Structural and semantic characteristics of the names of military facilities (based on the names of the barracks of the German Armed Forces)

Abstract

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of one of the subdivisions of the onyms of the military sphere - the names of the barracks of the Armed Forces of Germany. Due to the topographical relevance of these military facilities, it is proposed to qualify these names as a subtype of military toponyms - military oikodomonyms. With the help of a structural morphological analysis, the basic models of the names of the barracks of the Bundeswehr have been established. The structure of the onyms of this type (compound word or phrase) contains the obligatory component “Kaserne”. As an attribute in their composition are both common nouns and proper names with an extensive associative-cultural background. Common names in this case most often turn out to be military terms. Proper names are represented mainly by toponyms (khoronyms, oronyms potonyms, limnonyms) and anthroponyms, more rarely mythonyms, ethnonyms. Anthroponyms, as a rule, are memorials that refer to the memory of individuals significant to the Bundeswehr tradition. In connection with a critical rethinking of the historical heritage in the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Germany, the process of re-checking and renaming the names of the barracks has been initiated: the barracks named after the Wehrmacht and Reichswehr officers receive distinguished names or the names of the German soldiers who died in the line of duty. As a result of the analysis of the onomastic functions of the names of the barracks of the Bundeswehr, the functions specific to them have been identified: the educational, the ideological and the advertising. An analysis of the names of the barracks of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Germany leads to the conclusion that these names reflect the diversity of the geographical landscape and the history of culture, science and technology, as well as the German Armed Forces themselves. The functional and structural originality of military oikodomonyms states the necessity of further study of military onyms, which may be the subject of study of military onomastics research.