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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Names
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References: <3p8r3v$8vn@ixnews3.ix.netcom.com> <xstea05.151.2FB87019@vse.cz> <1995May18.100458.1@ctdvx5.priv.ornl.gov> <3pi721$4q2@dove.nist.gov>
Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 16:20:08 GMT
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In article <3pi721$4q2@dove.nist.gov>,
Bill Fisher <billf@jaguar.ncsl.nist.gov> wrote:
>In article <1995May18.100458.1@ctdvx5.priv.ornl.gov>, s25@ctdvx5.priv.ornl.gov writes:
>> In article <xstea05.151.2FB87019@vse.cz>, xstea05@vse.cz writes:

>> >>        1.  What is the American translation of the Italian name       
>> >>    "Guissepi"? 

>  This made me think a little about names and meanings.  With a very
>few exceptions, proper names don't have sense, they only have reference,
>right?.  So if the meaning is just the set of things that the noun is normally
>used to refer to, then I don't see how it makes sense to say a
>particular English name is a translation of any particular Italian name.

	It makes sense because the link exists in people's minds.
On some level, "Giuseppe", "Jos'e", "J'ozsef", "Iosif", "Yusuf", etc.
are considered the "same names" as "Joseph."  People say "Jos'e is
Spanish for Joseph" all the time and, in many cases, address people
with the name Jos'e as "Joe" or "Joseph," sometimes in jest, sometimes
habitually.

	"Translation" may not be the best term for this kind of equi-
valence, but I'm hard-pressed to find another.  After all, if it makes
no sense to say "Jupp" is a translation of "Joe," does it make any
sense to call "deutsch" a translation of "German"?
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
