Antecedent Generics: How Capes, Lakes, Mounts, and Points Are Named in the Antipodes

Jan Tent*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Toponymic literature often mentions that the names of geographic features generally have the structure: specific + generic. While this is often the case, there are a set of geographic features that regularly do not follow this sequence. These are capes, lakes, mountains, and points. Their order of elements is often the reverse: generic + specific. By using toponyms from the Gazetteer of Australia and the New Zealand Gazetteer, this article shows there is indeed a distinct and suggestive pattern to the names that these features bear, explores this phenomenon and attempts to discover reasons for this trend.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)148-157
Number of pages10
JournalNames
Volume64
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jul 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Australia
  • cape
  • lake
  • mount
  • New Zealand
  • placename generics
  • placename specifics
  • point

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