Onomastics is a word of Greek origin. Translated from this language, it means "name". It is easy to guess that onomastics, as a science, studies the proper names of people. However, not only them. She is also interested in the names of peoples, animals, geographical objects. In addition, a part of onomastics, studying the names of mountains, rivers, settlements and other things, stands out as a separate science. It is called toponymy.
Onomastics in different senses
Representatives of various sciences (geographers, historians, ethnographers, linguists, literary critics, psychologists) are studying proper names today. However, first of all, they are studied precisely by linguists. Onomastics is a section of linguistics. She studies the history of the emergence and transformation of names as a result of using them for a long time in the source language or by borrowing them from other languages. However, onomastics is a concept that can be considered not only as a science. In a narrower sense, these are just different types of proper names. Otherwise, they are called onomastic vocabulary.
Features of the study of proper names
A significant part of human life covers such a concept as proper names. Their examples are numerous. They are given to everything that people create, as well as to geographical objects, including those located outside of our planet. The origin of the names can be considered comprehensively - from the point of view of logic and etymology.
Studying proper names, you can notice the specific features of their transmission and preservation. Thanks to this, their study is of scientific interest. The origin of certain names may be forgotten, and they themselves may not have any connection with other words of the given language. Nevertheless, a proper name even in this case retains social significance, that is, it is an understandable indication of a particular subject.
Often proper nouns are very stable. They are often not affected by the revolutionary changes taking place in the language, and even the disappearance of the language and its replacement by another does not lead to the cessation of their use. For example, today in Russian there are still names, such as Don or Volga, which do not matter in it. However, having performed an etymological analysis, one can see that they are of Scythian origin. Such studies provide an opportunity to restore the nature of the language that prevailed during the creation of a particular name, to find out many aspects related to it.
Onomastics and history
Onomastics is a science that provides a great service to history. After all, she collects the most important material for her, thanks to which it is possible to trace the paths of the migration of peoples. In addition, onomastics is a science that studies the contribution made by peoples, both existing today and extinct, to building a world or national culture. As an example, we note that by analyzing the origin of certain names of Russian cities (for example, Vyshny Volochyok), we can conclude that there are transport routes in the past.
In addition, studies of the names of geographical objects located on the East European Plain allow us to trace the influence that the Scythian culture had on the Russian language. All this is done by historical onomastics. Thus, her research is aimed more at identifying places of resettlement of various peoples and the ways of their migration in the past.
Historical onomastics also deals with the determination of contacts between cultures that existed at one time or another, and the study of ancient languages. It often happens that only by research within the framework of this science can we judge the disappeared peoples and languages. However, onomastics is a science that studies not only all of these issues. Its sections are numerous, and now we will tell you about some others.
Poetic Onomastics
In literary works today, rich material has been accumulated for the study of proper names, reflecting various creative methods and styles. It is enough to mention a set of "talking" names and names, such as Chichikov, Sobakevich, Skotinin. All of them are designed to reflect the genre used in the work, characterizing in a certain way a particular hero. Moreover, we can talk about the existence of a whole technique by which proper names are formed with different social colors and in different styles. However, it should be noted that at present the material, which could become the basis for research in the field of poetic onomastics, has not been developed and not collected. This applies even to the numerous statements of writers and poets about proper names that characterize the methods of their work in this area. In this regard, much is ahead of a science such as onomastics. There are a lot of names of literary characters, so you can do research in this area for a very long time. It all depends on the enthusiasm of the researchers.
Toponymy
The science of onomastics has many directions. One of them is toponymy. In the framework of this direction, the names of geographical objects are studied (Red Sea, Russia, Nevsky Prospect, Kiev, Kulikovo Field, Lake Baikal, Iset River).
Anthroponymy
Anthroponymy studies directly the proper names of people (Ivan Kalita, Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin). In this direction, canonical and popular personal names are distinguished, as well as forms of the same name: dialectic and literary, unofficial and official. In a particular era, each ethnos has its own anthroponymicon. This concept means a register of personal names.
Cosmonomy and zoononymy
Another interesting area is cosmonomy. Within its framework, the names of various space objects, as well as individual celestial bodies (Mercury, the Moon, the Sun, the star of Sirius, the dwarf planet Ceres, comet Halley) are analyzed .
Zoononymy, as you probably guessed, is engaged in nicknames and proper names of animals (Buckingham, Arnold, Besya, Britney, Murka, Sharik).
Chrematonymy
Chrematonymy is also interested in a proper name. Examples of what belongs to the field of its study are numerous. Chrematonymy is interested in those names that belong to objects of material culture (the Gamayun cannon, the Durandal sword, the Orlov diamond). We know that proper names are often used to refer to sports societies, stadiums, individual parties ("Immortal Party", "Evergreen Party"), holidays (Geologist Day, May 1), military units, as well as individual battles (Battle of Kulikovo, Borodinskaya battle). Enterprises designate their services or goods with the help of trademarks, which are also proper names. In addition, chrematonymy is interested in the names of books, works of art, individual poems.
This section of onomastics is not only of academic interest. In Western countries, for example, lawsuits often arise that involve the use of a trademark name similar to the name of another owned by a company that produces a competing product. The decision on whether such names can be considered similar can only be made using scientific analysis.
Karabonymy
Karabonymy is engaged in the study of the proper names of boats, ships and ships ("Varyag", "Aurora", "In memory of Mercury", "Borodino"). Note that this term was proposed by the Russian scientist Aleksushin instead of the terms “caronymy” and “autonymy” used earlier.
Ergonyms
Ergonomics is engaged in the study of the names of various business associations of people. For example, company names are company names, and empronymics are words denoting store names. Ergonomics are interested in the names of cafes, bars, trade unions, billiard clubs, hairdressers, etc.
Pragmonimics
Pragmonimics is the direction in which the names of types of goods are investigated. Perfume names, for example, are the names of aromas, perfumes (Lauren, Chanel), chokonyms mean the names of chocolate products ("Blizzard", "Kara-Kum").
Theonymy
Theonymy studies the names of gods, spirits, demons, characters of legends and myths. It shows how household names turned into proper names - the names of fire, wind, thunder, thunder and other natural phenomena.
The questions of onomastics are very interesting, aren't they? It should be noted that sections of this science are directly related to practice. Therefore, onomastics can not be considered only as an occupation of scientists, "eccentrics." A proper name (some examples we have cited) is being studied by science, which is closely related to our life.