It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the website of the 27th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences.

We are pleased to inform you that the patronage over Congress was taken by the Mayor of the City of Krakow, prof. dr hab. Jacek Majchrowski, and His Magnificence Rector of the Jagiellonian University, prof. dr hab. Jacek Popiel.

Onomastics in interaction with other branches of science

The topic of the Congress is the interdisciplinarity of onomastic research. Interactions of onomastics with other branches of knowledge allow manifold approaches to names – classic or innovative, with respect both to the theory of onomastics and to the field’s practical aspects. In the philosophic discourse the issue of the relation between a proper name and a common name has been pondered since the antiquity. The sociological and sociolinguistic perspective allows research on the prestige of specific names as well as on the socio-cultural motivations of giving proper names. In historical research proper names, especially toponyms, may facilitate  reconstruction of settlement development. In religion studies the etymological meaning of theonyms makes it possible to discover connections between religious notions of various (often geographically distant) nations. From the legal and political point of view giving names and the development of personal names (including surnames) are of great importance as the stabilization of these names is subject to legal regulations in every country. Research on proper names may be useful to medicine as well. Discovering neurobiological mechanisms of finding proper names in a mental lexicon may turn out to be an important part of therapeutic procedures in patients with language disorders caused by neurological problems. The proposed topic of the Congress is meant to foster the discussion on how onomasticians perceive other branches of knowledge as well as on how representatives of those branches approach proper names. It is only the cooperation of these branches of science (i.e. of onomastics on the one hand and philosophy, sociology, psychology, psychiatry, communication studies, political studies, geography, history, archaeology, and natural sciences on the other hand) that makes it possible to fully describe and explain the complex history of onyms and their functioning in all aspects of modern life.

We divide the congress scientific programme into three main parts: plenary lectures, paper sessions, and special symposia devoted to presentation of onomastic research in the West Slavic countries: the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. Onomastic research has a very long tradition in these countries and has become a model for the development of onomastics in other countries. During the mentioned symposia we present the achievements of the Slavic onomastics to a larger auditorium.

The official languages of the congress are: English, German, French, and Russian.