Variantformer eller olika namn? : Vid lemmatiseringens vägskäl

• Variant forms or different names? At the crossroads of lemmatisation.The aim of this article is to present and discuss some different ways of dealing with the problem of how to handle different spellings of personal names in older texts, i.e. how to lemmatise them. The methods discussed are drawn from several Scandinavian studies (dating from 1967 to 2011) on first names in sources from the 16th to the 19th century. Different criteria of lemmatisation are analysed and some comparisons of these earlier results are made. Some areas where the analysed studies differ are: the importance of the names’ etymology, the importance of name rhyme, the importance of pronunciation, the intentions of the name givers and if the actual name-users’ views on names are of any importance for studies of personal names in historical contexts. This article also discusses the consequences which the use of disparate methods for lemmatising can have for the prospects of comparing and combining several name studies.

Keyword

personal names; lemmatisation: Scandinavian names; onomastic methods

Nordiska språk

Scandinavian Languages

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)