Comparative research of Czech and Finnish place names: Possible problems related to classification, terminology and other differences.
Abstrakt
This paper deals with colour terms in place names of two different languages and focuses on the issues which might arise in such research. In the case of Czech and Finnish place names, the differences consist primarily in the language systems and in the way words (and names) are formed, and also in the landscape types and the way they are perceived (e.g. in Czech swamps are ranked as water names, whereas in Finnish as terrain names).
These differences do not hinder comparative research of colour terms and place names, which are both universal and present in all languages, however, they are reflected in the terminology and classification of both languages and they should be dealt with as long as the description of the material is to be consistent and clear. This can be solved by applying a classification and terminology based on the specific research material and on the features common to both languages (in this case, to the level of individual landscape features, such as forest, field, lake).