VIII Международный конкурс научно-исследовательских и творческих работ учащихся

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Формальные и неформальные географические названия Британии.

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Бабина А.В. 1

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1МАОУ Домодедовская СОШ №2

Филимонова Л.И. 1

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1МАОУ Домодедовская СОШ №2

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Introduction

Nowadays travelling is an integral part of our life. According to statistics, a lot of people go abroad and one of the most visited countries is the United Kingdom. They want to see the famous Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Parliament building and many of them do not even suspect that these attractions also have unofficial names, each of which has its own history and mystery. The knowledge of official and unofficial names gives us a new horizon, allows to understand the traditions of the country and customs of the people.

This work is aimed at finding out the objects in the UK which have official and unofficial names. They are cities, squares, streets, bridges, famous buildings.

Fundamental question: Informal British terms side by side with official names.

Suppose: unofficial names usually appear as the result of some historical events.

The matter for scientific inquiry: London, other cities and their sights.

The purpose is to show England as an interesting tourist destination, expand the horizons of knowledge concerning the names of objects.

The methods used in the research work are:

the method of collecting information in books and the Internet;

conducting a survey among the classmates;

comparison.

My work has a definite practical meaning – at English lessons I tell my classmates in the form of short reports about things they have never heard before.

Chapter I. Official and unofficial names.

Cities and towns

The kingdoms of England and Scotland, the Principality of Wales and the six counties of Northern Ireland are united in a single sovereign state - the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. "Britain" is an informal term to describe the United Kingdom. "Great Britain" properly refers to the island made up of Scotland, Wales and England although it is often used as an informal term representing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The country is famous for many things: its long history, its Royal Family, well-known personalities, Scottish kilts and pipes, its afternoon tea and numerous other things.

Great Britain is mainly an industrial country, and most of the people there live in towns and cities. Toponymy is the scientific study of place names, their origins, meanings, use and typology. The science divides place-names into two broad categories: habitation names and feature names. A habitation name denotes the category of people who inhabit this territory. Feature names refer to natural or physical features of the landscape. Besides, toponyms have their roots in migration, movement and interaction among people. Some places have more than one name. What is more, like humans some popular cities have their nicknames that are based on their specific qualities.

Аs for the nicknames of the UK, we should start with its capital, London. It is one of the world’s historical cities and once it was also the main city of the world. It has got many nicknames.London is actually a bit of an anomaly when it comes to nicknames. (Appendix1) Most people in the UK would probably shrug if you asked what London's nickname is. Despite that London's most common nickname through the ages has been The Smoke or The Big Smoke, mainly due to The Great Smog of 1952. The Big Smoke is in general a common name for big cities around the world.

Glasgow is the third largest city of Great Britain. You may feel its industrial energy everywhere in the city. Glasgow's nickname is Dear Green Place. It was named so because of the large abundance of parks , the oldest of which is Glasgow Green. Within a distance of a mile there are 7 bridges. They carry road and rail traffic in and out of the city. No other city of Scotland has or needs as many river crossings as Glasgow.

Nicknames of some other towns are presented in the table. (Appendix1)

2. Famous sights

I don’t know why, but people love giving nicknames to official places. These could be monuments, statues or even buildings. The point is that these names areinformal, usually easy to say. Some people like to use nicknames because these non-official words represent their history and customs better than their real names.

Almost all visitors of London buy a small souvenir in the shape of the world-famous clock. Also Big Ben can be often seen in famous films and ads. The official name of the tower is the “Westminster Palace Clock Tower” or “St. Stephen's Tower”. Big Ben is only the name of the clock itself along with the bell.

The contemporary tower of Big Ben was built according to Charles Barry’s project in the 19th century, as the old building was destroyed due to the fire of 1834.

