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access to the checked and evaluated translation, which translation will become a property of the certification board” [2]. The Institute of Translation and Interpreting in St. Petersburg provides more specific an informative description of tests this institute conducts. “Various types of tests can be taken in the Laboratory: the standard test employed by most translation agencies, a comprehensive test, a computer skills test, an evaluations of the knowledge of translation resources in the Internet; a test that evaluates automated translation skills; a lexicographic skills evaluation test (terminology search, creation of terminology bases), and a test for translation project management skills. The comprehensive test evaluates the speed of translation, computer skills and the linguistic quality of the translation. This text is the most modern and efficient way of evaluation of the translator’s skills” [8].

Summarizing the overview of publications on evaluation of the quality of translated tests we shall note that the translation quality assessment is discussed there only in the framework of general-purpose testing required to obtain a certificate. This does not cover certification or evaluation of the ability of the translator to participate in a particular project. Besides, these works do not include descriptions of principles or methodologies that could be used to compile test materials needed for evaluation of translator’s skills. And, finally, they discuss only linguistic skills (hands-on competence in the source and target languages) and communicative skills (competence in different types of written and oral communication activities), while the cognitive ability of the translator is not evaluated and, in fact, is not ever mentioned.

Methodology

This study is based on more than 20 years of experience acquired in the language engineering company Language Interface (USA) where the authors work.

The data for this study was derived from test translations produced by translators seeking jobs at Language Interface for the international projects that the company provided with linguistic services in the period of 1999 to 2017. Besides, the study used original texts received at Language Interface for translation in the same period along with their translations.

Methods employed in the study included observation, statistics, comparative analysis, generalization, classification, context analysis and semantics-cognition studies.

Research results

Our experience in linguistic support of international projects proved that the cognitive approach to evaluation of translators is even more important than that based on linguistic competence or communicative skills. Besides, evaluation of translators’ skills where it comes to working in a particular project is a completely different effort as compared with the general-purpose testing. This effort calls for extensive work aimed at compilation of test materials that enable the evaluators to assess translator’s skills in an adequate and efficient manner.

Developers of the test materials should compile texts that would enable the evaluators to acquire maximum information from translation of a few paragraphs. At the first glance it seems to be very difficult to make any certain conclusions on linguistic and communicative competences of the candidate and absolutely impossible to identify his or her cognitive abilities. Even though this is, in fact, challenging, analysis of Language Interface’s experience in numerous international projects, that begins with screening and selection of translators [9, p. 440], enabled us to formulate some recommendations on development of test materials for evaluation of qualification of the translators applying for a position in an international project.

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Since in international projects the translators deal with authentic texts, only such texts shall be used in compilation of test materials. Due to many reasons, translators are reluctant to translate large test texts and, besides, evaluation of a large translation is a labor consuming effort. That is why the size of the text shall not exceed one page. The best approach is to compile tests based on actual documentation that has been passed to translation. It is practical to make this test of two fragments on different subjects. Due to the required brevity of the test, the text inevitably becomes taken out of its context and in order to enable the translator to produce a high-quality translation (which is impossible apart of the context), some information support should be provided along with the text. However, the compilation of test materials should focus primarily on identification of cognitive abilities of the translator.

In international projects, cognitive ability of the translator becomes a critical component of his or her skills because the translator often faces rather non-standard problems that cannot be resolved using good knowledge of the source and target languages alone. In addition to a broad vocabulary and knowledge of the grammar, as well as experience in translation in certain area of knowledge (such as space industry, telecommunications, oil and gas, legal matters, medicine etc.), the translator shall have the ability to perform such universal actions as comparison, analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization, classification, specification, detection of patterns and rules. The translator shall be capable of maintaining active and intense cognitive actions: logical reasoning, research and analytic work and decision-making. International cooperation is always in the frontline of scientific, cultural or social life and this is why the texts that need to be translated in order to cover vital needs of international projects are very often complicated and, as a rule, have new terms and acronyms in abundance.

