General and special properties of lexical units denoting inner-city driveways in Chinese

Lo Sisi Postgraduate student, Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 6 1105183882@qq.com

China has a vast territory, a centuries-old history and a great culture. Each region of the People's Republic of China reflects its own component of cultural heritage, which is unique and inimitable. Due to the originality of the Chinese language, including its component – toponymy, the cultural and historical identity of the urban environment is being formed. Of course, as a special linguistic symbol, street names are closely related to people's daily lives. In addition, any street name itself acts not only as a landmark in a given area, but also reflects in their very name the local flavor, the social psychology of the population, their lives, customs and habits.

As noted above, the historical cultural heritage of the People's Republic of China is very heterogeneous, which is why the studied toponyms differ in belonging to semantic fields, reasons and motives for nomination.

1. A common component in the structure of a toponymic name

In general, the Chinese toponym consists of two parts: “proper name” and “common name". A generic name is a word that describes the meaning or general characteristics of an object or landscape under study. Proper names are a special part of the name. This structural model of naming geographical features applies not only to the name of a province or city, but also to the name of a street inside a city in China.

For example?

(Guan Dong Sheng) = A+?+a, "A" is a proper name, and "a?" is a common name?

(He Bei Sheng) = ++?, "" is a proper name, and "" is a common name?

(Bei Jing Shi) = A+?+A, "a" is a proper name, and "A" is a common name;

(Shan Hai Shi) = ++?, "" is a proper name, and "?" is a common name;

Dong Chang An Jie) = +?, is a proper name, and ? is a common name;

(Fu Xing Lu)= ++?, is a proper name, and ? is a common name;

(Guang An Men Nei Da Jie) = The proper name, and the common name is the proper name.;

(Nan Er Huan) = ?++?, ? ? is a proper name, and ? is a common name;

287? (Er Ba Ji Long) = 287+?, 287 is a proper name, and ? is a common name ;

(Zhou Jia Tsui) = The proper name, and the common name;

(Hong Im Dong Fan) = The proper name, and ? is the common name.;

From this we can conclude that the proper name is at the beginning, and the common name is at the end, that is, their very position is always fixed and cannot be changed. In modern Chinese terms, it is impossible to say (Beijing city), but only (Beijing city) ^[5]. Thus, in the Chinese language, the proper name appears in the syntactic position of the definition of a common name (common name).

Unlike the structure of Chinese toponyms, in the construction of Russian toponyms, common names can be placed both in front and behind, depending on the partial affiliation and the corresponding syntactic properties of the proper name, for example: Arbat Street, Leninsky Prospekt. However, after the formation of the toponym, its structure remains the same, that is, in a natural colloquial form it is impossible to say: Arbat Street, Leninsky Avenue. At the same time, in Russian, such word order is possible in address plates and official business style documents (architectural and transport directories, lists, technical documentation).

In the usual case, in colloquial Chinese expressions, common names may be omitted from the names of cities and provinces, because the names of provinces and cities are unique names, and their names are not repeated. In colloquial terms, people usually omit common names and call them proper names. For example: "" - they call it "" ^[9]; – they call it "". However, in street names, due to the large size of the city, which has many roads, and there may be many similar proper names, so in colloquial speech, when people use street names, they will use the full form of the street name. If the street name is not fully expressed, it may provide incorrect information and lead to incorrect address or route indications. For example:

"Hua Cheng Da Dao" – the name Hua Cheng Avenue refers to the main street in Tianhe District, Guangzhou City ^[4];

"" (Hua Cheng) ? usually refers to the flower market ^[11].

"" (Long Cheng Lu) ? the main road in the center of Liuzhou ^[15];

Long Cheng is the nickname of the city of Liuzhou ^[15].

If we continue to consider and find commonalities in street names in the compared languages from the point of view of the theory of the semantic field, then in this case the units of the latter allow us to see a significant process of grouping them around the lexeme "road". This field of study includes the following words: "?" "?" "?" "?" "" "", etc., since these words contain a common meaning ? the archeme "roads" ^[13].

Table 1.

Semantic components in the structure

names of types of inner-city driveways

According to the explanatory dictionary, similar names of streets and other types of driveways have both the unifying meaning of “street“ and various unique characteristics. First of all, we can classify them by their meaning: among them, the word "A" (relatively large) usually refers to a wide road with houses located on both sides of it; the meaning of the words "A" and "a" is equivalent, as is the content of the words "?", "", "?", "?", "?" ^[7].

