Proper Name Discourse Actualization (Exemplified by Linguistic Experiment)

The article describes the results of a linguistic experiment aimed at expanding a proper name discourse by the addressee. A consecutive model of the experiment on the proper name inclusion in different stages of discourse generation was built on the assumption that the name actualizes the discourse of the onym. The study enrolled within three stages: an associative experiment, a discursive experiment on modelling dialogical statements and a discursive experiment on provoking the addressee to create a monologue text. Functioning in urban discourse names of commercial objects, or ergonyms, were chosen as the material. The method of the linguistic experiment was the “But-test”, the specifics of which can be called “anti-orientation”. The informant had to continue a negatively constructed statement, thus “pulling out” deep (background) knowledge about a particular object to the surface. As a result, various types of statements were identified, with the onym playing the role of a trigger mechanism (stimulus) provoking a number of onymic statements-reactions, which lead to expanding the onym discourse. The statements under analysis were divided into dictum (existential, actional and perceptual) and modus (positive, negative and mixed) ones. The dictum-type statements deliver objective information, which refers to the life experience of the speaker, while the modus-type ones are based on the subjective assessment of facts and events. The onym theme-statement directs the unfolding of onym discourse and actualizes the spheres, which are connected with the cognitive activity of the recipients, for instance, the spheres of events, wishes and intentions, comparison, evaluation, attribution, background knowledge. The onym discourse embraces the explicit and implicit meanings, it unites the personal (individual) and collective (social) experience.