ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Galina R. Dobrova
Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia
Saint Petersburg, Russia

Personal Names in Children's Speech: The Process of Acquisition

Voprosy onomastiki (Problems of Onomastics), 2014, Issue 2 (17), pp. 103–111 (in Russian)

12 May 2014

Abstract: The article discusses the process of children’s understanding of the differences between proper and common names. The author emphasizes the role of the anthropocentric approach to personal names, especially when it is based on the study of the ontogenetic development of linguistic capacity focusing on the mechanisms of the formation of mental patterns of proper names, in particular — of personal names, and of their special linguistic status as (relatively) “strict” designators. Analyzing recordings of children’s spontaneous speech and experimental data, the author argues that the study of the early stages of personal names acquisition, in comparison with the acquisition of common nouns, highlights such significant features of a child’s developing mind as the ability to distinguish between identifying and generalizing linguistic signs, to construct hyponym/hyperonym relations going from individual to the most generalized designations (from personal name to common nouns of different kinds, including relative, completely depending on the reference point, and reciprocal ones, e. g. kinship terms). Additionally, the author shows that the anthropocentric approach emphasizes such properties of personal names as their coreferentiality, relativity and their capacity to act as semiotic shifters as far as the choice of the form of a name depends on the social relations between the speaker and his addressee and their respective positions in the social hierarchy.

Key words: Russian language, anthroponymy, anthropocentric linguistics, ontolinguistics, language ontogenesis, shifters, semantic relativity

References

Bulygina, T. V. (1992). Deiksis. Obshchie voprosy deiksisa. Vvodnye zamechaniia [Deixis. General Questions of Deixis. Introductory Notes]. In T. V. Bulygina (Ed.), Chelovecheskii faktor v iazyke. Kommunikatsiia, modal’nost’, deiksis [Human Factor in Language. Communication, Modality, Deixis] (pp. 154–157). Moscow: Nauka.

Dobrova, G. R. (1989). O spetsifike nominativnoi funktsii antroponimov v detskoi rechi [On the Specificity of the Nominative Function of Anthroponyms in Children’s Speech]. In S. N. Tseitlin (Ed.), Detskaia rech’: problemy i nabliudeniia [Children’s Speech: Problems and Observations] (pp. 83–92). Leningrad: Izd-vo LGPI.

Dobrova, G. R. (1990). Lichnye imenovaniia (lingvisticheskie osobennosti vospriiatiia i vosproizvedeniia det’mi doshkol’nogo vozrasta) [Preschoolers’ Perception and Reproducing of Personal Names]. Leningrad: LGPI im. A. I. Gertsena.

Dobrova, G. R. (1991a). Aktualizatsiia assotsiativnoi generalizuiushchei semy pri vospriiatii dvukh i trekhkomponentnykh antroponimov v protsesse stanovleniia iazykovogo soznaniia [The Mechanisms of Generalization in the Perception of Two- and Three-Component Anthroponyms in Linguistic Ontogenesis]. In Yu. S. Sorokin (Ed.), Psikholingvistika i mezhkul’turnoe vzaimoponimanie. Tez. dokl. X Vsesoiuznogo simpoziuma po psikholingvistike i teorii kommunikatsii. Moskva, 3–6 iiunia 1991 g. [Psycholinguistics and Intercultural Comprehension. Proceedings of the 10th All-Union Simposium, Moscow, 3–6 June 1991] (pp. 88–90). Moscow: Nauka.

Dobrova, G. R. (1991b). Dvukhslovnye lichnye imenovaniia «imia + otchestvo» v rechi detei i vzroslykh [Two-Word Naming Patterns “Given Name + Patronym” in Children and Adults’ Speech]. In R. Sh. Dzharylgasinova, V. I. Suprun, & T. P. Fedyanovich (Eds.), Onomastika Povolzh’ia: materialy shestoi konferentsii po onomastike Povolzh’ia [Onomastics of the Volga Region. Proceedings of the 6th Conference] (Part 1, pp. 117–126). Moscow: Izd-vo In-ta etnologii i antropologii RAN.

Dobrova, G. R. (1993a). Osnovnye protsessy onomasticheskogo slovoobrazovaniia pri modifikatsii det’mi imen i familii [Means of Onomastic Word-Formation in Children’s Modifications of Names]. In Iu. B. Simchenko, V. A. Tishkov (Eds.), Rossiiskii etnograf [Russian Ethnographer] (pp. 130–139). Moscow: Koordinatsionno-metod. tsentr In-ta etnologii i antropologii.

Dobrova, G. (1993b).What is the personal name for a child? Paper presented at the Sixth International Congress for the study of child language, Trieste, Italy.

Dobrova, . R. (2005). Ontogenez personal’nogo deiksisa (lichnye mestoimeniia i terminy rodstva) [Ontogenesis of Personal Deixis (Personal Pronouns and Kinship Terms)] (Habilitation thesis). Saint Petersburg.

Gridina, T. A. (2011). Etnosotsiokul’turnyi kontekst onomasticheskoi igry [Ethno- and Sociocultural Contexts of Onomastic Game]. Politicheskaia lingvistika, 1, 219–223.

Gridina, T. A. (2014). «El’bom» dlia Eli: lichnoe imia sobstvennoe v iazykovom soznanii rebenka [An “Elbum” for Elya: Given Names in the Linguistic Mind of a Child]. Voprosy onomastiki, 1 (16), 85–95.

Hall, D. G. (1993). Constraints on the interpretation of proper names. In E. C. Clark (Ed.), The proceedings of the twenty-fifth annual child language research forum (pp. 118–126). Stanford: Center for the study of language and information.

Macnamara, J. (1982). Names for things. A study of human learning. Cambridge, Mass.; London: The MIT Press.

Rusakova, M. V. (2013). Elementy antropotsentricheskoi grammatiki russkogo iazyka [Issues in the Anthropological

Grammar of the Russian Language]. Moscow: Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury.