NICKNAMES AS A LINGUISTIC CATEGORY (ILLUSTRATED BY NICKNAMES OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN WAR-SHIPS)

NICKNAMES AS A LINGUISTIC CATEGORY (ILLUSTRATED BY NICKNAMES OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN WAR-SHIPS)

Author:  E.E. Golubkova, E.B. Kivileva

Affiliation:  Moscow State Linguistic University

Abstract: 
The article centres on the role, functions, specific features of the category of nicknames and its place in linguistics. The given research analyses the name-giving process of war-ships connected with the socio-cultural development of mankind and based on cognitive mechanisms, in particular, on the metaphoric projection between the domains of the animal world and the navy.

Keywords:  linguistic category, conceptual metaphor, selective projection, stereotypical association, prototypical behavior, analogy