Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant Professor of General Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
The aim of this study is investigating the relationship between onomasticon, -as depository of proper names- and mental lexicon and also eponymy –as a mechanism for transforming proper names into common words- from cognitive onomastics perspective. It is a basic descriptive research that collected a corpus of data in library method and seeks to find out whether eponymy is active in Farsi and if yes, which word formation processes create common words. The theoretical framework is adapted from Barcelona's (2003) ideas in demonstrating the role of metonymy in emergence of proper names and their frequent reclassification as common nouns, and class-inclusion model of conceptual metaphors comprehension of Glucksberg and Keysar (1990). The analysis of data revealed that in Farsi, eponymy in the form of word-formation processes like derivation, conversion and combination transforms the proper names into common words. This is justifiable on the basis of cognitive concepts like conceptual metaphor and metonymies. The metonyms "PROPER NAME FOR ITS RELATED OBJECT/ ACTION/ CONCEPT", "AGENT FOR ACTION" and "PROTOTYPICAL MEMBER FOR THE CLASS" and class-inclusion model of conceptual metaphor are involved in introducing eponymy. The successive application and interaction of conceptual metaphor and metonyms, indicates the metaphtonymy at work in this process.
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