National and cultural specifics of nicknames based on discourse

Abstract

This article analyzes the national characteristics of nickname anthroponyms practiced in English and American ethnolinguistics and linguoculture. The bases of the national-cultural marking of nicknames are determined. Their status in the language and society, in diachrony and synchrony, is described. Their semantics and functional-pragmatic potential are considered. In addition, the article deals with the problems of the modern status of nicknames as secondary unofficial names, which is a consequence of the development of means of linguistic identity of a person in society. The result was a division of anthroponyms into official and unofficial names based on the opposition "primary - secondary".