The way to distinguish between continuous, hyphenated and separate spelling of geographical names

The article deals with the difficulties associated with the spelling of geographical names. The spelling problems of writing toponyms that are available at the present stage of language development are identified, which are associated with a large number of geographical names with different structural organization, and with the influence of extralinguistic factors on the spelling of the toponym. In addition, the difficulties of applying some of the current recommendations on the spelling of toponyms are revealed. The object of the study is the distinction between continuous, hyphenated and separate spelling of toponymic units. The “Rules of Russian spelling and punctuation” recorded in the reference book are analyzed. Complete academic reference book” spelling rules that govern the spelling of a toponym; at the same time, the signs underlying the named rules and the difficulties associated with their application are revealed. Based on the results of the analysis of the linguistic content of spelling rules, an attempt is made to create a procedure for determining the choice of a continuous, hyphenated or separate design of a toponym. The proposed algorithm is based on the algorithmic course “Russian Spelling and Punctuation” by A. B. Selezneva, which is used at Volgograd State University when studying the spelling of the modern Russian language. The algorithm is divided into four parts and has a hierarchical structure, that is, the solution of the spelling task is performed from simple to complex: first of all, it is proposed to determine or exclude features that affect the spelling of a word, which, as a rule, do not cause difficulties, and then move on to identifying more complex criteria. The last stage involves working with units for which there are no clear recommendations, that is, toponyms that do not comply with the current language norms are analyzed. The content of the rules governing the choice of toponym spelling is included in the formulations of the spelling tasks of the algorithm, which involve the identification of formal elements in the structure of a geographical name, the location of the components that make up a linguistic unit, and the presence of certain word-building elements. The relevance of the work is due to the fact that in the presence of unresolved problems of spelling of toponyms associated with the specifics of geographical names and, as a result, with their codification, a clearly structured algorithm for distinguishing between continuous, hyphenated or separate spelling of geographical names is proposed.

orthographic norm, toponym, orthogram, merged spelling, hyphenated spelling, algorithm