Use Of Toponyms Research Articles

Minority identity and place-name use in a Slovak–Hungarian bilingual settlement

AbstractThis paper discusses the relationship between minority identity and place-name use in Hrušov/Körtvélyes. The research location is in the Rožňava/Rozsnyó district of the Košice/Kassa region, near Slovakia's border with Hungary. 79% of the village's population belong to the Hungarian national minority, while 20% of the population identifies as Slovak. The community can be described as bilingual, as they use both Hungarian and Slovak, depending on the situation and context. Most of the settlement's place name stock consists of toponyms in Hungarian, with Slovak toponyms mainly appearing only on maps from the second half of the 20th century. However, even the residents who claim Slovak nationality and/or Slovak mother tongue hardly know and use the Slovak toponyms. This sociological study of place names, including 10% of the population (34 people), proves this. The strong minority identity is reflected in the fact that the community of Hrušov/Körtvélyes uses Hungarian toponyms and has not adopted the artificially created Slovak toponyms. In this context, it is safe to conclude that learning and revisiting the use of toponyms can strengthen identity, as it strengthens the ties to the community.

Language distinctions in Russophone groups of the Polish segment of Facebook

The article examines the distinctions of the Russian language used by Ukrainians living in Poland. The study is based on the analysis of Facebook groups in the Polish segment, where both private and commercial messages are posted. The article presents the findings of an analysis of language insertions from the Polish language and other linguistic features of messages in online groups, specifically focusing on the use of toponyms and elements of speech etiquette of the Russian language. Additionally, data on the dynamics of changes in the number of group members and the frequency of Russian and Ukrainian language use in these groups from January to September 2022 are presented.

TOURIST DISCOURSE: LINGUISTIC FEATURES (USING THE EXAMPLE OF AN UZBEK LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER “MILLIY TIKLANISH”)

This article examines the tourist discourse within the framework of itsstylistic coloring on the example of the Uzbek newspaper Milliy Tiklanish. In particular, the thematic vocabulary and gram sentences are analyzed the tic system of tenses Present (Simple, Continuous, Perfect), the use of toponyms and verbs in imperative form. The theoretical aspects related to the types, features and functions of tourist discourse as an independent type of discourse are considered.

Топонимы в заглавиях современных немецкоязычных романов

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of toponyms presented in the titles of modern German-language novels created at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. The purpose of the study is to explore the linguo-pragmatic potential of toponyms in the naming of novels. The material of the study included 67 titles containing toponyms. As research methods, we employed structural-semantic, descriptive, taxonomic, and quantitative analysis. A study of the identified units showed that toponyms in the titles of literary texts are used as part of substantive prepositional phrases with a dependent word in the dative case. When giving names to their texts, modern German-speaking novelists mainly use geographical names reflecting the space of Germany. Regional toponyms (astionyms, cononyms) are more often used both with the aim of a detailed and reliable description of urban space at the stage of the reader’s initial acquaintance with the text and as serving the purpose of plot development. A special group is made up of toponyms marking Berlin and its urban space as most significant for the semantic organization of novels of the period in question. The use of the geographical spaces of other countries helps novelists not only to activate the reader's knowledge of the selected foreign-culture locations but also to adjust readers’ expectations, through associations with toponyms, toward particular subjects and perceptions of other cultures. Toponyms in the titles of novels help to convey the general cultural context of works. The results of the analysis allow us to expand the idea of the axiological potential, pragmatics, and functional-and-stylistic features of the use of toponyms in the titles of literary texts written by modern novelists.

Helynév-szociológiai vizsgálatok Jablonca községben

The study presents the results of research into the use of toponyms in Jablonca (Silická Jablonica), a Hungarian settlement in Slovakia. According to the results of the 2021 census 91.76% of the population in this border village is of Hungarian nationality. The village community is characterised by Hungarian-Slovak bilingualism. Consequently, the place-name collection revealed both Hungarian and Slovak place names for some areas. The paper describes the sociological aspects of the research, which aimed to investigate the inhabitants’ knowledge of place names. The paper reviews the non-lingual factors that influence the knowledge of place names. Research was conducted via interviews, questionnaires and asking respondents to draw a mental map. The results showed that place of birth, ethnicity and mother tongue, as well as occupation and leisure activities, are the main factors that determine knowledge of place names. Hungarian dominates the residents’ place name use, with only a minority knowing place names in Slovak (i.e., those shown on a map). The study of place-name knowledge within the family shows the importance of family knowledge in the transmission of place-names.

