REVERSE ONYMIC DICTIONARY ACROSS 15 YEARS

Abstract

Introduction. The article is dedicated to the comparison of two reverse onymic associative dictionaries. This project provides a significant opportunity to advance the understanding of onomastic identity in the changing onomastic landscape. The case study’s findings should provide valuable insight into the associative aspect of the onomastic landscape where memetic landmarks could be revealed. Purpose. The article’s purpose is to compare two reverse onymic associative dictionaries. Consequently, the research object is the onymic component of the associative field of the stimuli, the subject being the associative distribution of the onymic reactions to the onymic stimuli and their comparative analysis. Materials and methodology. The datasets on which we base our investigation are drafted from the 2006 and 2021 free associative experiments conducted in Odesa I. I. Mechnikov University with 100 participants each. We investigated correlations between associations and stimuli, taking onymic reactions into particular focus. In this paper, we present the entries compiled in the following way: from associations to their stimuli, listed in alphabetical order. Results. The current study reveals that onymic reactions cover all the classes of proper names, including anthroponyms, toponyms, ethnonyms, theonyms, ideonyms, zoonyms, chrematonyms, chrononyms, ergonyms, phytonyms, cosmonyms. The dynamics may be presented as follows: a significant increase in the number of onymic reactions is observed in chrononyms — 2.6 times, chrematonyms — 2.3 times, theonyms — 1.8 times, which indicates growing importance of time, material values and spiritual beliefs, especially taking into consideration peculiarities of the Covid pandemic period with its high death rate, social distancing, lockdowns; a decrease of associates that belong to ergonyms — 3.25 times and anthroponyms — 1.3 times may be a sign of the fact that the value of a person and a group of people diminishes, less connection with the group is felt, the sense of belonging to a group is eroded together with the growing understanding of the feeling of transience, of time value; decrease of associates-toponyms — 1.4 times and ethnonyms — 1.3 times lays bare lessening of ties to the location and a corresponding ethnic group with a sense of individualization. The dramatic shifts in the mental onomastic landscape of the informants became evident during the comparison of both datasets.