Derivational potential of toponymical system: formation and functioning of katoikonyms

The article deals with a rather complicated linguistic issue that is associated with the functioning of personal names in the Russian language - formation of resident nominations, called katoikonyms. The models of toponym-based derivatives are analyzed by the authors in connection with the frequency of katoikonyms usage in newspaper texts. It is revealed that katoikonyms are presented in regional press in their plural forms mainly. Grammatical gender comparison shows some limitation in the usage of masculine forms that may be explained by a large number of suffixes and the lack of universal norms of grammatical and morphonological adding to the stem base. Extremely low number of female katoikonyms in the press may be attributed to the loss of euphony in such forms and the necessity to avoid homonymic resemblance with the toponymic names. The authors state that the complexity in the ways resident names are being built is motivated by a set of extra- and intralinguistic factors associated with the development of toponymic system in the Russian language: firstly, there are preferences in the katoikonym form choice, and it depends on the frequency of their usage. Secondly, it depends on the structure of a personal name and the specificity of word-forming formants