Stylistic functions of xenonyms in the postmodern biofictional novel “The Noise of Time” by Julian Patrick Barnes

Abstract

A distinctive feature of linguistics of the 21st century is that language and culture are no longer observed separately and have
 merged into such a phenomenon as linguoculture. Due to the fact that English occupies a leading position as the language of world communication and is often used as an application to different cultures, the English-language description of foreign or external cultures is becoming more topical and important. The main aim of this article is to describe stylistic functions of such culturally marked vocabulary as xenonyms presented in the postmodern biofictional novel “The Noise of Time” by Julian Patrick Barnes. The article provides an overview of the stylistic functions of xenonyms in general, and it also gives examples of the use of some other culturally marked lexical units, such as toponyms, polyonyms, urbanonyms, lexical and semantic calques, presented in the biofictional novel “The Noise of Time” and use by the author in order to enrich the narration. Due to the use of various linguistic, cultural and stylistic means in his biofictional narrative, the English-speaking author managed to represent the environment surrounding his characters when representing real setting in the fictional world of a literary text.