Dirk Geeraerts, Andreas Blank, Peter Koch and the periodical Onomasiology Online, which is published at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt by Joachim Grzega, Alfred Bammesberger and Marion Schöner. A recent representative of synchronic onomasiology (with a focus on word-formation processes) is Pavol Stekauer.
Instruments for the historical onomasiologist The most important instruments for historical onomasiologists are:
Linguistic atlases Etymological dictionaries Dialect dictionaries Thesauri Diachronic text corpora
Lexical change
Explanations When a speaker has to name something, they first try to categorize it. If the speaker can classify the referent as member of a familiar concept, they will carry out some sort of cognitive-linguistic cost-benefit-analysis: what should I say to get what I want. Based on this analysis, the speaker can then either fall back on an already existing word or decide to coin a new designation. These processes are sometimes more conscious, sometimes less conscious. The coinage of a new designation can be incited by various forces (cf. Grzega 2004):
difficulties in classifying the thing to be named or attributing the right word to the thing to be named, thus confusing designations fuzzy difference between superordinate and subordinate term due to the monopoly of the prototypical member of a category in the real world everyday contact situations institutionalized and non-institutionalized linguistic pre- and proscriptivism flattery insult disguising things (i.e. euphemistic language, doublespeak) taboo avoidance of words that are phonetically similar or identical to negatively associated words abolition of forms that can be ambiguous in many contexts wordplay/puns excessive length of words morphological misinterpretation (creation of transparency by changes within a word = folk-etymology) deletion of irregularity desire for plastic/illustrative/telling names for a thing natural prominence of a concept cultural-induced prominence of a concept changes in the world changes in the categorization of the world prestige/fashion (based on the prestige of another language or variety, of certain word-formation patterns, or of certain semasiological centers of expansion) The following alleged motives found in many works have been claimed (with corresponding argumentation) to be invalid by Grzega (2004): decrease in salience, reading errors, laziness, excessive phonetic shortness, difficult sound combinations, unclear stress patterns, cacophony.
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