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Organizers

• Grasilda Blažienė
  Institute of the Lithuanian Language (Vilnius)
  grasilda.blaziene@lki.lt
• Ilga Jansone
  Latvian Language Institute of the University of Latvia
  ilgajan@lza.lv

Description

Research on onomastics is important for shedding light on the processes of the development of countries, as place names are signs of a language that are a part of and participate in the process of the development of a language. They are witnesses to the history of a community due to their historical accuracy, and can help in reconstructing the history of a country or place that is being researched.

This workshop deals with theoretical and practical questions concerning the semantics, origins and formation of proper names. The proper names of the Balts still attract the attention of European onomastists, historians, and archeologists. In its time, Baltic proper names for bodies of water contributed greatly to the basis of the theory of ancient Europe. It is thought that the newest explanations for the origins of Baltic proper names should be based on more comprehensive conclusions, which are provided by Indo-European linguists. Then one could hope for more reliable explanations of its origins. This is why one could and should talk about the interdisciplinary character of onomastics. Currently researchers of European and Baltic proper nouns are becoming more interested in the semantics of proper names. There is constant discussion about theoretical questions concerning the semantics of proper names, which claim that proper nouns don’t mean anything, because their essence is to name something, and not to mean something, or that proper names, like other lexical units, have semantics. There is also once again interest in old European hydronyms. One could also call this interest a reviewing of the theory of ancient Europe. Researchers are becoming more and more drawn toward the vocabulary of the former territory of East Prussia, through the research of which is able to reveal language contacts. For example, Polish onomastists have been bringing to light the Baltic elements of Polish in their research on the vocabulary of Polish.. The origin of European place names can often be explained based only on Baltic material. Researchers from Poland, Russia, Belarus, the Czech Republic, and Germany among others could not carry out their work without data on the vocabulary of the Baltic languages (and not only onomastists).

It is hoped that the onomastics workshop of the Congress of Balticists will be a place where one can get to know more about research, the conclusions of which will be able to help find answers to relevant questions pertaining to Baltic and Indo-European language studies which are important in the broad context of onomastics.

Accepted papers

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