Development of eptonymical signs in German quotations (based on the material of the COVID-19 thematic group)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of modern recurrent quotations in German (which function in printed media and, above all, on the Internet) on the subject of the appearance and development of eptonymous features in them. Eptonyms are understood as reproducible “winged” words/phrases/sentences (which are, in particular, aphorisms, maxims, and sententia) that implicitly appeal to the AUTHOR concept and tend to get phraseologized through derivational processes and the gradual loss of associative connection with their real author or precedent text. The relevance of the selected material is confirmed by the subject of the quotations studied, due to the central COVID-19 concept. The eptonym is separated from the broader of the related concepts, quotation, because of its explicit appeal to the AUTHOR concept. It is noted that eptonyms are characterized by fixedness, non-diffuse origin, expressiveness, conciseness (prerequisite for reproducibility), relevance of content, applicability in speech for a certain period of time, and a tendency to derivation. There are typical means of creating expressiveness in eptonyms; typical derivatives inherent in eptonyms in the process of their formation; typical concepts, by verbalizing of which eptonyms realize a categorial feature of the relevance of the topic. The analysis of the COVID-19 thematic group quotations showed that the reproduced quotations are either paradoxical in content, or appeal to valoratives, or are already the result of derivational processes. The phraseological/eptonymic identification algorithm used in this paper made it possible to distinguish potential eptonyms from other types of recurrent texts on the same topic, in particular, Internet memes. This algorithm was supplemented with techniques for analyzing creolized texts, including Internet memes. It was found out that Internet memes cannot claim eptonymic status due to the irrelevant accentuation of the AUTHOR concept. The findings show only the potential possibility of transition of quotations to the status of eptonym, because the condition of being time-tested has not yet been met for such quotations.