Proper names as a natural category: proverbial phrases with cultural names from the perspective of eponymy research

The paper discusses proverbial collocations with names (e.g., English the sword of Damocles) as a possible object of research on eponymy. The author differentiates these collocations from phrasal eponyms that are scientific and technical terms (e.g. Achilles tendon) or composite proper names (e.g., Ukrainian бульвар Шевченка), in that they are derived semantically from phrases initially found in cultural texts, essentially in the same way antonomastic eponyms are semantically derived from underlying proper names. In both cases a cultural name operates as a key constituent of inner form, expressing some general meaning conveyed by cultural texts in which such names originally appeared and with which they came to be associated. Employing modern approaches to categorization in logic, mathematics, cognitive psychology, and linguistics, he argues that proper names, too, should be considered a natural rather than strictly logical category. In his opinion, collocations with cultural names, along with some other classes of linguistic items, should be considered the periphery of the category of proper names that should be taken into account in eponymy research. With these collocations, as with antonomastic eponyms, an underlying proper name determines not only their generalized cultural sense, but also the way this sense is expressed by referring to the unique object or person operating as its symbol. The importance of including these collocations to the proper name category's periphery transcends the establishing of their systemic status, since cultural names in them, like those from which antonomastic eponyms are derived, are a major asset for socio- and linguistic-cultural studies, highlighting key concepts of a society's culture as well as their origins and evolution.