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Section 6. Theory of language
Andryuchshenko Olga Konstantinovna, Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor, the Faculty of Philology and History, Pavlodar State Pedagogical Institute E-mail: olga_pav_pgpi@mail.ru Suyunova Gulnara Seylbekovna, Doctor of Philology, Professor, the Faculty of Philology and History, Pavlodar State Pedagogical Institute.
E-mail: suynova_gulya@mail.ru Tkachuk Sofja Sergeevna, 3rd year student of the Faculty of Philology and History
Regional onomastics from the point of view of cultural linguistics
The article was prepared under the “Basic and Applied Research in the Humanities” Grant of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Contract № 290 dated 12.02.2015).
Abstract: The study is focused on the description of linguistic and cultural aspects of analysis in the framework of onomastics. The authors consider the origins of cultural linguistics abroad, provide the description of the main areas of research of onomastics as a cultural phenomenon. According to the authors, onomastics relates to a system of culturally labeled values and ideas absorbed in the course of familiarizing with the respective linguistic culture.
Keywords: onomastics, precedent proper name, cultural linguistics, regional, linguistics.
Onomastic vocabulary has been and remains a constant object of attention of researchers.
Onomastic material features great potential for cultural studies. However, onomastics requires extensive further study in aspects of linguo-cultur-ological and pragmatic information. As E. L. Ber-ezovich was fair to say it [1, 7], declaring the fact of cultural and historical value of a proper name is not enough — it is necessary to develop a methodology for the derivation of cultural and historical information from proper names system as well as methodology of description and interpretation of this information. The authors regard this work as one of the steps in the implementation of this large-scale task.
Along with the ability to transmit information meaningful to the recipient, proper names have a potential to render the same information unavailable to “outsiders” or recipients of other cultures, as proper names are always culture-specific concepts relating to the background vocabulary. Thus, the relevance of the study is conditioned by the continued interest in the phenomenon of proper name as well as the fact that onomastics-related culture-specific concepts are important linguistic source of information about the spiritual culture, and onomastic material enables
to work with linguo-culturological and pragmatic information which is still marginally involved in the scientific usage.
Semiotic essence of proper name, features of onomastic lexical semantic content were analyzed in the writings by J. Mill, A. Gardiner, E. Husserl, O. Jes-persen, G.-N. Castaneda, E. Kurilovich, P. A. Florensky, A. F. Losev, O. S. Akhmanova, A. A. Ufimtseva, D. I. Rudenko, A. V. Superanskaya, Yu. S. Stepanov,
I. A. Melchuk, A. D. Shmelev, A. A. Chernobrov and many others.
The methodology of the modern research of metaphor is based on widely known works of domestic and foreign linguists, such as M. Black [2] J. Lakoff [3] M. Johnson [4] D. Davidson [5] Z. Kovechesh
[6], G. Searle, M. Turner, J. Fauconnier [7], A. Rich-ars. Studying the process of metaphor allows to describe the effect of the basic principle of anthropocentrism, being the organization of non-object reality similar to the reality perceived through feelings. This conceptualization results in that “the world surrounding man is perceived through the prism of axiology, psychology and system of symbols, with the inner world parameterized and objectified” [8, 457]. Among the foreign researchers the most con-
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Regional onomastics from the point of view of cultural linguistics
sistent adherence to this approach is seen in writings by M. Johnson [9], and J. Ortega-n-Gasset, Cassirer [10], Langacker C. [11]
The methodological basis of the research lies in implementation of an integrated interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of the material involving consideration of linguistic facts in close connection with data generated in cultural study, sociolinguistics and ethnolinguistics.
Thus, the methods of study are dictated by the specifics of the subject, linguistic material, as well as the goals and tasks of the work. The authors used descriptive methods with elements of interpretive analysis. The direct study of linguistic material was accompanied by partial linguo-pragmatic contextual analysis taking into consideration not only the content-specific semantic space of the text, but also a wide linguistic and cultural context. Sociometric methods were used as well allowing to demonstrate the dependence of proper name on cultural and social parameters. A detailed analysis of methodological means of philological urbanism is provided in the article by Suyunova G. S. and Andryuchchen-ko O. K. [12].
