Latvijos švietimo įstaigų simboliniai pavadinimai
Symbolic names of the Latvian educational institutions

Summary/Abstract: The documents of the Latvian Company Registrar show that the names of enterprises and companies are often symbolic. The same can be said about the names of the educational establishments which include a specific group of ergonyms made from mixed names with a symbolic part, so-called symbolic names. They can be found in the names of different schools, for example, primary school Saulīte, vocational school Dzīvesprieks, hockey school Riga, business university Turība.In everyday use, which also covers written language, the symbolic name is used as a constant designation, for example Turība, Saulīte etc., without any mention of the educational institution.The functions of the symbol can be conveyed by toponyms, e. g. Riga, abbreviations, e. g. ZET, RIMAN, internationalisms, e. g. NORMA, Harmonija, and groups of words, e. g. Brīvā attīstība. The names of Latvian origin are particularly appreciated as their semantic meaning is quite clear, e. g. Avots ‘spring’, Taka ‘path’, Valodiņa ‘language (diminutive form)’. The connection between the symbolic meaning and the specialization of the school is obvious. For example, diminutives are particularly frequent in the names of primary schools: Ieviņa ‘asmall bird cherry tree’, Dzintariņš ‘a small piece of amber’, Skudriņa ‘a small ant’. The names for sport schools are chosen from words related to the notion of strength: Lūši ‘lynx’, Aisbergs ‘iceberg’.The study has shown that symbolic words are very often used in the names of different schools so a more extensive research could reveal other interesting tendencies in the practice of institutional names.

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