PROPER NAMES AS GENERAL ONES IN ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN: A COMPARATIVE ASPECT

Abstract

The article analyzes the functioning of proper names as common ones on the example of the Ukrainian language in comparison with the English one, and the analysis of the most common means of such lexica transfer from English into Ukrainian. The dictionary of any language is actively replenished with the words of foreign origin. It is primarily caused by extralinguistic factors, as well as the fact that the lexica of any language is most prone to such changes. Despite belonging to different language groups and types, both languages have similar subclasses of proper names. Among them, the subject of our study are proper nouns, which were transferred to the general ones. These include the names of inventions, devices and scientific nomenclature, socio-political phenomena, as well as brands and trademarks. In the Ukrainian language such common nouns belong to two main groups – those derived from Ukrainian proper names, and those borrowed from other languages. The first group is not numerous and mainly contains words to designate supporters of parties, political leaders or sports teams, as well as certain related phenomena. The second group consists of words that have ancient Greek, Roman or Latin origin (that correlates with the English language), as well as borrowings from other languages (English, French, Italian, etc.). It was observed that the most common way of translating such words into the Ukrainian language is transcription or transliteration. Some of such general nouns of the studied languages need affixes to make up derivatives and provide them additional meaning.