Reflection of regional oikonymy in the works of writers of the Volgograd region

INTRODUCTION. The aim of the work is to study the functional aspect of regional oikonymy (names of settlements) in the works of writers of the Volgograd region.
MATERIALS AND METHODS. The main research methods are descriptive and analytical, represented by a combination of the following techniques: observation, comparison, generalization, commenting and interpretation of empirical material, and aspectual, represented by functional and contextual analyses. The research material was the author’s file of regional oikonyms (a total of 120), extracted from specific texts by B.P. Ekimov, S.N. Sinyakin, A.I. Egin and some other authors.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The concept of the oikonymic dominant of a literary text is proposed, and the conditions that influence the acquisition of dominant status by an oikonymic unit are described. This concept appears to have a conceptual value in the study of a local text (in our case, the triad “Tsaritsyn – Stalingrad – Volgograd”) and in the functional analysis of proper names. It is established that many oikonyms of the Stalingrad text perform localizing and identifying functions, some – plot-forming and semantic. Special attention is givento the analysis of oikonymy in the works of B.P. Ekimov, showcasing the toponymic diversity and nominative variability of geographical names. A characteristic feature of many of his works is the paragraph-long accumulation of oikonyms associated with the realization of motives of loneliness, memory, desolation or disappearance. Oikonyms in his prose are capable of fulfilling mnemonic, emotional-evaluative and didactic functions.
CONCLUSION. Works by regional authors, who focus on the onomasticon of their homeland when creating the space of the artistic world, sometimes preserve vanished (having undergone any territorial and administrative changes) toponyms, variants of names (official/ unofficial) of the settlement and its inhabitants, not recorded by specialized dictionaries, include versions of the origin of the name, often folk etymological. For toponymic lexicography, such texts are traditionally of interest. For literary toponymics, the study of the poetics of regional oikonyms against the background of the poetics of non-regional ones is an important task in understanding the writer’s onomastic laboratory. The prospects of the study are related to the further refinement of the concept of “oikonymic dominant”, which is potentially capable of replenishing the terminological system of literary onomastics.