LINGUISTIC CREATIVITY IN CATS’ NAMING PRACTICES IN RUSSIA

The paper aims at exploring the types of linguistic creativity in cats' naming practices in today's Russia. The goals of the research are: classification and description of the naming models and means of objectification of the characteristics on which the names are based within the given models. The academic novelty of the study lies in revealing new trends in naming practices, displayed in the choice of a pre-existing lexeme for a name or creating a new lexeme, i.e. a nonce word. The study is based on 300 cats' names that were collected by means of questionnaire surveying and continuous sampling from the posts in the Internet. The criteria for the selection were unusual associations that explain the name choice in the comments given by informants, or unconventional, non-standard form of the name. Other methods and techniques used as a part of the study are: data interpretation, description, classification and systematisation, semantic analysis, word-building analysis. The study revealed two main trends of linguistic creativity in the cat naming practices: the choice of words that comprise vivid and unusual images, or experimenting with inner or outer form of the names. Productive name-creating models were revealed, in which linguistic creativity is displayed in choosing a pre-existing word motivated by unusual associations. New trends in experimenting with inner or outer form of the names are: reinterpreting personal names' derivatives and generic names, as well as creating cats' names that sound similar to Russian terms ‘male cat,' ‘female cat,' ‘pussy,' ‘kitty,'and to the words defining cat breeds. Besides, nonce words are built on the basis of Russian and English personal names and generic names by means of affixation, word blending, stem-composition and apocopy.