Linguistic and cultural aspects of anglophone ergonyms in Canada

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Linguistic and cultural aspects of anglophone ergonyms in Canada

Gryshkova R.O., Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University

Canadian Anglophone ergonyms with their linguistic and cultural peculiarities are under the author's consideration in the article. In modern linguistics studying of ergonyms as the proper names of plants, factories, banks, companies, firms, educational establishments, cultural centers, sport events are being researched from different viewpoints: stylistically, semantically, lingvo- and socio culturally, etc. In the Ukrainian language studying there are some scientific works devoted to ergonyms in Great Britain and the United States of America, but any researches dedicated to Canadian ergonyms are not fixed.

Ergonyms in Canada are especially interesting as in this country they have two types of them: Anglophone and Francophone in the Quebec province and a big city of Montreal. We consider ergonyms as markers of social, economic, cultural space in the country, and having researched their linguistic aspects we are going to clear out their psychological influence on the Canadians. Various functions of ergonyms help us in describing their impact in a society: nominative, informative, aesthetic, memorial, reference, cognitive, identifying, advertising, etc. Every function reflects a certain aspect of life and has its own aim. Actually sometimes it is rather difficult to define the function of any ergonym as most of them carry out some functions simultaneously.

From the viewpoint of their structure most Anglophone ergonyms in Canada are word combinations where the first part is represented by a geographical name or a proper name of a founder/owner of a cultural center, sport club, theatre, entertainment establishment. The second part as a rule identifies the kind of the establishment's activity: a university, a museum, a club or a certain society, a shop etc. According to their structure all Anglophone ergonyms in Canada can be divided into two groups: those formed from toponymic names and the ones derived from anthroponyms. At the same time it is necessary to underline that most of them are two-component or many-component word combinations.

Key words: Canadian Anglophone ergonyms, linguistic aspects, word combinations, functions, psychological influence.

Лінгвокультурні аспекти англомовних ергонімів у Канаді

Гришкова Р.О.

У статті йдеться про дослідження лінгвокультурних аспектів англомовних ергонімів у Канаді. У сучасному мовознавстві вивченням ергонімів як власних назв підприємств, банків, компаній, фірм, закладів освіти. культури, спортивних подій тощо опікуються науковці-філологи, країнознавці, лінгвокультурологи. Вони досліджують ергоніми з точки зору стилістики, семантики, лінгвокультурології. В українському мовознавстві наявні роботи з вивчення англомовних ергонімів у Великій Британії та Сполучених Штатах Америки. Водночас наукових праць щодо англомовних ергонімів у Канаді не виявлено, тоді як вони викликають особливу зацікавленість, оскільки в цій країні функціонують як англомовні, так і франкомовні ергоніми (у провінції Квебек та в Монреалі).

Ми розглядаємо ергоніми як маркери соціального, економічного, культурного простору в країні, і дослідивши їх лінгвістичні аспекти, плануємо з'ясувати їх психологічний вплив на мешканців Канади. Різні функції ергонімів, а саме: номінативна, інформативна, естетична, меморіальна, пізнавальна, рекламна та інші, допомагають у виявленні їхнього впливу на суспільство. Кожна функція відображає певний аспект життя і має свою мету. Інколи буває досить проблематично визначити, яку саме функцію має ергонім, оскільки більшість з них виконують декілька функцій одночасно.

Як засвідчують результати дослідження, представлені у статті, переважна більшість англомовних ергонімів у Канаді є двокомпонентними або багатокомпонентними словосполученнями, в яких перша частина представлена відтопонімним чи відантропонімним іменником/прикметником, друга частина відображає вид діяльності закладу, організації, установи.

Ключові слова: Канадські англомовні ергоніми, лінгвістичні аспекти, словосполучення, функції, психологічний вплив.

Introduction

Every language is a reflection of the peculiarities of the world comprehension by its speakers. The development of the society is represented in the proper names which can be considered as the source of our knowledge about the past, a very specific memory about the events which took place long ago. The history of the proper names and their connections with the changes in people's consciousness and the surrounding world is being researched by various branches of science: linguistics, philosophy, history, culture study etc. Nowadays linguistic researches dedicated to the study of all sorts of “onyms” have become very popular because of the rapid increase of new categories of names and their impact on the social and cultural life of people. “Dictionary of Linguistic Terminology” by D. Ganych and Oliynyk defines onym as “a word, word combination or a sentence which serves for identifying a certain object among other objects, its individualization and identification. A proper name” [15, p. 287].

“Onym” is the central notion of “onomastics” - (from Greek onomastikos - the one which refers to giving names) [13, p.517] - a branch of linguistics which studies the development, functioning and spread of proper names. Ergonyms as a part of onomastics are the names of companies, banks, factories, plants, educational establishments, cultural objects and sport events, shops etc. They function in a certain linguistic space and reflect people's attitude towards their social and cultural surrounding.

Word composition of any national language should correspond to the actual character and tempo of the society life that is why new words constantly appear to define new notions. At the same time widening cognitive activity of people, scientific and technical progress, global processes cause the necessity to create new speech units to denote newly formed cultural and educational establishments, organizations, business structures, social and other enterprisers. So lexicon should react on the changes in all spheres of life and activity and adequately reflect these changes. That is why ergonyms as a means for naming new organizations are under the linguists' consideration.

Analysis of relevant researches

The term “ergonym” was first introduced in science circulation by European researches Richards J.C., Piatt J., Hebloom P., used by Americans Breal, M., Sjoblom P., Montgomery K. In Russia it was N.Podolska (1988) who first used this term in her researches [12], and later - A. Superanska (2003) [16], T. Romanova (2008), A. Trapeznikova (2009), M. Kurbanova (2012) and some others. In Ukraine ergonyms were studied by A. Bespalova (on the materials of the companies' names) [1-3], D. Buchko and N. Tkachova published a “Dictionary of Ukrainian onomastic terminology” [4], where the definition of ergonyms is given. O.Karpenko researched the ergonyms' structural types [7, 8], N. Kutuza - ergonyms as elements of an advertisement discourse [10, 11], T. Davydova - “speaking names” in English tales and folklore [5], etc. Most of the above mentioned linguists devoted their findings to Russian or Ukrainian ergonyms, and very few - to Anglophone ones (A. Bespalova, T. Davydova). Their researches of Anglophone ergonyms were based on the proper names spread in Great Britain or the United States of America. They appreciated the role of ergonyms in social and cultural space of these countries having analyzed their structural, semantic and functional peculiarities. But unfortunately it is impossible to fix any scientific works dedicated to the research of Anglophone ergonyms in Canada. Generally in Ukraine there are not so many scientific papers concerning linguistic phenomena in Canada as for example in the USA or Great Britain. That is why our work is devoted to structure, meanings and functions of Anglophone ergonyms in Canadian linguistic and cultural space.

The aim of the study is: to nominate Anglophone ergonyms in Canada, analyze their linguistic (structural, semantic, functional) and cultural characteristics as well as their influence on the everyday life of the Canadians.

The tasks of the research are:

- to find Anglophone ergonyms in Canadian linguistic and cultural space in order to define their structure and semantic potential;

- to analyze their functions and psychological influence on the Canadians;

- to prove that ergonyms are markers of linguistic and cultural space in Canada.

To expose Anglophone ergonyms in Canadian linguistic and cultural space such sources of information were used: historical reviews of the country, guide books for visitors, touring guides, reference books, dictionaries and advertizing materials.

Methods of research

To carry out the tasks the following methods of research were used: analysis of scientific publications in linguistics on the subject of the research in order to clear out the level of the problem's work out; contentanalysis of authentic materials to form the massive of Anglophone ergonyms to be studied; descriptive method for characteristics of structural and semantic meanings of ergonyms; statistics - for generalization of the research' results.

Research Findings

Ergonym is a means of socio and cultural space, a part of the language surrounding of a certain territory within which its communicative realization is taking place. Ergonym is a product of the people consciousness which reflects all sides of the spiritual and material life of each social community.

Language as a social phenomenon, functions in a certain society which influences its peculiarities. According to the changes in the composition of the population, in economy, social relationships, political and cultural life the linguistic characteristics of the language spoken in the country also change. Of all linguistic alterations in proper names of Canadian companies, banks, factories, plants, educational establishments, cultural objects and sport events, shops, that is, ergonyms, we are going to research the Anglophone names in order to show how they reflect the originality of this country and its people. In fact there are two official languages in Canada - English and French, and two linguistic systems are used to give names to various objects, but here in the article we research the Anglophone ergonyms only. We are going to operate such linguistic categories as lexeme and word combination analyzing the structure of ergonyms, define the part of speech they belong to: noun, adjective, verb and describe their meanings.

Canada has a great history. Long before the well- documented arrival of European explorers such as Columbus, Cartier and Cabot, Canada's true founders were already here - the Native Indians. These people, who fall generally into two main linguistic groups, were the Algonquin and the Iroquoi, - says Irving Weisdorf in the book “Canada” [18, p.8]. Sir John A. Macdonald, considered the Father of Canada, was the first prime-minister of the country. He purchased the western territories from the Hudson's Bay Company and built the Canadian Pacific Railway, which linked Canada from sea to sea. Now it is a highly developed agricultural and industrial country where hardworking, brave and educated people live.

As we are going to research linguistic and cultural aspects of using ergonyms in Canada we will analyze the names of cultural and educational objects, museums, sport events, places of interest, shops, etc.

For most Europeans Canada is associated with the famous Niagara Falls which is really a thrilling place visited by more than 12 million people annually. On board of the Maid of the Mist they make a mini cruise to the base of the Niagara Falls. There are many popular restaurants, bars, hotels, night clubs near the Niagara Falls, and it is called the “honeymoon capital” of Canada that “will surely never die” [18, p. 13].

In the English language spoken in Canada there are many words not only of the ancient Greek origin (democracy, theory, euphoria, athlete), or a lot of words from Latin (scholar, scholarship); plenty of words from Spanish (guerrilla, mosquito, cargo, junta), Portugal (banana, molasses), Italian (piano, motto, fiasco, umbrella), Arab (zero, algebra, sugar, coffee, assassin, magazine), Persian (tulip, orange, caravan, bazaar), Turkish (kiosk, caftan) and other languages. The Chinese people who were one of the first who came to live in Canada still use their names to identify their national food: chop suey, dim sum, won ton, kowtow. Some of these words are used as ergonyms to name Chinese restaurants: “Y'am&Chicken”, “Jambalaya Food”. From the language of the native population such words as moccasin, squash, skunk, pow-wow (Indian ceremony to celebrate the victory in a war) came to modern Canadian lexicon, and are now widely used.

Canada with the population of 38 million people has 97 universities: each of 12 provinces has not only a university in a capital city but in other big cities as well. The University of Alberta, the oldest and the largest is located in the province capital Edmonton, while Alberta University of the Arts is in Calgary, the second large city in the province. The University of British Columbia in Fredericton established in 1908 has the largest number of students enrolled in Western Canada. Emily Carr University of Art and Design educates gifted students interested in arts, design and handicrafts. Kwantlen Politechnic University prepares future specialists in science and technologies. University of Manitoba numbers 26800 students of both humanitarian and technical specialties. University of New Brunswick is the first English language university in Canada, the first public university in North America and the first in the British Empire to award a bachelor's degree to a woman. University of King's College was established in 1789 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. St. Mary's University and Atlantic School of Theology were formed by Catholics. The University of Toronto, the country's biggest city, established in 1827, has 84000 students of various nationalities. In the French-speaking province of Quebec out of 19 universities they have three Anglophone ones: Concordia University, McGill University and Bishop's University. This fact shows that no matter what language people speak they peacefully live, study and work in Canada.

Having enumerated some of Canadian universities we wanted to show that great attention is paid in this country to education: it is from the viewpoint of culture, and on the other hand, from the linguistic point of view, all university names are word combinations where the first part is the noun university plus geographical name of the province. Some higher educational establishments are of a religious origin, and are named after the Bible personalities. Ergonyms used to name Canadian universities perform nominative, identifying and informative functions which help young people in choosing the right higher school for education.

Sport plays a very important role in the lives of Canadians as a deposit of a healthy life style, physical activity, and longevity. Many kinds of sport are popular in Canada: basketball, boxing, swimming etc. Winter sports bring Canada a lot of medals at Winter Olympics. But nothing can be compared with Canadians' love for ice hockey.

Ice hockey is so popular in Canada that is considered a major component of Canadian culture and national identity. National Hockey League and Canadian Women s Hockey League are the organizations which regulate and sponsor ice hockey in the country. On the national level they compete for Stanley Cup - the most honorable trophy in Canada. Lord Stanley of Preston was appointed by Queen Victoria to be the Governor General of Canada in 1888. Soon Lord and his family became very involved in the game of ice hockey, and his sons convinced their father to donate a trophy, that would be considered to be a visible sign of the ice hockey championship, which was a silver bowl inlaid with gold. The name of the trophy has since been known as Stanley Cup. Sport teaches Canadians to gain victories, be disciplined, work and play in a team, be persistent and purposeful. They have ice hockey clubs at schools and universities, in big cities and small villages. Canadian children and young people are trained in the spirit of endurance, hard working, successfulness. The Toronto Maple Leafs is one of the Original Six Teams, which affect their fan base; they are a Canadian team which makes more money and yields better turnouts than most American clubs. The other popular hockey teams are: Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Montreal Canadians. Each of them has its own fans which support the beloved team spiritually and materially.

As we can see, ergonyms to name a hockey team are two-component word combinations which consist of the toponym (geographical) name of a certain territory the team represents and the second part is a notion associated with national emblem (Maple Leafs), strong and enduring birds etc. Such ergonyms perform identifying and advertising functions; psychologically their task is to make people feel strength of the team, its lust for victory and ability to win.

Much of Canada's economy is derived from the country's abundant natural resources the most valuable and renewable of them are its forests. The Canadian Forest Service is dedicated to promoting sustainable development of the forests.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police being formed in 1873 are a national icon and living symbol of Canadian heritage. Today they continue to enforce laws made by the authority of the Canadian Parliament. In the thundering and heart-pounding finale to the world famous Musical Ride, red-serged Mounties demonstrate their equestrian skills. During late spring and early summer, the Musical Ride offers up demonstrations of their spectacular precision horsemanship, free of charge to the citizens of Ottawa and tourists alike.

The world's highest free-standing structure can be seen from miles around - this is CNTower in Toronto, the biggest Canadian city with a population of more than three million people. The Tower was built by Canadian National railway and communications company in 1975. Its primary function is communication, transmitting radio and television signals. Today it is owned by Canada Lands Company. The domed structure beside the Tower is the SkyDome, the world's most luxurious ballpark, home to the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club and to Toronto Argonauts Football Club.

The centerpiece of the Canadian Museum of Civilization is a reconsruction of a Haida village. Throughout the museum, visitors can journey back through time and experience Canadian history first hand. The Canadian Museum of Nature houses everything from dinosaur skeletons to spectacular dioramas showing Canada's native fauna and flora. Housing one of the greatest aircraft collections in the world, the National Aviation Museum is an ultra modern facility built on the site of one of the Canada's historic military airfields.

