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Introduction
Phraseology is a branch of linguistics that examines the historical evolution and present condition of the phraseological system and investigates phraseological units. Phraseology additionally studies the creation mechanisms and regularities of phraseological units in speech. Phraseological units have categorical characteristics, which serve as the foundation for distinguishing phraseology's primary characteristics and determining the fundamental characteristics of phraseological units as unique linguistic units. Although the field of vocabulary can be associated with phraseological units, it is more accurate to identify the phraseological unit system as a distinct field within the lexical system of language. The primary distinction between phraseological components and the entire word is their distinct formation, whilst the latter is typified by their complete formation. Nevertheless, there is currently no consensus on how to define the phraseological unit of language (Hasanova, 2022).
Phraseological units are important in linguistics and communication for several reasons. Due to its use in everyday communication and understanding their meanings and usage can help us communicate more effectively. This way, knowing common idioms and expressions can help us express ourselves more clearly and efficiently (Saidbakhramovna et al., 2020). Phraseological units express national and cultural traits, contributing to the diversity of a language's lexicon, and preserving a country's national identity and heritage (Aliyeva, 2021). In the words of Gaibova et al. (2019) the importance of phraseological units is manifested not only because they enrich the language, but also in the fact that thanks to them it can be obtained valuable information about historical events and customs of different peoples. Studying phraseological units also help us understand the processes of language acquisition and language change. For example, analyzing the diachronic approach of phraseological units can help us understand how language evolves over time (Robo, 2013). The role of phraseological units in the acquisition and teaching of second languages is also significant. Analyzing the diachronic approach of phraseological units can help learners understand how language have evolved over time (Todorova, 2021).
There are different ways to classify phraseological units, and although there is no universally accepted classification system, in almost every language we can find similar such as idioms, proverbs, collocations, phrasal verbs, fixed expressions, and euphemisms. Phraseological units can be classified, for example, based on their structural and semantic features like word order, the number of words they contain, or the semantic relationship between the words (Grigoryeva, 2020). The appearance of a new the individual character of phraseological units or the appearance of a new variant, causes not only various artistic and stylistic possibilities, but also contributes to the emergence of different versions of phraseological units, enriching the world of phraseology in the language (Osmonova, 2018). In this regard Ayupova et al. (2020) demonstrated that each of the phraseological units under they analyzed er built according to a particular semantic model, which is retained when any of the component parts are substituted and can be restored when deleting component parts other than key ones. In another work Tuarmenskaya & Tuarmenskiy (2022) addressed the cognitive aspects of the formation of phraseological meanings, as well as the metaphorical and metonymic transmission in the process of creating phraseological units. The authors identify three levels of phraseology: at the first level, individual words in a phraseological unit are subject to metaphorical/metonymic transfer; at the second level, a combination of free words is figuratively reinterpreted; and at the third level, semantic change affects the phraseological unit. However, it is important to note that the formation and evolution of phraseological units are complex processes influenced by multiple factors and more research is still necessary.
The field has grown and it can be found very interesting and diverse works such as the linguistic units in discourse (Grigoryan, 2021), psycholinguistic peculiarities of phraseological units and their development by pre-school children (Іnna, 2018), the use of somatic phraseological units where names of single body parts are used in phraseologisms (Nurullaev et al., 2021), the analysis of properties of phraseological units in different languages, and even the use of mathematics (Sánchez & Pinto, 2019). However, we couldn’t find many works in which names were used as components of phraseological units, except perhaps the research by Galyavieva et al. (2021). Considering this, the objective of this work is to study theonomastic phraseological units of the English language in which there are one, two and/or three anthroponymic compounds.
Development
There are cases when two or more components of the phraseological fund of the language have a special name or onomastic unit. The reasons for this, the interrelation of such components, the classification of such phraseologies according to certain criteria, their specificity according to national affiliation, language system or other factors, as well as a number of other issues has not been largely explored, even though it is a topical issue in linguistics. Mentioned issues require, first of all, the collection and separation of phraseological units containing two or more onomastic components units. Our research on the onomastic phraseological units of the English language shows that this language is characterized by a large number of phraseologies with two or more onomastic components. Some of the examples of relevant phraseological units recorded in English are included in the table below (Table 1).