ТОПОЭКФРАСИС В НОВЕЛЛЕ ДАФНЫ ДЮ МОРЬЕ «НЕ ОГЛЯДЫВАЙСЯ»

The topoekphrasis in D. du Maurier's short story «Don't Look Now» has been investigated. Under the term ‘Topoekphrasis’ we mean a description of the scene of action, which "is the hero of a literary work" (O. Kling) and has a special aesthetic significance. Such a place in the analyzed novel is Venice, which, thanks to its unique architectural appearance, has become a true work of art. The image is created by a description of the world-famous architectural monuments of Venice, as well as the use of toponyms reflecting the features of the urban landscape. Speaking about real-life art objects, the author does not strive for an accurate description of his visual image but fills it with additional meaning. The text of the novel demonstrates various types of ekphrastic descriptions. Their usage depends on the purpose, the amount of necessary visual information and the specifics of the art object described. The absence of detailed descriptions determines the use of zero and paratactic variants of topoekphrasis, the emphasis on the state of the characters, on the perception and interpretation of the visual image and the development of the action indicates its interpretive nature. The role of mortal motifs and labyrinth in the formation of topoekphrasis is noted. We have also knotted that the novel by D. du Maurier fits into the context of the world Venetian, expanding its semantic field.

Плюрализация как тенденция в развитии грамматической нормы (на примере функционирования приложений, выраженных топонимами)

The aim of this research is to identify the potentials for the pluralization of the linguistic (grammatical) norm at the syntactic level of the Russian language. The article examines the grammatical (syntactic) norm in terms of its potential pluralization in synchrony. This norm is compared according to the level in its rigidity with the norms of other language levels – orthoepy, vocabulary, for which linguists acknowledge unconditional pluralization possibilities. Demonstrating the flexibility of the syntactic norm and its tendency towards plurality, the study vividly illustrates through the functioning of a syntactic construction, the use of toponyms as appositions. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the flexibility of the grammatical (syntactic) norm is explored for the first time based on the material of toponymic appositions, the functioning of which is regulated by strict rules. As a result of the study, it was determined that both coordinated and uncoordinated case variants of using toponymic appositions coexist in usage, indicating that the grammatical (syntactic) norm can be considered as a type of communicative norm, context-dependent, and linked to the concept of a speech situation. In other words, one should speak of the appropriateness or inappropriateness of a linguistic form, rather than its correctness or incorrectness.

ПРИРОДНИЙ ТА КУЛЬТУРНИЙ ЛАНДШАФТИ В КРИМСЬКОМУ ДОРОБКУ МИКОЛИ ЧЕРНЯВСЬКОГО

The article deals with the studying spatiality and the system of national spaces in Ukrainian literature. It focuses on the work of Mykola Chernyavsky, a representative of Ukrainian literary modernism, a victim of Stalinist totalitarianism. The main attention is paid to the understanding of the writer’s work, which was the result of his trip to the Crimea in the summer of 1927 for the sanatorium treatment. This trip is interpreted as an example of a modernistic pilgrimage, with its attraction to the discovery of a new space, which becomes a lever of self-discovery, and a means of self-identification. The non-fiction text of Mykola Chernyavsky, which was preserved in his diary entries, is analyzed for the first time. It is proven that the writer’s notebook became the protext of the author’s further artistic searches in poetry and prose. The Crimean routes of the author recorded in his documentary records, are traced. The main artistic toposes can be devided into three groups topos: natural (sea, mountains, vegetation), social (populations, sanatoriums), ethno-cultural. Despite the dominant imperial discourse in Crimea, which was preserved in the post-revolutionary period, the author discovers the world of the Crimean Tatars, finds areas of popularity of Ukrainian culture, reflects on its achievements and prospects on the Crimean Peninsula. The poetic cycle “Crimea” (1927-1928) by Mykola Chernyavsky testifies to the originality of the author’s artistic visions, his intensive use of toponyms, with the help of which he expresses the uniqueness of the Crimean space. In the novel “Under the Black Flag” (1928), the writer introduces the inner text – short story “Iphigenia in Taurida”, which becomes an artistic version of the writer’s diary, resorting to gender inversion: the female protagonist acts as an observer in it. The conclusions emphasize the cartographic originality of the writer’s Crimean work, the sacralization of the region's landscape, its utopian aura, which can cause catharsis in pilgrims. Arguments are given that Mykola Chernyavsky’s work is a worthy contribution to the literary geography of the modernist era, in particular, the richness of the author's marinist images is emphasized.

The use of toponyms as part of figurative comparison in English publicistic texts

The use of toponyms as part of figurative comparison in English publicistic texts

Researching, promoting and protecting Welsh toponyms – Challenges and possible solutions

Place names are stepping-stones to our past, connecting us to our ancestors. Once severed, geographical, social and cultural links between local people and place and names cannot be restored. Documentary and mapping research has been conducted in parts of the largely upland, a protected area of Snowdonia National Park. A new methodology reveals a palimpsest of toponyms in Welsh rural landscapes since 1284 and uncovers previously concealed history and untold narratives of Welsh heritage. Toponyms in Wales are under threat. Social and economic changes impose adverse effects on the traditional family farm, relic farm buildings and linear landscape features such as stone walls, banks and woodlands and field patterns. A consequence of this is the reduced use of toponyms. Tourists, walkers, climbers, and divers contribute to this erosion unintentionally. They often translate toponyms literally or make up their own (usually non-Welsh) names, for rock climbs, lakes, peaks, and caves that are considered too difficult to pronounce. These newly invented names quickly replace the original toponyms, often reinforced by guidebooks and maps published in English. New housing estates, homes and tourist businesses frequently adopt English names which are not in keeping with traditional visual signage in rural areas. The Welsh Place Name Society (WPNS) formed in 2013 is a grass roots and academic inclusive organisation which provided robust evidence to the Welsh Government during the consultation stage of the Historic Environment Bill 2016. However, it was decided not to give place names legal protection, unlike historic monuments, country houses and bats. The Office of The Commissioner for Welsh has a well-established panel of experts who determine standardised spellings for towns and villages. Their on-line list provides a useful reference for organisations and individuals, but this list and others have no legal standing. This paper discusses the critical legal issue of protecting place names in Wales and illustrates how the Society has worked alongside organisations and local communities in Wales to promote and defend place names.

Использование топонимов в оценочно-характеризующей функции в англоязычном и русскоязычном художественном дискурсе

The aim of the study is to identify the features of using toponyms in the implementation of the eva¬luative-characterizing function in the English-language and Russian-language fictional discourse. The scientific novelty of the work lies in conducting a comparative analysis of the toponyms functioning in fictional discourse on the basis of the Russian and English languages. Here for the first time, the general pragmatic goals of using toponyms in fictional discourse in the implementation of the evaluative-characterizing function have been identified: to convey a character’s psychological state, to express evocatively the attitude towards the subject or object of evaluation, to express an opinion in a playful or ironic form. As a result of the study, it has been found that in both the discourses, toponyms are most often used to express the socio-cultural aspect of evaluation, as well as to describe a character psychologically and characterize the physical para¬meters of the described subjects and objects. Some differences that represent the culturological opposition “own - alien” have been revealed when analysing the use of toponyms of a native country and a foreign one in the Russian-language and English-language discourse. In the Russian-language fictional discourse, such opposition has been observed not only in relation to other countries, but also within the country when comparing Moscow and the provinces.

