Principles of Toponyms (Place Names) Classifications

Toponyms (place names) represent language units denoting elements of topographicenvironment. the relevance of the study is caused by the need to develop the theory of toponymy and tosystematize all the existing toponymic classifications.place names have a complicated (multidimensional)nature, which should be taken into account while classifying them. this research is an attempt to highlightvarious principles according to which it is possible to group the place names. the research is based on15000 british and 17000 american toponyms, received from toponymic dictionaries, reference books andelectronic toponymic search systems gnis (geographic names information system) and get-a-map.toponyms can be classified according to the following principles: 1) parametric characteristics of anobject, 2) ontological characteristics of an object, 3) type of toponymic basis, 4) etymologicalcharacteristics of place names, 5) motivational characteristics of place names, 6) chronologicalcharacteristics of place names, 7) structural characteristics of toponyms, 8) toponymic polysemy, 9)degree of toponymic nomination, 10) variety of toponymic nomination, 11) localization of an object. it isobvious that it is impossible to create a unified classification of place names, which would reflect theentire multidimensional nature of the toponymic vocabulary. classifying toponymic nominations, onemust consider the multifaceted (intra- and extra-linguistic) principles of allocation of toponymic units.