Acta onomastica

Published date: 2024

Author: Braha, Iryna Ivanivna

Abstract: The present study seeks to investigate the use of anthroponyms in bilingual primary schoolers’ written speech and analyze the effect that the Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism produces on the process of mastering proper names and their specific case forms. The study materials include 1,505 letters to St. Nicholas written by pupils of 2–4 forms from schools in Sumy. The pupils’ language socialisation involves continued exposure to the mass Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism, with Surzhyk (mixed Ukrainian-Russian speech) commonly used for family communication. The nucleus of the anthroponymic field is determined by the children’s age characteristics and the text genre – it includes proper names of the children who wrote the texts. The peripheral position is occupied by the names of children from the authors’ immediate surroundings, as well as by those of their parents and teachers. Based on the analysis of text localisation of the anthroponyms under study, the use of proper names depends on the compositional element of the text and rules of etiquette. The pupils display a tendency to combine both full and short variants of proper names. As a result of bilingualism, the pupils frequently use hybrid anthroponyms – with interference detected in both formal and informal proper names. Another tendency is inconsistent use of the vocative case: in the vocative position, it is often substituted by the substandard form of the nominative case. Further research may lie in comparing the use of anthroponyms in bilingual children’s oral and written speech.

Range of pages: pp. 27–59

Peer reviewed state: peer reviewed

License: CC BY 4.0