К ВОПРОСУ О ПРОЗВИЩНЫХ НОМИНАЦИЯХ В АНГЛОЯЗЫЧНОЙ ТЕРМИНОЛОГИИ ХОККЕЯ: СЕМАНТИЧЕСКИЙ АСПЕКТ

Introduction

Ice hockey is a unique sport that appeared more than 100 years ago, but it spread around the world and gained popularity quickly. In the middle of the 20th century it became a universal means of communication between people of different mentalities and temperaments, separated with geographical, social and political barriers.

In many countries, especially in Russia, Canada and America, hockey is a part of a national idea, national identity and culture. Hockey as a social and cultural phenomenon involves not only players, coaches, referees but broadcasters; it attracts ordinary people, fans. Though to understand the game one needs knowledge of the hockey rules, tactics, and statistics. Because of huge popularity and emotional intensity, nicknames are widely used in the sportdom, particularly in hockey.

Nicknames are used to denote an object, its identification and individualization. The background for appearing such nicknames, according to A.V. Superanskaya, is certain features of people: corporals or dignity (less often), character traits, professions and occupations, place of residence, time of birth, etc. [4, P. 24].

Besides, as A.V. Superanskaya noted, onomastics and terminology, being a "part" of linguistics, do not fully "fit" into the linguistic framework assigned to them. Like onyms, many terms are actively used only by the inner circle of specialists, and the establishment of their linguistic status as words is impossible without the participation of specialists from those branches to which these terms relate.

The term is always a member of some terminology, within which it is monosemantic, like a proper name as well as a nickname is always the property of a certain group, within which not only its objective and nominative connection, but also the information associated with it, is understood.

Nicknames as the object of study interested A.N. Miroslavskaya, A.V. Superanskaya, V.I. Tagunova, V.M. Mokienko, N.I. Volkova and others. However, the professional field of nicknames is not sufficiently studied and requires research.

The first attempts to systematize nicknames were carried out taking into account their position in semantic groups and related to the XIX century (Snegirev 1841; Efimenko 1877; Sakharov 1885; Sumtsov, 1889; Zelenin 1903; Dahl 1957, etc.).

Amongst modern semantic classifications the most famous ones are the classifications of Z. P. Nikulina and A. V. Superanskaya.

The object of this study is nicknames of English hockey players, the subject is their semantic features.

The material for the study was 571 units, compiled by the method of continuous scanning of the English - Russian encyclopedic dictionary of ice hockey terminology and the official website of the NHL.

Methods

According to the goals and objectives of the study, the following methods were used: theoretical and analytical method (used to review and analyze scientific literature); a method of etymological analysis to determine the origin of the term. Quantitative and statistical data processing made it possible to assess and interpret the results objectively.

Results

Having analyzed the main existing classifications, based on the classifications of leading researchers - A.V. Superanskaya and Z. P. Nikulina, taking into account the collected actual material, we can distinguish the following semantic groups of hockey players' nicknames:

1. Nicknames derived from official identifiers: Boss “Boss”, Brownov “Brownov”, Cash “Cash”, Coff “Coff”, Dit “Dit”, E.T. “Inoplanetyanin”, Gretz “Gretz”, J.C. “Dzhey-Si”, Kaspar “Kaspar”, Probie “Proby”, Reeser “Rizer”, Sid the Kid “Malish Sid”, Spezz “Spez” Trots “Trots”, .

2. Nicknames formed by characterizing features and associations based on:

- appearance: 3-D “Stereochkarik”, Beezer “Nos”, Whitey “Blondin”, Fatman “Tolstyak”, Ginger “Rizhiy”, Porky “Tolstiy”, Scarface “Litso so shramom”;

- names of famous characters: Archie “Archi”, Arnie “Arni”, Babe “Malysh”, Big Bird “Bolshaya ptitsa”, Boogeyman “Strashila”, Captain America “Kapitan America”, Godzilla “Godzilla”, Grumpy “Vorchun”, Iron Man “Zhelezniy chelovek”, Jethro “Jetro”,  King Hong “King Kong”, Lord Byron “Lord Bairon”, Pelle “Pelle”, Rainman “Chelovek dozhdya”, Super Mario “Super Mario”, Wizard of Oz “Volshebnik strain Oz”;

- animal naming units: Baby Bear “Medvezhonok”, Baby Bull “Telyonok”, Beaver “Bobyor”, Bull “Byk”, Bunny “Krolik”, “Zayka”, Crab “Krab”, Jake the Snake “Zhak-zmeya”, Moose “Los”, Octopus “Osminog” Rat “Krisa”, Roadrunner “Begun”, Silver Fox “Cherno-buraya lisa”, Swan “Lebed”;

- family naming units: Dad “Papochka”, “Papulya”, Father “Otets”, Father of Hockey “Otets hokkeya”, Uncle Milty “Dyadushka Milty”;

- associations with the criminal world: Devil Killer “Ubiytsa ‘Dyavolov”, Eliminator “Vybivatel”, Grim Ripper “Bezzhalostniy Potroshitel”, Hatchet Man “Bandit”, Guns “Huligan”, “Deboshir”, Killer “Ubiytsa”, Knuckles “Kastet”, Sharpshooter “Snayper”;

- weapon naming units, engineering naming units: Battleship “Linkor”, Bomby “Bombochka”, Bullet Joe  “Dzho-pulya”, Cannonball “Pushechnoye yadro”, Chevy “Shevy”, Cruiser  “Kreyser”, Golden Jet “Zolotoy reaktivniy samolet”, Jeep “Dzhip”, Siver Jet “Serebryaniy reaktivniy samolet”, Tank “Tank”;

- names of natural, weather phenomena: Cyclone “Tsiklon”, Fog “Tuman”, Finnish Flash “Finskaya molniya”, Hooley “Silniy veter”, Hurricane Howie  “Howie-uragan”;

- household naming units: Fridge “Holodilnik”, Grate “Tyorka”, Hammer  “Kuvalda”, Shampoo “Shampun”;

-  flora naming units: Coco “Kokos”, Grapes “Vinograd”, Chicountimi Cucumber  “Shikutimskiy ogurets”;

- building naming units and their parts: Brickwall “Kirpichnaya stena”, China Wall  “Kitayskaya stena”, Wall “Stena”;

- title naming units, units of noble origin: Clown Prince of Hockey “Hokkeyniy kloun-prins”, Gentleman Frank “Gentleman Frank”, Gentleman Joe “Gentleman Joe” , King Henrik “Korol Henrik” King of the Rink “Korol katka”, Vladimir the Terrible “Vladimir Grozniy”.

Discussion

Based on the study, it is possible to distinguish 2 main semantic groups of hockey players’ nicknames: nicknames formed from official identifiers and nicknames formed by characterizing features and associations. In the second group 11 subgroups were defined.

Conclusion

To sum up, it should be noted that nicknames, denoting the concept to which the personal name is transferred, are one of the ways to enrich the sport vocabulary, ice hockey terminology in particular.

As a relatively understudied class of linguistic units, nicknames are rich material for further researches. According to the material studied, it seems convincing that the nicknames made a significant contribution to the enrichment of Russian lexicon. The arrangement of terminology is considered to be one of the most important and responsible stages in the systematization of the theoretical apparatus of science and, therefore, an important step in the development of the science. It can be assumed that the arrangement of hockey terminology will have a significant impact on the further development of this field of science and practice.