Między nomen appellativum a nomen proprium w poznańskich księgach ziemskich z XIV i XV wieku

Abstract

The article discusses the transition of words from the category of common names to the category of proper names. The way of naming people in the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century court books indicates that it was a long process, in which the common denomination (e.g. voivode, castellan) fulfilled a double function before it became a proper name. In the complex descriptive and binominal formations it was additional information. When occurred alone, it often meant not only a common name, but also pointed to a particular person, i.e., it belonged to the transition phase between the nomen appellativum and nomen proprium.