MOTIVATED ZOONYM STRUCTURE AND THE MEANS OF ITS FORMATION

Abstract

AbstractBackground. The article deals with motivational parameters of proper names in general or specific onymic categories. A motivated proper name has a transparent semantic structure due to its creative basis, the choice of which is due to the extra lingual cause, generated by linguo-psychomental operation, which is based on a certain pattern of relationships between the content and the form of the language unit.Purpose. The purpose of our research is to establish and distinguish the motivational parameters of proper names in general or a specific onymic category, great attention is paid to zoonyms. We single out the classification of zoonyms, which divides the proper names of animals into really motivated, conditionally motivated and unmotivated, and the motivation in this case is treated as the feature of naming that occurs naturally because they are based on real features of the animal directly or metaphorically.Research methods and material. Zoonymic units were chosen as the stimuli to conduct a free associative onomastic experiment where lexical units denoting animal traits are onimized: 50 Ukrainian, Russian, and English-speaking recipients were selected, and each recipient was asked to name five of any animals, give them names and explain why such a zoonym was chosen.Results. The general results of the study indicate that the processes of onimization (284) and transonymization (468) are the main trends in the zoonym naming driving force of the studied languages. A comparison of the results of the experiment, which was conducted with the native speakers of three languages, allows us to make assumptions about the universal nature of this trend, although the percentage of Russian- and English-language experiments is more dramatic.Conclusions. The motivated proper name has a transparent semantic structure due to its creative basis, the choice of which is due to the extralingual reason, chosen by linguo-psychomental operation, which is based on a certain pattern of relations between the content and the form of the language unit. In general, it can be concluded, based on the results of the free associative onomastic experiment, that the main force in zoonym-forming activity is transonymization, which prevails over the process of onimization.