Table 1 - Phraseologisms in English with two or more onomastic components
| № | Phraseological unit | № | Phraseological unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Merry Andrew | 38 | Tom Thumb |
| 2 | Billy Bunter | 39 | Tom Tiddler's ground |
| 3 | Billy No-Mates | 40 | Joe Bloggs |
| 4 | Brown Betty | 41 | Tom, Dick and Harry |
| 5 | Brown, Jones and Robinson | 42 | every Tom, Dick or Harry |
| 6 | a Beau Brummel | 43 | Joe Doakes |
| 7 | Dandie Dinmont | 44 | Joe Blow |
| 8 | Damon and Pythias | 45 | Tommy Atkins |
| 9 | Darby and Joan | 46 | Jack Sprat |
| 10 | the Darby and Joan club | 47 | Joe Miller |
| 11 | David and Jonathan | 48 | Walter Mitty |
| 12 | Davy Jones | 49 | Jane Crow |
| 13 | Tricky Dick | 50 | Jimmy o'Goblin |
| 14 | Richard Roe | 51 | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
| 15 | John Doe | 52 | Jekyll and Hyde |
| 16 | Rip Van Winkle | 53 | Jim Crow |
| 17 | Punch and Judy | 54 | Crow Jim |
| 18 | Robin Goodfellow | 55 | a Jimmy Woodser |
| 19 | Roger de Coverley |
56 | a Jim Crow car |
| 20 | Sam Brown | 57 | Joe Public |
| 21 | a Sherlock Holmes | 58 | John Q. Public |
| 22 | a Simple Simon | 59 | Holy Joe |
| 23 | the Simon Pure | 60 | John Barleycorn |
| 24 | Tom o'Bedlam | 61 | John Bull |
| 25 | Tom Tailor | 62 | John Collins |
| 26 | John Doe | 63 | John Hancock |
| 27 | Richard Roe | 64 | John Q. |
| 28 | G. I. Jane, G. I. Joe | 65 |
|
| 29 | Gog and Magog | 66 | Johnanokes and Johnastyles |
| 30 | Jack Adams | 67 | John o'Nokes and John o'styles |
| 31 | Jack and Gill | 68 | Lares and Penates |
| 32 | Jack and Jill | 69 | Lazy Laurence |
| 33 | Jack Ketch | 70 | Jack Canuck |
| 34 | Jack Priest | 71 | Jack Frost |
| 35 | an Oliver Twist, | 72 | Jack Horner |
| 36 | a Roland for an Oliver | 73 | Jack Jones |
| 37 | a Roland for smb's Oliver | 74 | Jack Johnson |
Source: Own elaboration
The characteristic feature of these phraseological units included in the table, which have two or more components onomastic units, is, first of all, that although they contain elements of anthroponym complex, they do not have onomastic units such as toponyms, phytonims, zoonims, hydronyms. These collected phraseological units can initially be analyzed by the number of components. The first column of the table contains 16, the second one 25 two-component phraseologies. The third component in the phraseological units Billy No-Mates, John Q. Public, John Q. (British Joe Public), which we consider to be three-component, is of interest.
On the other hand, the third line of the first column contains the different variants of the spelling of the phraseological unit Billy No-Mates: 1) Billy No-Mates; 2) Billy - no-Mates; 3) Billy no-mates; 4) Billy no mates; 5) billy no-mates; 6) billy no mates, etc. Billy No-Mates is a term used to describe a sad bloke who has few friends. It can also be used describe yourself, ie. "I don't get out much these days, I'm Billy no mates me” (Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, 2023a). The origin of Billy no mates was coined in the youth culture of the UK in the 1990s. This sort of naming became widely used by the UK s young following the popularity of comedy performers like Harry Enfield, Paul Whitehouse, among others. Their comedy uses named character types, for example Tim Nice, or Ted and Ralph (Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, 2023b).
It is clear from the explanations in dictionaries on the meaning and etymology of phraseological combinations that the "mates" component is not an onomastic unit. Mates is used in the sense of peer, colleague, or assistant. The word form "mate" (friend, colleague, acquaintance) can be a plural form of the lexeme. Billy is an abbreviated form of the popular English name William. In English, there are other options such as Bill, Willie, Willy, Will. Wilhelm is of ancient German origin and is derived from the Norwegian name Wilhjalmr (Wilhelm), based on the words will (fate, will), helm (helmet, defense). It is a very common name in the IX century. According to the results of the 1990 census in the United States and according to its spread this name is in the 5th place. Among the phraseologisms containing the onomastic component is the phraseological unit Billy Bunter. The phraseology Billy-(h) O is also included in the dictionary by Kunin (1999, p. 82) but the word "bunter" in Billy Bunter phraseology is not an onomastic unit.
