Филологические науки /1.Методика преподавания языка и литературы

PhD in Linguistics Merkulova N.V.

Voronezh State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Russian Federation

Linguistic-and-Didactic Aspect of Aesthetic Onomastics

At present it is indisputable opinion that the teaching of reading (both at school and in high school) is one of the most important sources of linguistic and socio-cultural information , providing safety and replenishment of knowledge , as well as the possibility of its use in all types of communicative situations (academic probation and real communication).

Reading the literature of the country in the original is important because it allows students to come into contact with real life, not conventionally academic language. Moreover, in addition to mastering the vocabulary and the grammatical structures, namely the reading of literary texts enables better and more complete and thorough understanding of socio-cultural realities of the country of the studied language.

However, when considering the foreign language of a literary text as a source of social and cultural information there is a problem of understanding (or interpretation) of the foreign-language text.

In recent years, research in the field of hermeneutics (the art of interpreting texts, the teaching of the principles of their interpretation) has become very urgent. Thus, philosophical hermeneutics as the doctrine of understanding is the methodological basis for a number of the humanities: cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology, linguistics, - the disciplines that touch in the study of the process of understanding (interpretation) of the text. In our vision, a text is a code organization of cultural concepts that represent a subjective image of the objective world. In this case, the overall picture of the world is represented through the prism of the author's mental vision of this reality. Consequently, the carried out study focuses not only on a text, but also on a human being as a phenomenon of a particular culture, and the study turns out to be anthropocentric as it tends to reveal the essence of the human understanding [4, p. 100].

The interpretation of a foreign-language art text reflecting the world picture of culture (e. g. language culture), certainly raises a number of difficulties associated with the changes taking place in the semantic field of the language, as well as the choice of nominative means, and special attention is paid to proper names, or onyms, containing some particular socio-cultural information [3, p.43].

Firstly, the selection and the inclusion of onomastic vocabulary in the space of a literary text is an intentional process that primarily contributes to an adequate expression of the author's intention, so the onomastic lexicon, due to the author, are significant both in content as well as with the architectonical point of view. Secondly, aesthetic onomastics, as a rule, is based on the traditions of the proper names formation and functioning [2, p. 60], which often gives a certain spatial and temporal landmarks: the scene, the historical period, the social status of literary characters etc. Thus, proper names, capable of encoding large amount of artistic information are important semantic-and-stylistic elements of the text informative space; they contribute to the adequate perception and interpretation of literary and artistic works, the paradigm of the author creativity, and consequently, lead to deep and full understanding of the concept of the artwork.

All variety of issues related to the proper names study in the language of fiction comes down to two aspects: 1) the system of the names of characters; 2) the expressive stylistic devices based on the use of specific properties of aesthetic onomastics [6, p. 36].

The action of most fictions, regardless of the form and the genre, is concentrated around the activities and the thoughts of certain individuals - their characters. The main character of an artwork is approved in the minds of the readers in appearance, behavior, speech. And if a particular character is succeeded to the writer, in the view of the readers all his/her features will be associated with the only word - the name of the character, capable of invoking a certain art image. So, the choice of the artwork characters’ names contributes to solving some stylistic problems and tasks that the author may put before one or another character.

The study of the creative laboratory of writers shows that for any of them to choose a name for the main character is an important point in the work on the fiction. So, the draught copies by G. Flaubert could demonstrate the evidence of how carefully he picked up his characters’ names, often changing the names already in the process of the fiction creation. G. Flaubert chose the names that attracted him by their own expressive possibilities from real life, which is a kind of guarantee of realism and the artistic credibility of the created art images. For example, the name «Bovary», as it is recognized by the author, was formed from «Bouvaret» - it was the name of the owner of the hotel in Cairo who G. Flaubert met during his travels to the East: «... Bovary, nom que j'avais inventé en dénturant celui de Bouvaret» (from a letter by G. Flaubert to Madame Cornu). However, the great master could not limit himself by just collecting names of actually existing people. Each name in his writings is to receive a certain stylistic meaning, the purpose of which is more deeply and fully disclose the nature of the character called by this name.

By the stylistic role in the fiction, the following groups of proper names may be distinguished:

1. Describing names: their foundations meanings provide direct or indirect characterization of the named characters [5, p. 92]. Examples of such names are abundant with the novel «Madame Bovary» by G. Flaubert: the name Bovary - from the French «bovin» («bull») – is associated with something rough, peasant which becomes a stark contrast to the elegant and romantic name Emma.

