Ces noms communément appelés propres et improprement appelés communs

Starting from a redefinition of the class of nouns, this study surveys the issues raised by proper nouns in particular and proper names more generally. It reviews and subsequently rejects the traditional criteria for proper nouns/names, viz. untranslatability, the initial capital letter, and zero determination, in favour of a semantics that substitutes discourse-level sense for system-level meaning. As a result, boundaries are redrawn both within the category 'proper noun' and between proper and common nouns.SCOPUS: re.j