THE ONOMASTİCS OF PROVERBS (ANTHROPONYMS)

Description

Proverbs constitute a rich linguistic resource that encodes cultural memory, moral values, and social norms. Within this concise linguistic form, anthroponyms (including religious names, common personal names, and the names of historical figures) perform important semantic functions. The use of anthroponyms is one of the distinctive features of proverbs, contributing to their semantic richness and cultural depth. An analysis of the linguistic and cognitive mechanisms underlying anthroponyms reveals their contribution to the expressiveness and cultural specificity of proverbial discourse. Within proverbs, anthroponyms function as linguistic markers of collective memory. They frequently lose their original referential function and acquire symbolic meanings, whereby a specific individual comes to represent a generalized human type, social role, or recurrent life situation. Furthermore, anthroponyms enhance the communicative effectiveness of proverbs by facilitating memorability, enriching their rhetorical impact, and promoting immediate comprehension.