BillyRayPreachersSon
Programmer
For those who haven't got a clue what the thread title meant, I'll start with a quick & dirty example of what I understand the difference to be between nominative determinism and an aptronym.
Meet Bob... Mr Bob Baker, Esq. One day, Bob decides to give up publishing his monthly magazine for men, and start a bakery in the high street. He thinks that the combination of his surname and his new trade will be an instant hit with the punters. The sausage rolls will be flying off the shelves faster than he can buy the sawdust in.
Next door in the high street, Ajuoga Belakane has been running her tanning salon for some years. Last week she married Bbwaddene I'roast'm, and took his surname, becoming Ajuoga I'roast'm. Like Bob, she also thought the wordplay was a great way to get the punters flocking in.
Now, in Bob's case, we could certainly say his career choice was down to nominative determinism, as his name influenced his career, which happens to be that of a baker. In Ajuoga's case, however, even though her new surname is hilariously appropriate for her tanning business, it would be an aptronym rather than nominative determinism, as it happened after the fact.
Moving on to inanimate objects, and more specifically, a laptop computer.
Clearly a laptop is not sentient - it cannot choose to be a laptop or not. It will remain a laptop until it is broken up for spare parts to sell on eBay, or until Vista get installed on it, when it becomes a very expensive door stop ;-). As far as I can see, the 2 main qualities of a laptop are
1) It can be used on your lap
2) It will perform computations.
Of course, you can just as easily use the laptop on a table, or on the floor... But, specifically, it has been designed so that it can be used on a lap without any problem - unlike a desktop (have you tried balancing at 17-inch CRT on your lap recently?! It ladders your tights something chronic... ;-))
So, we have an inanimate object that has a name dervied from its 2 main functional qualities (its job). My question is: is there a word or phrase, like "nominative determinism", that can be used to describe this trait (where an object's name also happens to describe how it can be used and/or some other characteristic about it)?
In case it's still not too clear, an example where this is not the case would be a USB mouse. The main quality of a mouse is that it can control a cursor on your screen, which is not part of its name at all.
Hunting round Wikipedia, I found some words that came close, but nothing that felt like it fitted the bill exactly (shamelessly copied & pasted!):
[ul][li]charactonym: a name of a fictional character reflected in his personality traits, such as Shakespeare's Pistol or Bottom (compare with "aptronym")[/li]
[li]Totum pro parte: When used in a context of language it means that something is named after something of which it is only a part (or only a limited characteristic, in itself not necessarily representative for the whole).[/li]
[li]Pars pro toto: In the context of language, it means that something is named after a part of it, or after a limited characteristic, in itself not necessarily representative for the whole.[/li]
[li]Synecdoche: The previous two and some more
[/li][/ul]
Anyway - hopefully I've managed to explain what I'm looking for with enough clarity that someone might have a clue... if not, please ask any questions you need to!
Thanks,
Dan
Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions
Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch:
Code Couch Snippets & Info:
The Out Atheism Campaign
Meet Bob... Mr Bob Baker, Esq. One day, Bob decides to give up publishing his monthly magazine for men, and start a bakery in the high street. He thinks that the combination of his surname and his new trade will be an instant hit with the punters. The sausage rolls will be flying off the shelves faster than he can buy the sawdust in.
Next door in the high street, Ajuoga Belakane has been running her tanning salon for some years. Last week she married Bbwaddene I'roast'm, and took his surname, becoming Ajuoga I'roast'm. Like Bob, she also thought the wordplay was a great way to get the punters flocking in.
Now, in Bob's case, we could certainly say his career choice was down to nominative determinism, as his name influenced his career, which happens to be that of a baker. In Ajuoga's case, however, even though her new surname is hilariously appropriate for her tanning business, it would be an aptronym rather than nominative determinism, as it happened after the fact.
Moving on to inanimate objects, and more specifically, a laptop computer.
Clearly a laptop is not sentient - it cannot choose to be a laptop or not. It will remain a laptop until it is broken up for spare parts to sell on eBay, or until Vista get installed on it, when it becomes a very expensive door stop ;-). As far as I can see, the 2 main qualities of a laptop are
1) It can be used on your lap
2) It will perform computations.
Of course, you can just as easily use the laptop on a table, or on the floor... But, specifically, it has been designed so that it can be used on a lap without any problem - unlike a desktop (have you tried balancing at 17-inch CRT on your lap recently?! It ladders your tights something chronic... ;-))
So, we have an inanimate object that has a name dervied from its 2 main functional qualities (its job). My question is: is there a word or phrase, like "nominative determinism", that can be used to describe this trait (where an object's name also happens to describe how it can be used and/or some other characteristic about it)?
In case it's still not too clear, an example where this is not the case would be a USB mouse. The main quality of a mouse is that it can control a cursor on your screen, which is not part of its name at all.
Hunting round Wikipedia, I found some words that came close, but nothing that felt like it fitted the bill exactly (shamelessly copied & pasted!):
[ul][li]charactonym: a name of a fictional character reflected in his personality traits, such as Shakespeare's Pistol or Bottom (compare with "aptronym")[/li]
[li]Totum pro parte: When used in a context of language it means that something is named after something of which it is only a part (or only a limited characteristic, in itself not necessarily representative for the whole).[/li]
[li]Pars pro toto: In the context of language, it means that something is named after a part of it, or after a limited characteristic, in itself not necessarily representative for the whole.[/li]
[li]Synecdoche: The previous two and some more
[/li][/ul]Anyway - hopefully I've managed to explain what I'm looking for with enough clarity that someone might have a clue... if not, please ask any questions you need to!
Thanks,
Dan
Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions
Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch:
Code Couch Snippets & Info:
The Out Atheism Campaign
