Zoonymic Peculiarity in Feature Cartoons for Children

Abstract

Objective. The object of studying is the English texts of feature cartoons for children, while its subject is psycholinguistic peculiarity of zoonyms in feature cartoon texts. The main goal of the research is to find out the psycholinguistic organization of zoonyms in the English language feature cartoons for children. The objectives are to classify zoonyms’ origin, to differentiate sphere-sources and motivation of zoonym nomination, to highlight stylistic peculiarities of zoonyms. Materials & Methods. Specific methods and techniques are determined by the purpose and material to be analyzed, such as induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, abstraction and concretization; longitudinal, processing and interpretation methods; psycholinguistic analysis; method of context-semantic analysis; the procedures of quantitative-qualitative calculations and the method of integral choice. Materials for the research are gathered from Paramount Pictures production, Dream Works animation, Universal Studio, Walt Disney production and the selection is the English feature cartoons for children, such as ‘The Lion King’, ‘Balto’, ‘Kung Fu Panda’, ‘Madagascar’, ‘Alpha and Omega’, ‘Shreck’, ‘Ferdinand’, ‘Puppy Dog pals’, ‘Ice Age’ etc. Results. The article dwells upon the psycholinguistic aspect of zoonyms in the English language feature cartoons for children. In the sense of changing the direction of linguistics from language to speech and communication, it is impossible to consider linguistics excluding the anthropological factors such as mentality, culture, behaviour and development of a man individually and of mankind as a whole. In this paper, the ways of forming a world view of a man are presented, which is also formed by a linguistic world view, fauna is distinguished as an emerging element of knowledge influencing on human’s cognition. Taking into account the fact that the world view about fauna is formed in the person’s mind from the first days of life observing nature, listening to the lullabies, watching cartoons, the object of this study is feature cartoons for children, and the subject is zoonyms. In the course of the research, methods and techniques such as induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, abstraction and concretization, the method of material sampling, quantitative calculation procedure are used to determine the frequency of this phenomenon usage. As a result, it is found that in the English language feature films for children, the names of the English, Scottish, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Chinese, Latin and Greek origins are used in zoonymy. Spheres-sources of zoonymy are multi-anthroponyms, single anthroponyms, toponyms, names of products, fitonyms and actual names of breeds and classes of animals. Nominative motivation is outlined by external features, behaviour, application of an animal, its breed and class. Stylistic peculiarities of zoonymy in the English language feature cartoons for children are such figures as the epithet, the metaphor, the personification and the euphony. Conclusion. The article is the basis for further research in linguistics, anthropological linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, biovital linguistics and onomastics.