Names for urban places and conceptual taxonomies: the view from Italian

Abstract

ABSTRACT The goal of this paper is to offer an analysis of urbanonyms, names for urban places, and show how this analysis can inform a conceptual taxonomy of urban places via the cultural lens of language. To reach this goal, the paper offers a classification of Italian urbanonyms (e.g., Via Nazionale “National Street”) based on data extraction from the Pagine Gialle directory, and a taxonomy of place concepts. This classification is obtained via a lexicographic analysis of extracted terms and their sense relations. A discussion of place concepts unique to cities across Italy is offered, as proof of the importance of cultural and linguistic facets. The paper concludes by discussing how these results can inform research on place ontologies across disciplines.