The phraseological unit of John Q. is not included in the dictionary of A.V. Kunin. This unit is less active as a phraseological compound in the form of John Q. Its different variants are used: John Q. Public, John Q. Citizen, John Q. Voter. This phraseological unit is synonymous with John Doe, Joe Blow, Joe Bloggs. The most active form is John Q. Public. It is used in the sense of broad masses, ordinary Americans, ordinary American citizens, ordinary citizens, ordinary citizens who can vote, and serves as a generalized nomination of ordinary citizens of society. As a result of the omission of the "public" component from John Q. Public phraseology, the abbreviated variant of John Q. was formed. The "Q" grapheme in phraseology is used in the case of surnames and is pronounced as the name of the corresponding letter. "Public" means society, population. Citizen means a person with the right to vote, a person, the most ordinary person in the United States, a person who is no different from the general public. This unit also has a synonymous version of the man in the street. As can be seen from the literal translation, it means a street person. Another synonym can be considered the man on the Clapham omnibus.
The second component in the three-component phraseological combinations included in the table is the "and" conjunction. For example: Damon and Pythias, Darby and Joan, David and Jonathan, Punch and Judy, Jack and Gill, Jack and Jill, Jekyll and Hyde, Johnanokes and Johnastyles, Lares and Penates. In such phraseological units, homogeneous onyms are connected to each other by the conjunction "and". For example, Yajuj and Majuj, China and Macin, Mozart and Salieri etc.
Special names individualize and identify subjects and objects of the same gender they name. There are three sources of proper names. The first source is the lexical system of the language. In the second case, the lexical unit moves to a group of nouns aimed at distinguishing and individualizing subjects and objects. A custom name enters from one particular name layer to another. The third source is derivatives.
Some of the phraseological units with three or more components given in the table have a similar structure to the three-component compounds formed by the “and” conjunction. For example, Brown, Jones and Robinson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Darby and Joan club, Tom, Dick and Harry, Johnanokes and Johnastyles (John o'Nokes and John o'styles). In these phraseological combinations, "and" also serves as a conjunction. The difference between the three components is that there are changes in the number of components on the right and left sides of the conjunction. In phraseology Brown, Jones and Robinson, there is Brown and Jones components to the left of the "and" conjunction, and just a Robinson component to the right. The presence of a name on the right is related to the position of the conjunction. The initials are processed before the last of the same names. This phraseological unit is used to describe simple, ordinary people. The phraseological combination "Ali, Veli, Pirali" in the Azerbaijani language also performs this function.
Three anthroponyms are used in the phraseology of Tom, Dick and Harry, and the connection between them is formed by the conjunction "and". The names of the people in the combination represent ordinary people. V. N. Teliya shows that phraseological units are microtexts that summarize the experience gained over many years and are ready to be processed as text within a text (Teliya, 1996, p. 123). Phraseological units take the form of a certain semantic structure in speech. The phraseological combination of Tom, Dick and Harry is used in the sense of everyone, any person, a random person, a random man. This phraseology has the same meaning and structure as the Russian phrase "Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov" and the French phrase "Pierre, Paul, Jacques". Of course, there is no information about the origin of this phraseology. It was associated with the lines “Goodbye Tom, Dick, Harry; Goodbye Moll, Nell, and Syi” of the song text of the 1734 in the Oxford Dictionary. The historical chronicle shows Shakespeare's connection with "Tom, Dick and Francis" in "Henry IV".
