Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
Why a taboo on a name is a kind of grammar
A forbidden name forces a regular substitute, which is a rule about what may be said.
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From the opening
A taboo on a name is a kind of grammar because it is a rule that forbids a known form in a certain context and requires a substitute. Speakers are not forgetting the name; they are obeying a constraint on what may be uttered, the way they obey other constraints on form. The opening covers a known form that may not be said, the substitute is conventional, and imperial characters avoided in writing.
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Inside
- A known form that may not be said
- The substitute is conventional
- Imperial characters avoided in writing
- A ban is not a gap in vocabulary
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- The Tetragrammaton and the read substitute in Jewish tradition
- Chinese naming taboo and the avoidance of imperial characters