SEMANTICS OF EPONYMS IN MODERN ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN LANGUAGES: LINGUOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

The purpose of the current study is to analyze common and distinctive features in the culturally marked meaning of modern English and Ukrainian eponyms. Culturally loaded background knowledge of eponyms gives access to the motivation of the eponymous semantic context. The eponyms of contemporary English and Ukrainian languages reflect internationally, nationally, socially linked information relevant to the cultural background. Eponymous terms have proved to represent the significant linguocultural potential as they verbalize definite quality, character feature, way of living or historic events from common or specific heritage of English and Ukrainian cultures. Appealing to people whose names or derivatives transmit certain cultural associations English and Ukrainian eponyms store background motivating information about real people, Biblical characters, gods in Greek and Roman mythology, literary and movie personages, toys etc. KEYWORDS


Introduction.
Considering the profound connection between language and culture [1; 2] focusing on the semantics of eponyms in contemporary languages from the linguocultural perspective [3, p. 419] appears to be of indisputable scientific significance making it possible to identify and analyze the linguistic and cultural characteristics of a particular nation's lexis, its ethnic consciousness and thinking, and to describe the cultural components in its semantics. Such an investigation angle gives the researcher a reason to characterize the problems under consideration relevantly to the language and culture study [5; 6], cognitive linguistics [6; 7; 8] and the theory of intercultural communication [1; 2].
The formation of a global information space can't but accentuate the need for revealing culturally marked features of language units including eponyms represented in the English and Ukrainian languages. Eponyms are viewed as a mental complex of meaningful knowledge about the structure and semantic motivation of naming, as well as data associated with the name and being involved in the eponym [9, c. 21-22] Purpose of the study: to determine common and distinctive features in the culturally loaded meaning of modern English and Ukrainian eponyms.
Material and methods. Proper names in the structure of eponymous bear linguistic as well as historical, ethnographic, cultural information thus influencing the choice of interpretative, etymological and comparative analyses of such units in terms of their role in science and in the national-cultural context. Linguocultural study of eponymous units in the comparative aspect makes it PHILOLOGY possible to establish semantic isomorphic and alomorphic traits, similar and different cultural phenomena in the life of representatives of these linguistic cultures, thus contributing to better understanding of their mentality. The comparative method of research is implemented due to correlation of eponymous names of the English and Ukrainian languages, concentrating on concrete historical, linguistic and cultural realities [10; 11; 12].
Culture is a set of inherited and accumulated ideas, concepts, knowledge, associations, feelings, etc., which are reflected in the language units and keep existence in dialogue with other cultures. Verbal codes are markers of cultural consciousness seen as a cultural system to store and transmit information about the culture of the people, identifying ethnic society in social interaction. Scientific research in the field of language and culture studies represent language world indices and conceptual national boundaries, promoting the formation of intercultural competence [1; 2; 13, p. 11-12; 14, p. 24-25; 15; 16].
Research results. It was found that proper names serve to create cultural background motivating the meaning of eponyms and revealing the conditions of some discovery. Culturally conditioned components embody the national world picture at the lexical and syntactic levels serving as a cultural code. The individualized meaning of an anthroponym motivates the semantic content of the eponym in an implicit form and therefore appears to be clear due to semantic and etymological analysis or to the reconstruction of the diverese external context, since its proper name normally appeals to the culturally loaded background knowledge of a certain collective entity [17, p. 46; 18, p. 81].
The historical and scientific background is open to anyone who possesses the necessary information reflected in English [19; 20; 21] and Ukrainian lexicographic resources [22; 23]. The eponyms under the survey are likely to bear the culturally determined data of a certain character: -internationally linked: badminton / бадмінтон, begonia / бегонія, beef-stroganoff / біфстроганов, buick / б'юік, chateaubriand / шатобріан, panic / паніка, рlatonic / платонічнийthe units belonging not to a particular language but to the multicultural space, being penetrated deeply into collective ethnic consciousness and mentality of a number of peoples [13, c. 35-36]; -nationally significant, known and shared in a certain culture only because of lack of definite realia or celebrities in the social environment of other countries: English language eponymsaldhelmian, сameroonia, corbynomics, сlintipathy, jarvanka, richardians, trumponomics; Ukrainian language eponyms -азірівка, кравчучка, тітушки; -limited to a scientific and professional sphere represented in the language of social groups, eponymous terms constituted with anthroponym components is a way to result in the creation of special names [24; 25] for the objects and processes -сплав вуда, перетинка Корті, вени Бурова, гіпотеза Рімана, Schlemm's canal, Bohr effect.
Active study of semantics and etymology of eponyms in the English and Ukrainian languages testifies about the significant culturological potential of eponymous terms in the following spheres: medicine, otorinolaringology in particular -перехрестя покриву Макнерта, Фораля, пазуха аорти Вальсальви, стік пазух Герофіла The term "eponym" is used in our paper in reference to people whose names or derivatives possess distinct cultural associations and have become a part of cultural discourse [3, p. 120]. Additional information is manifested as a part of the background knowledge in the following proper names in both compared languages: real people: sportsmencalantic / калан етика, political leadersrastafarianism / растафаріанство, рейганоміка, МеркОлланд, inventorsbatiste / батист, dremel /дремель, карабеля, баторівка, зигмунтівка, августівка, косцюшківка, winchester / вінчестер, actors -Brex-Pitt, singers -Britney, unknown soldiers, cookers, servants who worked for celebritiesbeef-wellington / біф-веллінгтон; Biblical characters: Judah / Іуда; gods and heroes in Greek and Roman mythology: