The ways of nominating modern spatial realities reflect linguistic conscious-ness and create a new linguistic reality, therefore, the analysis of the names of objects that are part of the communicative space becomes an urgent problem. The article analyzes the ways of explication of toponyms, in particular antonyms, in the Russian and Chinese communicative space, the relationship between the naming of the object and the cultural code.
 The process of nomination of modern spatial realities reflects the linguistic consciousness and creates a new linguistic reality, so the analysis of locus names (toponyms) is an urgent problem. The article studies the ways of explication of space, the interrelation of language and cultural codes. The aim of the study was to describe the ways of explication of lexical units (paronyms) in Russian and Chinese, to determine their functionality in the communicative space of the metropolis.
 To achieve the goal, the following methods were used: continuous sampling method, comparative etymological and linguoculturological analyses.
 As a result of the analysis of the names of spatial objects, in particular the urban names of the Moscow and Beijing metro, their classification based on etymology, the authors come to the conclusion that lexical units that name spatial objects perform not only informational, cultural, communicative, but also culturally preserving functions, that is, they are a way of preserving cultural patterns that affect the atmosphere of the communicative space of the metropolis.
 The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time a comparative description of the urban names of the Moscow and Beijing metro is given, some ways of verbalization of urban objects are revealed and their role in the communicative space is determined.
 The practical significance lies in the fact that the analysis of the semantics of spatial lexical units helps to understand the trends in the process of nominating loci, their influence on the formation of a special communicative space, and also the fact that, giving a name to an urban object, we fill it with special information that is passed on to future generations.