Pragmatics of proper names in legends and oral stories of Russian old residents of Buryatia

The article deals with the use of proper names in legends and oral stories of Russians of Buryatia from the point of view of their semantics and pragmatics. The specificity of folklore historical prose consist in the presence of a large number of toponyms and anthroponyms. The main factor determining the emergence and use of proper names in the folklore text is the pragmatic need for them. From a pragmatic point of view, proper names play a crucial role in historical folklore prose, attaching the events to the place, object (toponyms), and/or marking the participants in these events (anthroponyms). As a result of the analysis we have concluded that the use of proper names in folklore historical prose has a clear pragmatic attitude, and the pragmatic component of proper names in legends and oral stories very often prevails over cognitive and even semantic components.