Homonymy in the microtoponymy of the southeastern region of the Krosno district – genesis and typology

Abstract

The paper deals with the problems of homonymy in onomastics, which are quite rarely addressed in linguistic works. On the basis of microtoponyms collected during research in south-eastern Poland, the mechanisms of formation and functioning of naming homonymy are presented. The onymic material extracted for the research has been presented in two groups containing appellative-onymic, and onymic-onymic homonyms. The first part of the article focuses on the characteristics of referential homonyms, i.e. repeated field names referring to different denotates (referents, objects), but functioning within the same category of microtoponyms (e.g. names of mountains, fields, forests, streams). The second part presents metonymic homonyms, names with the same form (but pointing to different denotatives) that remain in a metonymic relationship. The focus here is mainly on the description of reified denotations, formed by the transposition of a name from one object to another (adjacent to it).