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Levan Bregadze
Georgia, Tbilisi
Polysemy of Anthroponims – A Basis of Subtext
Summary
Lots of persons have the same name. We call this phenomenon
polysemy of anthroponims (for example David may mean the biblical
prophet David, King of Georgia David the Builder, David Guramishvili, the
author of “Davitiani”, David Kipiani, the football player, and so on). The
polysemy of anthroponims we consider a specific variety of word
polysemy.
The polysemy of anthroponims can sometimes become the basis of
subtext (Peter the First called the city that he had built on the Neva, the
name of Saint Peter, but when we hear the word “Petersburg”, we think
immidietly of the builder of the city, and not of his namesake saint, which
could have been a secret wish of the famous king as well).
We are using this paradigm in the research in order to analyze the
names of the characters in the works of Mikhail Koltsov, Konstantin
Gamsakhurdia, Umberto Eco.
The archetype that lies at the basis of subtext creation by means of
polysemy of anthroponims, is the primitive man’s idea that in the form of a
newborn baby some dead person returns to this world. The people that
believed in this, used to try using different magical means to identify the
dead person and give the newborn baby his/her name.
By the power of this archetype, our contemporary man also identifies
himself involuntarily with his/her namesake(s), which influences the
formation of his/her personality in some way.
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