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Эпонимы в романах Джулиана Барнса: «Англия, Англия», «Предчувствие конца» и
«Одна история»
Eponyms in the novels of Julian Barnes: «England, England», «The Sense of an Ending» and
«The Only Story»
Павленко Надежда Романовна
Студентка 2 курса Направление подготовки: Зарубежное регионоведение Северный (Арктический) федеральный университет им. М.В.Ломоносова
Россия, Архангельск e-mail: nadya.pavlenko. 99@mail. ru
Pavlenko Nadezhda Romanovna
2nd - year student Direction of training: Foreign regional studies Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M. V. Lomonosov
Russia, Arkhangelsk e-mail: nadya.pavlenko. 99@mail. ru
Научный руководитель Щукина Ольга Алексеевна
Северный (Арктический) федеральный университет им. М.В.Ломоносова
Россия, Архангельск e-mail: o.borskaya@narfu. ru
Scientific adviser Shchukina Olga Alekseevna
Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M. V. Lomonosov
Russia, Arkhangelsk e-mail: [email protected]
Аннотация.
В статье дается анализ использования эпонимов в произведениях британского писателя Джулиана Барнса «Англия, Англия», «Предчувствие конца» и «Одна история». Большое внимание уделяется понятию «эпоним», истории возникновения и распространения данного феномена. Анализируется количественное содержание эпонимов в романах, а также приводятся примеры некоторых слов и истории их происхождения. На основании проведенного исследования в статье выведена классификация эпонимов, содержащихся в рассматриваемых произведениях.
Annotation.
The article gives an analysis of using eponyms in the compositions of the British writer Julian Barnes «England, England», «The Sense of an Ending» and «The Only Story». Much attention is given to a definition of the word «eponym», the history of the occurrence and spread of this phenomenon. The quantification of eponyms in the novels has been identified, and the examples of some words and history of their origin have been provided. As a result, on the basis of the conducted research there has been developed a classification of eponyms contained in the novels.
Ключевые слова: эпоним, эпонимия, Джулиан Барнс, роман, произведение.
Key words: eponym, eponymy, Julian Barnes, novel, composition.
The origin of words in the languages of different countries is always interesting and exciting for research. There are the special words - eponyms, which are especially impressive because their origin is related to the names of really existed persons: scientists, writers, travelers, etc. We can find these words in all genres of literature.
It is important to dwell on a more detailed definition of word «eponym». It is formed from the Greek word «eponymos», which means «giving a name». There is the following definition of this word in the Cambridge dictionary:
an eponym is the name of an object or activity that is also the name of the person who first produced the object or did the activity.
The period of occurrence and spread of this phenomenon is Ancient times, when people called tribes and territories by names of gods and goddesses. For example, the city of Athens got its name from the name of goddess Athena [2]. However just in New times objects and activities began getting names not just from the names of gods, but from the names of inventors, scientists, writers and other historical persons too. Consequently, we have more eponyms in our speech than our ancestors had. For this reason, I have chosen modern literature, namely books of British writer Julian Barnes, who is a significant figure in his genre. He is an essayist, critic and one of the most prominent representatives of postmodernism in the British literature.
The novels have also been chosen not randomly. «England, England» is the most readable and famous composition of Julian Barnes, which attracted close attention of critics and researchers of the modern literature. It is about Jack Pitman, who did a copy of Britain and moved it to a small island. His aims are to attract tourists and, of course, to enrich himself. The copy of England replaced an original, and a fictional world became a reality. The novel makes us to sink into a reverie about boundaries of our consciousness and a real value of things.
«The Sense of an Ending» is a work which Julian Barnes was awarded the Booker Prize for in 2011. This composition is about childhood friendship, which, unfortunately, dissolved in time. In addition, it contains the elements of a detective story. Jury noted semantic saturation and informative content of the novel. It indicates that this composition is worth reading and researching.
The novel «The Only Story» also deserves attention because of its extraordinary plot. It is about true love, in which the age is not a barrier. Moreover, it is also one of the most famous works of Julian Barnes.
