THE STATE OF HYPOCORISTIC NAMES IN ONOMASTIC SUBSYSTEM OF LANGUAGE

Abstract

Introduction. One of the tasks of modern linguistics is to build a dynamic modelof the human language through the analysis of functionally motivated linguistic units, which,in particular, include hypocoristic names – a non-unofficial (short) variants of a personalname, used mainly for communication purposes. The analysis of the formal and semanticstructure of hypocoristic names, studying their functional features in comparison with those ofthe official (full) names will make it possible to get closer to the understanding of the lingualstatus of the proper name. The purpose of the paper is to examine hypocoristic names inthe languages of the same and different structure in order to clarify the common features anddiscuss the obtained results to confirm or deny the hypothesis of their own place in onomasticsubsystem of language. Methods. Typological method is used in the paper. Results: hypocoristicnames are frequently used in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, Japanese, andPersian languages in three main models: monosyllabic, disyllabic and reduplicative. Thereare vivid commonalities among the languages under analysis which could be due to thecommunicative function of hypocoristics in vocatives. Vocative discourse is where hypocoristicswork their way to the language structure. A vivid example of the process is the Russiantruncated vocative which broadens the scope of its function from originally short names tofull names and positions outside vocative discourse. Hypocoristics whose zone of productionis vocative discourse are neutral to morphological-syntactic indices. However, the mindprocesses short forms of the name in accordance with the general processes that are at theheart of the linguistic organization and human communication. The main of such processes isiconism – the motivation of a linguistic form. The main way of handling hypocoristics is aniconic diagram – a systematic organization of signs, which are not necessarily similar to theirreferents, but whose interconnection reflects their relation to the referents. Conclusion. Thehypothesis was confirmed but further investigation is to be continued.