Names of Russian and Taiwanese monuments: a comparative aspect

• Криницкая Марина Юрьевна

  Marina Yu. Krinitskaia. Vladivostok State University. Vladivostok. Russia

• Wei Ching-Sung

  Wei Ching-Sung. Vladivostok State University. Vladivostok. Russia

The paper examined the linguocultural features of the names of monuments and urban sculptures in Russia and Taiwan. Names of the monuments are characterized as significant nominatives for the cultural space of both a separate city and an entire country. The aim of the
paper is to present a comparative characteristics of onomastic lexicon related to the category of names of monuments and urban sculptures. Descriptive and comparative methods were applied, as well as methods of statistical analysis of linguistic material. The novelty of the research is to clarify the boundaries of the concept "name of the monument" ("monumentonym") and in a comparative aspect to describe the proper names that can save and translate the cultural code of the Russian and Taiwanese ethnos. The study revealed that Taiwanese names of the monuments often derive from nominative lexicon; among them were noted the unique names formed from toponyms, theonyms and from personal names of Taiwanese aborigines in Taiwan. In turn, Russian names of the monuments may reflect culturally significant unreal anthroponyms. However, an appellative lexicon often lies at the core of Russian names of the monuments that denote material objects, animals, foodstuffs, building structures. The commonality is manifested in the fact that both Russian and Taiwanese names derive to real anthroponyms, as well as to lexemes denoting people who had a certain social status and participated in the historical events of their country. The results of the study can be used for courses on intercultural communication, culture-through-language studies, in the practice of teaching Russian and Chinese languages, as well as have practical significance in the tourism business.
Keywords: name of the monument, cultural information, code, urban communication studies, proper name, anthroponym, urbanonym, language of the city.