Linguistic and cultural potential of toponyms (based on the novel “Frankenstein in Baghdad” by ’Ahmad Sa‘adawi)

   The article analyzes the corpus of toponyms in terms of their linguistic and cultural potential, based on their functions of nomination, fixation of objects in space, their cognitive and cumulative functions actualized in the preservation of knowledge about both the material and spiritual culture of the Iraqi people. We present the classification of toponyms, found in the text, and prove that the vast majority of toponymic designations are urbanonyms. The article highlights the most important anthropological understandings, names other urbanonymic components and describes the etymology of a number of significant urbanonyms. The Baghdad toponymy dominates, and within its framework, the precedent urbanonymy is the most frequent. The article indicates the presence of microtoponyms in the text. Our analysis revealed the functional potential of toponyms, their differential-localizing role as chronotope markers, as well as their role in the socio-cultural characterization of the characters. A number of toponyms create political and historical allusions thereby enhancing the accusatory pathos of the work. We consider the connotative meanings of two main toponyms: the choronym Iraq and the astyonym Baghdad. We have established that the former has predominantly negative connotations, the latter is ambivalent in the novel. However, the novel has not got any usual, matrix connotations of the oikonym Baghdad as a magical city of fairy tales “One Thousand and One Nights”. The novel focuses on such a semantic load of a number of toponyms as social ghettoization. There is a brief comparison of urbanonymy and hydronymy in the novel. Based on the analysis of the frequency of use of urbanonyms, the thesis is put forward about the urban-centricity of Sa'adawi’s artistic world. The vast majority of toponyms belong to real toponymy. The article concludes that the possibility of extracting important information from the toponymic designations of the novel demonstrates their essential linguoculturological, ethnic and socio-historical potential, that the Baghdad urbanonymy, dominating in the text as a generation and reflection of national culture, is a source of valuable regional and linguistic-cultural information; therefore, the practice-oriented direction of its study can contribute to the formation of communicative literacy.

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