Variable Forms of Naming in Literary Texts of Nikolay Gumilyov: Poetical and Semantic Aspect

Abstract

The article deals with poetical and semantic aspects of the analysis of variable onym nominations in literary texts of an eminent Russian poet Nikolay Gumilyov. It is shown that within one poetic text, synonymous names can replace an unmentioned proper name (as in The Jaguar), form a speech portrait of a character (The Funny Brothers) or express his attitude towards the addressee of speech (The Child of Allah). Variable proper names can differ by phonemic structure (Dante — Dant, Eros — Erot) or name formulas (Igor Severyanin — Severyanin). The poet uses some proper names variants from different languages and ethnic groups, for example, the poetonym Bornu characterizes the poetic space as it can be seen by inhabitants of the described places, and the name Chad is found in a speech of lyrical heroes who have never belonged to this space or left it (“Lake Chad”). It is shown that one of the main functions of onymic periphrases is to emphasize the social role and status of the character (Theodora and the empress of Byzantium, Gondla and the king of whole Ireland). Sometimes only the context analysis can allow describing certain co-referential proper names as synonymous, for example, Zmeya ‘Serpent’ and Sudya ‘the Judge’ in the play The Tree of Transformation. The materials presented in the paper reflects one of the stages of work on a dictionary of poetonyms in Nikolay Gumilyov’s works. The paper contains brief recommendations regarding the reference area in the dictionary and three abbreviated entries for the names Velzevul ‘Beelzebub,’ Dyavol ‘Devil,’ Lyutshifer ‘Lucifer’ which are frequently used in Gumilyov’s poetic language.

Keywords

• author dictionary
• proper names derived from appellatives
• nikolay gumilyov
• onymic periphrasis
• onomastic space
• proper name variant
• poetonym
• name variant