Kva for motiv ligg bak namngjeving? Ei gransking med utgangspunkt i namn på klatreruter

Sammendrag

This article discusses the fundamental onomastic question of how names originate, based on the theory of cognitive grammar. To ex-plore this question, the author examines names of climbing routes. This type of names is spontaneously given and characterized by the fact that it is possible to gain direct access to the namer's rea-sons for choosing the name. Thus, they are favourable for investi-gating the range of motives behind acts of naming. The article ar-gues that the theory of cognitive grammar is a suitable framework for explaining how names originate since most of the names seem to have been created through analogy to units in lexicon as well as in onomasticon in the brain of the name giver.