To some extent, cognitive abilities of a translator can be judged by examining virtually any translation he or she produced. The quantity and nature of lexical, grammatical and stylistic errors found in the translation serve as indirect indicators of cognitive ability while incoherent translation is an obvious evidence of poor skills. Less obvious but not less important discovery is a detection of shortages in cognitive ability of a translator who delivers a translation that is consistent t (i.e. a text that, at the first glance, has coherent meanings and correct grammatical links between words and expressions), but carries no meaning. As an example, in a test translation of an excerpt from the Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete developed by the American Concrete Institute, one Moscow translator produced complete nonsense. The source text reads: This Code does not govern design and installation of portions of concrete piles, drilled piers, and caissons embedded in ground except for structures assigned to Seismic Design Categories D, E, and F. This Code does not govern design and construction of slabs-on-ground, unless the slab transmits vertical loads or lateral forces from other portions of the structure to the soil. Chord reinforcement provided near wall edges in concentrated amounts for resisting bending moment is not to be included in determining ρt and ρl. Within practical limits, shear reinforcement distribution should be uniform and at a small spacing. The translation stated: Код строительства из бетона. Код не определяет дизайн и установку порций бетонных пакетов, буровых свай и одноопорных морских эксплуатационных платформ в структурах, приписанных Сейсмическим Категориям Дизайна D, E и F. Этот код не влияет на дизайн и конструкцию нависающего слоя породы на земле, если только данная конструкция не пересекает вертикальные грузы или латеральные силы из других частей земляной структуры. Поясная арматура, расположенная возле стенных торцов в концентрированном

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количестве для сопротивления изгибному моменту не должна быть включена в определение ρt и ρl. В практических пределах поперечная арматура должна быть однообразной и на маленьких расстояниях.

A fragment from the United Nations Organization’s Millennium Development Goals Report for the year of 2010 translated by a candidate for a position in the translation team of an international project reads: Саммит будет проводиться в условиях неоднозначного прогресса и новых препятствий, затрудняющих усилия мирового сообщества по сокращению наполовину нижнего уровня бедности.

We suggest that it is possible to establish certain formal components of a test text that can serve as metrics of translator’s cognitive ability. These components often cause challenges even to translators who demonstrate good knowledge of languages (both source and target) and usually deliver coherent and meaningful translations. When encountering such difficulties, the translators introduce inaccuracies, intentional omissions of fragments of the source text or meaningless translations. We believe that including such potentially problematic components in the text translation is practical and necessary.

Translation difficulties emerge when there are no direct semantic equivalents between the source and target texts. For example, for an American plumber Schedule 80 is one of the basic concepts that defines piping size. For a Russian plumber translation Сортамент 80, even though it is a correct one, means nothing since it points to a non-existing place in the recipient’s mind. That is why when translating a Construction Code established by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) that under the contract should be observed by Russian specialists, verbatim (i.e. formally correct) translation makes no sense. In cases of this type it is necessary to find out what Russian regulatory concept is equal to this particular American concept and use that equivalent in the translation.

Rare special terms encountered in the source text also often cause difficulties. Введение новой схемы расчетов межоператорских тарифов привело к тому, что приземление вызова сотового абонента на сеть фиксированного оператора стало обходиться сотовым операторам дешевле, чем приземление вызова фиксированного абонента на сеть сото-

вого оператора. In order to adequately translate this fragment, the translator has to find out what приземление вызова is and find the equivalent of this term in the target language. A translator capable of doing research will not translate this special term based on commonly used meanings of each word this expression is made of (call landing) – as many candidates did, but rather will select the term from the telecommunications sublanguage mobile to landline call divert.

The problem of translation of rare special terms is often aggravated by the fact that some organizations use their own nomination whose meanings are not included in bilingual dictionaries [10, p. 150]. For example, technical terminology used in Ford Motor Company includes numerous “terms that describe automobile manufacturing processes and parts that are used only within Ford Motor Company” [11, p. 11]. A translator who invests efforts into research needed to clearly understand meaning of such terms demonstrates high cognitive competence.

