Month: June 2017

Group suggests adding tag to resurrected extinct animal names

A group of German scientists has suggested that the formal names of extinct animals should be given a special linguistic tag to indicate their origins. The purpose of the tagging is to provide an onomastic distinction between extinct species and species that have been resurrected from the DNA of their long-gone ancestors.

In a Policy Forum piece in the journal Science, the group suggests adding the tag “recr” to scientific names given to resurrected creatures to make sure they are not confused with the original. Want to learn more about this project? Click here.

ICTMO 2017: 19th International Conference on Taxonomy of Marine Organisms, Zurich, Switzerland, July 27-28 2017

The 19th International Conference on Taxonomy of Marine Organisms will be held from July 27-28, 2017 in Zurich, Switzerland. This conference is considered a premier interdisciplinary platform for discussing new advances in marine taxonomy.

The ICTMO 2017 aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of Taxonomy of Marine Organisms. It also provides a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of Taxonomy of Marine Organisms. The conference program can be found here.

TSS2017: International Terminology Summer School, Cologne, Germany, July 10-14 2017

The International Terminology Summer School (TSS) is the leading and largest international summer school for terminology professionals with about 80 participants from some 40 countries and almost every continent. From July 10-14 2017, TSS offers a one-week, practice-oriented training course covering a comprehensive overview of the methods and principles of terminology management. The course is taught by some of the most renowned and prominent terminology experts in the world. Participation in TSS qualifies to obtain the ECQA Certificate for Terminology Managers.

TSS is offered by TermNet, the largest international terminology network world-wide. Established in 1988 with the main aim to foster and develop an international market for terminology products and services, TermNet today represents the leading organizations in the global terminology and language industries.

TSS was designed for language and terminology professionals, students and researchers who are looking for a practice-oriented, comprehensive, state-of-the-art introduction to terminology management theory and practice. No specific background or knowledge level is required to participate. However, the course is most beneficial to those who have at least minimum experience working with or on terminology.

CLLT: 1st International Congress of Lexicology, Lexicography and Terminology, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, July 5-7 2017

The International Congress of Lexicology, Lexicography and Terminology (CLLT) will be held from the 3rd to the 5th of July 2017 at the Universidad Nacional De Cordoba in Argentina. This inclusive meeting proposes the idea of building bridges between current lexicological, lexicographic and terminological studies, considering these disciplines as complementary entities, and considering their corresponding objects of study as belonging to a shared system.

Given the growing interest in these disciplines and the number of studies which emerge from them, it is the aim of the CLLT to provide these different fields with an importance of their own, where the lines separating them blur. It is thus expected that a dialogue and an exchange between lexicology, lexicography and terminology will take place, and will consequently bring about discussions and reflections on certain essential aspects of the work with words, from different academic histories and viewpoints.

The CLLT’s most important aim, and its main challenge at the same time, is to overcome the frontiers and hermetic positions between lexicological and terminological studies. At the same time, this Conference aims at becoming a space of convergence of ideas and conceptions, as well as different interests, objectives and perspectives.

 

50th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, University of Zurich, Switzerland, Sept. 10-13 2017

The University of Zurich will be hosting the 50th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea from the 10th to the 13th of September 2017. Registration for this event will close on the 1st of August 2017. The program for the conference can be found at the website. The conference includes a workshop titled “The grammar of names“, convened by Antje Dammel (University of Freiburg), Johannes Helmbrecht (University of Regensburg), Damaris Nübling (University of Mainz), Barbara Schlücker (University of Bonn) & Thomas Stolz (University of Bremen).

Reminder: Seeking New ANS Officers for 2018

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Ever thought about getting more involved with the American Name Society but did not know how?  Here is your opportunity!  The American Name Society is currently looking for a few good people who are interested in joining the Executive Council.  Starting January 2017, new officers will be needed to fill the positions listed below.

 

To apply for one or more of these positions, please fill out the application form on this page.

 

ANS Treasurer (2018-2020)

The person elected to this position will be responsible for keeping official record of all funds and securities of the Society; giving and keeping receipts for moneys due and payable to the Society; depositing all moneys in the name of the Society; responding to inquiries from annual conference attendees regarding registration payments; and informing the ANS President, the members of the ANS Executive Council, and the general membership about the financial status of the Society via an end-of-the year fiscal report. The ANS Treasurer will work closely with the ANS President, Vice President, and Membership Officer as well as Taylor & Francis, the current publisher of the ANS Journal NAMES. The person elected to this position is expected to have demonstrable accounting experience and competence in using standard spreadsheets programs (e.g., Excel). Applicants for this position must be long-term ANS members in good standing.

