АНОМАЛИИ КОММЕРЧЕСКИХ НОМИНАЦИЙ В ЧЕЛЯБИНСКЕ

The name of a business enterprise is becoming a factor contributing to its competitive ability in the market. As a result, unusual names highlighting the distinction of an object have appeared.  The point is quite obvious. A name has to attract attention of a target audience to a company in order to create and strengthen the positive image in recipient`s mind. For this reason, the process of commercial designation or language designation of the enterprises which are aimed at profit or promotion of their products and services is not spontaneous. It tends to follow patterns existing in communicative awareness and not to contradict language laws. According to numerous researches (M.V. Kitaigorodskay, E.V. Krasilnikova, L.Z. Podberezkina, T.V. Simashko), an emotional component in designation is increasing because of the need in new techniques to attract target audience and provide successful enterprise operation. It raises the question whether non-standard names always convey a communicative intention and receive the expected interpretation by a receiver. The purpose of this research is to reveal the conditions of communicative effectiveness of non-standard names. We used the method of continuous sampling to choose the material for our study. Here are the groups of non-standard names or nomination units according to a formal criterion: foreign nominations written in a foreign language («Abyss», «Belfast»,  «Café Vintage», «D`or»,  «Galleria Venezia», «Karma», «Cat&Dog», «King`s Cross»); nominations written in Russian but including foreign elements («Антипаб Russ-House»,  «Диагно`Z»,  «КамIn», «Мебель-Shik», «Spa-центр», «Sушка»); foreign nominations written in Russian («Васаби», «Випсилинг», «Вэлл», «Дав-Трэвэл», «Инфинити», «Кутюрье»,  «ПаркСити», «Рэдиссон Блу»,  «Холидей Инн», «Хостел Лайк», «Эмили»); Russian nominations written in Roman alphabet («Berloga», «Fan Fan Tulpan», «Istok-74», «Kompas»,  «KOSMOS», «Kvartal 74», «Nomer-doma.ru», «OkNo», «Partner Proff», «Stolnik»); Russian nominations («Белая лошадь», «Боярская станица», «Данила Мастер», «Зимушка», «Княжий Сокольник», «Малахит», «Славянка»); names including letters and numbers (« Автотур174»,  «Пилигрим-94», «4 сезона», «5 Авеню», «777»).

While giving the name a nominator follows “a nominative norm” and takes into consideration customer`s willigness or unwillingness to like or dislike a business enterprise.  O.S. Akhmanova considers «norm» as an accepted use of linguistic means or a set of rules governing the use of linguistic means in the individual`s speech. Based on this definition T.V. Scherbakova introduced the notion of a nominative norm as “a set of means and rules involving two aspects of nomination: appropriateness of a nominator`s pragmatic intention and the result of designation or achieving the purpose”. In accordance with that, we will call the names that intentionally deviate from a nominative norm as non-standard, which is, inconsistent with the nominator`s intention and the results of designation. Then we will analyse non-standard names of business enterprises in Chelyabinsk, classify them and try to justify their choice. T.V. Scherbakova distinguishes abnormalities of the form and abnormalities of the content among intential deviations from the nominative norm. The former allow spelling mistakes («Аладдин», «Алегро», «Каринна», «Канкорд», «Капучино», «Ну и че?», «Галактик-центр», «Элипс») and non-semantic names, in other words, meaningless or too complicated names for understanding «АДИ» (a commercial firm), «АЙС» (a photo studiuo), «АРИАНТ» (an agricultural company), «АР-НУВО» (an art-studio), «Бовид» (a car showroom), «Джайв» (a shoe shop), «ЛедиПрима» (a trade house), «НОВЭРА» (a trade company), «ТОПиК» (a travel agency), ФонГрад» (a hotel). It is obvious that the choice of these names is based on the wish to stand out against similar enterprises. An unusual pronunciation of the name or personal implications and associations caused by this name fulfill the function of attracting attention. But the nominator should take into consideration that the target audience may have difficulty interpreting these names.

