昨日の記事「#5470. 中英語における職業を表わす by-name の取り扱い」 ([2024-04-18-1]) に続く話題．中英語の職業 by-name の分野で影響力のある単著を出した Fransson によると，同分野を研究する意義は多岐にわたる (18--19) ．

The value of an investigation such as the present one is manifold. Besides explaining modern surnames, as has already been mentioned, it gives us many new words not previously found and furthermore early and often numerous instances of other common or rare words. By means of these early examples new light is not seldom thrown on the etymology, and the signification may sometimes be altered. In contradistinction to the literature of this period, the time and the place of the occurrence of each instance of a surname are well fixed, and thus the material gives a contribution to Middle English phonology. This material has hitherto not been used by linguists, but it is of the greatest value for the determination of the extension of the different dialects, as the same word can be followed in the different parts of England; there is hardly any other material that can be compared with that of surnames in this respect. --- The distribution is also shown not only of surnames, but also of the various names that a trade may have; the case is that a trade often had different names in different parts of England. Last, but not least, the civilization of this period is elucidated; we are informed what trades existed, how common they were in relation to each other, in what parts of England they flourished, and how specialized they were.

　まとめると次の7点．

　・ 現代の by-name を説明する
　・ 新語の発見，あるいはすでに知られている語の早期の文証例の発掘が見込める
　・ 早期の例を通じて，語源や語義の理解が深まることがある
　・ 生起例の時期と場所が分かっているので，中英語の音韻論研究に寄与する
　・ 同一の名前が異なる方言に現われるので，中英語方言研究に資する
　・ 同一の職業名も異なる地域で異なる呼ばれ方をするので，やはり中英語方言研究に貢献する
　・ 当時の職業文化が明らかになる

　同分野の研究は，言語学的な観点に限っても，上記のほかに形態論，意味論，語彙論，統語論，言語接触，多言語使用状況などに新たな光を与えてくれると期待される．

　・ Fransson, G. Middle English Surnames of Occupation 1100--1350, with an Excursus on Toponymical Surnames. Lund Studies in English 3. Lund: Gleerup, 1935.

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