Military aliases: semantic and motivation analysis

Abstract

Introduction. Aliases are an anthroponymic category. They have several common and distinctive features with other anthroponyms. That is why we provide an approach to understanding an alias as a pseudo-anthroponym. The special feature of the alias, unlike other anthroponymic units, is in its purpose: it is used primarily to hide the real name of the person, or for other reasons – self-identification, positioning themselves in society etc.

For today a number of issues related to the study and disclosure of the specifics of the alias in terms of its linguistic status, structure, functionality have been resolved, the linguistic motivation of the lexemes subjected to aliasing, the basic principles, motivations, methods and ways of nomination have been determined. The secondary naming of the military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attracts great interest. "Call signs'' or "combat nicknames" have become a part of the research interests of N. Shulska, L. Pidkuimukha, R. Yatskiv, H. Yavorska, S. Zhabotynska,

1. Petrova, L. Kravchenko and some other Ukrainian scientists. This category of onyms is still under-researched, the studies are fragmentary, as shown by some linguistic research, so this issue is relevant and deserves a deep scientific understanding.

The object of our research is the aliases (nicknames, call signs) of the militaries of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) of the XX century and the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) of the XXI century.

The purpose of this article is the semantic and motivation analysis of the researched aliases.

Methods. The main methods were descriptive, definitional and the method of component analysis.

Results. Military aliases are used not only because of the operational necessity, but also because of the cultural tradition, the roots of which go back to the time of the Cossacks. The promotion of the surnames (nicknames) of the figures of the Ukrainian Cossacks, Hetmanate, leaders of popular uprisings was characteristic. The motivation for this naming was and still is the desire to be similar to their predecessors, to reflect the spirit of the free Cossacks.

Ukrainian military aliases of the XX and early XXI centuries are characterized by significant informational value. The features of folk worldview, culture, pages of history, traditions, peculiarity of mentality are revealed through the prism of alias nomination.

The most productive way of alias nomination in the military is the transposition of ready-to- use lexemes to a person for naming by transpositional phenomena. This is onymization of appellative and transonymization of proprietary vocabulary. Productive in the studied aliases are also changes and modifications of the real name. Military aliases are mostly single-word in structure.

Novelty. The formation and development of the studied aliases was influenced by various extralinguistic factors, including the individuality of the speaker, national and cultural context, mentality, circumstances, conditions of struggle, etc.

One of the reasons for the adopted aliases was the desire to be similar to their predecessors, comrades-in-arms: Ukrainian Insurgent Army – to the participants of the liberation struggle of the 20s of the XX century (Chuchupak, Bida, Chornota, Chornolis, Kholodnyi Yar), the Armed Forces of Ukraine – to the UIA members (Lys, Mykula).

What specific features are observed in the studied aliases? For example, in the alias of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, latent nomination was represented by a few names (Nemo, Iks, Khtos, Yakyis, etc.), there are names that are followed by the appellative nomen (Did Taras, Velykyi Slavko), analytical combinations of toponymic origin (Kholodnyi Yar, Chornyi Lis), many aliases were used by the names (nicknames) of historical figures (Bohun, Gamaliya, Dovbush, Nalyvaiko, etc.).

According to the time, the military aliases of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are distinguished by such nominations as Gadget, Pikap, Volonter, Natsyk, Separ, Morieman, Mazhor, Vaifai; Krym, Mariupol, Odesa, Poltava, Kherson, Vinnytsia, etc., as well as by the presence of tattoos and the names of the tattooed images (Rozpysanyi, Malovanyi, Indieiets, Smailyk).

Conclusions. In general, the socio-political aliases, in particular military ones, are based on the all-Ukrainian literary and linguistic basis and reflect the features of the Ukrainian national anthroposystem, toponymic usages of the native land, the variety of onymic and appellative vocabulary, national characteristics of semantic motivation. The suggested topic is actual, the aliases of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are not yet sufficiently studied, so we will continue the research in further linguistic studies.