THE ETYMOLOGICAL MEANING OF DEVON OICONYMS
Abstract
The article focuses on the study of the etymology of Devonshire name-places. The investigation of British toponyms facilitates deeper understanding of the English language, the historical impact on it as well as broadening our knowledge about British geography, national and cultural peculiarities of the linguistic consciousness of the English people. Studying the origin of place-names, we have found out that phonetic and morphological changes create a special environment for each lexeme aimed at reproducing a concept, determining its value in our perception and forming the collective and individual picture of the world. The purpose of this study is to analyse the etymological meaning of Devon cities and towns. The analysis of British toponyms revealed that at least five different ethnic groups – Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans – had influenced the creation of different placenames. It has been proved that Anglo-Saxon toponyms dominate over the Celtic ones as a result of historical events. The classification of oiconyms is offered according to their morphological structure, lexical and semantic meaning of the most frequently used components. There are simple, derivative, complex and compound place-names. The study has showed that simple and compound oiconyms are used much rarely than derivative and complex ones. In compound geographical placenames of Devon the first element is expressed by the parts of the world, adjectives of color and description, some saints, nouns that show whom the town belonged to and prepositional word-combinations. As for lexical and semantic meanings, Devon place-names determine: 1) home places (house, farmstead, settlement, fortified place) formed with -ton, -ham, -cot, -cott, -worth, -borough, bury, -mynster suffixes, and the prefix tre- ; 2) natural objects (field, river, stream, clearing, valley) formed with -ford, -combe, -coombe, -lea, -ley, -leigh, -mouth, -well, -stone, -land suffixes, and the prefixes lyn-, ex-, plym- that mark river names
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