Astronomical eponyms in technical texts

The article studies astronomical eponyms and their functions in technical texts. The use of eponymous terms is traditional in the technical discourse and reflects the scientific picture of the world at the language level. Astronomical eponyms in the technical texts are super compressed signs of the prior studies devoted to astronomy and astronautics and at the same time they are significant personal signs, since they contain anthroponyms. A precedent is a typical method of compressing previous knowledge with the aim of preserving, tightening and further scientific accumulation. In most cases, eponyms are presented by the names of famous scientists who made a discovery in a certain field of knowledge, mythological and literary characters and names of gods. The use of eponyms in a narrow range of profile specialists provides a quick understanding of the current situation conveys the continuity of knowledge and reflects the main stages in the scientific and technological development. The relevance of the research is determined by the growing interest in technical text analysis that makes it possible to identify the specificity of scientific knowledge representation in a language. Source language material are monographs of specialists in this field of knowledge, dictionaries and research papers devoted to astronautics. The results of the research suggest that astronomical eponyms connected with precedent phenomena are one of the ways to store and transfer knowledge in technical discourse. © 2021, Univelt Inc. All rights reserved.