Morphological Theoretical Basis and its Symbolic Meaning of English Brand Name

【Abstract】：Brand names are the offspring of highly development of market economics， and play a crucial role in modern society. This paper gives a detailed analysis of morphological theoretical basis of brand name. After the analysis of 1，500 brand names， the relation between word-formation and brand name is found. Author can find the novelty of brand naming and further design better brand names.

【Key words】：brand name； morphological theoretical basis； word-formation

1. Inflectional Analysis of English Brand Name

“Inflection” is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes， such as number， person， finiteness， aspect， and case， which does not change the grammatical class of the items to which they are attached.

Attention should be paid to the inflectional form of brand names. The plural form of Walkman is Walkmans but not Walkmen.

Although Photostat has a weak ending syllable， its inflectional form should double the ending consonant letter， such as Photostatting， Photostatted. The Photostat machine， or Photostat， was an early projection photocopier created in the 1900s by the Photostat Corporation； “Photostat” - which was originally a brand name of the company - is also used to refer to the similar machines produced by the Rectigraph Company.

2. Word-formation Analysis of English Brand Name

2.1Acronym

“Acronyms come out when the combined initial letters follow the pronunciation patterns of English and the sequence can be pronounced as the spelling indicates-as one word，” for example， UNESCO/ （United Nations Educational， Scientific， and Cultural Organization） SARS （Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome）. Some new words are composed of the first letters of a series of words and pronounced by saying each letter eg， CD （compact disk）， SOS（Save Our Ship） and WTO（World trade Organization）， these kinds of words are called initialisms.

Brand examples： “KFC”. Kentucky Fried Chicken was founded by Harland Sanders in Corbin， Kentucky. Sanders was born on a small farm in Henryville， Indiana， in 1890. KFC Corporation is the largest fast-food chicken operator， developer， and franchiser in the world. KFC， a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo， Inc. until late 1997， operates over 5，000 units in the United States， approximately 60 percent of which are franchises.

Acronym is one of the most common ways in brand naming. The brand names formed by acronym have distinctive features. For example， Minesoto Mining and Manufacturing is not abbreviated as MMM but 3M； Acronym applied in brand names not only follows common abbreviation of forming from the initial letters of a word that makes up a name but adds some numbers， signs， etc. Acronym is widely used in brand names， because it emphasizes the form of a brand and gives people deep impression to remember brand names easier.

2.2 Affixation

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational， like English -ness and pre-， or inflectional， like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition； prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes. “Affixation is， thus， the linguistic process speakers use to form different words by adding morphemes （affixes） at the beginning （prefixation）， the middle （infixation） or the end （suffixation） of words.”

Compared with common English， the affixes of English brand names have some special characteristics： （1） some affixes in English brand names are changed in meaning or usage. For example， “-ex” in Timex comes from Rolex， a famous watch in Switzerland. “Ex” which is often used in the English brand names means excellent and reliable quality， but in common English， it is a prefix which means before， former or exoteric. （2） Some are from English but not affixes. For example， dura- in Duracell is from durable； accu- in Accu-Date is from accurate； –matic in Coolmatic is from automatic. （3） Some are quoted from foreign languages. –que in Satinique is from French， which is a female word means grace and soft.

2.3 Backronym

The term “backronym” is used to refer to a number of things. Most commonly， it means an acronym which is made by deciding on an acronym and then devising a name or title to fit it. Backronym also refers to a word which seems like an acronym， but actually isn’t.

An acronym is a pronounceable word which is made out of the first letters of a phrase or organization. Some acronyms fudge it， leaving out words like “a” and “the”， or including the first two letters of some words for flow. You can probably think of a number of familiar acronyms； radar， for example， which stands for Radio Detection and Ranging， and NASA， which comes from National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In some cases， organizations decide on a backronym to make themselves memorable； the National Organization for Women， for example， undoubtedly liked the thought of being referred to as “NOW”， so they may have chosen their name around the desired acronym.

3. Conclusion

Usually the researches on linguistic features of brand names are about the relation between trademarks and culture， brand names and society， brand name word formation， etc. The relation between sound and meaning is rarely touched， so in this paper， study on word-formation symbolism frames the main part， and is fully discussed. In fact， from the perspective of word-formation of brand meaning， author can find the novelty of brand naming and further design better brand names.

參考文獻：

[1] Robertson， Kim. Recall and Recognition Effects of Brand Name Imagery [J]. Psychology and Marketing. 1987. （4）：3-15.

[2]L. X. Zhang. English Linguistics Digest [M]. Beijing： China Machine Press， 2005： 50-53

[3] Olins， Wally. On Brand [M]. London： Thames and Hudson， 2003：31

[4] Peter Newmark. A Textbook of Translation by Peter Newmark [M]. New Jersey： Prentice Hall， 1988：41-42