The cognitive mechanisms involved in the “DEGREE ADVERB + PROPER NAME” construction: Evaluating proposals from Construction Grammar and Formal Semantics

There are broad disagreements between existing models regarding the mental representations and processes involved in the "DEGREE ADVERB + PROPER NAME" construction, including disagreements regarding the semantics of the degree device, the category status of the proper name, the construction’s expressed meaning and its (non-)compositionality, and, crucially, the operation that holds between the degree device and the proper name. Our corpus-based investigation into two competing models from Construction Grammar and Formal Semantics shows that these models collectively make useful contributions to the scientific understanding of this construction, but neither is empirically adequate. Most importantly, we find that the construction participates in several non-predicted expressed meanings; multivariate analyses show that the three amenable to statistical analysis cluster with different semantic usage-features. We argue that the best way to account for the construction’s semantics-pragmatics is via a previously-dismissed cognitive mechanism: an enrichment-/strengthening-type operation whereby a pragmatically-supplied scale is added to the message.

Abbatissae uenerabili Heanfled agnominatae

The unique Anglo-Saxon woman’s name Heanfled (S904, c. 1002 AD) is generally interpreted as a scribal error for Eanfled (or Eadfled, or Heahfled). Although the hypothesis has been dismissed in the older literature, the possibility stands that the form handed down is correct, and Heanfled might represent a (Christian) proper name in its own right, deliberately created or shaped according to the rules presiding over the formation of Germanic dithematic anthroponyms.

Between Proper Name and Appellative: Lexicography of Words with Borderline Status (Exemplified by Neologism Brexit)

The problems of lexicography of new words that appeared in the Russian language in the 21 st century are considered based on the materials of the upcoming thematic Explanatory Dictionary of Unity and Enmity in the Russian Language of 2000–2020. The author of the article is one of the dictionary compilers. It is stated that the difficulties of describing new borrowed lexical units, that are at the stage of usage, are associated with the establishment of their lexical, grammatical and stylistic characteristics. Criteria for their determination are proposed. The principles of choosing the variant of heading word spelling in a dictionary entry are argued. Based on the methods of definitional, linguoculturological and content analysis using textual material extracted from mass media resources, a methodology for compiling a dictionary entry has been developed, which makes it possible to give a detailed description of the lexical, grammatical, stylistic, paradigmatic and pragmatic characteristics of current borrowings. As a result of this technique application, a dictionary entry of Brexit neologism is presented, reflecting the unstable position of this lexeme in the Russian language system, the status of which fluctuates between a proper name and an appellative. The material and methodology for its systematization can be considered when compiling explanatory dictionaries of new words in the Russian language.

TEXT-CREATIONAL FUNCTIONS OF TOPONYMS ІN THE MODERN LITERARY DISCOURSE (BASED ON THE NOVEL BY SOPHIA ANDRUKHOVYCH «AMADOKA»)

The need to develop a holistic linguistic vision of the functionality of toponyms in the literary discourse dictates the study of these units on the basis of broad artistic materials texts of different genres. The article is devoted to characteristics of toponyms, noted in the novel of Sophia Andrukhovych «Amadoka». The study has revealed that modern fiction manifests an abundant toponym system. The system of toponyms in the novel «Amadoka» is formed by horonyms, oykonyms, urbanonyms, hydronyms, oronyms, and so on. The toponyms carry out the following basic functions: nominative-localized, ideological, and symbolic. First, toponyms in a text actualize their toponymic meaning, structuring a text space. However, toponyms often become ideological-conceptual elements that gain a dominant role in the implementation of the author’s intention, function in the text as symbols, which enables the output of functions of this proper name beyond the limits of the traditional nominative-localization one. They become the means of the indirect features of characters of the novel that are one of the elements of text formation.

ONOMASTIC METAPHOR IN THE ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATION

The authors of the article discuss the problem of translating an onomastic metaphor in humorous discourse, relying on the results of research in the field of proper name theory, cognitive metaphor theory, comic theory, discourse theory, and the theory of harmonious translation space, which are the research methodology. The purpose of the work is to show that the metaphorical onym, as a complex dynamic transformation of a proper name-anthroponym, has a high cultural potential, and in humorous discourse acquires a pragmatic humorous effect, reflecting the author's intention. The material of the work was the literary texts of A.P. Chekhov in Russian and their translations into Chinese, as well as literary texts in English by P.G. Woodhouse and their translations into Russian and Chinese. The choice of these authors is due to their belonging to the same historical era - the beginning of the twentieth century. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the semantics of Chinese anthroponyms differs significantly from the semantics of English and Russian-language proper names-anthroponyms, which should be known and taken into account by the translator in the process of translating metaphorical meanings into Chinese in order to ensure mutual understanding of representatives of different linguistic cultures. Translations into Chinese are ongoing. Linguistic and translation analysis consists in identifying the level of harmony of translations of an onomastic metaphor, correlated with the nature of the reconstruction of metaphorical meanings and the humorous effect of the original. Such a translation is recognized as harmonious, in which there is a remetaphorization of the onomastic metaphor, accompanied by synergy - an increment of new meanings acceptable to the host culture.

