Names And Nicknames As Means Of Portrayal In Contemporary Russian Novel

The paper is dedicated to functioning and semantization of proper names and nicknames in a literary text as exemplified by the novel The Geographer Drank His Globe Away by Alexei Ivanov. Selection of nomination serves as an important means of artistic expression and reflects features of author's personal attitude. Some names in the novel are allusive to works of Alexander Pushkin and thus bear certain historical and cultural traditions. The methodological foundation of the research is formed by works of Russian linguists V.N. Teliia, B.A. Serebrennikov, A.V. Superanskaia, N.V. Podolskaia et al. The main method is contextual analysis involving lexicographic sources, dictionaries and references. The spotlight is on a dynamic variation of the name of the novel's protagonist, Victor Sluzhkin, determined by external and internal, linguistic motivation. In parallel, a transition from professionalism geographer to a nickname Geographer . As a result of analysis, a scheme of onomastic space that is reflecting naming of the main character has been proposed; the full official name of the character was selected as the core of this space. Author's vision of the onomastic space of the novel's text as a whole allows stating that personal names and nicknames of the characters are not only tools in imagery creation, they are primarily means of creating speech portrait of various other characters. They become an integral component of the literary text, components of author's individual style, means of creating a literary image.