The precedent name structure actualization (Based on the names from Macbeth by Shakespeare in BNC and COCA)
The article aims to investigate the peculiarities of the precedent name structure actualization on the material of the British National Corpus and the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Such components of the precedent name structure as relevant features (appearance, character, precedent situation) and attributes are under analysis. The frequency of the reference to each component of the precedent name structure has been calculated. It turned out that the precedent names of Shakespeare's “Macbeth” are most often actualized through the connection with the precedent situation and the least often – through character. 3 types of connections were identified between the precedent name and a proper name as its source: 1) full similarity of appearance / character / precedent situation between the original text and modern fiction from the corpora; 2) partial similarity of the features; 3) imaginativeness of the features. It has been discovered that when there is no direct connection between the appearance / character / precedent situation / attribute of the bearer of a precedent name and the bearer of the original proper name, the meaningful recurrence of a precedent name is ensured by a stable associative linkage and the invariant evaluation.