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1、1. IntroductionJust like a pearl on the sea, the commonization of proper nouns have renovated and specified the concept of new words, acting as a brand-new role to attract a lot of academic eyes both in English linguistics and lexicology. And in this age of fast development of science and technology
2、, as well as the accelerated pace of daily life, a number of proper nouns are applied in a large scope including news reportage and science and technology articles in the fields as diverse as psychology ,medicine ,clothes, literature and food. The flexibility and adeptness of modern English has made
3、 it easy for every sort of proper nouns, ancient or modern, formal or informal, at home or abroad to find naturally and easily a place in its vocabulary.The focus of this study is about common nouns, adjectives or verbs, etc from proper nouns, i.e converted proper nouns. Since converted proper nouns
4、 give us a deeper insight into the meaning, the action, the culture related to proper nouns, such a study is not of culturally interesting and entertaining but also of academically and practically significant. Hopefully, this study can clearly explain the origin, classification, ways and the charact
5、eristics of converted proper nouns and put forward some advice on how to face this phenomenon in order to help learners get across their backgrounds and cultural meaning, remember and grasp these words and develop an interest and appreciation for CPNs, and then put them into practice in achieving th
6、e purpose of fluent communication.2. The definition of nounsBefore we begin to study, three noun phrases should be clearly understood, what is proper noun, what is common noun and the definition of commonization of proper nouns. First let us look at some different views on the definition of proper n
7、ouns.2.1 The definition of proper nounsAs for the definition of proper nouns, views on it differ a lot from person to person. The following two linguists give us an accurate and more scientific definition while common people have a more user-friendly definition in order to help people understand it
8、better.2.1.1 Pennanens definition of proper nounsPennanen, as a famous linguist, has his own understanding about the definition of proper nouns as followings:The definition of proper noun and proper name is not clear cut: a proper noun is defined as a proper name, such as Huston, Morris, the West In
9、dians and the British Isles, etc. Some of them usually constitute a noun phrase all by itself. (Pennanen, 1988, p. 36)The definition of proper name is that a proper name is a noun or noun phrase whose only function is to pick out some individual person, place or thing, which conventionally takes cap
10、ital letters in English, but some words which are conventionally capitalized are not proper names, such as Wednesday and October, which, however, are included by Quirk as proper nouns. 2.1.2 Quirks definition of proper nouns“Proper nouns are basically to be names of people (Shakespeare), places (Mil
11、waukee), months (September), days (Thursday), festivals (Christmas), magazines (Vogue), and, etc”. (Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech & Jan Svartvik, 1985, p. 66) Proper nouns do not generally share the formal characteristics of common nouns. Particularly, they are lack of articles,
12、or rather article contrast.2.1.3 Common understanding of proper nounsCommonly speaking, proper nouns refer to specific names of a country, a place, a person, a month, a week, a festival, a magazine or a book. It is the only way to note a special or fixed time, object or a thing.2.2 The definition of
13、 common nounsWhen it comes to common nouns, it means a word to describe the title of an object, such as animal (tiger, lion, snake, etc.), and it is a general concept.2.3 The definition of commonization of proper nouns Lang Xianhui, a scholar from Dalian Marine University, gives people her own under
14、standing about the commoization of proper nouns as followings:Any long-used and well-developed language accumulates a supply of general-utility of words that have such broad meanings and general application that they can be utilized in great many ways. In the process of conversion, proper nouns, whi
15、ch begin as specific names for things, lose its precise denotation and their meanings are extended, generalized or blurred. (Lang, 2002, p. 47)Proper nouns are an important part of language, originally, acting as a role of alleged and title, i.e, referring to a person or an object when comes to conc
16、ept. It is the most primary way for people to get an access to objective world. However, with the development of society, their uniqueness is gone with the time, while their common features have been enhanced gradually. That is to say, the proper nouns, originally, referring to a specific person or an object; have converted into common nouns with common meanings. This is called, in linguistics, commonization or generalization of prope
