Slovenské priezviská motivované somatickým komponentom

The paper focuses on proper names, specifically, Slovak surnames which are motivated by human body parts, i.e. somatisms. From the methodological perspective, two linguistic disciplines are merged, onomastics and cognitive ethnolinguistics, which provide a unifying view of surname formation and its cultural-cognitive background. The genetic-etymological approach is applied, focusing on the primary lexical motivation of surnames. The paper aims to give a closer view on the motivation of surnames from the perspective of cognitive processes and cultural stereotypes. The operating principle of human cognition is anthropocentrism, which is reflected in how human brain conceptualizes and categorizes objects in our world, resulting in the formation of stereotypes. Although the process of name formation occurred a long time ago, the origins of its motivation can be traced back to through the analysis of present-day surnames. The research sample consists of the Slovak database of surnames from 1995, from which surnames containing somatic components were extracted. In the process of analysis, cultural stereotypes related to individual body parts were identified, as well as their presence in the examined surnames.