Рибальська лексика у формуванні гідронімів, прізвищ і прізвиськ в українській мові
Fishing vocabulary in the formation of hydronyms, surnames and nicknames in Ukrainian language

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to identify motivational and word-forming models of names of small rivers and lakes, surnames and nicknames which are based on “fishing” vocabulary. The methodology includes continuous sampling of onyms related to the field of fish and fishing, their word-formation analysis, linguistic observation of etymology, and interpretation in dictionaries to determine motivational models. The article is based on etymological dictionaries of Ukrainian language, Proto-Slavic dictionary of hydro¬nyms, historical and etymological investigations, and dialect dictionaries. The classified fishing hydronyms are formed according to the motivational model “naming a water object according to the species of the fish that predominates in it”. The motivational model of “naming a river according to the external or behavioral characteristics of fish” seems less probable, as such names may refer both to the characteristics of fish and of the stream (e.g. tiny, winding). As for the surnames, a wider range of forming models is observed, e. g. a simi¬larity between a specific person’s external characteristics and a fish, or between their behavioural traits. Naming motivation for “fishing” nicknames (which are actually based on the same models as surnames and very frequently serve as a link between a common noun and a proper name, in this case personal name) can be even more diverse. A great part of fishing nicknames is formed according to the motivational model “naming the person after a potential seme in the semantic structure of the word-motivator”, which often involves unexpected motivation.

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