Quantifying the Lemma Massa as a Proper-Name in the John and Massa Tales

Abstract

English nouns have been described as having the ability to “switch easily between common-noun and proper-name uses.” Such changes or transformations are sometimes misanalysed by researchers and are often hard for ELL and L2 ESL researchers to detect. In this article, the author will analyze and tag the use of the Lemma MASTER (Massa/Maussa/Marsta/Marster/Master) as both a proper-name and as a common noun in the John and Massa tales from three corpora as well as provide a procedure for doing mixed method research to adjudicate differences in analysis offered by various scholars. The author will also discuss the need to add a fourth condition to Kripke's definition for proper names and why undertaking pragmatic and contextual analysis is warranted.