Problems of Commercialisation and Commercial Nomination of the Urbanonymic Landscape of Almaty

The authors conduct a critical analysis of the process of commercialization and commercial nomination in the linguistic landscape of Almaty, the largest megalopolis in Kazakhstan. Two sets of current toponymic problems of the linguistic urban landscape are considered: critical analysis of geospace commercialisation process, megalopolis toponymic policy, where toponym acts as a “commodity”; and sociolinguistic features of ergonym formation, linguocreative approach to the nomination process as a parto f modern naming of the megalopolis linguistic landscape. These two main aspects of the study are aimed at revealing the polylingual, socio-cultural image of the city, at matching the linguistic picture of the world of the citizens, at defining the image strategy in the organisation of urbanonymic space of the metropolis. The issue of urbanonymic terminology also remains relevant, in this regard the study deals with the problem of correspondence/ non-conformity of English and Russian terminology in this area, with some caution it is proposed to adapt the international terminological space in the field of onomastics. The analysis of the linguistic identity of oikodomonyms (name of residential complexes) and ergonyms (brandname) confirms the hypothesis of a growing trend of the urban landscape westernisation, which is of concern in view of the increasing globalisation processes that minimise the national-cultural identity of urbanonyms. As a result of the study the problem areas in the toponymic policy of the metropolis were revealed, the prospects for improving the regulatory aspects of the activities, naming technologies and branding of commercial organisations, companies were identified, alternative solutions were proposed, which can be further applied as guidelines in the toponymic activities in other regions of Kazakhstan.