Verbal Nomination on the Basis of Anthroponyms in Modern German
The article is devoted to the word building and semantic peculiarities of verbs formed from anthroponyms - names of well-known public figures and politicians - in modern German. The basic means of word formation is conversion - coining a verb through the verbal change of the anthroponym paradigm. According to the function newly coined deanthroponymic verbs can be roughly divided into those with prevailing either nominative-cognitive or expressive and evaluative function. Formation of the verbs of the first type is a manifestation of the principle of linguistic economy as one-word nominations have complex semantics. The predominance of the nominative function makes the meaning of the verbs of this type objective, neutral, i.e. devoid of expressiveness and is a precondition for their further usualisation and lexicalisation. Deanthroponymic verbs of the second type express an emotional attitude to the process denoted through their semantic connection with the basic anthro- ponym. Semantics/meaning of such verbal nominations is related through antonomasic shift to the activities and behaviour ascribed to the personality, denoted by the corresponding anthroponym. Productive verbal nomination on the basis of politi- cians' names is evidence of special importance of political events and public figures for German people and it leads to social communicative democratisation and development of modern German vocabulary.