DOI: 10.46726/H.2026.3.8
Modern cognitive studies of allusive proper names suggest the possibility of their verbalization of concepts. The study is based on a cognitive approach using the method of conceptual analysis. An allusive anthroponym is studied as a kind of artistic concept, namely, a concept-representation focused on specific visual,sound-related, and auditory features of the referent. Thistype of concept is verbalized by an allusive anthroponym in the primary nominative function, often based on a metaphorical or metonymic transposition. The analysis of the contexts in the novels by 19th-century British writers Ch. Dickens and W. Thackeray demonstrates that onomastic categories with a field structure and varying nominative density are formed based on the cognitive features of “vivid, typical appearance”, “typical type of inanimate objects”, “comical appearance”, “mental representation” and others. There is an actualization of the abstract concept famous personality and the attributesthat are associated with it. As a result of the convergence of proper and common names, there occur the neutralization of gender differences between the referents of allusive names, the transposition of the category of animate/inanimate objects and other processes. Several concepts are multi-faceted in the given context. The study of other varieties of allusive anthroponymic concepts, as well as a comparative analysis of these concepts in the texts of various linguistic cultures can be regarded as the perspectives of the research.
For citation: Ananyina M.A. Cognitive potential of an allusive anthroponym, Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2026, iss. 3, pp. 66—73.