Historical Code-mixing and Hybrid Place-names in England

Abstract

The purpose of the dissertation is to present a corpus-based analysis of hybrid place-names occurring in England within the framework of historical sociolinguistics and historical codeswitching. The various types of place-name formations found in England will be presented and it will be argued that certain formations can be construed as instances of historical codemixing and that the sociolinguistic and stratal relationship of languages involved in the creation of hybrid place-names is the main determinant of the outcome of toponymic influence. The nature of the creation of toponyms will also be surveyed, and it will be argued that they are in fact darkened compounds whose semantic content is the main determiner of the changes that will affect them.