Abnormalities of the content include non-informative names, which is, commonly used words whose choice is not clear to a recipient. These names are not connected with the kind of products or services provided by the company and give the wrong idea about its activity. For example, «Абитуриент» (a travel agency), «Айсберг» (a dental clinic), «Белая лошадь» (a cafe), «Болгарский дом» (a restaurant), «Вишня» (a gift shop), «Восток-Сервис» (a tailor`s workshop), «Гараж» (a cafe), «Дельта-Челябинск» (a private security agency), «Зеленое яблоко» (a dentist office),  «Зимушка» (a travel agency),  «Маэстро» (a travel agency), «Мечта» (a grain store), «Миллениум» (a grocery store), «Министр» (an auto shop), «Мулен Руж» (a hairdresser), «Подсолнух» (a design studio), «Талисман» (a construction and repair company), «Танго» (a beauty centre), «Эллипс» (a vet clinic); names with an implicit meaning, which is, the words that can be found  in explanatory dictionaries but unfamiliar to most of people: «Гамбринус» (a restaurant), «Инфинити» (аn estate agency), «Иллюзион» (a beauty salon), «Авиньон» (a restaurant), «Паспарту» (a picture framing studio); names with a negative connotation: «Град» (a grocery shop), «Жирный кот» (a cafe), «Маклер» (аn estate agency), «Мыльная опера» (an art-studio), «Нарцисс» (a beauty salon), «Обжорка» (a confectionary),  «Пьяный страус» (a bar), «Сусанин» (a travel agency), «Фарс» (a grocery shop),  «Эгоистка» (a bridal shop); words acquiring a negative meaning from a particular extra linguistic context, so these names are unlikely to cause a positive respond from a customer: «Богатырь» (a clothing store), «Большие люди» (a clothing store), «Большой размер» (a clothing store), «Голиаф» (аn estate agency), «Гулливер» (a clothing store), «Космополит» (a travel agency),  «Медея» (a dentist office), «Мода для полных» (a clothing store), СантехБомба (a gas equipment store), ШизАрт (an art gallery), «Экспресс-мебель» (a furniture plant);  unreasonable spelling of a foreign word in Cyrillic with or without taking into consideration its pronunciation: «Васаби» (a restaurant), «Элефант» (an advertising agency), «Элис» (an advertising agency);  breach of ethical norms as a result of the chosen name: «Алое поле» (a shopping and entertainment centre), «Гагарин-парк» (a shopping centre), «Орленок» (a grocery shop); neologisms: «Кальянная» (a hookah bar), «Пиватория» (a beer bar), «Рукоделочка» (a drapery),  «Тепландия» (a manufacturing company), «Стекландия» (a plant producing doors and window); names of famous people, fictional characters and Biblical images: «Ермак» (a restaurant), «Капитан Флинт» (a beer bar), «Далила» (a beauty salon); nominations including  a name, a patronymic or a surname of the owner: «ВысоцкийКонсалтингЧелябинск» (a recruiting agency), «Евсей» (a grocery shop),  «Зинаида Карловна» (a bakery), «Лидия» (a dance school), «У Михалыча» (a grocery shop), «Светлана» (an estate agency), «Черкасов» (a furniture plant), «Юнусов&K» (a furniture plant).

We also found out that unusual pronunciation of non-informative names very often appeals to customers: «Азалия» (a flower shop), «Baby Boots» (a shoe shop), «Bambini» (a children`s shop), «Cat&Dog» (a pet shop), «Дельфин» (a fishing shop), «Диамант» (a pawnshop), «Синтагма» (a catering company), «Созвездие» (a photo shop), «Фазенда» (a garden supply shop).

M.V. Kitaigorodskay defined abnormalities of the content as unmotivated names because they do not cause associations with the object of nomination. Their choice is influenced by local traditions, fashion or nominator`s wish. Such names as «Василек» (a grocery shop), «ГородОК» (a café), «Гуси-лебеди» (an event agency), «Звездный дождь» (an event agency), «Куба» (a shopping and entertaining centre) have a positive connotation. There are also nominations related to local geographical names:  «АКFA-Челябинск» (a logistical company), «Каменный пояс» (an art gallery), «Малахитовая шкатулка» (a coffee house), «Огни Урала» (a hairdresser), «Урал» (a tailor`s shop), «Уралтон» (a record shop), «Челябнетма» (a manufacturing company).

Though abnormalities of the form and the content occur quite often, they have not become a trend. In fact, nominators try to adjust the name of their enterprise to  a particular pragmatic context where  this nominative unit  is functioning: «Ваш бухгалтер» (an outsourcing company), «Академия здоровья» (a medical centre),  «Асана» (a yoga studio), «Барбос» (a pet shop), «Диалог» (a language learning centre),  «Тибет» (an oriental medicine centre), «Труд» (an employment agency). The purpose is obvious – the name of an enterprise has to be in line with its functions: to inform, to affect the recipient`s emotions and attract potential customers, to distinguish the enterprise against similar ones. In order to avoid conveying the wrong implicatures the nominator should forecast the associations which can appear in a recipient`s mind as well as take into consideration the age and social status of their target audience. We are normally prepared to accept deviations from usual linguistic behaviour provided they are justified, for instance, on the basis of poetic creativity or humour, and interpretable. Thus, what can justify the use of non-standard names is only if they create a positive image.