Onomastics-related culture-specific concepts form a specific symbolic subsystem dynamically implemented in various linguo-aesthetic and linguo-stylistic subsystems. The main parameter of this subsystem is a considerable (compared to the nominal vocabulary) dependence on the socio-cultural circumstances. Onomastics relates to a system of culturally labeled values and ideas absorbed in the course of familiarizing with the respective linguistic culture.
Onomastics almost unconditionally relates to the so-called background vocabulary. As is known, successful cross-cultural and cross-linguistic communication requires much more than mastering linguistic patterns — it is necessary to master background knowledge of foreign-language culture, understand national and cultural features of native-speaking nation. In this paper, it is exactly the linguo-cultur-ological and pragmatic properties of proper names system that is paid attention to.
Onomastics-related culture-specific concepts are analyzed (or, otherwise mentioned) in the lin-guo-cultural study text-books. As is known, linguo-
cultural study has its own subject and specific areas of study and development, and is a methodical discipline providing communicative basis for foreign language teaching, solving general educational and humanistic issues, underlining the cumulative function of language. In a sense, linguo-cultural study is the way of understanding culture through language and, to the contrary, language through culture.
However, the general theoretical value of linguo-cultural study approach to onomastics is not so high, according to E. L. Berezovich [1, 18]. First of all, the task of searching for specific “culture-specific concept-based names” endowed with national and cultural specificity and opposed to other proper names appears to be confusing. Criteria for distinguishing are unclear. Extra-linguistic category of “distinction” is hardly suitable for scientific analysis (unless identified by large-scale public opinion polls).
In contrast to such advanced areas of study of anthropological linguistics as linguo-sociology and linguo-psychology, cultural linguistics, as well as its basis, cultural studies, is at the stage of its design and development. Language, according to the concept of cultural linguistics, is actively involved in all important instances of cultural creativity, being the development of worldview, fixing thereof and further understanding. It is a form of expression of thought, a means of acquiring and storing the spiritual content, and finally, a means of understanding and selfconsciousness.
The main task of cultural linguistics with respect to the onomastic material is to study and describe the mechanisms serving as the basis for the interaction of proper names as units of natural language with cultural semantics of cultural code. The effect of this mechanism lies in presentation by proper names of cultural semantics and, thus, their function as verbalized signs of culture. Native speakers have a reflexive ability to cultural referencing which is based on correlation of proper names of natural language with the “language” of culture, and are able to identify in the language entities culturally significant and — often nationally-specific — directives.
In the framework of the theory of translation onomastics is regarded as the carrier of the background information. Background information is a historical and dynamic phenomenon which is
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Section 6. Theory of language
why it is divided into current and historical and into that of short- and long-term nature.
Onomastic material enables a translator to, avoiding word by word matching, achieve matching of a higher level — textual, content-related, pragmatic and emotional, because the translation can only be considered successful when it prompts reflection in the recipient of the respective culture which is similar to the reflection of the original recipient. To this end, all the components of the original content should be provided in the translation (otherwise, a situation may arise where a highly artistic piece of work could be perceived in the receiving culture as insipid and uninteresting due to improper translation).
Thus, having analyzed the current trend of studying proper names system from the cultural and pragmatic point of view, the authors came to the following conclusions:
1. In cognitive structures forming communicative competence of great importance are proper names which to the maximum extent embody the cultural and historical experience of the nation.
2. Onomastic vocabulary is formed of signs and symbols which can be deciphered and described.
Onomastic space, being a significant element in the system of language and culture, contributes to the comprehension of national culture of the given ethnic group.
3. Onomastic units are an important part of precedent-setting phenomena. Precedent-setting proper names represent standard ideas generated in the linguistic and cultural community with respect to certain situations and qualities and are used to appeal to extralinguistic knowledge of native speakers.
4. Informational and pragmatic transparency of precedent-setting proper names facilitates its decryption and eliminates the need to input a wide explanatory context.
5. The complex and multifaceted system of onomastic vocabulary requires researchers to divide it both by denotative correlation (anthroponimics, toponymy, ergonymy and so on), and by the areas of use (real, aesthetic etc).
6. Onomastic vocabulary naturally refers to the culture-specific concepts (non-equivalent vocabulary). When transferring allusive culture-specific concepts in the target language, of paramount importance is popularity of the source of association contained in these names with native speakers.
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4. Johnson, M. The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason/M. Johnson. -Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. - 272 p.
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