NIKONYMS IN THE ONOMASTICS OF THE MODERN GEORGIAN LANGUAGE AND ITS FUNCTIONAL-THEMATIC FEATURES

Abstract

The names of all eras have a sociological and ideological meanings that correspond to the specifics of the culture of that time. Anthroponyms, as part of the vocabulary, react vividly to social changes and are strongly influenced by fashion, since the name is a subject of spiritual culture.

In linguistics, there are a number of trends in the development of the modern anthroponymic system. Among them there is a formation of a new name, scientifically called nikonym.

In the field of Internet communications of Georgian linguistics, there is no term that denotes a user’s name in the virtual space. We often come across the use of the term nickname or its abbreviated version nick (nick + name). It should be noted that the use of the term nickname is not very correct, since etymologically, in reality a nickname belongs to the sphere of a person’s social life and is given to him by other people, while in the virtual space of names the user chooses a name for himself.

The term personym appears in the linguistic literature, although it is used to designate other realities and does not express the main characteristic of the name of a virtual user. Therefore, the best term for this descriptive event is the term nikonym, which comes from two roots: “nick” from English and “onym” from Greek - name.

The relevance of a particular nikonym’s function is determined by the area of communication, its genre features (forum, chat, blog or online diary, e-mail, guest notes...).

Analysis of linguistic material made it possible to identify the following types of nikonyms:

• Nikonyms of the nominative function, derived with the type "first name + last name" (tamta_amaglobeli (instagram), nuki.koshkelishvili_official (instagram), tina_kakabadze (twitter), ninabendeliani 90@gmail.gom; mikeladze@gmail.com...);
• Nikonyms, derived with an initial letter of the name + last name (eg: t_kakaladze, g.avaliani, T-KHundadze…);
• Nikonym presented only by name (simple or stem-doubled): with Latin transliteration (eg.: maia-81@gmail.com, ikaika@gmail.com...);
• Nikonym presented only by last name (CHkhaidze, noghaideli)...

In this case, nikonyms completely or partially duplicate the anthroponyms that people have in real life.

There are also nikonyms that perform an identifying function, in particular, nikonyms that indicate traits and characteristics of a person’s character:

1. Meliorative properties: the composition includes a proper name (eg: niko_kind (ნიკო კეთილი), nini-simpo (ნინი სიმპო), anka-mze (ანკა მზე)...;
2. Peiorative (mocking, insulting) nominations, which include: a) proper name (vaja_kursha (ვაჟა ყურშა), gocha_kochli (გოჩა კოჭლი)…; b) English-language nominations (eg: bad_girls - ცუდი გოგოები) Killer_kenni (კენიის მკვლელი)…;
3. Expressing a person's profession and position. The given subgroup includes the following cases: a) Georgian-language nikonyms written in Latin (for example: advocati (ადვოკატი), msakhiobi (მსახიობი), cisa fers (ცისა ფერს), gemtsamyvani (გემწამყვანი), phoeti (პოეტი), psiqologi (ფსიქოლოგი), astronomi (ასტრონომი)...; English-language nikonyms (eg: best-bloger საუკეთესო ბლოგერი), crazy-reporter გიჟი რეპორტიორი...; ბ) გატაცება (ჰობი), უპირატესობები: Gurman (instagram), best-bloger); c) social role of a person: დაოჯახებული - married to (facebook), აქტიური დედა - active mother...; დ) წარმომავლობა, დაბადების ადგილი: nenia (ნენია), qeda (ქედა); khulo (ხულო); Kvashta (კვაშტა)...

4) bearer of technical function: 111; 123 ...USER. The given examples consist of a simple set of numbers (111, 123), symbols (qwerty - the symbols of the first 6 upper letters of the English alphabet), and can also be semantically empty (მომხმარებელი user  - from the English language) in virtual reality.

This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that more important thing for the user is not his own name, which is automatically duplicated when registering an entry, but the very fact of being in the sphere of communication. Therefore, such nicknames perform a painstaking technical function that brings them closer to the login.

Thus, a nikonym, being a necessary attribute of entering the virtual communication space, is a multifunctional anthroponymic category. Analysis of linguistic material has shown that nikonyms perform nominative, identification, contact and technical functions in virtual reality. It is important to note that Nikonym can perform several functions simultaneously, but in order to identify comparatively relative functions it is necessary to take into account the genre features of the communicative environment.

Keywords: proper names, nikonyms, anthroponyms, derivation of names, Internet communication.