Theory of nomination

The word, the phrase and the sentence are the basic nominative units of the langaguage, it means that they are united by nominative function, the ability to. The process of nomination is going names to things, objects, phenomena, qualities, actions. The process of semiosis- something serves as a sign. It takes places when we address smb., exchange information, present something to somebody showing our love and respect, when a painter paints his picture, when we nod or shake our head. Nomination and semiosis are performed simultaneously. When we give name to an object we ascribe some meaning to it. Our language reflects the structure of the world, but not directly, it reflects the world through our conceptual sphere => language reflects our conceptualization of the world.

Words are symbols, they represent objects. There are 2 steps of conceptualization:

1. The formation of a concept or an image.

2. Establishing a link between the conception and the linguistic sign.

Nomination always presupposes idealization. Idealization- the formation of abstractions. Mental representation of objects, properties and relations- abstractions. The results of this are reflected with the help of linguistic signs. Words mirror concepts through our perception of the world.

So nomination is the process of denoting ('naming') things, the linguistic part of which consists in the act of connecting a certain denotatum/designatum with a sign/designator.

Onomasiology is a branch of semiology studied linguistic means and methods of nominating objects or reality. The onomasiological approach helps to discover how meaning is formed considering its basic forms and peculiarities.

The process of nomination takes place together with the process of semiosis. Semiosis is the process of endowing signs with some meaning during the vary act of sign formation or motivation. The two modes of semiosis, the two process of assigning meaning are the following: 1) Semiological or semiotic when some object gets a name in the act of nomination, a sign is formed in the act of semisis and a language unit acquires meaning in this very act as well. This meaning becomes its conceptual, referential meaning as it’s based on interrelations between referent, concept and name. The results of semilogical process are fixed in dictionaries. 2) Another mode of semiosis is semantic – when a word enters actual chain of communication. It necessarily undergoes several changes in the process of adaptation.

Communication is the process of the exchange of thoughts, ideas or senses. These are some ideal entities represented in concepts, operational units of our mind. The only way to share your mental entities or concepts with other people is by means of the language with the help of linguistic units – words and sentences. Concepts become meanings only when they are objectivized when they acquire a language form, the body of the sign. Apart from this way they can not become another person’s property.

Nomination has its own typology. According to the number of acts of nomination cretain sign takes part in primary nomination and secondary nomination. Primary nomination is the process of naming a word. While secondary nomination is the process and the result of derivational processes in the vocabulary, when an already existing name is used for the second time to denote another referent. However, the term is assumed to be incorrect because for each referent the process of nomination is always a primary and the only act of nomination. Although we can speak of secondary (or multiple) use of one the same name in nomination acts.

According to various linguistic means employed in nomination:

Lexical nomination: nomination of a concept by means of lexical items as concept by means of lexical items as opposed to concepts expressed grammatically;

Propositive nomination: expression of concepts of propositional nature by means of propositions.

According to motivation nomination can be motivated or nonmotivated nomination. Motivation is the predetermination of the meaning of a semantic, morphological, phraseological derivative by the meaning of the original stem (in morphological derivation) or original elements (in composition or phraseological derivation). There are three main types of motivation: phonetic motivation, morphological motivation, semantic motivation.

According to the number of components in nomination, nomination can be univerbal (lexical nomination of one lexical unit) and multiverbal (by means of morphological)

An eponym is a person or thing, whether real or fictional, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named. For example, Léon Theremin is the eponym of the theremin; Louis Braille is the eponym of the Braille word system created by him for use by the blind. Eponyms are aspects of etymology.

Toponymis any name derived from a place name. The study of such place names is known as toponymics or toponymy – a branch of onomastics. Types of toponym include agronym (the name of a field or pasture), dromonym (the name of a transportation route), drymonym (the name of a forest or grove), econym (the name of a village or town), limnonym (the name of a lake or pond), and necronym (the name of a cemetery or burial ground).

Reference- the linkage of a linguistic unit with a non-linguistic entity to which it serves a name. The reference is that non-direct link which connects a name and the entity in the outer world. The word is a symbolic substitute for a certain referent. Referent shall function as a m function of the word. Different words perform this function differently: 1. Pronounce-He, his this, that, She, her- They indicate, point out, but there is no constant referent for them (different objects each time).Such words- deictic elements of the language, because they can be applied to any referent. Linguistics consider then to be signs indexes. 2. Proper names. Their reference is also unique, their content doesn’t depend on the conditions of the action communication, it doesn’t characterize an object. 3. Prepositions.They refer to relationship between objects, but the objects are each time different. 4. Verbs. They have meaning, but they are devoid of reference. Extensional meaning – referential applicability of a name; the scope of its reference. Generalization of meaning – extension of semantic capacity of a word, with the increase in referential applicability of the word. Intentional (component of) meaning – the core part of lexical meaning in Prof.Nikitin's semantic theory.

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