LINGUAL SPECIFICITY OF PRECEDENT NAMES USED IN MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE

Abstract

The paper is focused on the study of specificities of precedent names’ use in modern English by means of highlighting the patterns of their linguistic and stylistic expression in the works of present-day English fiction. Being studied in various discourses, precedent names are underrepresented in recent linguistic works. The illustrative material is carefully reviewed on the basis of the generalized classification of precedent names, covering their division according to the criterion of belonging to a certain sociocultural group (universal-precedent, national-precedent and socio-precedent names), as well as a semantic criterion (precedent anthroponyms, precedent toponyms; terminological and polysemantic precedents). Among the most numerous thematic groups of precedent names are the registered names of historical figures, heroes of classical literary works, films and mythologies, which are realized in the text through a number of stylistic devices, namely: metaphor, hyperbole and comparison. The key features taken as a basis of the precedent names formation are the following: appeal to the external features of people or characters, specific features of their characters, or the situations in which the character is portrayed. Results of the analysis clearly stated that the most numeric group of precedent names comprises universal-precedent type of names. Viewed as one of the verbal forms of reflection of stereotyped metaphorical perception of reality by a certain cultural community of people, precedent names hold the power to extend their areas of occurrence as they tend to reappear in new context groups. Precedent names expand their contextual meaning due to their ability to form mental connections between the source of their original and the new context. By performing the analysis, it was found out that precedent names belong to the effective means of drawing the reader’s attention to a certain idea as well as serve to intensify the specific features and characteristics of the characters of the XXI century fiction. We see it perspective to study the issues related to the emotional-and-pragmatic potential of precedent names, as well as to deepen the knowledge about synergetic processes causing their generation and actualization within different lingual cultures.