2020, Volume 17, Issue 2
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Irina V. Kryukova Global Names in the Russian Language: The Development of Figurative Meanings
Voprosy onomastiki, 2020, Volume 17, Issue 2, pp. 241–255 (in Russian) Received on 15 May 2019 Abstract: This paper is devoted to semantic transformations of global names that have changed or developed new figurative (evaluative) meanings in the recent two decades. The title refers to onyms of various classes (toponyms, anthroponyms, names of goods and services, enterprises, movies, events, etc.), which are used worldwide. They are well-known to a wide number of native speakers involved in cross-cultural communication and frequently used in speech. This study aims to trace the semantic transformations of global names in the Russian language and culture, reflected in the media and mass literature of the post-Soviet era. A contextual analysis of 110 global names showcasing semantic transfers led the author to draw the following conclusions: 1) in certain contexts, global names can lose their onomastic status, acquire lexico-grammatical features of a precedent name and become part of metaphorical expressions; in this capacity, they turn into a tool of social assessment: considering the domestic culture on a par with another develops a “foreign” perspective in its evaluation; 2) each single global name can develop several figurative meanings with different degrees of metaphorization, graphic design, negative or positive connotations, and spheres of usage; 3) the development of figurative meanings of a multivalent global name is not a synchronic process. The two snapshot surveys (of 1998–2008 and 2009–2018) the author has undertaken show the expansion of the names’ meanings; the drift of meanings from nominative to symbolic; the development of ambivalent figurative meanings reflecting the ambiguous and changing attitude of the Russian native speakers to globalization and its consequences. Keywords: global name, connotation, precedent name, comparison, metaphor, irony, polysemy, evolution of connotative meanings. Acknowledgements The study was funded by RFBR as part of the research project 19-012-00578 “Connotative Proper Names as a Tool of Social Assessment: A Dynamic Aspect (on the Material of Russianlanguage Texts of the Post-Soviet Period)”. References Apresyan, Yu. D. (1995). Konnotatsii kak chast’ pragmatiki slova [Connotations as Part of the Pragmatics of the Word]. In Yu. D. Apresyan, Izbrannye trudy [Selected Works] (Vol. 2, pp. 157–163). Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul’tury. Berezovich, E. L. (2005). Teoriia konnotatsii v sovremennoi lingvisticheskoi semantike i onomastika [Theory of Connotation in Modern Linguistic Semantics and Onomastics]. In M. E. Rut, & L. A. Feoktistova (Eds.), Onomastika v krugu gumanitarnykh nauk: materialy mezhdunar. nauch. konf. [Onomastics in the Frame of Humanities: Proceedings of the International Research Conference] (pp. 10–13). Ekaterinburg: Izd-vo Ural. un-ta. Brileva, I. S., Vol’skaya, N. P., Gudkov, D. B., Zakharenko, I. V., & Krasnykh, V. V. (2004). Russkoe kul’turnoe prostranstvo: lingvokul’turologicheskii slovar’ [Russian Cultural Space: Linguocultural Dictionary] (Vol. 1). Moscow: Gnozis. Frolova, O. E. (2006). Pretsedentnyi antroponim v funktsii predikata [Precedent Anthroponym in Predicate Function]. Voprosy onomastiki, 3, 27–32. Gudkov, D. B. (1999). Pretsedentnoe imia i problemy pretsedentnosti [Precedent Name and Problems of Precedence]. Moscow: Izd-vo Mosk. un-ta. Kryukova, I. V. (2008). Onimy-globalizmy v sovremennoi russkoi lingvokul'ture [Global Names in Contemporary Russian Linguoculture]. In I. V. Kryukova (Ed.), Chelovek v kommunikatsii: lingvokul’turologiia i pragmatika [The Person in Communication: Linguoculturology and Pragmatics] (pp. 118–125). Volgograd: Peremena. Kryukova, I. V. (2018). Stilisticheskie transformatsii imen-globalizmov v rossiiskikh mass-media: dinamicheskii aspect [Stylistic Transformations of Global Names in Russian Mass Media: a Dynamic Aspect]. In N. G. Bragina (Ed.), Peresekaia granitsy: mezhkul’turnaia kommunikatsiia v global’nom kontekste: materialy I Mezhdunar. nauchno-praktich. konf. (Moskva, 14–16 fevralia 2018 g.) [Crossing Borders: Intercultural Communication in a Global Context: Proceedings of the International Research and Practical Conference (Moscow, February 14–16, 2018)] (pp. 146–147). Moscow: Gos. IRIa im. A. S. Pushkina. Podolskaya, N. V. (1988). Slovar’ russkoi onomasticheskoi terminologii [A Dictionary of Russian Onomastic Terminology]. Moscow: Nauka. Vinogradov, V. V. (1977). Izbrannye trudy. Leksikologiia i leksikografiia [Selected Works. Lexicology and Lexicography]. Moscow: Nauka. |
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