The linguistic nature of ergonyms (based on Ukrainian, English and Russian)

Abstract

It became necessary to investigate the problem concerning the study of the proper names of peoples’ groups – ergonyms. The article studies the peculiarities of ergonymic functioning in language, speech and mental lexicon based on the Ukrainian, English and Russian languages. In the first stage of study, the evolution of the term “ergonym” was carried out, clarification of creation and functioning of ergonymic terminology is offered, the denotative-nominative classification of ergonyms is suggested and the detailed methodology of investigation of ergonyms in language, speech and mental lexicon is worked out. In the second stage, the structural features of ergonyms are highlighted, motivational structure of Kyiv, London and Moscow ergonymicons and the origin of ergonyms are analysed. In the third stage of study, the results of the free associative experiment are systemised, and the structure of the associative field of Ukrainian, English and Russian ergonyms is distinguished. The purpose of the research is to determine the linguistic nature of ergonyms, to identify their systematic description according to denotational-nominative, structural, motivational and genetic character, as well as to actualize the mechanisms of their conceptualisation, categorisation and framing in the mental lexicon. The object of the research is the names that denote groups of people in the Ukrainian, English and Russian languages. The subject of the study is structural-semantic, motivational, genetic and cognitive features of ergonyms in the Ukrainian, English and Russian languages. The research material consists of 3,000 ergonyms selected from informational and promotional materials of print and electronic media, as well as the results of a free associative experiment with 2904 implementations. As a result of the study, ergonyms were divided into 6 classes according to their leading function. According to their structure, ergonyms were divided into one-component, two-component and multicomponent; the study of the motivational structure of ergonyms has allowed to distinguish 12 classes of ergonyms taking into account the nature of their motivation; the analysis of the results of the respondents’ survey allowed to identify 9 different types of reactions to stimuli-ergonyms.