CONNOTATIVE PROPER NAMES AS AFFECTONYMS IN THE SPEECH OF FRANCOPHONES

Abstract

The article is devoted to connotative proper names-affectonyms, which are proper names of people / characters of artistic reality, used in a figurative sense as synonyms for the name of the addressee of the speech (rarely the third person). The research was implemented on the basis of questionnaires and analysis of social media texts. The purpose of the research is to analyze the semantics of connotative proper names used as affectonyms, to demonstrate their (in)dependence on the cultural preferences of generations, to find out the motivation of such naming. In the course of the study, it was found that proper names-affectonyms, regardless of the origin of the primary signified (a real proper name or a literary proper name), are metaphors: mostly positive features of the primary signified are transferred to the addressee of speech. Despite the fact that a certain part of proper names-affectonyms remains unchanged over time (usually we are talking about well-known connotative proper names such as Roméo, Juliette, Don Juan), this is a rather dynamic group of names that reflects the interests and cultural demands of society. However, there are general models of metaphorical transfer, the semantics of such names, which are meant to refer to the ideas of strength, beauty, intelligence, power, and the romanticism of fictitious or real personalities. So, instead of mon Alain Delon, mon petit Timothée Chalamet is used, instead of Einstein — mon Steve Jobs — both in an approving and ironic sense. In certain cases, affectonyms of this kind are formed through metonymy — according to the sphere of interests of the addressee of the speech. Sometimes the phonic structure of the affective names plays a role. Through reduplication or the use of diminutive suffixes in the name, diminutive effect is created. In the context of the use of proper names-affectonyms, we note the presence of a language play, which is manifested both in the modification of the primary proper name and in playing with logical connections between concepts.