Prototypical Peripheral Toponym Pairs Expressing the Concept \u2018All Over the Country\u2019 as a Part of the Mental Map

Abstract

Expressing the concept ‘all over the country’ by mentioning one or more name pairs is a well-known phenomenon. A Dutch example is ‘Van Delfzijl tot Maastricht’, Delfzijl being situated in the extreme north of the country, Maastricht in the south. Such expressions are not only used on the national level, but also on subnational (for example, provinces) and supranational levels. Obviously, they arise spontaneously, many of them being preceded (or followed) by phrases like “overal in Nederland” [all over the Netherlands]; it is improbable indeed that anyone would first turn to an atlas or map before creating them. This paper departs from the idea that, if a country (etc.) has oblong contours, toponym pairs may preferably be chosen which are most distant from each other; this would illustrate ‘ubiquity’ better than choosing shorter ones. It focuses on the Netherlands and will deal, among others, with the following questions: (1) Which toponyms are most ‘popular’, and why? (2) If toponyms refer to cities and towns, does their ‘popularity’ correlate with a high population, with news coverage, or both? (3) Is there a preference for any combination of compass directions, for example, for cardinal points (contrary to ordinal ones)? And if so, is the combination of compass directions concerned associated with the longitudinal direction (if the country concerned has oblong contours)? (4) Is there a fixed pattern in the direction expressed by the name order within name pairs? It is, for example, conceivable that there is a tendency to prefer N–S to S–N, considering the prominent position of the northern compass point.