MORPHOLOGICAL, SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC FEATURES OF COMPOUND ANTHROPONYMS IN ENGLISH

This paper examines morphological, pragmatic and semantic properties of compound anthroponyms (personal names formed by combining two or more lexical units) in English. By expressing morphological formation, semantic transparency, pragmatic functions, and social indexing in the two languages, the study highlights cross-linguistic convergences and divergences. The analysis draws on corpus examples, native-speaker intuitions, and typological generalizations to argue that while both languages employ compounding for identity construction, the mechanisms and pragmatic effects differ due to morphological constraints, naming traditions, and sociocultural norms. Compound anthroponyms, including hyphenated surnames (e.g., Smith-Jones, Thompson-Edison), blended celebrity names (e.g., Brangelina, Bennifer), compound given names (e.g., John-Paul, Mary-Ann), and expressive hypocoristic formations, constitute an important component of the English naming system. These naming structures perform diverse semantic and pragmatic functions, serving not only as identifiers but also as markers of lineage, social affiliation, intimacy, individuality, and identity construction. The English anthroponymic system provides particularly productive mechanisms for the formation of compound names through hyphenation, lexical blending, and the widespread social practice of combining family surnames.