Categorization and geographical names

Abstract

Language is a major focus in the study of the social construction of place. Geographical names are characterized by the process of their construction. Compared with personal names, however, geographical names have rarely been examined as proper names. Although it is commonly believed that proper names including geographical names do not categorize the world, but directly refer to objects. I would argue that such is not the case. Geographical names are not labels on the earth. I discuss that geographical names, as well as common names, constitute our active categorization system of the world by applying proper name theory. First, plural areas can be seen as the same if they are categorized under the same geographical name, for example, a colonial town and the original town. Next, a geographical name is a category made up of countless time-slices and space-slices. For example, a town is categorized under the same name even though it has been changing historically and even from moment to moment, and all space-slices of the town are also categorized under the same name even if they have no similarity. The above two aspects of categorization depend on individualization of an area and assumption of similarity in areas, and they construct geographical names and places. Categorization by geographical names plays a definite role in the composition of our concrete geographical knowledge. That is, a categorical hierarchy of geographical names is composed, and as a result, subdivided geographical names are categorized under a higher geographical name. Everything and every affair located in or connected to an area are thought to have some similarity by being categorized under its geographical name. The above means that geographical names do not differ from common names in terms of categorizing the world. Categorization by geographical name depends on our aims, interests, and needs at each time. The study of geographical names is able to advance theoretically, connected with cognitive linguistics and cognitive map studies.