SEMANTIC CHANGES IN PROPER NAMES

Abstract

Researching eponyms from the point of view of contrastive linguistics is a promising direction since most of research in this field has so far been random and sporadic. Therefore, the necessity exists to develop a general scientific and methodological basis for researching this pary of the vocabulary. The article studies semantic changes in the formation of eponyms in the English and Ukrainian languages. The study of semantic changes is held on the basis of distinguishing five types of semantic changes (widening of meaning, narrowing of meaning, name transfer, that is metaphoric or metonymic shift, degradation of meaning or elevation of meaning). The material for analysis constituted 250 eponyms in each language selected from etymological dictionaries. It has been established that in both languages the majority of semantic changes belong to the so called metonymic shift. The typology of semantic shifts has been developed and fourteen types of semantic shifts distinguished. The typology is just basic so far, but will be widened throughout the research with the growth of the number of the researched eponyms. It has been established that the meaning of new eponyms are closely connected with the sense given to them by the original words. The results of the research prove that the most frequent basis for the creation of a new eponym is the name of a person, the second one veing the name of a city or a geographical area Each type has been analyzed and supplied with the examples from both languages. It has been found out that the similarity between the corresponding types in the English and Ukrainian languages is rather high. Divergences are explained by cultural, historical and other extralinguistic factors. Directions of further analysis have been suggested, in particular the further development of the typology of semantic changes in the formation of eponyms as well as the detailed study of the influence of extralinguistic factors on the cre4ation of eponyms in both languages.