Every Tom, Dick or Harry is used as an adequate variant or more precisely synonymous with the phraseological combination Tom, Dick and Harry. It is used about difficult, complex people who do contradictory things. It is based on the characters of R. Stevenson's fantastic story "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". The phraseological unit is also used in Jekyll and Hyde. Some of the multi-component phraseological units given in the table above, which contain an element of the anthroponymic complex, also contain an article. For example: the Darby and Joan club, the Simon Pure, a Jimmy Woodser, a Jim Crow car, An Oliver Twist, a Roland for an Oliver, a Roland for smb's Oliver, a Beau Brummel. Regarding A Beau Brummel - beautiful Brammel, in the phraseological unit, Beau is a nickname and is an element of the anthroponymic complex. Brummel - Brammel is a French surname. Phraseology is based on the surname of George Chain Brammel, a well-known British lawyer. Brammel included a black suit and tie in his men's clothing collection as a formal business attire and this iconography has persisted.
The name is a special field of human activity. In the 3rd century BC, the Stoics proposed to separate special names in the system of names as a separate group. Research on the classification of special names began in the 60s and 70s of the last century. In phraseologies with a special name, the cognitive center focuses on the onomastic unit. The semantics of the whole unit is formed against the background of knowledge about this component. However, the semantic range covered by onomastic phraseology is wide. Researchers distinguish four phraseological semantic units, the first of which is the anthropocentric semantic group. This group itself is divided into internal thematic groups. And although proper names refer to individual objects, things and subjects, they do not characterize them. The belonging of a special name to an object covers the whole set of properties of this object, combines the content of an indivisible object. For example, the name of a person specifies this individual, and its content plan takes into account a set of human characteristics.
The vast majority of specially named phraseologies have historical and cultural roots. Phraseological units containing anthroponyms are divided into two groups according to whether the name is a male or a female name. Research and calculations based on units in phraseological dictionaries show that the phraseological units in which male names are included are in the majority. Male idioms cover physical features, cognitive abilities, and personal qualities specific to men. Physical properties are distributed according to the concepts of strength and age. The connection with cognitive abilities is divided between the concepts of intelligence, wisdom and stupidity, as well as the concepts of stupidity. There are a lot of phraseological units that express the personal qualities of men. Some of them are expressed in phraseological units, which are the unit of an anthroponymic complex with two or more components. Let's look at some of them.
Quality of commitment: A Mark Tapley. It is the name of the character of Dickens novel. In the work, this person attracts attention with his commitment to life and faith. The phraseological unit is used to convey this meaning.
Quality of simplicity, commonness: Joe Bloggs/Joe Doakes - ordinary man, middle-class American.
Light temperament quality: a Peter Pen. The quality of laziness: Lazy Laurence -lazy.
Phraseologisms with special names that characterize the moral and ethical characteristics of men are numerous. This shows that society attaches great importance to the moral and ethical qualities of men. It should be noted that the exaggeration of negative qualities in such phraseologies is more noticeable. Phraseological units give a lot of space to the expression of such qualities as rudeness, stupidity, self-satisfaction, laziness, betrayal. Among the positive qualities, physical strength, courage, loyalty, fearlessness are among the most prominent in the phraseology. The reason for the exaggeration of negative moral and ethical traits is probably due to the fact that such qualities are bad. Emphasizing a negative quality in the communication process can be a form of education and a means of discouraging people from doing so.
In the name system of each nation, the names of productive and very active people are registered. Such popular names tend to be a component of phraseological units. English names Betty, Tom, Jack, Mary are more often included in onomastic phraseology. For example, the name Jack is used in a number of English phraseologies in the sense of a cheerful, funny, cunning young man. The phrase "before you can say Jack Robinson", which is often found in colloquial language, means "immediately", "directly", "in the blink of an eye". This is also due to the simplicity and ease of pronunciation of the name "Jack". A. F. Artemova talked about the legend that a man named Jack Robinson lived in England and went to his friends and acquaintances for a very short time. It was strange that Jack Robinson left before he announced his arrival, and this is the basis of the phraseology (Artemova, 2003, p. 75).
Some anthroponymic phraseologies in English have been formed and stabilized in connection with the profession. Once upon a time, when a person working in various fields became famous in his field, his name became a common phraseology to describe those who were engaged in that art. For example, Tom Tailor was a common name for tailors. “We rend our hearts, and not our garments. The better for yourselves, and the worse for Tom Tailor”, - said the Baron (Scott, 2021).
