METAPHORIC USAGE OF APPELLATIVES IN THE PROCESS OF CREATING POLISH SURNAMES

Abstract

The elaboration analyzes the metaphoric and metonymic usage of appellatives in the process of creating “characterizing surnames”. In the context of our current knowledge concerning Polish surnames, it becomes necessary to interpret the surnames deriving from appellatives, which have been called “characterising surnames” in literature, taking into account the linguistic and extralinguistic criteria. The fundamental aim of the article was to present one of the processes of personal name formation – a process leading to the formation of names belonging to the class what is s/he like?; discuss the semantic and stylistic function of folk vocabulary in the process of surname formation. A large number of surnames is not a result of onymic derivation, but rather of a displacement of lexical units into anthroponymic territory.