hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2024-03-31

■ #5452. 英語人名史における by-name と family name の違い [onomastics][personal_name][name_project][terminology][by-name]

　昨日の記事「#5451. 中英語期に英語人名へ姓が導入された背景 (2)」 ([2024-03-30-1]) その他の記事で説明抜きに使ってきた英語人名史上の by-name という用語について，一言述べておきたい．
　現代英語人名の first name, middle name, family name （あるいは last name, surname などとも）の区別はよく知られている．日本語母語話者にとって middle name （中間名）は比較的馴染みが薄いが，family name は「姓」（上の名前），first name は「名」（下の名前）として，対応物があるので理解しやすい．
　一方，英語人名史の文脈において，特に古英語期や中英語期における人名を論じる文脈において使われる by-name は，文字通りには「準ずる名前；2次的な名前」ほどの意味であり，first name だけでは識別力が弱い場合に付け加える補足的な名前をさす．ある意味では by-name は，現代の family name に対応する機能をもっているとはいえる．しかし，歴史的な観点からは，by-name と family name は一応のところ区別しておいたほうがよい．
　この用語の問題について，Clark (567) に耳を傾けよう．

Although this generalised by-naming was what underlay the development of family naming, the two types of system must not be confused; for a by-name works differently from a family name. A by-name is literally descriptive (and therefore often translatable) and, in actual usage, applies only to one specific individual (to say which is not in the least, however, to deny the existence of conventional stocks of such descriptive phrases). It is, therefore, unstable and thus interchangeable with other formulations, as context or even whim might dictate, so that one and the same man might be specified in documents either as 'John son of William' or as 'John the tanner', probably according to whether his inheritance or his trade was in question, and might also perhaps have been known among his cronies as 'John with the beard' . . . . Such literal and shifting descriptions were no more than embryonically onomastic; and some of the more elaborate thirteenth-century formulas, such as Robertus filius Simonis ad crucem de Wytherington, were hardly even that. Yet, by showing how identity was being defined, even these artificial formulas contribute to onomastic history; and they may be supposed to have reflected, albeit distantly, everyday naming practices.

　人の名前という最も身近な言語表現にすら，徐々に形成されてきた歴史があることを銘記しておきたい．

　・ Clark, Cecily. "Onomastics." The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. 2. Ed. Olga Fischer. Cambridge: CUP, 1992. 542--606.

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