When the process of naming a street or changing its existing name takes place, the name developers resort to analyzing existing names and try to choose a new one that does not look like other names. Sometimes the reflection of the reality and properties of the object itself, for example, its size, is also taken into account. In terms of size, the streets are the largest. This usually refers to wide and straight roads, in the middle of which residential complexes can be located, while "?", "", "?" refer to roads forming narrower streets in the PRC. The "A" and "A" are located between two larger urban roads, their size is smaller than the size of the street "A"; and larger than "?", "", "?", "?", "?" ^[6]. The smallest size are passages called lexemes – "?", "?", "?", which refer to a narrow alley, a narrow alley; and "?" usually refers to a narrow field path ^[3]. These names of urban roads are relative, and they do not have clearly defined boundaries, so the above examples of street names also do not have unambiguous differences.

Thus, "?", "", "?", "?", "?" are equivalent to the same type of street. The main difference between them is their geographical location.

A distinctive element, from the point of view of the semantic field, can also include the location of the object, for example: if the road is located south of the Yangtze River, then most streets are named "?" and "?". If it is located closer to the north of the Yangtze River, then it will mainly be called "?", "" and "?" ^[8]. This feature applies to most Chinese cities, for example, streets in Beijing, Xi'an and other cities north of the Yangtze River are called "?", "", "?", but in cities south of the Yangtze River such as Shanghai and Suzhou, the same size are called "?", "?". Of course, the opposite interpretation of these tokens also exists, but rarely. We can say that "?", "", "?" is the common name of streets North of the Yangtze river, but this does not mean that the street was named in honor of the "?", "", "?", this street should be in the North. The same applies to "?", "?". In some cities of southern China, small and narrow alleys are also called "" (Han Tzu) ^[9]. These kind of streets are usually too narrow for cars to pass through, only people or bicycles can pass through them, and usually these words are used colloquially.

So, if streets in China are called "?", "", "?", "?" or "?", then this indicates that they are relatively narrow. At the same time, drivers of trucks, SUVs and owners of large vehicles, based on their names, will not be able to drive on them. If the road is named "A", "A" or "a", for drivers of cars and pedestrians, this will mean that these highways are relatively wide and there is heavy traffic of vehicles on them ^[4]. Thus, the reflection of the real characteristics of linear transport objects in the names of streets and roads can lead to conscious actions by people who can help in avoiding emergency situations and, therefore, perform an important communicative function.

It can be said that the common name to a certain extent indicates the size of the street. However, currently, the common street name in China no longer indicates the direction, and the proper name performs this function. Among them, it is worth paying attention to the fact that in Beijing, most hutongs ("") are built next to the "Siheyuan" ("" (see 4) is an ensemble with residential extensions on all four sides of the courtyard), and the structure of Siheyuan is square, which is why the direction of most Hutongs points east, west, north and south, not south-west, etc. Hutongs in Beijing also have sloping directions, this time the street name will use "" (Xie Jie), which means sloping streets, oblique streets.

In addition, we can also find some characteristics of the era in common street names. Generally speaking, "?", "", "?", "?", "?" refer to old streets with a long history, in the old days the population was not so large, and there were no large cars, so most of the streets were relatively small, these streets have survived to the present day and turned into into narrow streets that are not suitable for cars. The meanings of the words "?", "", "?", "?" are preserved to this day; but the meanings of the words "?" and "?" have changed, they used to mean only a road, but now they carry a new meaning: a big road, more than "?", "", "?", "?", "?". In other words, when people talk about a street with the common name "?", "", "?", "?", "?", they will immediately and immediately receive information about this street: the street is old, small and narrow; about the street with the common name "?" and "?", then such a street is big, new, and cars can drive along this street ^[14].

Also, as we said above, the general name of the street should not be omitted in everyday conversations, but when we name a street, we can omit the general name, we call it only with proper names. This structure is usually used in the following situations:

1) when this road is a city ring road or an urban highway ^[12], for example:

"?"" (Nan Er Huan) – the southern second ring road;

"" (Wai Huan Gao Su) is a high–speed outer ring road.

In these examples, the general street name has been omitted.

2) when this road is named after historical events, nearby historical relics, famous monuments, etc. ^[12] For example:

"" (Jing Long Chi) ? named after historical monuments in the city of Xi'an.

"" (Sa Jin Cho) ? named after the history, in the city of Xi'an.

In these examples, the general street name was also omitted.

2. The role of proper names in street names of the People's Republic of China

In addition to the ubiquitous street names, proper names are also used in their names in the PRC. At its core, a proper name is a special name that helps identify a specific object.

From the point of view of grammatical bases, the components that make up proper names can be nouns, verbs, numerals, adjectives, etc. In China, there are no special requirements for the composition of proper names, except in cases that are associated with non-compliance with the requirements of national laws and regulations, as well as with violation of public order or customs prevailing in the area.

Note that in China, street names are based on the use of three or four hieroglyphs. However, in reality there are also street names that consist of two hieroglyphs. Recall that the formula that is often used in China for street names consists of such parts as “proper name” and “common name". Thus, based on the general formula, the rest of the street names consisting of two and three hieroglyphs are proper names. Most often, a proper name that has 2 hieroglyphs is a phrase or phrase, while a proper name of 3 hieroglyphs consists of two words. For example:

Table 2.