We should remember that big Ben is an unofficial name itself. Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London. But even residents of the capital of the United Kingdom can not clearly say why the bell is called "Big Ben". Someone says that the name came from the name of the chief of construction works. This man, Benjamin by name, had quite a large body size , thus it was given the nickname " Big Ben". However, according to another version, the name was given by the workers who transported the bell from the foundry. Their hero was of heavy weight, a boxer Benjamin.

Speaking of famous attractions, we can not forget about another equally popular attractions, which today is the residence of the Queen.Under the new Crown ownership, the building was originally intended as a private retreat for King George III's wife, Queen Charlotte, and was accordingly known as The Queen's House. Remodelling of the structure began in 1762. In 1775, an Act of Parliament settled the property on Queen Charlotte, in exchange for her rights to Somerset House and 14 of her 15 children were born there. Some furnishings were transferred from Carlton House, and others had been bought in France after the French Revolution of 1789. While St James's Palace remained the official and ceremonial royal residence, the name "Buckingham palace" was used from at least 1791.

Talking about big Ben, we touched on another, no less important for London, attraction Westminster Palace. It was the main Royal residence during the late middle ages, and was the seat of Parliament's predecessors, the Royal Council, and the Parliament of Simon de Montfort in 1265. The first official Parliament of England met in the Palace in 1295, and since then almost all subsequent parliaments of England gathered here, so today the building of the Palace of Westminster many indigenous people call " Parliament".

Chapter 2.

Practical part

We decided to conduct a survey among students of our school in order to clarify if they know the unofficial names of British towns, cities and their sights. The respondents were presented with three tasks.

The first inquiry form was without the translations of the nicknames. The reason why to the next form Russian equivalents were added is that they could help in matching official and non-official names but didn’t. Only 38% of participants are well aware of the unofficial names. So, it is fact that many students are not familiar with nicknames of British places. But at the same time all of them feel the need to know more about the origin of geographical names. Maybe, while travelling it will help them to adapt to the country easily and quickly. The results are shown in the diagram. (Appendix 4)

Nevertheless, I think my schoolmates will try to find out more useful information in the field of toponymy and broaden horizon themselves.

Conclusion

The investigations in the field of toponymy is of importance for students. They can perfect their knowledge of foreign languages. The science helps better understand your native language. Writing this research work was difficult, but very exciting. In the course of my work I learned more about such a branch as toponymy. This work helped me to take a fresh look at the origins of unofficial names of different sights of the country. I am sure that the knowledge I have gained has allowed me to broaden horizon. Besides, I was given an opportunity to develop my research skills.

I learned that:

1) cities and sights are given nicknames as well as humans;

2) even not all residents know about the origin of non-official names of their places;

3) my classmates would visit Big Ben and London Eye first of all.

I have read a lot of useful information which will help me in my studies in the future.

Listofreferences

Беленькая В.Д. Очерки англоязычной топонимики. Учебное пособие Москва: «Высшая школа», 1977. - 277 с.

Рум А. Р. У. Великобритания: Лингвострановедческий словарь. – М.:Рус.яз.,1999.

«Неугомонные детки . Вокруг Света» , 7 выпуск ООО « ДжИ Фаббри Эдишинз», 2005 , 23

«Speak out», 120 выпуск ООО « Издательство Глосса-Пресс» , 2017 , 32

«Speak out», 4 выпуск ООО «Издательство Глосса-Пресс» , 2004 , 32

R Coates. Toponymic Topics - Essays on the early toponymy of the British Isles.

The Book of English Place Names: How Our Towns and Villages Got Their Names , 2011 by Ebury Press Hardcover, 304 pages

(Электронный ресурс) Источник : https://www.britain-visitor.com/britain-travel-guide/city-nicknames

Appendix I

Nicknames of cities and towns

Appendix 2

I. Match the British cities and towns to their nicknames

II. Match the British cities and towns to their nicknames using the translations

Appendix 3

III. Путешествуя по Англии, Вы бы посетили (распределить в порядке убывания интересов)

Appendix 4