Функционирование топонимов в современном англоязычном дискурсе

The aim of the study is to identify the characteristic features of the use of toponyms in various types of speech acts in modern English-language discourse in order to determine their interactive functions in speech communication. Scientific novelty of the work lies in identifying the communicative and interactive characteristics of statements containing toponyms. As a result, it has been found that toponyms are mainly used in response statements expressing disagreement, refusal, negative reaction. The most characteristic is the use of toponyms in response to information, which is expressed in three types of comments: evaluative, emotionally evaluative and expressively figurative. Toponyms are widely used in the combined speech acts of complaint, reproach, threat. It has been determined that macrotoponyms and toponyms of other countries often convey a negative assessment, expressing the culturological opposition “us - them”. To convey a neutral or positive assessment, toponyms of one’s own country are usually used. Toponyms have a great stylistic potential and are used by communicants in comparisons, hyperboles, metaphors, precedent statements, allusions.

‘Process Toponymy’: A GIS-Based Community-Engaged Approach to Indigenous Dynamic Place Naming Systems and Vernacular Cartography

This paper discusses the aim and the process of designing a community-engaged open-access GIS toponymic platform, based on Indigenous Evenki place names. Most projects on Indigenous toponymy available online are either oriented towards professional use among scholars or serve as enclosed repositories of Indigenous knowledge. Toponymic atlases remain the most common form of documenting and representing Indigenous place naming systems. Yet, temporal and geographic comparisons of place names have clearly demonstrated that, along with a conventional understanding of Indigenous place names as stable and conservative, there is a dynamic model of place naming to be found in nomadic societies, when the names are not only passed through generations but also modified and created. This finding required a number of methodological approaches regarding how researchers might collect and represent geospatial concepts and place names in nomadic societies, with the use of GIS technology. Our project attempts to approach this issue by creating an open digital platform that combines GIS with Indigenous vernacular cartography, place names, and a great variety of data regarding the meaning and use of toponyms, their evolution, and change. We call this approach a “process toponymy” and advocate for applying a semiotic approach to documenting and representing Indigenous place names’ knowledge via GIS-based platforms.

Toponymic space in the works of Mashkhur Zhusup

Toponymic units, along with other means of language, are elements of artistic understanding of reality in a poetic work. The study of artistic toponymic units of Mashkhur Zhusup’s works is of great importance for identifying the artistic and philosophical values of poetic monuments. The article examines the cognitive nature of toponyms in the works of Mashkhur Zhusup Kopeev, along with the definition of their geographical and administrative names, in order to argue their role in reflecting the socio-political, economic, cultural, religious and philosophical position of religious places in a certain historical period. In this context, the examination of the theoretical work of B. Tleuberdi, literary and theoretical works and artistic works of Mashhur Zhusup is carried out. The poetic onomastics of Mashhur Zhusup’s works, including the peculiarities of the use of toponymic units, has not yet been studied. It is studied that the names of the earth and water that make up the poetonymic sphere also influence the formation of the main poetic character of the author’s material in the works of Mashhur Zhusup. It is established that the use of toponyms traces the artistic and social worldview of the author. In this context, it is argued that toponyms play a very important role in the compositional design of a poetic text. Toponyms in a work of fiction are also classified according to natural and geographical objects; the geographical space of poetic toponymy is determined; the operational features of toponymic names in works of a religious nature are determined. The literary text notes that specific toponyms become com- ponents of literary onomastics and give the work a special background, have their own great semantic character. The names of geographical objects make a great contribution to the overview of religious ideas, thoughts of Mashhur Zhusup about pilgrimage. Key words: onomastics, personal names, toponyms, polyonyms, anthroponyms, literary texts, oikonyms, religious anthroponyms.

The Use of Toponyms in the Spontaneous Speech of Hungarians Living in Vojvodina and Prekmurje