Selection of the single appropriate meaning of a polysemic word or expression in a given text often poses a problem as well. “In the course of translation, the disambiguation of polysemic lexical units and the selection of the equivalent in the target language is driven by various factors such as narrow context, broad context and the extra-linguistic environment” [12, p. 173]. Translator’s inability to analyze the context (both specific and broad) and extra-linguistic environment

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clearly manifests inadequate cognitive abilities of the candidate. In one project, an original shipping waybill in English containing a list of shipped items stated 6 mm drill bits. This was translated as комплект буровых долот диаметром 6 мм. In fact, буровое долото is a correct equivalent of the lexical unit drill bit, however not the only one. Another meaning of that is сверло. In this case only the analysis of a narrow context was needed in order to select the correct equivalent of the original term since the diameter of the bit indicated in the waybill (6 mm) clearly points to the latter meaning of the term.

When translating a Russian text on industrial application of tungsten into English, the phrase Вольфрамовая проволока широко используется в электрических лампах и изделиях электронной техники в качестве тела накала, электродов, сеток и др. was translated as

“Tungsten wire is widely used in electric lamps and electronic products as filaments, electrodes, reticles, etc.”. Here for translation of the word сетка the translator chose to use the English word reticle that instantiates the meaning “a net of fine lines or fibers” (from Latin reticulum). Even though the translator’s knowledge system may not include the knowledge of industrial applications of tungsten, a specialist with strong cognitive ability would wonder why a net would be made of such a rare metal as tungsten. Research in technical literature on electronic devices helps understand that вольфрамовые сетки (tungsten grids) are not meshes or nets consisting of crossing lines but the electrodes of vacuum tubes (diodes, triodes etc.) usually designed as spirals and placed between the cathode and anode of the tube. These components are known in English as grids. This hypothesis was confirmed by the fact that the source document was published in 1977 when vacuum tubes were commonly used in electronics and had not been replaced by semiconductors.

Translation of acronyms is another type of difficulties. Source: Romania has a good potential to export cheap electricity to Hungary due to reasonable NTCs and generation potential.

Translation: Румыния обладает хорошими потенциальными возможностями для экспорта дешевой электроэнергии в Венгрию благодаря приемлемым отрицательным температурным коэффициентам и перспективам производства энергии. The acronym NTC may stand for different terms depending on the field of knowledge where it is used. A translator put it as отрицательный температурный коэффициент even though such translation destroys the meaning of the statement. In the given context NTC stood for пропускная способ-

ность линий электропередач (throughput capacity of power lines). The homonymy of acronyms can deceive the translator even where these acronyms are commonly used. The general manager will visit the company offices in New Orleans, LA. One of the candidates translated this phrase as “Генеральный менеджер посетит офисы компании в Новом Орлеане и Лос-Ан-

джелесе”, which is wrong. Even though LA can denote Los Angeles, in this case this was a standard acronym of the state of Louisiana where New Orleans is located. These acronyms denoting the state is traditionally shown after a city followed by comma. The correct translation of that phrase should have been “Генеральный менеджер посетит офисы компании в Новом Орлеане (штат Луизиана)”.

A special case of translation difficulties is a recognition of acronyms that emerged only recently, local acronyms that are used within a particular enterprise or those acronyms that are arranged in lower case letter. For instance, when translating documentation for a U.S. telecom-

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munication company the translator could not find the meaning of the word latlon. Advice received from a company’s specialist clarified that this word is a non-standard use of the expression latitude and longitude adopted in the company.

A plethora of difficulties is encountered when translating foreign proper names. First, errors are often made when dealing with proper names that have conventional translations. For example, in test texts taken from United Nations reports, more than a half of candidates incorrectly translated the name of the Secretary General (2007 – 2016) Ban Ki-moon. Those candidates transcribed the name and came up with Бан Ки-мун while the conventional translation of this name is Пан Ги Мун.

