The Distribution of Surnames in Xiantao City through Isonymy

The population migration in Hubei Province was frequent in history,accompanied by the migration of surnames,so it is important to study their population surnames.We take Xiantao City as an example to explore the isonymic structure of small and medium-sized cities in Hubei.The surname distributions of 223327 residents registered in 2013 were analyzed in 5 towns and 105 villages of Xiantao.The number of different surnames found was 422.As for surnames,theα-value reflects the influence of ethnic composition on the abundance of surnames.The correlation between the isonymic distance and the geographic distance between villages was calculated and indicated that Euclidean distance was weakly correlated with the geographic distance(r=0.177±0.012),and the isonymic distance increased with the geographical distance.Furthermore,the dendrogram and PCA built from the matrix of Euclidean distances between villages identified a main surname differentiation between the urban and rural areas.

Naming Conventions and the Perception of Selfhood:A Cross-cultural Reflection on Women’s Surnames in the Anglosphere vs.the Hispanic Model

The naming convention in English-speaking countries(e.g.,USA and UK),and several others in the Western culture,where women traditionally have adopted their husbands’surnames,is compared with the naming convention in Spain and Latin America,where women do not relinquish their maiden surnames.From a cross-cultural perspective spanning over three centuries,from Madame de Staël and Virginia Woolf to Hillary Clinton,this essay renders instances of women who took on the surname of their spouse upon marriage.It appears that even nowadays many women,including feminists,choose to comply with this patriarchal habit.Entanglements arising upon divorce or remarriage,such as traceability and perception of selfhood,especially for women with academic and professional profiles,are discussed here.Samples collected from life and literature across a fairly representative cultural range and diverse moments in history help to reach conclusions and come up with a consistent argument.Winds of change seem to be blowing with Vice President Kamala Harris,whose case is mentioned at the end of this essay.To circumvent the confusion for individuals and families(especially“blended”ones)that could result in the discrimination between males and females,on the one hand,and on the other hand,between married and unmarried women,the Spanish naming convention is proposed as a perfect compromise.This consists in every person bearing two surnames from birth and for good:one of each parent.Thus,women would keep their name(s),and along with them their perception of their self and their social and professional identity.

An Etymological Study of English Surnames

Surname, as precious cultural heritage, has been playing an important role in human development. Closely related with history, religion, tradition and the like, it draws lasting attention from many scholars and is studied from various angles. However,the study of English surnames in light of etymological is rarely conducted. This thesis regards English surnames as a kind of ordinary words as well as special words. By analysis, the thesis makes an attempt to dig in the origins of English surnames and aims to demonstrate the feasibility of applying lexicology theories into surname analysis and embody their significance in practice.

A Bayesian Mixture Model Approach to Disparity Testing

The topic of this article is one-sided hypothesis testing for disparity, i.e., the mean of one group is larger than that of another when there is uncertainty as to which group a datum is drawn. For each datum, the uncertainty is captured with a given discrete probability distribution over the groups. Such situations arise, for example, in the use of Bayesian imputation methods to assess race and ethnicity disparities with certain insurance, health, and financial data. A widely used method to implement this assessment is the Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) method which assigns a discrete probability over six race/ethnicity groups to an individual given the individual’s surname and address location. Using a Bayesian framework and Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling from the joint posterior distribution of the group means, the probability of a disparity hypothesis is estimated. Four methods are developed and compared with an illustrative data set. Three of these methods are implemented in an R-code and one method in WinBUGS. These methods are programed for any number of groups between two and six inclusive. All the codes are provided in the appendices.

外国汉语学习者所需的语用信息在何处提供?——以英汉学习词典中的surname词条为例

目前,供外国汉语学习者使用的汉英学习词典数量不多,其中的语用信息比较缺乏,不够系统。因此,为他们编写的学习词典中系统地提供语用信息非常必要。为了提供汉语语用知识,词典的方向性非常重要。从本质上讲,汉英学习词典对于外国汉语学习者而言是理解型的而非产出型的词典。有助于产出的语用信息最好在英汉学习词典中以多种方式提供。文章以surname为例说明了汉语语用信息在英汉学习词典的纵观、中观、微观结构中的呈现方式,并提供了该词条的样例。在英汉学习词典中为外国汉语学习者提供语用信息方面,还有很多问题可以进一步探讨。

A Surname Study in Terre Haute

The history of surname can be traced back to 12th century.People divided surnames into four categories:occupational names,nicknames,names of relationship and local names.This study tries to clarify a small number of surnames in Terre Haute,to describe their meanings and origins,and to discover the variation of the same surname,and discuss the significance of it.We can conclude from the study that local names took the largest account of all surnames in Terre Haute,USA.

Statistical distribution of Chinese names

This paper studies the statistical characteristics of Chinese surnames, first names and full names based on a credible sample. The distribution of Chinese surnames, unlike that in any other countries, shows an exponential pattern in the top part and a power-law pattern in the tail part. The distributions of Chinese first names and full names have the characteristics of a power law with different exponents. Finally, the interrelation of the first name and the surname is demonstrated by using a computer simulation and an exhibition of the name network. Chinese people take the surname into account when they choose a first name for somebody.

The Sumame of Turkish Women： A Question of Identity？

After the foundation of Turkish Republic in1923, Turkish Civil Code which was codificated from Switzerland in 1926 was a new code for modem Turkey that aimed gender equality. Even if, there were some articles, contrary to the equality of men and women, they were ignored when they were compared with the reforms performed in favor of women. The surname of woman was one of the issues where there was gender discrimination. In the Civil Code of 1926, it was stated that the married woman must have taken her husband＇s surname after the official marriage and she had to use it through her marriage life. In 1997, there was an amendment in TCC Article 153 that the married woman had the right to register her maiden name in front of her husband＇s surname which was also accepted in the new TCC in Article 187 in 2002. As the equality of the spouses is neglected under Article 187, many women are trying to change the current situation, by lawsuits. In this article, the regulations about the surname, will be discussed under personality rights and identity, within the current legislation with some court decisions from the last years in favor of women.

Initial Inquiry to English Names

This article is about some rules and sources of English names.