3000-WORD ESSAY (70%)
Answer ONE of the following questions. Your essay should show clear
familiarity with relevant recommended reading and credit will be given for the
breadth of knowledge and research evidenced in your work. You should include a
full bibliography, and your references should follow either MLA or Harvard
style.
1) Investigate the ways in which a study
of place-names can inform our understanding of historical cultures in what is
now the UK. Your essay should focus primarily on ONE of the following specific
languages: Old English, Old Norse, French or Latin.
2) Discuss, with examples, the ways in
which the study of genetics can contribute to research into family names and
genealogy.
3) With reference to specific fictional
texts (these may be poems, plays, novels, short stories, etc), examine the ways
in which the study of invented names may contribute to literary analysis.
4) In grammatical terms, names are often
classified as nouns, but some linguists dispute this classification. Which
argument(s) for the grammatical classification of names do you find most
convincing and why?
5) From a study of the most popular
names given to girls and boys since 1900, what trends can be observed in
patterns of naming in the UK, and how do these relate to the origins of the
names and their historical (or other) uses?
6) The United Nations Group of Experts
on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) usually encourages the use of endonyms rather
than exonyms. Do you agree with this view? Explain your answer with reference
to relevant examples.
7) Acts of naming (and renaming) are
often understood as acts of power. Evaluate the ways in which ONE of the
following types of names may encode social and political attitudes: personal
names, street names or place-names.