Second, translators often make errors when a foreign name given as initials, should be shown in objective case. In order to choose the correct form for many last names of foreign origin one needs to know what gender is the person of that name since it determines whether the last name should be inflected. Not all translators make an effort to find out these details, which results in translations like обзор подготовлен М. Скоттом, while the author of the overview is Marilyn Scott (Мэрилин Скотт), a female whose last name should not be inflected in Russian.

The negligence in interpreting of initials leads to errors in translation of the initials themselves. The cause of these errors is the fact that some Latin letters may denote different sounds depending on the language and the letter’s position in the word. E.g. the initial С. may stand for the name Colin (Колин), Cecil (Сесиль) or Charles (Чарльз); the initial G. can denote Garrett

(Гарретт) or George (Джордж); S. – Sabrina (Сабрина), Sean (Шон) or Sigfried – Зигфрид;

J. – Jacklyn (Жаклин), Jeffrey (Джеффри), Jürgen (Юрген) or José (Хосе). Possibly, А. Shall be translated as О. (e.g. in the name Auguste – Огюст), Е. – as Ю. (Eugene – Юджин) and H.

– as О. (Haudrey – Одри) or Э. (Helene – Эллен).

Moreover, not only literal denotation of the name should be determined to produce a correct translation of the initial, but also its phonetic equivalent because there are many names that are pronounced differently in different languages. The name Sara recovered from the initial S. can sound as Сара and Зара, depending on the origin of its owner; the initial H. that stands for the name Henry in Russian can be Генри or Анри, therefore in translation it should be shown with different initials.

Translation of a text that contains the typical difficulties shown above enables the evaluator to identify individual cognitive abilities of the translator: skills allowing him or her to analyze, compare, classify, specify, find patterns, and synthesize new knowledge. Yet, having some of these skills or even a set of them may be insufficient when it comes to the ability to solve complex non-trivial problems a translator may encounter in the course of the international project.

Along with the individual abilities translators should be have strong general cognitive ability (in terms of C. Spearman [13]). Researchers (physiologists, psychologists, genetic scientists) consider this ability as an aggregate intellectual factor. It shall be noted that studies of the general cognitive ability are beyond the scope of translation theory or project management specialists.

The translation process is a continuous search for a balance between the need to make immediate decisions on translation of one or another term or phrase and the necessity to question these decisions. That is why one of the critical evidences of the general cognitive ability of a translator is the ability to feel the boundaries of his or her own knowledge, which makes him or her to question apparently evident solutions and stimulate his lexical need [14, p. 159] thus moving it to a higher professional level.

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An example taken from the Language Interface experience demonstrates a case of this kind. In one project acronyms LDPE, HDPE, LPPE, HPPE were widely used (low density polyethylene, high density polyethylene, low pressure polyethylene, high pressure polyethylene). In Russian technical literature all four terms are also used – полиэтилен низкой/высокой плотности

(ПНП, ПВП) and полиэтилен низкого/высокого давления (ПНД, ПВД). A member of the translation team who first came across this terminology reasoned that it is self-evident that high density polyethylene is manufactured under high pressure and vice versa, so he used the terms

полиэтилен высокой плотности and полиэтилен высокого давления as synonyms. The other members of the team found this as completely reasonable and did not question such interpretation. This practice was going on until one of the translators decided to check this term in a reference book. Against all expectations it turned out that high density polyethylene is manufactured under low pressure while low density polyethylene is made under high pressure. The translator’s critical attitude towards his own knowledge and adopted practice helped repair the situation and deliver correct translations to the client.

Working with the source texts translators often come across utterances that are impossible to explain or understand and each time this poses a unique challenge. Such absurdities can be due to errors in the source text, translation errors that had been introduced by another translator who originally translated that text from another language, those made by reverse translation or for another reason; these errors cannot be categorized and there is no room for development of a typical algorithm that would find solutions. Only highly developed general cognitive ability of the translator makes it possible overcome of these unique challenges through tough cognitive activity.

