Toponyms with articles in Macedonian colloquial speech

Traditionally, proper names are understood as a class of units that are carriers of semantics of uniqueness and individuality. Due to this semantics, the use of the article for proper names is superfluous, but speech reality is often contrary to this rule. This is due, firstly, to the heterogeneity of the class of proper names, and secondly, to the very conditions of communication. In some situations, the speaker believes that without additional descriptors and indexical expressions, he or she will not be understood by the interlocutor, and therefore his or her proper names are used with the article. The article considers one of the categories of proper names - toponyms, which are used with the article in Macedonian colloquial speech. As a research material, the author of the article uses material from Macedonian grammars, a sample of literary texts and Internet sources. As a result of the analysis, a group of member toponyms was revealed. In this group of member toponyms the article performs structural function, indicating the category of the name and its formal characteristics (gender, number), it is an indicator of the "onomatization" of the common name. It is especially the case with proper names of the common denomination or in the development of the toponyms with the figurative meaning. In addition, in colloquial speech there is an "increment" of pragmatic meanings of a proper name due to the fact that the speaker minimizes the information about the reference of this or that name to the general class. By acquiring additional semantics in a context, a proper name can perform an identifying function and use an article. In the context the article is a carrier of indexical and emphatic information.