Is there a word for that quality which a word or phrase may have that marks it to our ears as a proper noun?
Just because I would like to understand the question better:
How could a phrase be marked to our ears as a proper noun? (A phrase containing nouns only, does it exist?)
"Dances With Wolves" is a phrase. It is a name of a (fictional) person. The first time I heard the phrase, it did not strike me as a name at all, but rather something else. I grew accustomed to the sound of it, and when I hear the prhase now I do not experience the same lack of understanding. It sounds like a name.
How it happened is I guess simply a process of acclimation.
A phrase containing nouns only, does it exist? I make no such assertion, so I will decline to answer. But a phrase may serve as a proper noun (i.e. a name) per my examples above.
