Reactions to Forenames, Hypocorisms and Nicknames. A Contrastive English-Spanish Study Reacciones ante los Nombres, Hipocorísticos y Apodos. Un Estudio Contrastivo Inglés-Español UNIVERSITY OF MURCIA FACULTY OF ARTS Doctoral Thesis Reactions to Forenames, Hypocorisms and Nicknames. A Contrastive English-Spanish Study Ms. Inmaculada de Jesús Arboleda Guirao Supervisor: Dr Rafael Monroy Casas November 2015 UNIVERSIDAD DE MURCIA FACULTAD DE LETRAS Tesis Doctoral Reacciones ante los Nombres, Hipocorísticos y Apodos. Un Estudio Contrastivo Inglés-Español Dª Inmaculada de Jesús Arboleda Guirao Director: Dr. Rafael Monroy Casas Noviembre 2015 vii On the outside of the bedroom door there was a plaque that said Valerie. On the way up, Jackson noticed that other bedrooms also had names - Eleanor, Lucy, Anna, Charlotte. Jackson wondered how you decided on a name for a room. Or a doll. Or a child, for that matter. ― Kate Atkinson, Started Early, Took My Dog viii ix To my family x xi Acknowledgements Many people have accompanied me during the process of writing this doctoral thesis and I am greatly indebted to them all. Without their support and collaboration this research project could not have been carried out. My first thoughts go to my supervisor and academic father , Professor Rafael Monroy. The issue of forenames and nicknames has always attracted my attention – indeed, whenever a baby was born in my circle of family and friends, the first question I posed to its parents was “what are you going to call it?”. However, it was Professor Monroy who fuelled my interest in the subject and encouraged me to research further into the question of names. I would like to thank him for sharing his wisdom and extensive experience with me and, especially, for his ever-present confidence in my capability and potential to succeed. Special thanks are due to Dr Francisca José Serrano, for her invaluable assistance with statistics, her energy and stimulation and for always finding time for me in her gruelling schedule because, in Fran’s own words, “first and foremost, we are human beings and, as such, we deserve respect”. Sincere thanks also go to Professor Clive Upton, my supervisor at the University of Leeds, for his insightful suggestions, which have been of incalculable value to this study. I would also like to express my deep sense of gratitude to Dr Victoria Guillén, who warmly welcomed me to the University of Alicante during a research stay and provided me with active and wise guidance. From the e-mails Professor Upton and Dr Guillén had exchanged with me before my stay in Leeds and Alicante, I had formed a high opinion of them but our face-to-face contact far exceeded my expectations. I would like to convey heartfelt thanks to Dr Dan Frost and Dr Jean-Louis Barreau, who invited me to their university and were always willing to help, and Dr Isabel Solano, who gave me useful pointers for the most creative and visual part of the thesis. A special mention goes to Prof. Francisco Gutiérrez, in xii memoriam, for his words of encouragement while I was carrying out my thesis. I would have liked to have shared its completion with him here but I am sure he will be glad for me from high above. I want to express my gratitude and my warm appreciation to my father, Joaquín, and my friend Marisol Ríos, who assisted me in the collection of the data from Spain. Thanks as well to my sister, Mayte, for her help and advice on computer matters. I am also indebted to Peter Coles, Isabel Miles and Jacinta Jackson, who made my data collection in Leeds much easier. I give thanks to them for their disinterested collaboration and kind words. I owe a very special debt to them for their unfailing moral support whenever I felt alone in my data collection process and I needed help. I would like to direct some very special thanks to the lecturers from the Department of English Studies at the University of Murcia for their confidence in me, especially Dr José Antonio Mompeán, Dr María del Mar Vilar, Dr M. Dolores López-Maestre and Dr María Dueñas. I learnt a lot from them. I also wish to record my deep appreciation of the thoughtful comments provided by Cathy Staveley, an engaging and creative lecturer who assisted me with the final editing, and thank Sonya Ross as well as Dr Steve Earnshaw and Dr Blanca Ruiz-Zaragoza (I met the latter two in congresses on onomastics), for their kind suggestions and useful resources. In addition, I would like to thank the supervisory committee, Dr Juan Antonio Cutillas, Dr Carmen Sánchez-Morillas and Dr Anabela Rato, which I am sure will broaden the way in which I think about the potential impact of my research. I cannot let this occasion pass without recognising the financial support provided by the Fundación Séneca, from which I enjoyed a PhD Research Scholarship for two years until I was granted a teaching position in the