The role of morphology in anthroponymic innovation in Brazil: a look at formative-landia
Morphology, Anthroponymy, Word formation
A person's proper name carries very peculiar characteristics, among them, questions of meaning, referencing and motivation. Giving a name to an individual, depending on the social context in which he is inserted, implies several linguistic and sociocultural aspects. Studies on anthroponyms have found more and more space in Brazil, but we still need to recognize that Onomastics is perhaps the most underprivileged field of linguistic studies in the history of Brazilian linguistics. In turn, the observation of a set of given names in use in Brazil can also provide the discovery of the existence of models of constructions that conform to non-linear schemes, revealing a fundamental role of morphology in the hierarchical organization of the Brazilian anthroponymic lexicon. After all, the innovative personal names in Brazil also have very specific characteristics, including the fact that they are created from formatives of Germanic origin and with high productivity in the northeast region. For this purpose, the Dictionary of Names in use in the Brasil, aims to fill the gap left over the years in relation to onomastic studies and intends to make the information collected by its researchers widely disseminated and easily accessible. Over the last two years, after having carried out studies on formative recurrent in the construction of innovative first names (Ed-, -Berto, Van- and –van), from the theoretical perspective of constructional morphology, we developed, within the scope of scientific initiation, a knowledge of how new first names are created in Brazil . It is, therefore, from there that the interest in studying the formative -landia arises, present in female innovative forenames (Marilândia, Jucilândia, Gilmelândia, among others). Thus, this pre-project is linked to the lexicon and terminology research line and to the New Dictionary of Names project in use in Brazil, and aims to contribute to the knowledge of typically Brazilian anthroponymy.