Composition of the Russian armonymic field and its dynamics

The article is devoted to the study of the history of the formation of Russian proper names of aviation and armored military equipment. Our research has shown that the main function of Russian armonyms – the proper names of Russian weapons – is the representative identification of types and brands of weapons produced at state-owned enterprises or unique mechanisms. Armonyms as verbal identifiers of complex military-technical mechanisms function in professional or publicistic discourse. The structure of the armonymic field includes verbal index signs marking types and series of weapons that correspond to the term pragmatonyms (T-90M «Breakthrough»), and proper names of unique weapons objects - chrematonyms (Tu–160 «Ilya Muromets»). The nominations of individual combat units can form armonymic complexes, for example, one of the Tu-160 strategic bombers of the White Swan series has an individual name «Nikolai Kuznetsov». In the process of the official naming of Russian high-tech combat units, the conventionally symbolic and commemorative principles of nomination traditionally occupy a central place. The composition of the armonym is dominated by the conditionally symbolic type of names, as a rule, not motivated by the properties of the named object (UAV «Geranium»), although some names retain an associative connection with the objects of the nomination (UAV «Lancet» – a high-precision kamikaze drone); the memorative type of names is characteristic of individual names of military vehicles (Tu-160 «Igor Sikorsky»). Official nominations occupy the main place in the Russian field of armonymy; however, some of the names may have an unofficial status, for example, the nicknames of the T-80BV tank Alyosha – «Ded Moroz», or «Ded». Armonyms are not a tool for the advertising promotion of weapons, they do not have an attractive and pragmatic function, however, the choice of words is far from accidental – in general, it reflects the symbolic value orientations of the nominating team.