ZOOPHORE UNOFFICIAL NAMES: MOTIVATIONAL ASPECT

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to find out the peculiarities of the use of zoosemisms as a basis for the creation of informal names. The subject of the study is to identify the main groups of zoophoric informal onyms of the adult population depending on the characteristics of motivation. The material was collected in the settlements of the Halych district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region. The main method of research is descriptive and its basic methods of systematization and interpretation of language units. Animal names have been and remain the subject of onomastic research as a source of creation of proper names. Main feature of a member of a certain collective lays the foundation for the emergence of a nickname. Speakers' concept of animals, objects of the material or spiritual world, their importance in human life are the reason for the transfer of the phenomenon from a certain reality to the denotation. Nicknames themselves may contain positive or negative connotation. It is achieved by various ways of creating expression: expressive internal form of the nickname, its metaphorical, semantic and stylistic ability of suffixes involved in the creation of nicknames, the expressiveness of the sound shell of a nickname. The processes of metaphorization and metonymization proved to be very common in determining the motivation of such onyms. Zoosemisms, which formed the basis of the motivation of nicknames, are represented by such thematic groups of vocabulary as the names of domestic and wild animals; names of domestic and wild birds; names of fish, amphibians and reptiles; names of insects. The researched material testifies the predominance of vocabulary to denote domestic animals and birds, as daily observations of the behavior of these creatures make it possible to compare their behavior and appearance with the same features of the nearest neighbors and fellow villagers. And because of this, the nicknames of this group are often considered offensive and informants do not always want to call them. The prospect of our work is to find out the motivation of children's individual zoophore nicknames.