LEXICAL AND PHRASEOLOGICAL PARADIGMATICS OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE: MADELEINE DE PROUST

The article is devoted to the linguocultural analysis of the idiom madeleine de Proust in modern French. The analysis is based on lexicographic data, component analysis method and text semantic analysis. Using the method of linguocultural decoding they find out emotional and sensual, ethical, aesthetic informations; archetypal, mythological, religious, philosophical and scientific informations, which are the deep foundations of the meaning of a phraseological unit. In the unit madeleine de Proust , the basic types of information are religious and philosophical. The first is associated with the polysemantic inner form of the word Madeleine. It is a nominative name - it means the name of a flour product and a proper name - Madeleine was the name of the girl who invented this culinary dish; this word is associated with the images of Magdalen-sinner and St. Mary-Magdalene, which is reflected in the phraseological system of the French language; with proper name Saint-Jacques, which is used to describe the subject of the material world, and accompanies the writer’s life, the hero in the novel. The philosophical type of information is associated with Proust’s reflections, signs, philosophy, with the concepts of the voluntary and involuntary memory. And all these were pushed by the sensual-emotional information. The polysemous word madeleine in the semantic space of the literary text thanks to the talent of the writer, his emotional and sensual experiences, his stream of consciousness, expanded its meaning and became one of the components of the new language unit madeleine de Proust .

THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF INDIGENOUS BELIEF ISSUE IN THE JAKARTA POST

As indigenous belief acknowledgement in Indonesia is still progressive, debatable but limitedly investigated from critical discourse analysis perspective, this research is aimed at revealing the discursive construction of indigenous belief issue in The Jakarta Post. This research focuses on analyzing indigenous belief as phenomenon, indigenous believers and government as social actor through the analysis of nomination and predication strategies. Articles published in The Jakarta Post online newspaper from 2013 - 2020 are chosen as corpus data. To analyze this research, Discourse-Historical Approach by Wodak and Meyer (2009) is used as the framework. This research also employs corpus analysis using Sketch Engine. The finding suggests that the issue centralized in the discussion of identity card and human right framed in five different periods. The use of collective proper name, anthroponym and deixis are significant to refer to indigenous believers, meanwhile institutional name, anthroponym and synecdoche are mostly used as referent for government. There is a shift of predication strategies from negative to positive when it discussed government policy on putting indigenous belief column on identity card. This research suggests that the use of corpus software as well as manual corpus screening is important to locate more detail language data.

Expressing Value-Loaded Content as the Most Important Function of Paroemias and Idioms

The monograph under review is highly appreciated as having been long-awaited by specialists in phraseology and cultural linguistics. This is an up-to-date original work full of innovations and creative discoveries. Performed for the first time in philology, the comprehensive analysis of idioms and paroemias as signs of language and culture is highly welcomed. The innovative and effective aspects of the monograph are as follows: the study of the correlation of idioms and paroemias with cultural codes; the comparative linguocultural analysis of idioms and paroemias, on the one hand, and idioms and riddles, on the other hand, which are the units most saturated with culture-specific information. We underline the originality of the author’s conclusions about the influence of cultural connotations of the studied linguistic material on the dynamics of the British linguistic worldview. The linguistic and cultural analysis of the proper name as a component in the composition of proverbs, sayings, riddles and idioms – signs of language and culture – results, for the first time, in representing the anthroponymic code of culture. On the basis of extensive phraseological material, the author describes in detail the processes of semiotization of the value-loaded content of culture.

Кореферентные структуры, используемые для представления экономических субъектов в медийном дискурсе

The subject of study in the article is the discourse specifics of representation of economic entities in German newspaper and magazine texts of the last two decades. The purpose of the analysis is to elucidate the factors that stimulate univerbation in connection with the generation and textual integration of co-referential structures different in genesis, structural properties, semantic characteristics and stylistic potential. The study, conducted on the basis of a functional-communicative approach to language, relies on methods and results of studies on text linguistics considering text as a whole structural-semantic unit. Conclusions. 1) Mentioning of a company name is accompanied by integration of the univerb indicating the relevant industry into the text. Along with a two-member chain of co-referential nominations, a three-member chain is also possible (the location of a company is mentioned). 2) Co-referential pairs of the type “company name ‒ collective designation of employees according to headquarters location” (Siemens ‒ Münchener) are characteristic, which demonstrates the lability of univerb toponym semantics. 3) The integration of a proper name into the text requires the usage of characterizing common nouns in order to prepare the reader for the perception of unique names, which is a factor motivating univerbation. 4) Synthetic compounds of the nomina agentis type (Autobauer, Stromversorger) are widely used to describe the kind of activity of an enterprise. In such cases a lexeme with the expected semantics is eliminated (Unternehmen ‘company’, Konzern ‘concern’ etc.). The reduction of the base lexeme of a compound as well as representation of the verb lexeme in the form of nomen agentis has an impact on the semantics and stylistics of the univerb. The results of the study can be used both in research activities on problems of word-formation, semantics and in the training of business translators.

Place names in Spanish Republican Life Stories: spatial patterns in locations and perceptions

Places can be defined by different features including geographical coordinates, landscape elements and also subjective information like perception. The corpus collected by the Réseau des acteurs de l’histoire et la mémoire de l’immigration (RAHMI) contains oral interviews about Spanish Republicans journeys during Spanish Civil War and World War II. These life stories quote place names corresponding to proper name (Npr) or common name (Nc) and which can be qualified or associated to non-geographical nouns, adjectives and expressions. Methods from natural language processing have been used to automatically extract and characterize these pieces of informations into annotations. The objective of the presented work is to analyse the geographical aspects of places and associated features, and to propose cartographical displays illustrating life stories and supporting analysis. Distribution of quoted Npr place names was first studied. It enabled targeting relevant spatial scales and so mapping extents for the corpus. Second, features of Npr places about their type (administrative, topographic) and their spatial target based on assocations with Nc have been synthetized. Then perception were allocated to Npr, falling into the three values of polarity positive, negative or neutral. Spatial patterns of each value have been displayed and interpreted. Summary of the annotations, analysis and created maps offer insights into the corpus driven by the mentioned places. Based on individual testimonies, it may help further interpretation and researches about this historical period.