Word-building and motivational features of English official hipponyms

Abstract

This article is devoted to the peculiarities of the word-building and motivation of the official hipponymicon of the English language. The investigation sets out various characteristics of horse names, which clearly distinguish them from other onymic categories, in particular: there is a vast difference between the official and nonofficial nomination; official hipponyms is the most systematic and unified category among other zoonyms; there are no horse names which are of high frequency in official nomination; the system of hipponyms is multifaceted and horse names engage all word-building devices in their formation; nominal hipponyms are formed without any objective motive and constitute part of the official hipponymicon; wordplay facilitates the creation of nominal hipponyms. Official hipponymicon of the English language as an onomastic subcategory is unstable and is constantly updated. The reasons for the owners to create special names are extra-linguistic – new names are invented to avoid repetitions, since denotational uniqueness is a regulated policy. Horse names engage all word-building devices in their formation: affixation, shortening, abbreviation, compounding, syntactic constructions, occasionalisms and borrowings, as well as onimisation and transonimisation. The survey shows that a large amount of the analysed hipponyms are occasionalisms. They serve as a flexible tool for horse naming in a situation where there is a constant need for the expansion of the hipponymicon. The official hipponymicon reflect newly coined words and realias which appear in the English language. The author claims, that horse names can no more be considered peripheral items in the English naming system.