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This section will outline some of the key features found in both older and more recent field names as well as across simplexes and compounds. These features are:

how field names are coined, fields with multiple names, and the frequency of the definite article.

4.4.1. Field naming and ‘convenience names’

In the record for one farm, Cairnfold and Tethyknowe, thirteen of the fifteen field names are marked as being ‘convenience names’ used by the farmer, with the remaining two being ‘original names’. The two older names in this case are Drove Field and Drover’s Rest whilst the convenience names are: Burn Field, Cottage Field, Dump Field, Fox Field, Longpoint Field, Roadside Field, Sheila’s Field,

Tethyknowe Field, Wee Field, two fields known as Barnhill Fields and one known by the alternative names Far Field or Silage Field (see further section 4.4.2).

Somewhat similar to this set of names are a group of names in Easter Balgedie which are noted to be ‘those which the farmer would have given [the fields] if he had got round to it’. These seven names are: Black Moss, Front Bank, Loch, Long Bank, Marsh, Mid Bank and North Bank. Together, the names of Cairnfold and Tethyknowe and those of Easter Balgedie highlight the ad hoc nature of field

naming with farmers coining transparent and descriptive names for everyday usage.

These names also underline the largely unofficial nature of field names, a feature of field names reported elsewhere (e.g. Burns, 2015:108; Taylor et al., 2017:68).

The two ‘original names’ in Cairnfold and Tethyknowe also demonstrate another aspect of field naming; the continued use of older names. A similar situation is found in Grahamstone, where a number of names are marked as being older names which have been retained including The Moss and The House Field, whilst several others are noted as being new including The Corner Field and The Tractor Shed Field. Likewise, in another farm, Briglands, three field names, East Park, West Park and Woodlands, are recorded both in nineteenth-century estate plans and then again in the twentieth-century survey. The presence of older names

is also suggested by the appearance of fauld, an outdated farming term, in field names collected during the 1970s such as Broxfauld in East Brackley and Hanging Fauld in Cleish Mill (see further section 4.5.1). Further, evidence of an older name continuing in use can be identified through the Ordnance Survey Name Books. These records contain details about place names as well as buildings surveyed for the Ordnance Survey first edition maps during the mid-1800s. For example, Kebbuck Moss, a field name collected in the 1970s from Flockhouse, is recorded from

1853-55 (OS1/13/4/46). Additionally, as in other types of place names, descriptive names are retained after the feature which they denote has gone. For example, the pear trees which gave rise to the name Pear Tree Field in Springfield were gone by the time the farm was surveyed in the 1970s. Likewise, Red House Field in East Netherton no longer has a red house on it due to a road being built. The continued use of older names means that the date at which a field name is recorded cannot be taken to be the date at which it was coined. The problematic dating of these names can impede efforts to compare them with contemporary language usages.

4.4.2. Name changes and multiple names

Field names from four farms, Briglands, Carsegour and Ard Gairney, Findatie, and Kinneston, were collected in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as well as during the 1970s. These four farms therefore offer insight into how field names have changed over time. In only one case, Briglands, are names from the earlier sources still recorded in the 1970s survey, though even here such names are in the minority (three out of nine are retained). That nearly all of the earlier field names from these four farms are replaced indicates the dynamic nature of field naming. These changes also perhaps highlight how field names regularly function as descriptions as the name may change as the land does. For example, Wood Park in Briglands becomes Railway Park following the building of the railway, whilst

Meadow in Findatie becomes Pylon Field due to the building of a pylon. Similarly, field names using fold and its variants are also replaced as the infield-outfield system of farming to which it refers is lost (Burns, 2015:76, 153). In Carsegour and Ard Gairney, for example, New Folds becomes Bottom Drum Brae and in Findatie, Blackfold becomes Lochside. Whilst the motivations behind these name changes are apparent, in other cases the reasoning is less clear as they do not seem to relate to

changes in the fields themselves. For instance, Hill Centre in Kinneston was once Black Bank and West Park in Briglands was Linn Park. One explanation, suggested by the ‘convenience names’ and those in Easter Balgedie, is that farmers rename fields once they take them over, possibly drawing upon features which are particularly salient to them.

In addition to names shifting over time, there are eleven fields across nine farms which have two names at the same time used interchangeably. These are listed below:

Lomondville/South Park (Butterwell Farm); The Midden Field/The Meadow (East Brackley); Pylon Field/Level Crossing Field; Field over the

road/Cottage Field; Monument Field/Rose Field (Gairneybridge Farm); The Common/Plantation (Pittendreich); Chapel Field/Graveyard (Portmoak Farm); Howgate Hill/The Brae (Scotlandwell); North Earl Haig Field/7 Acre Field (Tillyrie); Bonarty Hill/The Hill (West Brackly); Commonty/Peat Potts (Whole Commonty of Portmoak Moss).

As can be seen, the alternative names sometimes draw on the same or similar features of the field as in Howgate Hill/The Brae, Bonarty Hill/The Hill and Chapel Field/Graveyard. In the second of these, Bonarty Hill/The Hill, it is possible that the second name is simply a shortened version for easier everyday use. More

typically, the two alternative names draw on different aspects and suggest that the fields can be construed in multiple ways. For example, Field over the road

describes the location of the field whilst Cottage Field focuses on its contents.

Meanwhile, Rose Field references the use of the land to cultivate roses whilst Monument Fields signals that in the same space there is a monument. These instances underline the flexibility of the field naming system and its reliance on denotative meaning, perhaps in a similar manner to the aliases and doublets of the personal names case study where instability in the naming system could be

suggested by individuals bearing more than one name such as Johanne Patersoun alias Striveling (ALHT v.6) (see section 3.3.9).

4.4.3. The definite article

Amongst the Kinross-shire field names, the definite article more commonly occurs with simplex names than with compound names. Yet, even here definite articles are fairly infrequent, occurring in thirty-two percent of newer simplexes and only eight percent of earlier simplexes. This pattern contrasts with previous work on the definite article in other Scottish toponyms which proposes that simplex forms consistently take the definite article (Drummond (2014:93) (see further section 5.6.3). The occurrence of simplex forms without the definite article in the current study is partly due to the fact that some simplexes would be ungrammatical should the definite article be added; they may be prepositional phrases such as Back of House, adjectives like Heathery, or place names like Fruix. Yet, a number of simplexes composed of single nouns, such as Carse, which could take the definite article, do not. Burns (2015:94) reports that in her data, the definite article was often optional and occurrences of the same name with and without it were

recorded. It is therefore possible that names like Carse in the present corpus may in other circumstances occur with the definite article, due either to its varied usage by the community or to the recorder’s choice. With regards to compound field names, the definite article is even more scarce, occurring in just five percent of new names and 0.33 percent of earlier names.

In neither simplex nor compound field names does the definite article appear to be linked to denotative meaning. Instead, names with and without the definite article can have lexical and descriptive meaning as exemplified by The Piggery, The Rough Ground, Knowe and Stackyard Field, all of which are denotative. The lack of correspondence between grammar and denotative meaning contrasts with the findings of Case Study One on personal names. That meaning and the definite article are not linked in the field names also contrasts with other types of place names which have been shown to use the definite article as an indicator of lexical value. In their discussion of transparent major place names, for example, Taylor and Márkus (2006-2012, v:147) cite early forms with the definite article as possible evidence for a name still functioning with lexical meaning. Similarly, in her

discussion of place name evidence for the word flash, Grant (2011) notes that

‘name formations incorporating the definite article, such as 'The Flash' and 'The Flosh', appear to imply a degree of lexical use’.

4.5. Semantics of names