When translating Construction Rules and Regulations 2.02.03 – 85 “Pile Foundations” from Russian into English the translation team encountered a phrase containing this statement:

“со сваями, равномерно расположенными подвеем сооружением и объединенными сплошным ростверком, подошва которого опирается на грунт”. The definition of piles that are рас-

положенными подвеем сооружением (placed podveem facility) is clearly erroneous both in terms of syntax and lexis. Research in earlier revisions of the original document did not help: it turned out that the error survived several editions of the Rules and Regulations. Diagrams and drawings in the document did not help either since the podveem pattern for pile layout was not mentioned in them. A time-consuming research run by the translation team lead resulted in the discovery that the phrase in question was a distorted “под всем сооружением” (under the entire facility) that occurred due to a typo and a missing whitespace. The information on the error in the source was sent to the customer.

This example shows that seemingly routine work of the translator who happened to possess high cognitive ability resulted not only in achievement of his task – issue of a high-quality translation – but also to correction of the source document, i.e. crossing the boundary of the regular translation activity. Instead of the most common reaction to a meaningless utterance – mechanical transmission of the source text defects to the translation or omission of a questionable fragment – the project translation team demonstrated that a good translation process may contribute into the quality assurance of the original text.

Another example: a graduation diploma issued by one of U.S. colleges that was originally made in Latin and submitted for translation into English (many American colleges and universi-

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ties issue diplomas only in the Latin language even though most of the graduates and their potential employers cannot read in Latin) contained these words: in civitate novorum eboracensium. The composition of the word eboracensium indicates that it denotes inhabitants of Eborac, a town in the Roman province of Britain, i.e. it is a verbatim translation of the phrase in the state (or community) of new Eboracians. It is obvious that in the context of an American college diploma this phrase does not make sense. The key to solution of this puzzle was the outcome of translation research that found that nowadays a city of York is situated in place of the former Roman town of Eborac. Therefore, the authors of the text of the diploma encrypted New York as new Eborac and the use of the name of the city’s inhabitants resulted from excessive stylization. Thanks to the extraordinary cognitive ability of the translator the meaningless phrase in civitate novorum eboracensium became a meaningful one: in the state of New York, indicating the location of the college.

Conclusion

While claiming that the cognitive aspect is the primary conceptual principle that should be applied in compilation of text materials and believe that translators’ general cognitive ability is very important, we admit that no universal means of its evaluation when selecting translators for international projects are found yet. Nonetheless, the general cognitive ability of a translator can be indirectly evaluated through the analysis of ways he or she chooses to overcome typical difficulties: terms that do not have direct equivalents for their meanings, special terms, polysemic words, acronyms, proper names and initials of foreign origin. By including these potentially problematic components in test materials one can adequately evaluate translator’s cognitive abilities that are critical for technical translations required for international projects.

Apparently, it is impossible to compile a perfect test that would impeccably detect translators’ cognitive abilities. However, the closer a real text will be brought to an ideal model, components of which have been discussed in this paper, the more precise will be test results and the greater will be the likelihood of selecting the best candidates for an international project translation team. This will improve the quality of translations that directly influence the success of the overall international project.

References

[1]European Commission, Directorate-General for Translation. Studies on Translation and Multilinguaiism. – Kingston-upon-Thames: The Language Technology Centre Ltd., 2009.

[2]Soyuz perevodchikov Rossii. URL: http://www.translators-union. ru/? option= com _content&id=419:2016-06-25-22-12-29 (vremya obrashhenija – 14.11.2018).

[3]Séguinot C. Interpreting Errors in Translation / C. Séguinot. // Meta: journal des traducteurs / Meta: Translators' Journal. – 1990. – Vol. 35. – № 1. – P. 68-73.

[4]Campbell S. J. Towards a Model of Translation Competence / S. J. Campbell. // Meta : journal des traducteurs / Meta: Translators' Journal. – 1991. – Vol. 36. – № 2–3. – P. 329-343.

[5]Kussmaul P. Training the Translator / P. Kussmaul. – Amsterdam: John Benjamins. – 1995. – 178 p

[6]Hale S. Improvements to NAATI testing / The University of New South Wales. – 2012. URL: https://www.naati.com.au/PDF/INT/INTFinalReport.pdf – 132 p. (vremya obrashhenija – 14.11.2018)

[7]American Translators Association. URL: http:// www. atanet. org/ certification/ index. php (время обращения – 14.11.2018).

