Wartości konotacyjne wybranych toponimów (na materiale publicystyki prasowej)

Abstract

Proper names signify single words of all kinds: people, places, mountains, rivers, institutions, etc. However, they do not reflect meanings. As a result of deonymisation, i.e. loosening of denotative associations between the word and the object denoted by it, proper names become meaningful units. Their connotative value, or a number of concepts and ideas, about the denotat which the onym refers to, is an important source of semantic content. Semantics viewed in this way puts a new perspective on research in proper names. The article shows the results of a research on the broadly defined toponyms, such as Waterloo, Eldorado, Mount Olympus, the Himalayas, Auschwitz, Brooklyn, Belarus appearing in the press in 2005–2012 in a variety of contexts, where the literary meaning in a toponymic form changes. Consequently, accumulation of additional semantic content in fixed or occasional connotative forms occurs.