A voltas co uso do artigo nas denominacións toponímicas

Abstract

The object of this work is to study the nature and functions of the article that in a large percentage of cases, both in Portuguese and in Spanish, precedes the names of places such as in A Coruña, Os Peares, El Escorial, Los Monegros. The idea, generally accepted, that this article is part of the place name is only true in rare cases, such as Oporto and Alcalá in Spanish, or Arriba, Ocastro and Acernada in Portuguese, this is due to the fact that apart from blending with the place name, the article no longer is felt or functions as a real article.
Nevertheless, as it is stated in the pages that follow, usually the article preceding place names continues to operate as such article and therefore creates a new place name, which cannot be interpreted as part of the name that goes with it. This form which is called here sintagma denominativo (denominative phrase), can play three different grammatical functions: the anaphoric function (eg, in O Minho, O Pindo, El Ebro), the function of recategorization (thus, in a Galicia medieval, el Madrid de los Austrias) and finally, the pleonastic one, for example, in A Coruña, La Rioja. Admittedly, in the later case, the article is more linked to the place name -hence the custom of writing it with initial capital letter, but it is still behaving as such, as evidenced by the fact that it is incompatible with another article of anaphoric character or recategorization (eg, in a Coruña de antes da guerra / *a A Coruña de antes da guerra), or preceded by certain prepositions, it merges with them (thus, Vai na Coruña, Anda polas Pontes). The conclusion which follows from all this is that the so called pleonastic article as well as the anaphoric one and the one with the function of recategorization can also be translated both in oral and written forms into a target language, other than the one that originated the place names, therefore: Nació en la Mariña, Veño das Batuecas.