The paper discusses for the first time the toponyms occurring in the spontaneous speech of Hungarians living in the bilingual regions of Vojvodina (Serbia) and Prekmurje (Slovenia). The author aims to reveal the patterns and general trends in the use of Hungarian and Slavic forms of toponyms in the speech of informants of two contact regions. Another task is to outline the features of morphological adaptation of borrowed place names to the case system of the Hungarian language (cases expressing direction and location). The data for the study was collected from 2012 to 2019 during the author’s field research, specifically by conducting semistructured interviews with informants. It is stated that the interlocutors use both Hungarian and Slavic toponyms in their spontaneous speech. We can often find variability: in the speech of one informant, both options may occur. The use of the Slavic form of a toponym is accompanied by metalinguistic comments, explaining the choice of this form in the narrative. The comments can be brief or more detailed. Both Hungarian and Slavic toponyms are used mainly with external local cases (supersessive, sublative, delative). However, there are cases of interference with Slavic languages, when Hungarian variants of toponyms, as well as borrowed toponyms from Slavic languages, are used in internal local cases (equivalents of Slavic case constructions), but this is less common. In broad terms, there’s a lot of uniformity regarding the use of toponyms in the speech of the respondents from Vojvodina and Prekmurje. It now is planned to verify whether similar processes occur in the speech of Hungarians living in other bordering countries (both Slavic and non-Slavic), to build a more comprehensive typology. Slavic forms of toponyms should be included in the Termini dictionary which lists borrowings in the speech of Hungarian diaspora.

Representation of the Phenomenon “Trust” in Medical Advertising Discourse

The problem of creating institutional trust in modern Russian society is considered on the example of advertising activities of companies that produce and promote drugs on the consumer market. In order to identify techniques that contribute to the effective impact on the recipient – the formation of a trusting attitude towards the advertised product, the commercials shown on Russian television from 2010 to 2020 were analyzed. Using the methods of content analysis, discourse and stylistic analysis, elements of component and distributive analysis, it has been established that professional participants in medical advertising discourse use such techniques as the use of toponyms, lexical units borrowed from military discourse, terms, words with positive or negative connotations, presentation of statistical data, construction of a first-person statement, rhetorical questions. It was found that the mention of the country of origin of the drug, which is authoritative for the Russian consumer, has a positive effect on the confidence of patients in this drug; military vocabulary evokes associations with speed, accuracy, direction, strength and testifies to the effectiveness of the drug; medical, chemical, biological terms, statistical data objectify the transmitted information; rhetorical questions, self-narrative and others contribute to the establishment of close contact with the consumer.

LITERARY AND ART ONYMS IN CONTEMPORARY POETRY ABOUT WAR (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF POETRY COLLECTIONS OF THE ZAPORIZHZHIA AUTHORS)

The article analyzes the lexical-semantic and functional-stylistic features of the literary and art onomasticon of contemporary poetry about the russian- Ukrainian war. We have revealed the active use of toponyms, among which the most productive are the choronyms Ukraine and russia. It is established that the image of Ukraine appears in two hypostases: on the one hand, it is a beautiful and prosperous state, and on the other hand, it is sad and tragic; writers identify themselves with their homeland, convey their pain and empathy for the difficult fate of the Ukrainian people. It is highlighted that the choronym russia acquires only negative connotations, the hatred of Ukrainians towards the aggressor country keeps growing every day, and the dismissive attitude is conveyed through various graphic images. It has been established that the horrific military actions of the russian military in many Ukrainian cities are reflected in the speech of Ukrainians. Bucha, Kharkiv, Irpin, Izium, Mariupol are names that have become precedent-setting and have gained symbolic meaning with the actualization of such nomens as «suffering», «defiance», and «invincibility». It is emphasized that the writers use the toponymic names Crimea, Donetsk (Donbas), Luhansk, which have changed their semantic load in connection with the russian-Ukrainian war, because before the russian aggression, the East of Ukraine was considered an industrial region, and then – a region of war, death and destruction. It is stated that Ukrainians have created a great number of derogatory anthroponyms for putin, the perpetrator of russia’s armed aggression. The name of the russian president is often used in a negative context of humorous works (jokes and puns). It has been determined that the theonym God helps to convey a sense of excitement and boundless faith in a bright future caused by the bloody russian-Ukrainian war of the twenty-first century. Writers of the Zaporizhzhia region often depict the image of a ravaged Ukraine in which the people are filled with feelings of hopelessness and despair; it is in this context that God is the personification of the last hope. The literary and art onomasticon of the Zaporizhzhia region writers is very diverse from the functional and stylistic point of view and is represented by the following groups of onymes: informational and evaluative, nationally significant, localizational and ideological.

