Onyms of epistolary text in the aspect of precedence (based on the letters of the Russian classical writers of the 19th-20th centuries)

In the article the author analyzes the peculiarities of the precedent names use in private letters of the Russian classical literature writers. The author defines the features of the writers’ individual style in the given sphere. The trends in the precedent names use for two centuries in Russian epistolary texts are also revealed. It is determined that the precedent names used in epistolary texts included mainly personal names, myth names, poetry names, and place names. The author finds out similar characteristics and differences in the use of precedent units in the epistolary texts by different authors. The meanings of proper names that let us classify them as precedent ones, are actualized in the epistolary text by using a proper name in the comparative structures as an object of comparison, as well as through the use of proper names in the plural form. The epistolary text is also characterized by the use of personal names and place names as homogeneous parts of the sentence which allows actualizing the meaning of the proper name other than a denotative one. Using precedent personal names, myth names and poetry names for self-identification, and naming the addressee, let implement the function of creating a humorous or an ironic tone in epistolary communication. One way of fulfilling this function is a language game which consists in the use of occasional word-forming derivatives of precedent names.