Roberts, Michael (2017). The semantics of demonyms in English: Germans, Queenslanders, and Londoners. In Zhengdao Ye (Ed.), The semantics of nouns (pp. 205-220). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198736721.003.0008
This chapter explores the semantics of demonyms, as they are used in the English language, and demonstrates using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) that demonyms can be divided into a number of categories. Using ‘semantic templates’, it shows that the demonyms Germans, Queenslanders, and Londoners can be separated into categories based on their relationship to the semantic molecule ‘country’, and that without this semantic molecule, subtle differences in the use of the demonyms cannot be fully explained. For instance, corpus analysis reveals that the terms used refer to people from countries (Australians, Germans, Danes) do not occur with terms that refer to people from cities or town (Melbournians, Londoners, Parisians). Conceptually, people seem to understand that all demonyms are not the same, and that there are different types of demonyms. Therefore, this study focuses on identifying the types of demonyms, by exploring both their use and their semantic characteristics.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
