THE ROLE OF CORPUS LINGUISTICS IN ONOMASTIC ANALYSIS
Abstract
Corpus linguistics (CL) has been the most effective method of linguistic research in the past few decades; it gives the real language data and quantitative evidence. The integration of corpus linguistics into onomastic studies has opened the door for studying structural, semantic, pragmatic and functional properties of proper names in different kinds of language. The study examines how large electronic corpora can be used to study the frequency, distribution, collocational patterns and context-specific use of anthroponyms, toponyms, ethnonyms and other types of proper names. Corpus-based approaches allow researchers to study naming trends, language variation and semantic changes across different periods and sociocultural contexts. Moreover, corpus tools contribute to identifying the repetitive patterns of proper names and also provide data for lexicographic and linguistic analysis. We focus particularly on corpus linguistics in the context of contemporary onomastic research in literature, media and historical documents. We also review some of the work of famous scholars who point out the importance of corpus linguistics in the context of communicating and cultural aspects of proper names. We find that corpus linguistics not only enhances the accuracy and objectivity of onomastic studies; but it also contributes in a more nuanced way to the discourse about language, culture and identity. Therefore, corpus-based onomastic analysis is an interesting direction for linguistic research and interdisciplinary work.