Revisiting the Paronymic Attraction to a Personal Name: the Name Elena in Russian Dialects

Abstract

The article focuses on Russian dialectal words, which are full homonyms of the name Elena or its derivatives (Alyona, Alyonka, Elenka, Lena, Lenka) included into the same morphosemantic field. Based on this lexical material, the author attempts to classify genetically different types of homonymy between proper names and common names, with the cases of mutual attraction between the derivatives of the name Elena and some unrelated common nouns given particular attention. Depending on the direction of morphonological attractions, it is proposed to distinguish the following types of correlations and interactions: 1) appelativisation (as such, and when attracted to a similar common noun); 2) personal name quasi-appelativisation (in the case of accidental match with a common noun stem or attraction to it, but invariably under the corresponding deanthroponymic derivation pattern); 3) quasi-proprialisation of a common noun (arbitrary substitution of the original common noun with a phonetically approximate proper name). The analyzed material is distributed according to thematic spheres, which allows the author to substantiate the proposed etymology (underpinned by semantic parallels), as well as to contextually identify whether or not the paronymic attraction to a personal name depends on the lexical meaning of a common noun. The appelativisation model relates to the spheres of humans and wildlife, although the cases of quasi-appelativisation can be found here as well; consequently, quasi-proprialisation is common primarily for the spheres of inanimate nature and the material world.

Keywords

• anthroponym
• personal name
• personal name appelativisation
• deanthroponym
• deanthroponymic derivation pattern
• quasi-appelativisation
• quasi-proprialisation
• paronymic attraction
• morphosemantic field
• folk etymology
• Russian folk dialects