SPACE DISCOURSE IN A LANGUAGE CONTACT SITUATION: “US” VS. “THEM”

Multilingual practices inevitably lead to language contact phenomena. This phenomenon occurs in Estonia, where the Russian speaking minority, often defined as a Russian diaspora, differs from the socially and linguistically dominant Estonian group with respect to their language and language practices. We suggest that the analysis of one of the languages in contact, in this case Russian, allows for a deeper understanding of the role of the other, i.e. Estonian, in the multilingual practices of the Estonian population as a whole. In this paper, we will focus on “spatial indicators” (i.e. toponyms, ergonyms, linguistic landscape objects, etc.) in the discourse on space provided by participants from the Russian-speaking population living in Estonia. These sociolinguistic foci have been partially described in several existing works which underscore the influence of Estonian on the speech of the local Russian speakers. Previous research gives insights into the peculiarities that the influence of Estonian generates: in the use of toponyms, in the naming of different language landscape objects, in the everyday language practices, and in the description and evaluation of the surrounding space (i.e. in the “spatial awareness”) of the local Russian speaking population. However, little attention has been paid to the fact that the aforementioned phenomena represent a whole that reflects the development of the speakers’ apprehension of the surrounding physical, sociocultural and sociolinguistic space. This process is put into focus in this paper and is shown to be characterized by the (re)definition of space(s) as “ours” vs “theirs”. Such processes will be revealed here by giving an overview of the “spatial components” in the speech of the Russian speaking population of Estonia in several spheres of communication (newspapers, TV shows, advertisements, web forums, etc.) and by analysing interviews involving three Estonian residents, each with a different sociolinguistic background. We attempt to demonstrate how these “spatial components” reflect the interaction of Russian and Estonian speakers, with an emphasis on their affinities across certain language practices. In the analysis of the interviews, we focus in particular on the participants’ (re)definitions of “us” vs “them” in their discourse on space. Special attention is also given to the use of Estonian insertions as a tool for evaluation and the creation of the opposition between “us” and “them” in the internet communication of Russian speakers living in Estonia.

Toponym-assisted map georeferencing: Evaluating the use of toponyms for the digitization of map collections.

A great deal of information is contained within archival maps—ranging from historic political boundaries, to mineral resources, to the locations of cultural landmarks. There are many ongoing efforts to preserve and digitize historic maps so that the information contained within them can be stored and analyzed efficiently. A major barrier to such map digitizing efforts is that the geographic location of each map is typically unknown and must be determined through an often slow and manual process known as georeferencing. To mitigate the time costs associated with the georeferencing process, this paper introduces a fully automated method based on map toponym (place name) labels. It is the first study to demonstrate these methods across a wide range of both simulated and real-world maps. We find that toponym-based georeferencing is sufficiently accurate to be used for data extraction purposes in nearly half of all cases. We make our implementation available to the wider research community through fully open-source replication code, as well as an online georeferencing tool, and highlight areas of improvement for future research. It is hoped that the practical implications of this research will allow for larger and more efficient processing and digitizing of map information for researchers, institutions, and the general public.

Poetry at the Margins: Jacques Darras’s Neo-Epic La Maye

Jacques Darras’s La Maye, an opus in eight cantos composed between 1988 and 2012 constitutes a singular attempt in the field of contemporary French poetry to reinvest the topos of the region (his native Picardy) and interrogate key elements of the Long Poem tradition. Rather than reverse the power differential in the center/margin dichotomy, Darras deploys a series of geographic and literary drifts to map out a trans-local vision of the North that complicates a notion of regional identity construed as immediate and solvable. Whether by delving into records of site-specific history that were glossed over in the grand récit of the nation or by appealing to the poetic traditions of the North for specific meters and multilingual borrowings—drawing inspiration from frontier territories such as Quebec or the Orkney Islands and their vexed historical and linguistic relationships with the center—Darras’s project participates in a form of critical memory. Following a brief discussion of the major characteristics of his oeuvre, I turn to its formal elements—the frequent use of toponyms and allusions to Anglo-American modernists, in particular—as crucial markers for Darras’s visionary poetics of place and for defining its fraught relation with the Long Poem.