Department of English Studies at the University of Murcia. My greatest debt in this Foundation is undoubtedly to Viviane Barelli, who always did her best to comply with my requests. Heartfelt thanks go to the university xiii libraries in Leeds, Grenoble, Murcia, Alicante and Almería as well as the Regional Library in Murcia. Finally, I want to give my gratitude to my family. Without their unconditional love and encouragement this project would never have reached fruition. Without them all these endeavours would have been worth nothing. This dedication is just a small return for everything I have received from them. I will never find the words to say thank you to my parents, Joaquín and Mª Teresa; my sister, Mayte, and my grandmother, Manuela, for their unfailing support, their love and their deep understanding of the sacrifice involved in this time-consuming and challenging project. I also have a warm feeling of gratitude towards my dogs, Tití and Cuchi, for being such faithful companions and witnessing the different steps of my research in silence. A special thought also goes to those who are not with us anymore. I know they are proud of me and they are by my side from high above. I have combined the lengthy process of writing this thesis with teaching at different universities as well as volunteering with animals. I have been able to confront the inordinate length of this PhD thesis and the very difficult times I have experienced during the last few years thanks to the support of my family and my faith in God. Thanks to Him, for giving me His ever present strength. I would like to thank everybody who directly and indirectly helped me in the successful realisation of the thesis and express my apologies if I have failed to mention anyone from the huge cast of people who have assisted me in my task. Needless to say that any blame for remaining faults or omissions in the text are my own. INMACULADA DE JESÚS ARBOLEDA GUIRAO Murcia, November 2015 xiv xv Summary in Spanish (Resumen en español) INTRODUCCIÓN La Biblia dice que el hombre fue creado por Dios con la habilidad característica de nombrar y hablar (Redmonds, 2004). El interés que los seres humanos tienen en nombrar puede verse en la vida diaria. Por ejemplo, cuando un niño adquiere un nuevo juguete o una mascota, quiere darle un nombre (Olaya-Aguilar, 2014). Ser humano implica tener un nombre (Finch, 2008). Dunkling (1977), Albaigès (1998) y Darlington (2015) se refieren al tema de los nombres como algo fascinante pero, a pesar de su interés, se ha considerado como un pasatiempo y no como un propósito primario (García- Cornejo, 2001; Redmonds, 2004). Aunque en épocas recientes el interés en este tema ha aumentado, hasta ahora la mayor parte de la investigación llevada a cabo sobre los nombres tanto en Inglaterra como en España se ha dedicado a la exploración de apellidos y nombres de lugar (Robson, 1988; Postles, 2002; Alomar, 2005; Gamella, Gómez-Alfaro & Pérez-Pérez, 2014). Autores como Albaigès (1998), Tibón (2002) o Earnshaw (2012) llaman la atención al hecho de que la sociedad y la historia se expresan por medio de los nombres. Los nombres en sí mismos además de las reacciones hacia ellos están repletos de expresividad (Evans & Green, 2006). Muchos factores diferentes pueden estar implicados en la elección de un nombre, por ejemplo, eufonía, moda, tradición familiar, religión, libros, películas, etc. (Withycombe, 1971; Cutler, McQueen & Robinson, 1990; Zittoun, 2004). Este estudio utiliza una perspectiva comparativa para proporcionar más evidencia empírica a la importancia de los nombres, hipocorísticos y apodos en nuestras vidas, explorando más de cerca su riqueza y colorido, reflejados en las reacciones de las personas ante ellos, en dos idiomas diferentes, inglés y español. xvi OBJETIVOS El principal propósito de este estudio es, pues, explorar y analizar las reacciones de un grupo de participantes de los distritos metropolitanos de Murcia (España) y Leeds (Inglaterra) ante nombres, hipocorísticos y apodos de personas. Se han formulado varias preguntas de investigación con el fin de llevar a cabo este estudio: 1. ¿Cuáles son las reacciones suscitadas por los nombres, hipocorísticos y apodos de personas en el distrito metropolitano de Murcia? 2. ¿Qué reacciones han provocado los nombres, hipocorísticos y apodos de persona en el distrito metropolitano de Leeds? 3. ¿Qué relación hay entre las reacciones de nombres, hipocorísticos y apodos de persona en el distrito metropolitano de Murcia y las del distrito metropolitano de Leeds? Estas preguntas se plantearán analizando los siguientes aspectos: A. Elección en base a la edad respecto a nombres completos frente a formas acortadas, cambiadas o alargadas a) Relación entre la edad y la preferencia por una forma de nombre concreta b) Otros factores relacionados con la preferencia por una forma de nombre B.