MAP2TEXT

This project aims to produce an inventory of toponyms from a cartographic corpus, following two objectives:

1. Advance knowledge in the linguistics of proper nouns (PN);  
2. Advance knowledge on the modeling of space through language via the process of naming.  

Project description by the research team:

The proper noun (PN) is a subcategory of the noun (N) studied by logicians and subsequently by linguists. To date, scientific literature in linguistics provides general knowledge: the grammar of PNs (Gary-Prieur, Kleber, etc.) which does not distinguish between types of PNs and yields partial or even erroneous results. Contributions may focus on specific cases of PNs (onomastics). Indeed, onomastics allows individual PNs to be known very precisely (their origin, evolution, etc.), but significant grey areas remain regarding how the PN functions as a category. These grey areas are largely explained by the heterogeneity of the PNs to be explored. Our research project aims to strike a balance between a general theoretical approach and the analysis of specific cases. It focuses on a specific type of PN: toponyms. Last year, we conducted preliminary identification work on oronyms (named entities whose referent is a landform feature: a depression or an elevation). This year, this work continues with the aim of expanding the types of toponyms studied: oronyms, watercourse names, and names of administrative territories (counties, provinces, nations, and city names). We would like to foster a dialogue between the disciplines of cartography and linguistics to better understand how each captures and represents geophysical space. On the linguistics side, we draw notably on cognitive linguistics (Langacker, Fauconnier) to gain a deeper understanding of how cognitive activity shapes our apprehension of space in language. On the cartography side, a more detailed knowledge of our cognitive processes allows for a better understanding of map construction and reading (Gilmartin, Eastman, Lloyd). 

Language and space
Naming geophysical space results from numerous and complex cognitive and linguistic processes: exploration, identification, segmentation, attempted naming, permanence of the name, etc. Examining a specific corpus of texts containing numerous toponyms allows us to observe this chain of linguistic and cognitive phenomena in context using corpus linguistics. The next step will be to describe the commonalities and specificities of these toponyms within their context to explain how our apprehension of space works, how space is named, and its motivations and modalities. This overall approach will shed light on how the relationship between language and space enables humans to make sense of space in order to better explore, exploit, inhabit, and transform it.