From the point of view of characterizing possibilities to the category of describing names can be also attached nicknames which are the privileged category of proper names since they can help direct and immediate description of any external or internal qualities of the character. In the novel «Sentimental Education» by G. Flaubert should be noted the nickname of Frederic Moreau’s mistress - la Maréchale - indicating not only to a specific occupation but the brightness and the vivid imagery of the character.

2. Neutral names: the value of their bases and the meaning of the shape do not reflect any features or behavior of the character. Most of these names are used for secondary characters. For example, in the novel «Madame Bovary» the surname of Emma’s father Rouault has neither positive nor negative connotation, unlike the initially intended to him (and consequently to Emma) an ignoble and even a comical one of Lestiboudois, subsequently given to a humble character of the watchman of the cemetery in Yonville.

On the other hand, neutral names given to the main character can be regarded as a more sophisticated way of characteristics (if compare to the «describing» names). Taken from real life, they can be related to a particular epoch or social environment. For example, during the time of creation of the novel «Sentimental Education» in the town of Nogent-sur-Seine (the scene of the novel) really lived a bourgeois family with the name Moreau given to the main character by G. Flaubert. In some cases, a neutral name emphasizes the fact that this character (even the main one) is devoid of any kind of special, exceptional quality, that is, s/he does not stand out from the crowd [1, p. 30-31].

3. Associative names: evoke the reader's associations clarifying and deepening the characteristic of an art image. In this case, the various categories of onomastics have varying degrees of imagery. So, ancient and biblical names have significantly greater stability than the new ones, which allows the writers using such names to evoke similar thematic associations based on the same perceptional mechanisms by almost all cultures representatives without exception. For example, in «Sentimental Education» by G. Flaubert the name of the main character’s beloved woman Madame Arnoux is Marie that contains an obvious allusion to the Bible. In the novel this name appears as a symbol of the triumph of the holy maternity on feminine weakness and coquetry [2, p. 60]. Thus, the only name of the woman character - thanks to a successful association - is able to highlight the exceptional personality of Madame Arnoux. It should also be noted that the art image of Marie Arnoux is even recognized by critics as much more impressive and versatile than the characters of Madame Bovary and Salammbô each of them representing the only symbolical option of «eternal femininity» («l'Eve éternelle») in the world literature.

Thus, the carried out analysis revealed the extreme importance of aesthetic onomastics not only for linguistic stylistics, but also for linguistic didactics. The results of this study can be used practically in the learning process of text interpretation. The results are also relevant from the point of view of assimilation of socio-cultural information and realities of the country of the studied language which helps the development of the communicative competence.

References:

1. Merkulova N.V. French Aesthetic Onomastics in the Existential View of the World (on the material of the novel «the Stranger» by A. Camus) / N.V. Merkulova // Scientific Newsletter. Series: Modern linguistic and methodical-and-didactic research. - 2014. - Vyp. 3 (6). – P. 23-33.

2. Merkulova N.V. Historical Stages оf Evolution оf the French Onomastic System / N.V. Merkulova // Scientific Newsletter. Series: Modern linguistic and methodical-and-didactic research. - 2013. - Vyp. 2 (3). – P. 53-61.

3. Merkulova N.V. Themed Semantics of the French Literary Onomastics / N.V. Merkulova // Scientific Newsletter. Series: Modern linguistic and methodical-and-didactic research. - 2014. - Vyp. 2 (5). – P. 43-56.

4. Меркулова Н.В. Текст, интертекст, художественное произведение как сферы функционирования эстетической ономастики / Н.В. Меркулова // Филологические науки. Вопросы теории и практики. Тамбов : Грамота, 2014. -№9 (39). - Ч. 2. – С. 99-101.

5. Меркулова Н.В. Эстетическая ономастика в произведении французского романтизма (на материале романа В. Гюго «Собор Парижской Богоматери») / Н.В. Меркулова // Гуманитарные исследования. Астрахань : Издательский дом «Астраханский университет», 2014. - №3 (51). - C. 85-93.

6. Меркулова Н.В. Эстетическая ономастика в художественном тексте и интертексте: основные функции и проблема перевода (на материале знаковых произведений французской литературы) : монография / Н.В. Меркулова, С.В. Моташкова; Воронежский ГАСУ – Воронеж, 2013. – 177 с.