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[8]Institut pis’mennogo I ustnogo perevoda Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. URL: http://translation.spbu.ru/translation-test.htm (vremya obrashhenija – 14.11.2018).

[9]Kit M., Berg D., Berg E. International Projects: Management of Cross-language Communications. / M. Kit, D. Berg, E. Berg // 15th International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geo Conference. SGEM Conference Proceedings, 2015. – Book 5, Vol. 1. – P. 439-446.

[10]Kit M. S. O strategii postroenija vysokoeffektivnyh setevyh slovarej (na baze razrabotki slovarya LexSite). / M. S. Kit // Vestnik RGGU. – 2010. – № 9. – C. 149-160.

[11]Belyaeva L. N. Perevodnaja leksikigrafija kak osnovnoj resurs tehnologicheskogo processa perevoda. / L. N. Belyaeva // Slovo I slovar’. Vocabulum et vocabularium. – In-t lingv. issled. RAN. — SPb.: Nestor-Istorija, 2016. – С. 7-21.

[12]Barhudarov L.S. Yazyk I perevod (voprosy obshhej I chastnoj teorii perevoda). М,: Mezhdunarodnye otnoshenija, 1975. – 240 с.

[13]Spearman Ch. General intelligence objectively determined and measured / Ch. Spearman. // American Journal of Psychology. – 1904. – Vol. 15. – P. 201–293.

[14]Berg E.B., Кit М. Leksicheskaya potrebnost’ perevodchika kak instrument poznanija.

/Е.B. Berg, М. Кit // Sovremennye lingvisticheskie i metodiko-didakticheskie issledovanija. – 2018. – Vyp. 1 (37). – С. 158-167.

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UDC 81.27

ALLUSION AND WORDPLAY IN ENGLISH ERGONIMS

E.I. Abramova

____________________________________________________________________________

Moscow Region State University

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor

Associate Professor of the English Language Theory and Practice Chair Elena I. Abramova

e-mail: abramel@mail.ru

____________________________________________________________________________

Statement of the problem. The topicality of the research relies on the modern tendencies in naming elements of urban space, where the ergonim is a text providing communication between the subjects of linguistic landscape. Ergonim is defined as a message providing primary information about the nominated object and motivating potential consumers. The article considers the wordplay techniques in English ergonims derived from precedent texts and analyzes the sources of allusion.

Results. The article describes 200 ergonims from English-speaking countries which present companies providing goods and services to end consumers: shops, cafes, restaurants, laundries, hairdressers, burial companies etc. The author discusses the attractive and emotional-stylistic function of ergonims which condition wordplay. The paper studies different techniques of creating allusive puns in phonetic (phoneme deletion, insertion, replacement, homophony), graphic (capitalization), lexical (contamination, interpretation of meaning based on polysemy, homonymy and idiomatic meaning) and syntactical (transformation, deconstruction, re-segmentation) aspects. The article classifies ergonims according to the allusion sources, which are set phrases, allusions from the sphere of cinema, literature and art, historical and military allusions etc.

Conclusion. The description of wordplay techniques in English allusive ergonims derived from precedent texts allows making the following conclusions: graphic techniques dominate over phonetic ones, the precedent lexeme is complex by its structure, re-segmentation is the predominant techniques on the syntactic level. The classification of the allusion sources characterizes the English language cultural code of a modern consumer opting for popular culture, which is creatively developed by the authors. The author concludes that the potential consumer decodes the information in the allusive ergonims relying on the language and cultural experience, which the authors of ergonims should take into consideration as the ergonim is a text of linguistic landscape of the functioning urban space.

Key words: allusion, wordplay, ergonim, pun, precedent text.