One of the types of advanced systemic relations inherent in phraseological units is synonymy, which differs from special names that are structurally adequate to them. A number of phraseological units have lexical correlations that are common nouns. Jack Ketch - a hangman, Jack Tar - a sailor, Tommy Atkins - a soldier. Despite the similarity of logical and subject meanings, there is no complete match in each pair. If lexical correlations are stylistically neutral, phraseological units do not have such neutrality, they are more expressive. In addition, phraseological units with a special name are characterized by intraspecific synonyms. Anthroponymic phraseologies with the same structure can have the same meaning. The difference is reflected in the anthroponyms in the composition. Such units are characterized by stylistic homogeneity and can replace each other.
If we compare the phraseological combination of David and Jonathan with the free combination formed by the same special names, their synonymy is eliminated, and homonymy is formed. When acting as components of a phraseological combination, the semantic possibilities of special names are limited, and only two of them create the semantics of "inseparable friends" in relation to each other. In a free association, the components represent a specific individual, and there is no information about any relationship between these individuals. Because a special name has an individualizing and identifying feature, each of them has the ability to provide a number of other information about the person. Of course, in this case, the listener must know the names of the people named.
Anthroponyms, both phraseological and free, contain certain information about gender as well as nationality. Interestingly, the names in the phraseological combinations, which contain two onomastic components, meaning "inseparable friends" in English, indicate the masculine gender: David and Jonathan, Daman and Pythias, Pilades and Orestes. In order to express the inseparable friendship of two women, the anthroponymic components need to change according to gender. Inseparable friendship between persons of different sexes cannot be given by an appropriate structural combination. Romeo and Juliet, Tristian and Isolde, Asli and Karam, Leyli and Majnun are also phraseological compounds and mean "lovers" or even "inseparable lovers". That is, the combination of anthroponyms of the two sexes in the appropriate structure completely changes the semantics.
It should also be noted that this meaning does not appear in combinations formed by arbitrary names. Historical events and legends determine the relationship between these names and the people who carry them. In the phraseological combinations of David and Jonathan, Damon and Pythias, used in the sense of "inseparable friends", when one anthroponym is replaced by another, the accepted phraseological union seems to collapse. David and Damon, Jonathan and Pythias compounds are not phraseological, but free compounds. Therefore, we can conclude that behind the formation on the basis of specific anthroponyms are certain events, real people who once lived. In general, the choice of these names is based on certain linguistic or extralinguistic factors. It is interesting that, if the anthroponym denoting a male name is used in the first place in English in the relevant conjunction structures meaning "inseparable lovers", the female name is the first in the Azerbaijani language.
The nominative identity of phraseological combinations with a special name, as well as the generality of their emotional tone, allow such combinations to replace each other. In other words, in the English text, the combination "David and Jonathan" can be replaced by "Damon and Pythias". But they lose the ability to be replaced when there are free compounds. Because in a free association, anthroponyms refer to a specific person, and substitution causes those people to change. The consolidation of the meanings of the components of phraseological combinations results in the collapse of the generalized semantic load.
Brother Jonathan and Uncle Sam are desynonymized because there is no semantic connection between the free combinations. The emotional-expressive aspect arises at the level of the synonym of the connecting component - the special name of the subject and the compounds in the phraseological units adequate to these free compounds. Then, brother Jonathan- means 1) a true American 2) US state. The anthroponym in this phraseological unit Jonathan Trumbell is the name of the governor of the US state of Connecticut. The US President called him "Brother Jonathan".
Finally, phraseological units containing the name of a person are also registered in the phraseological system of the Azerbaijani language. However, the phraseology of the Azerbaijani language is not as rich in onomastic phraseology as in English. There are phraseological units in the Azerbaijani language such as Bahlul - Dana / Dananda Bahlul, every reciter will not be Mullah Panah, Gachag Nabi, goch Koroglu, Yusif Prophet bless, Koroglu throne, Hunter Pirim, Fuzuli stole from me, Rafaeli of the East, Kefli Iskander, Mirza Safar, Molla Nasreddin among other.
Conclusion
Analysis of phraseological units containing personal names and belonging to the phraseological system of different systems of languages shows that the names of real people who lived in such units at different times are intended to be concentrated, covering the verbalization of socio-cultural events. This type of phraseology carries cultural information about the history, culture, and customs of the people. Such phraseological units, which in their semantics reflect the features and factors of the long-term development of culture, combine cultural components and stereotypes and pass them from generation to generation.
