Championship names in Ukrainian football discourse

Abstract

Віталій The article analyzes championship names (championatonyms) as a type of chrononyms. With the help of various methods (structural, descriptive, comparative-typological, contextual and quantitative), the peculiarities of the using of championship names in Ukrainian football discourse were traced. Proper names are grouped according to the hierarchy of football leagues - from the highest to amateur ones. In the names of the first-ranked championships, groups containing components with the seme `first’, conveyed by various lexemes and the number 1, are distinguished. A smaller number of proper names with components super-, elite-, pro- and championatonyms formed from the first letters of country names are represented. It has been observed that the championatonyms have a political connotation, for example, the championship names of the former French colonies in Africa are called Ligue 1 (as well as the French championship), and the championship names of some post-Soviet countries retain the adjective higher. It is proven that commercial championships can change their name depending on the sponsor of the competition. It has been observed that the names of the second-ranked championships are usually formed by combining the ordinal numbers first, second with the nouns of the league, division, or by adding the second letter of the alphabet to the name of the first-ranked championship. It was found that the number of nominations of the third and lower championships is comparatively smaller. This is due to the amateur status of competitions in many countries and, accordingly, weak fan interest in them outside the regional communities. These onyms, formed according to traditional patterns, contain numeral or noun components indicating the respective level or regional status of the competition. Individual championship names function as borrowings that have acquired or are acquiring grammatical features of the Ukrainian language.