Geographical common words, as expressions marking places, are of central importance to the lexicon of any language, which is also true of Hungarian, because it is only these elements that can identify a certain type of locations. The research of geographical common words is especially significant in Hungarian, because they belong to that group of words which have very early attestations time and can be efficiently used. The stock of geographical common words has yet been studied in its entirety, nevertheless, the author makes an attempt to fill in some of this gap.

The volume consists of five chapters; in the first, which lays down the theoretical foundations of her research, the author gives a definition of geographical common words and also clarifies the functions of lexical toponym formants. The author analyzes two separate roles of geographical common words in the chapters that follow: on the one hand, instances of geographical appellatives in toponyms as well as their use as common words in charters are categorized. Since, however, the system of geographical common words is also subject to change, this aspect is also given a detailed treatment in this chapter. The process of change observable in geographical common words has also shed light on the areal connections of this word group. The final case study in the volume is devoted to theoretical and methodological considerations in order to illustrate changes in geographical common words by demonstrating their etymologies and presenting some of the items that originally did not denote places. Special attention is paid to phenomena which may have their semantic development.

Concerning its theoretical foundations, the present work is characterized by a functional-systematic description of toponyms, but in the analysis of certain details, the cognitive approach also plays a significant role. Moreover, the examination of language phenomena in time and space complemented by human dimension can also be regarded as an important guiding principle.