Toponyms in the titles of modern German-language novels

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of toponyms presented in the titles of modern German-language novels created at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. The purpose of the study is to explore the linguo-pragmatic potential of toponyms in the naming of novels. The material of the study included 67 titles containing toponyms. As research methods, we employed structural-semantic, descriptive, taxonomic, and quantitative analysis. A study of the identified units showed that toponyms in the titles of literary texts are used as part of substantive prepositional phrases with a dependent word in the dative case. When giving names to their texts, modern German-speaking novelists mainly use geographical names reflecting the space of Germany. Regional toponyms (astionyms, cononyms) are more often used both with the aim of a detailed and reliable description of urban space at the stage of the reader’s initial acquaintance with the text and as serving the purpose of plot development. A special group is made up of toponyms marking Berlin and its urban space as most significant for the semantic organization of novels of the period in question. The use of the geographical spaces of other countries helps novelists not only to activate the reader's knowledge of the selected foreign-culture locations but also to adjust readers’ expectations, through associations with toponyms, toward particular subjects and perceptions of other cultures. Toponyms in the titles of novels help to convey the general cultural context of works. The results of the analysis allow us to expand the idea of the axiological potential, pragmatics, and functional-and-stylistic features of the use of toponyms in the titles of literary texts written by modern novelists.