The goal of my research is to analyze the role of eponyms in the novels of Julian Barnes: «England, England», «The Sense of an Ending» and «The Only Story». The objectives of the study are:
- to find the eponyms in the texts of novels with the help of some dictionaries, among which there are New Oxford Dictionary of Eponyms [3] and book «The Fate of Eponyms» [1].
- to analyze the affiliation of eponyms to a thematic group;
- to define which thematic group of eponyms is most often found in the novels "England, England", "The Sense of an Ending" and "The Only Story".
Firstly, I should dwell on a quantification of eponyms in these novels. Actually, this amount of eponyms is not so huge: there are about 30 such words in the texts. But eponyms which are found have been divided into several thematic groups, among which there are:
- Proper names, including geographic names and some sights. The examples are «Derby», «America», «Big Ben», «Sydney»;
- Words related to the cloth. The examples are «cardigan», «cashmere», «mackintosh»;
- Names of months. The examples are «June», «July»;
- Words related to cars. The examples are «Jeep», «Renault»;
- Words related to food. The examples are «sandwich», «bouillon»;
- And other words. Words that are difficult to include to any particular thematic group were included to this category («masochistic», «silhouette», «platonic» etc.)
Table 1. The examples of eponyms in the novels of Julian Barnes
Proper names Derby, America, Big Ben, Sydney
Words related to the cloth Cardigan, cashmere, mackintosh
Names of months June, July
Words related to the cars Jeep, Renault
Food Sandwich, bouillon
Other words Masochistic, silhouette, platonic etc
Every word from these examples is related to some historical figures. For example, Mackintosh is the surname of the chemist, who suggested to sew clothes from rubber, and also solved the problem of the unpleasant odor of this material. It was an absolutely new idea which spread very quickly. The word «sandwich» comes from the name of the earl who had a habit of carrying two slices of bread with him. And the name of Big Ben came from the name of civil engineer and political figure - he was a customer of a large bell for a clock tower of the British parliament. So there is a great number of examples and interesting stories related to the origin of eponyms [1].
Analyzing the results of my research presented in this article, we can see that the most numerous group is a group of proper names. In particular, it is a consequence of specificity of the novel «England, England» - 3 from 4 words from this category was found exactly in this composition. As mentioned before, the novel is closely connected with England, its history and traditions, so we can find a lot of geographic names and names of the sights in this novel.
The second largest thematic group is a group of words related to cloth. It is an unusual result for us, because none of the researching novels is tied to a similar topic. And there is almost the same number of eponyms in the group of other words which are difficult to include to any thematic group.
Other groups have the same number of eponyms: these groups are names of months, words related to cars and words related to food.
Analyzing the role of eponyms in the novels of Julian Barnes "England, England", "The Sense of an Ending" and "The Only Story", it can be stated that these words, firstly, do not make up much of the lexicon of the work as a whole; and, secondly, do not have a special function because the majority of readers (and even authors) are not informed which words in the compositions are eponyms, and which ones are not.
However, analyzing the role of eponyms in general, it cannot be denied that eponymy is an interesting element of speech, relatively popular in modern literature. We can prove it by the fact that every novel which was researched contains about 10 eponyms, even if this novel is small in volume - as «The Sense of an Ending, for example. Besides, we cannot exclude the possibility that there are other eponyms in the researching novels, but there is not any information in the dictionaries about them.
In addition, we can assume that there will be more eponyms in our speech and literature in the future because there will be new scientists, inventors and other talented persons, who will be able to make something absolutely new and give it their name.
Список используемой литературы:
1. Блау М. Г. Судьба эпонимов. 300 историй происхождения названий [Текст] : словарь-справочник / М. Г. Блау - НЦ ЭНАС, 2010. - 38 с.
2. Федоринова, З. В. Etymology of English Eponyms [Текст] / З. В. Еремеева, П. А. Бизякина // Молодой ученый. - 2011. - Т. 1, №11. - С. 204-205.
3. New Dictionary of Eponyms [Электронный ресурс]. -Режим доступа : http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195093544.001.0001/acref-9780195093544 , свободный (дата обращения: 28.03.2018). - Загл. с экрана.
