Everyday Linguistics
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Everyday Linguistics
Introduction
Phonology deals with sounds, while morphology deals with words and is used in linguistics, studying languages. Phonology and linguistics are used to analyze different languages. Words in any language send a detailed linguistic description, and these words are made up of different sounds.
Method
In a product such as Dasani by Coca-Cola Company, a combination of sound symbolism, systemic transparency, and spelling conventions has been used to come up with the Dasani name attracted to the customers. The sound symbolism in Dasani is san, which corresponds with good health in different languages. Dasani’s name consists of a consonant and vowel. The name Dasani is not ambiguous, and its name corresponds to the product; water. Therefore such a name is appealing to the customers.
Four-wheel drive, a four-door pickup with v6 engine, and a trailer hitch: good name, FoTrail. Bad name; four trailer
Baby blankets specifically for newborns: good name; Bablanks. Bad name; blankab
A healthy organic ready-made brand of meals based on Italian cuisine: Cuita as a good name. Bad name; cuitla
A miniature tree for a conservation center that rescues baby sloths:treloths as a good name. Bad name; rescsloth.
A new app for home delivery of quick office supplies: Quiapp as a good name. Bad name; quickapp
The method of coming up with a name has involved three steps. The names are selected according to the product they are describing. For example, fotrail represents a four-wheel drive, four doors, and a trailer hitch. Bablanks means baby blankets describing the nature of the product. The second thing considered in developing the names is spelling conventions. For example, all of the above characters portray their products’ nature and are simple and unambiguous. These names will not disturb the customers while trying to pronounce them. The sound symbolism associated with, for example, the four-wheel car with four doors is Fotrail. This name sounds like representing a strong car with advanced properties; therefore, the sound plays a crucial role in determining the product’s nature and the emotions evoked. This three steps guides on how to come up with products’ name that will facilitate the publicity of the products. The difference between a good reputation and the wrong word is that good names are easy to pronounce and remember and often unambiguous.
On the other hand, bad names are a bit harder to pronounce, and consumers tend to forget the name quickly. The critical feature of bad words is that they are usually ambiguous and confusing to customers. For a product to be marketable, finding a simple name is crucial. The simple name should correspond to the nature of the products.
Data collection, results, and discussion
Data was collected and submitted to Google forms, where they were rated. On the Google platform, information about the products’ names was rated by different people, and the information was collected. Data is collected on the platform in the form of a survey where different people will place the name of the products on a scale of one to five, where one represents bad quality and five represents good quality. This type of survey is called linear. Most participants rated the product’s names as moderate, not bad, but not good enough. By finding the average, the mean indicated the characters to be reasonable. The wrong terms were rated low because of their ambiguous nature.
The methods used to come up with the names involved three steps. A simple name was chosen to avoid ambiguity. Then the characters were related to different sounds based on the emotions they provoke. The last step involved choosing names that corresponded to the nature of the products. The methods were successful since the correct name rhymed to the product making it useful. Also, the good terms were compared to the poor name, and the two had a distinction. The bad names were ambiguous and were quickly forgotten, while the right words were simple and easy to remember. This distinction is what made the sample name to increase the publicity of the products.
Linguistics helped name the products by utilizing the branch of phonology, which determines the types of sounds in a word. The morphological branch of linguistics enabled proper understanding of the words in different languages. Having a basic knowledge about sounds and pronunciation of foreign words in different languages is essential to come up with a creative way of naming other products. Because the name is appealing to the people, it will be known across the area within no time.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a product’s name attracts customers to be curious and try out this new product. To come up with an appealing name, one must come up with a simple name and the one with corresponding sound and pronunciation to the targeted product. By doing this, the name of the product will build up over time.
References
Mahboob, A., & Knight, N. K. (Eds.). (, 2010). Appliable linguistics. A&C Black.
Swann, J., & Maybin, J. (2007). Introduction: Language creativity in everyday contexts.
Nilsen, D. L. (1979). Language play in advertising: Linguistic invention in product naming. Language in public life, 137-143.