Original scientific paper
THE PRAGMATIC FUNCTION OFTOPONYMS IN CROATIAN AND POLISH
Neda Pintarić
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Abstract
The article deals with toponyms in Croatian and Polish which in spoken language lose their primary function of designating space points and acquire a secondary, pragmatic function of emotive meaning: they become emo-sems. Toponyms denoting both foreign and home areas obtain a metaphorical meaning in phrasal units (e.g. Siberia/Syberia - a symbol of coldness; made in Hong-Kong - a thing of low quality; Pipidowka - a remote and backward place / Pušča Bistra - the same meaning in Croatian). As emo-sems toponyms have most different meanings, from swearings (ajd’ u Šandrovce) to euphemisms (spavati na Mirogoju - die; biti za Vrapče - be insane). In monolingual Polish and Croatian dictionaries the emo-sem toponyms described in the article are not represented in their metaphorical, pragmatic meaning. The data were gathered from native speakers of different ages. In Polish, there exists Dictionary of myths and cultural tradition by W. Kopalinskog, which is an additional source of motivation on the pragmatics of toponyms.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
214730
URI
Publication date:
10.10.1998.
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