2025, Volume 22, Issue 3
|
Marina Vasilyevna Golomidova PROPER NAMES OF DIAMONDS IN THE RUSSIAN CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC TRADITION: NAMING STRATEGIES AND TACTICS
For citation Received on 14 July 2025 Abstract: The article examines the proper names of diamonds created from the 1950s to the present day. These names are regarded as a type of chrematonym, with attention given to the role of artificial naming in their emergence and to the influence of the axiological perception of gemstones on naming motivation. The study aims to describe the naming strategies through which the objectives of name creation are realised, as well as the real naming cases that reflect specific variants of motivational meaning. The linguistic material comprises more than 650 names collected from written sources available in open databases. The analysis shows that established naming traditions in Russian linguistic culture are linked, on the one hand, to the evaluative perception of the gemstone itself, and on the other, to its assessment within the social and cultural context of its time. The most productive strategy is dedicatory naming, whose resulting names greatly outnumber all others and display a wide range of implementations. The strategies of descriptive characterisation and symbolic-conventional naming are used less frequently. The inherent qualities of a diamond are most often expressed using metaphorical or metaphor-metonymic naming tactics, which create figurative and evaluative connotations and lend the names artistic expressiveness. The pragmatic orientation of dedicatory and symbolic nominations is associated with perceiving the diamond as an object of symbolic glorification of social and cultural realities. The analysis also demonstrates that the motives behind naming diamonds are closely related to the current socio-cultural background, while certain naming themes, such as diamond mining and geology, culture, places, and local figures, remain stable over time. Keywords: chrematonyms; diamond names; artificial naming; naming strategies; naming tactics; descriptive characterisation; dedicatory naming; symbolic-conventional naming Acknowledgements References Bagrinovsky, G. Yu. (2020). Bol’shoi etimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka [The Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language]. Moscow: KoLibri; Azbuka-Atticus. Galkowski, A. (2015). K voprosu o diapazone khrematonimii [On the Range of Chrematonymy]. In E. L. Berezovich (Ed.), Etnolingvistika. Onomastika. Etimologiia: materialy III Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii [Ethnolinguistics. Onomastics. Etymology: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference] (pp. 76–77). Ekaterinburg: Ural University Press. Golomidova, M. V. (1998). Iskusstvennaia nominatsiia v russkoi onomastike [Artificial Naming in Russian Onomastics]. Ekaterinburg: Ural State Pedagogical University. Ivanova, K. A. (2014). Nazvaniia dragotsennykh kamnei: printsipy nominatsii [Names of Precious Stones: Principles of Naming]. In Zh. A. Khramushina (Ed.), Aktual’nye voprosy filologicheskoi nauki XXI veka: sbornik statei IV Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii molodykh uchenykh, posviashchennykh 80-letnemu iubileiu kafedry inostrannykh iazykov [Current Issues in Philological Research of the 21st Century: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Young Scholars Dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of the Department of Foreign Languages] (pp. 30–34). Ekaterinburg: Ural University Press. Makeeva, I. I. (1986). Istoriia nazvanii dragotsennykh kamnei v russkom iazyke XI–XVII vekov [The History of the Names of Precious Stones in the Russian Language of the 11th–17th Centuries] (doctoral dissertation). Russian Language Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. Rudnykh, A. I. (1974). K voprosu o printsipakh nominatsii veshchei (sobstvennye imena almazov) [On the Principles of Object Naming (Proper Names of Diamonds)]. Voprosy onomastiki, 7, 68–79. Superanskaya, A. V. (2012). Obshchaia teoriia imeni sobstvennogo [General Theory of the Proper Name] (4th ed.). Moscow: Librokom.
|
 |
