What is a proper name? How does it differ from other names? To answer this question, you have to plunge into the history of the language.
The concept of “name” in Russian means that part of speech that serves to name someone or something. It is necessary in order to designate an object, phenomenon or person in a series of similar ones. Usually in our language, ordinary or substantive nouns are used for this. A proper and common noun can be denoted by words that have passed from other parts of speech. For example, in the phrase “bathroom” the first word will be an adjective, and in the design “enter the bathroom” - a substantiated noun.
A noun is a part of speech (significant, independent), the purpose of which is the name of the subject, person, object. This full-fledged token may refer to animate or inanimate objects. A noun can also be a noun or a common noun. A table, a field, a box, a cow, a shadow are common nouns. Vasily, Rostov, Petrovich - nouns denoting a proper name. A section of science called onomastics specializes in their study.
Proper nouns - the category is very extensive.
These include:
- Names of people (Irina, Nikolai Petrovich Lvov, Marivanna (open), Petrovna).
- Names of the gods (Zeus, Quetzalcoatl).
- Nicknames of animals (Bug, Muska).
- Geographical names (Vladivostok, Red Sea, Antarctica).
- The names of books, songs, works of art, etc. (“Hot Snow”, “Anna Karenina”, “Gioconda”, “Swan Fidelity”).
This classification usually ends with the information that students receive about the concept of “proper name”. A deeper study allows us to divide this category into:
- Personal names are those that are given to a person after his birth (Lydia, Peter).
- Patronyms (patronymic) (Vladimirovna, Sergeevich).
- Family or clan names (these include surnames).
- Kryptonyms It is customary for some peoples to hide their real name, and to call a person another (in order to deceive evil spirits). This will be kryptonym.
- Anthroponyms or names of literary works.
- Eponyms. It is in this category that a proper name will be assigned, assigned to a geographical object in honor of a real hero or mythical deity. For example: Athens, Byzantium, Thebes, etc.
A proper name denoting a name (geographical) is usually called a toponym, and a science that studies such nouns is called toponymy.
Toponyms can also be divided into categories. This is necessary to study them more thoroughly.
Among the toponyms are:
- Oikonyms or names of populated places. Moreover, the names of cities are referred to as astionyms, and villages, villages and smaller entities - to comonyms. Lviv, Bataysk, Sinegorye - astionyms. Kryachki (village), Red (farm), Fun (village) - comedies.
- The names of water bodies include hydronyms: Volga, Black Sea, Gremyuchy stream, etc.
- The names of the mountains belong to the oronyms: Ural, Chomolungma, Carpathians.
- Urbanoids (the name of urban local objects): The Pentagon (the popular name of the shopping center in Rostov. Received due to the architectural similarity with the organization of the same name).
- Agoronyms ( area names ): Red, Theater, and year-names (street names): Shevchenko, Communist.
- The names of the ways of communication belong to the dromonyms: North Caucasian Railway, BAM, Silk Road.
- The names of large uninhabited spaces are called khoronimy, and small - microtoponyms.
There is a detailed classification of other words that we call “proper name”. For example, the names of aircraft (“Ruslan”, “Antei”, “Black Shark”) are designated by the term “aeronautonyms”.
The classification of nouns is studied in detail at the philological faculties.