 

Member-at-large (2017-2020)

The person elected to this position will serve as a voting member of the Executive Council (EC) and is expected to participate actively in the legislative decision-making involved in resolutions and motions placed before the EC.  In addition to these duties, members-at-large serve on various auxiliary sub-committees to, for example, help with the nomination of new officers, coordination of the annual conference, and organization of allied conferences.  Officers in this position can renew their term of service twice.

 

Allied Conference Coordinator (2018-2020)

The person elected to this position is principally responsible for organizing the ANS session at the annual conference of the Modern Language Association. This activity involves issuing a call for papers, assembling a team of abstract reviewers, selecting three authors whose work will be presented at the MLA conference, and coordinating the presentation of the three winning abstracts with the MLA administration. In addition to these duties, as a voting member of the ANS Executive Council (EC), the Allied Conference Coordinator participates in the legislative decision-making of the Society. Although the term of service for this position is for two years, the holder of this office may be re-elected pending approval by the EC. Given the fact that this position requires close communication with the MLA, candidates who have a demonstrated expertise in literary onomastics will receive preference.

 

Coordinators for 4 ANS Facebook Special Interest Groups (2018-2020)

The people elected to these positions are principally responsible for managing the ANS Facebook Special Interest Groups (SIGs). There are four ANS SIGs: 1) Personal Names, 2) Literary Names, 3) Trade Names, and 4) Place Names. For each of one of those SIGs, the coordinator is responsible for stimulating and monitoring discussions between users; regularly posting material of thematic interest; answering queries from the general public; and coordinating an informal gathering in-person during the annual ANS meetings. The people chosen for these positions are expected to have excellent writing skills; be a frequent and enthusiastic Facebook user; and have a demonstrable interest in the thematic area of the relevant SIG. The coordinators of the ANS Facebook SIGs will work closely with one another, the ANS President and Vice President, and the ANS Information Officer.

About Names: Nicole popularized by films, France, Fitzgerald

Yvette Nicole Brown by Gage Skidmore

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his June 20 column, he looks at the history of the name Nicole.  Nicole Kidman, who played those characters in “Batman Forever,” “Moulin Rouge!” and “Lion,” turns 50 today. Kidman is an Oscar winner; in 2002, she won for best actress in a leading role, playing British writer Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.”

Her given name is a French feminine form of Nicholas, Greek “nikê”, “victory” and “laos,” “people.” The name’s biggest surge in popularity came in 1969. A 134 percent rise landed it in 47th place when the soap opera “The Edge of Night” introduced vivacious fan favorite Nicole Travis (played by Maeve McGuire).

Nicole, with its similarity to fashionable French sisters Michelle, Danielle and Stephanie, marched upward until peaking in 1983. That year, 1.25 percent of girls born that year were named Nicole, ranking it seventh. Read on to find out more about Nicoles in history!

 

Conference: Theorizing Contacts in the Roman Empire, Edinburgh, Scotland, Dec. 8-9 2017

From the 8th to the 9th of December 2017, the University of Edinburgh will be holding a conference highlighting the nexus between onomastics, multilingualism, and multiculturalism in ancient Rome. Entitled “Theorizing Contacts in the Roman Empire”, the event will feature scholarly papers from leading experts in classical studies. Although the official call for papers has passed, details about the conference subject matter can be found at the website of the Society for Classical Studies.

The aim of this conference is to assess the validity and scope of a variety of some of these models, with a particular focus on multilingualism and multiculturalism. By promoting and facilitating dialogue between disciplines, we shall aim to provide effective tools for different fields’ approaches in parallel (e.g. historical and linguistic). This has already been done very successfully in a few cases (e.g. ‘code-switching’), though greater interaction remains a desideratum. It is hoped that the participants will thereby open the discussion for a ‘theory of contact’ in the Roman world.

Will Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne be renamed?

This summer, Australians were unexpectedly hit by an onomastic storm. The controversy began when Margaret Court, former Australian winner of the Tennis Grand Slam and current 74-year-old founder of the Victory Life Church in Perth, released a series of criticisms against same-sex marriage. In reaction to this commentary, civil rights activists and sports legends joined forces to call for the removal Court’s name on a professional court arena in Melbourne. Although Australia’s Prime Minister first refused to entertain calls to rename the court, pressure from the international sports community has continued to mount. Martina Navratilova has written an open letter calling for the name change.