The position of the name of an inner-city passage as part of a toponym

From the above examples, we can conclude that a proper name in street names may consist of a single word, such as “” and “”, or it may consist of two words, such as “? + + ?” and “ +?”. Thus, most often proper names in street names are one word consisting of 2 hieroglyphs, or two words consisting of 3 hieroglyphs. It is also possible to use 4 hieroglyphs in practice.

According to the existing common names of Chinese streets?Proper names of Chinese street names can be divided into the following types?

1) Named after nearby buildings, including landmarks built in ancient times, modern landmark buildings, rivers, lakes, mountains, etc. This kind of street name has a very strong orientation. For example:

"" (Xiang Shan Lu): - Xiangshan Park, in Beijing. This street is named after the nearby Xiangshan Park ^[4].

"The Zoo" (Dong Wu Yuan Lu): The Zoo. This street is named after the zoo because of its proximity to the zoo.^[4]

"The ancient city gate, located to the west of the old Beijing City Wall, ? - outer, ? - large. This street is located outside the Xizhimen Gate of the old Beijing City Wall ^[13].

2) Named after the name of a person, or the name of a historical event, or a surname. This street name is usually given in memory of these people or historical events. For example:

"" (Lu Xun Lu): - Lu Xun, famous Chinese writer, revolutionary ^[13];

"" (Ba And Lu): - Army Day in China;

""" (Zhong Shan Lu): ? - Sun Yat-sen, the Pioneer of the modern Chinese National democratic revolution ^[14].

"" (Wang Jia Xiang): ? The Wang Family ^{[2, p. 213]}.

3) Named after good wishes, we express people's desire for a better life. For example:

"" (Xin Hua Lu): ? New China ^[7];

"" (Yue Jin Lu): ? Jump forward ^[15];

"" (Rui Kang Lu): - Favorable and healthy ^[4].

The above types of street names are very common in Chinese urban toponymy. In addition, there are several rare types that will not be repeated here.

3.Reflection of the epoch and regional culture in street names

As noted above, in China, street names also reflect people's social psychology, social life, customs and habits. Each proper name used in street names reflects the cultural and historical characteristics of a particular region. To better understand their meaning and characteristics, we have created a table.

In accordance with the meaning of the proper name in street names, the following categories can be distinguished:

1) the proper name in street names reflects the peculiarity of a particular historical epoch;

2) the proper name in street names reflects regional peculiarities.

3.1 Features of the reflection of historical epochs in street names

The change of epochs leads to new trends in changing street names. First of all, when assigning a new name to streets, the names of architectural monuments located on these streets are often taken into account. For example, the street was so named because in the old days the street was located behind the ancient government building.

It should be noted that in China, the practice of naming streets based on the characteristics of the cultural heritage of a particular historical period has also developed. For example, during the Chinese cultural revolution, many street names were renamed ? “” ( – tower of BA Bao) in Beijing was changed to “” ( - to eliminate capitalism). Later, this street was returned to its original name ^[10].

3.2 Features of the reflection of regional flavor in street names

3.2.1 Reflection of the characteristics of the natural environment in the provinces of China

In addition to proper names named after landmarks, proper names used in honor of the characteristics of the natural environment of a particular province of the People's Republic of China can also be attributed to no less common ones. These proper names not only indicate the natural geographical features of the province, but are also an important embodiment of its regional culture. For example, "": (Hu De Shan) ? butterfly Mountain ^[10].

3.2.2 Reflection of the characteristics of the socio-cultural and geographical environment

The characteristics of the socio-cultural and natural geographical environment are an important manifestation of the close connection of people between place names and established culture. In the characteristics of the humanistic and natural geographical environment, the names that are reflected in street names can mainly be divided into the following 5 forms:

1) people's good intentions towards life: "".

(Yun An) ? always safe ^[11].

2) perpetuation of the memory of certain famous personalities or significant events: "".

(Yu Lin) is the martyr of Song Yulin ^[11].

3) the main goals of regional development are:

(Ke Ji) ? science and technology ^[10].

4) monuments that preserve cultural values: "".

( (Yi He Yuan) ? Yiheyuan Park ^[11].

5) the main attractions of the People's Republic of China:

(Dian Shi Tai) ? TV station ^[11].

Thus, street names are an important element defining the historical identity of the urban and regional environment. We emphasize that the unique cultural background of the same era also contributes to the preservation of similar features in street names. Of course, toponyms are an important element in street names, since they not only help to preserve and form valuable local landmarks, but also serve as one of the mechanisms for the formation of a new modern reality.

Appendix 1. «胡同» in Beijing.

Appendix 2. «胡同» in Beijing

Appendix 3. 弄 in Shanghai

Appendix 4. "Siheyuan"