A Crosslinguistic Perspective on Romanian Anthroponymic Phrasemes as Carriers of Cultural Connotations
A Crosslinguistic Perspective on Romanian Anthroponymic Phrasemes as Carriers of Cultural Connotations

Summary/Abstract: Starting from the premise that anthroponyms constitute a subgroup of idiomatic components which are “deeply rooted in the cultural tradition of a community” (Fiedler, 2007: 55), it seems natural to investigate their culture-specific elements and connotations. This attempt at exploring an array of Romanian phraseological expressions based on personal names is supported by well-documented lexicographic sources, including Zanne (1895-1903), Scriban (1939), Dumistrăcel (1997) and Tomici (2009), to name the most important ones. Hence, we have identified about 35 universal anthroponymic idioms with their equivalents in English and French and 70 national and local onomastic phrasemes, whose cultural and axiological markedness is assessed on account of their challenging crosslinguistic correspondences. As proven by our research, Romanian anthroponymic phrasemes with universal, national or local culture components (Szerszunowicz 2011: 82) are both semantically charged and axiologically loaded (Szerszunowicz 2009: 172). Hence, due to their anthropocentric character, they carry connotations that can be retrieved and activated when the idiomatic meaning relies on them.

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