For citation: Abramova E.I. Allusion and wordplay in English ergonims / E.I. Abramova // Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-didactic Researches”. – 2018. - №4 (23). – P. 142-150

Introduction

Human language as a method of categorizing the surrounding urban space increasingly attracts the attention of researchers. Urban space is characterized by the diversity of functions, which become explicit in the form of linguistic landscape formed by the subjects and objects of urban space. On the one hand, the subjects, both individuals and small and large groups, are those who order, create and install elements of linguistic landscape. On the other hand, there are people who read texts as components of linguistic landscape, decipher them, follow them, criticize, oppose them and discuss them in real and virtual space. The subjects interact through the texts of linguistic landscape, particularly through ergonyms as means of visualizing linguistic landscape and as a tool of manipulating the subjects.

Rapid changes in economic and social spheres caused by globalization and multilingualism are reflected in the urban linguistic landscape and draw researchers. The linguistic landscape studies are based on research into culture, sociology, law, economics, psychology, geog

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© Abramova E.I., 2018

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raphy, tourism, architecture etc. Simultaneously research into and analysis of linguistic landscape, in particular ergonyms, serve as a diagnosis of the state of social, cultural, political and economic structures of society. The contribution of linguistics into cross-disciplinary studies of urban space lies predominantly in studying language aspects, which provide a successful functional interaction of the subjects and objects.

Another key aspect in linguistic landscape research is culture, because space concepts of an individual are based on the culture they belong to. Space is considered as an abstraction and as the key element in forming the view of the world [1, p.36]. The verbally and visually explicit cultural components of urban space texts are conceived to manipulate the functioning subjects.

Methodology

The article discusses modern tendencies in naming objects of English language urban space, in particular those featuring allusion and wordplay techniques. The material to be analyzed is English ergonyms, therefore it would be necessary to provide the definitions for the terms «ergonym», «wordplay» and «allusion», and relate them as part of research.

The research into ergonyms is based on the works of the founders of linguistic landscape studies. Among the first studies we can mention R.Landry, R. Bourhis (1997 г.) who first used the term «linguistic landscape», defined it and developed the framework of the branch. E. Shohamy (2015) discusses that linguistic landscape is a means of interaction between public space and an individual in the social-communicative system. The works of R.Landry and R. Bourhis gave rise to the linguistic landscape studies in Russia. N.V. Podolskaya provided a definition of «ergonym». I.V. Kryukova analyzed ergonyms as a separate system with specific features and typology. I.V. Tortunova researches into the creative aspect of ergonyms. A number of other studies aim to describe and analyze the system of ergonyms in Russian cities (F.F. Alistanova, O.V. Vrublevskaya, A.M. Emelyanova, V.A. Kryzhanovskaya). Generally, researchers consider ergonyms as a means of communication and interaction in today’s world.

In the thesis on modern trends in onomastics O.V. Vrublevskaya discusses modern values in naming such as modernity (meeting the challenges of the time), universality (being ubiquitous), demonstrativeness (attracting attention) and wordplay [2, p.76]. Being part of onomastic system, ergonyms demonstrate modern tendencies, which «cross» borders and «advertise» goods and services.

The ergonym is defined as the proper name of a business organization such as associations, organizations, corporations, enterprises, companies, institutions or clubs [3, p.151]. The linguistic research into ergonyms has proved to be effective despite its short history. The research focuses on the structural and pragmatic features, which correlate with the functions of ergonyms. I.A. Tortuniva emphasizes the informative and persuasive functions of ergonyms [4, p.126], because firstly the ergonym is minimal primary information about the business it nominates [4, p.126]. Secondly, the ergonym is designed to persuade and to motivate a potential consumer to purchase the goods and service it advertises.

V.A. Kryzhanovskaya focuses on the attracting function of ergonyms, which relates to making consumers conjure images associated with the business profile of the company and to making a beneficial impression, being effective and attractive [5, p.124]. Vistaprint UK head Oliver Harcourt believes that «having a creative business name is one example of how you can be more memorable to your customers and stand out from the crowd» [6]. The survey, conducted by Vistaprint, revealed that 10 % potential customers will remember a funny company name, 40%

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