2018, Volume 15, Issue 2

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Vasily I. Suprun
Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogical University
Volgograd, Russia

Slavic Railway Onomastics.
Review of the book: Tomasik, P. Nazewnictwo kolejowe: na materiale języka polskiego, rosyjskiego i czeskiego [Railway Onomastics: Evidence from Polish, Russian, and Czech]. Bydgoszcz: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego, 2016.

Voprosy onomastiki, 2018, Volume 15, Issue 2, pp. 273–281 (in Russian)
DOI: 10.15826/vopr_onom.2018.15.2.026

Received 11 March 2018

Abstract: The reviewed book examines Polish, Czech, Slovak (partially), and Russian proper names of various onomastic classes related to the sphere of railway: namely, anthroponyms (especially nicknames), names of animals, names of railway terminals, stations and other place names, names of trains, locomotives, cars, railway lines, and other chrematonyms. All onomastic units are classified as formal or informal, each group characterized by its own specificity of usage, linguistic and cultural semantics. The book consists of an introduction, three chapters, and a conclusion. The first chapter discusses the works by Czech, Slovak, Polish, and Russian onomatologists focused on the functioning of names in communication practices related to the railway sphere. The second chapter analyses the official names of objects on the railway. The third chapter deals with informal names related to rail transport. A thorough analysis of the origins of railway onyms and their variations in folk speech is based on a profound knowledge of the functions of these onomastic units in the social space of the four peoples, which constitutes a valuable contribution to Slavic ethnolinguistics. The book may serve as an example for describing peculiar traits of railway onomastics intrinsic to other Slavic peoples and undertaking a further study of proper names used on the railway in Russia.

Keywords: railway onomastics, name of a vehicle, chrematonym, personal name, place name, name of animal, Polish language, Czech language, Russian language

References

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Harvalík, M. (2007). K voprosu o sovremennoi onomasticheskoi terminologii [On Contemporary Onomastic Terminology]. Voprosy onomastiki, 4, 5–13.

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Suprun, V. I. (2016). Mikrotoponimiia pol’sko-ukrainskogo iazykovogo pogranich’ia [Microtoponymy of the Polish-Ukrainian Borderland. Review of Mikrotoponimia powiatu Włodawskiego by M. Olejnik]. Izvestiia Volgogradskogo gosudarstennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta, 1(105), 210–213.