Butchart Gardens have been rated among the most beautiful gardens in the world. Robert Pim Butchart made his fortune from Portland cement in his native Ontario. As he exhausted the limestone quarry near their home, his wife decided to refurbish the dismal pit that was left behind. She arranged for soil to be brought to fill the quarry until eventually she had a blooming, spectacular sunken garden. Today there are over one million plants throughout the estate to ensure continuous blooms from March through October.

When Holland was invaded by the Nazis in 1940, Crown Princess Juliana found shelter in Ottawa, Canadian capital. On returning home at war's end a grateful princess sent 20000 tulip bulbs to the city ”for services rendered in time of need”, and every year since then many more thousands of bulbs have followed, giving rise to the Canadian Tulip Festival, the largest in the world.

The world's largest shopping complex, located in Edmonton, Alberta, the West Edmonton Mall features more than eight hundred shops and services, more than one hundred eateries and a dizzying line up of attractions.

Wood Buffalo National Park is one of the world's largest parks, Yoho and Kootenay National parks in British Columbia adjoin Banff national park, Jasper National park is wider, larger and less explored than Banff. One of Canada's best known is Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario's largest and oldest park, considered a semi-wilderness park which features hundreds of lakes, canoe routes, camp-grounds. There are many beautiful surprises hidden in Canada's numerous parks. Generally there are 37 national parks in Canada, which serve to protect and preserve nature. The wild and natural aspects of Canada's parks play an important role in the daily lives of the people who live here. It is reflected in the beliefs, arts and culture throughout the country.

It is impossible to imagine cultural life of any country without arts and theatres. In Canada they have professional theatres in every province and in each big city. The National Arts Centre in Ottawa unites and coordinates the activity of all theatres in the country. Theatre Kingston, Great Canadian Theatre Company, Theatre New Brunswick, Confederation Centre of the Arts, in Charlottetown, Neptun Theatre in Halifax are examples of provincial theatres while Ottawa Fringe Festival and Toronto Fringe Festival represent the capital and the biggest city in Canada. Toronto has a large and vibrant theatre scene, centered around the Toronto Theatre District with many different companies. Some produce large-scale Broadway-style productions, and others produce smaller-scale plays by Canadian and other playwrights. Canadian Stage Company, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe-Muraille, Factory Theatre, Soulpepper Theatre Company are all parts of the major theatre companies in Toronto.

From the viewpoint of linguistics ergonyms to mark the names of theatres and festivals in Canada are two- or many component word combinations which consist of the word denoting the kind of activity (theatre) plus toponimical name of the city, province or country. They mostly perform a nominative or an identifying function. Representing the cultural life in the country they show that Canadians are interested in arts, drama, music festivals.

ergonym linguistic canada psychological

Conclusions and Prospects for Further Research

Having analyzed the structure and meaning of 54 Anglophone ergonyms in Canada we came to the conclusion that most of them (99 %) are two- or many component word combinations containing the word “Canada”, or ”National” that is, have names connected with the name of the country itself: it is symbolic as demonstrates how Canadians love their home land. 91% of ergonyms reflect the geographical position of the object, starting with toponimical names. 9% of Anglophone ergonyms in Canada are of anthroponimical origin, i.e. they contain the family name of their founders or owners. In such a way Canadians show their respect to the people who served their country.

All functions of ergonyms are represented in the names of Canadian universities, museums, sport events, theatres, festivals: nominative, informative, aesthetic, memorial, reference, cognitive, identifying, advertising. Anglophone ergonyms in the country serve as real markers of linguistic and cultural space in Canada.

Future researches of Canadian ergonyms should be aimed at all-round analysis of Francophone ergonyms in order to clear out the interconnection of the two types of them: Anglophone and Francophone ones. Better understanding of the role and functions of ergonyms will help to deeper penetrate into the ways of thinking, priorities and life styles of the Canadians.

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