Colloquial Speech as a Source of Commercial Nominations for Urban Objects

The article describes the features of a linguistic landscape of a modern Russian city due to colloquialisation of commercial nominations. The research material of 300 linguistic units includes naming of urban commercial objects (ergourbanonyms) i. e. names of shops, hotels, service companies and other enterprises taken from the reference system 2 GIS and other sources. The author suggests that cognitive, communicative and linguistic reasons cause the expansion of colloquial speech into the sphere of urban nomination. Cognitive prerequisites for the inclusion of marked linguistic units into the sphere of commercial naming are explained by the aims of positioning the object through its commercial name. Being an element of a brand, a name is always connected to forming an image of a product or a service in the consumer’s mind. Communicative and pragmatic prerequisites are associated with the informal communication usual to colloquial speech and the conditions of its implementation in the form of a dialogue. The dialogue between a producer and a consumer in the naming process is developed due to the activation of several roles typical for the situation of buying (a seller, a buyer and his/her signifi cant companion). Linguistic prerequisites of the “colloquial naming” arise due to the choice of a language code relevant to the target audience. The study also presents various examples of using marked colloquial speech units of different language levels. The author concludes that colloquial speech is relevant in terms of generating new names in modern commercial naming practices that are focused on a language code friendly to the consumer and the culture of everyday communication.