Cognitive and Semantic Status of Onim Lexicon in Modern Linguistics

Abstract

The article deals with the study of cognitive and semantic nature of onim lexicon, in which the complicated and unsolved issue of an onim meaning has been described. Due to the results of the previous researches, the article deals with the extralinguistic (encyclopedic) proper name meaning including the factor of its widespread usage approved by the representatives of cognitive semantics in comparison to the researches of structural semantics. The article suggests an attempt to expose the ontological nature of proper names from the position of cognitive and anthropocentric approaches. All the linguistic phenomena have been assessed in the following way: they do not reflect the world in the native speakers’ mind but interpret it through the depth of their background knowledge as well as cognitive abilities. The proper names have been explained from these positions and defined as compact microtext of cognitive and semantic nature consisting of mythological, ethnological, historical, social and other information realised in the frames of wide context. In this case, it reveals the potential meanings embodied in the inner and outer forms of these new creations.

Keywords

• когнітивно-семантична природа
• онімна лексика
• екстралінгвістичне значення
• власне ім’я