우리나라 상표명의 작명 기법

Abstract

This study focuses on the brand names of products circulated in Korea, especially on artificial words rather than natural words. This study analyzes the techniques of brand naming in morphological and semantic view. A brand name is the linguistic element in a brand. It forms the image of products or services. Brand names are ultimately a condensation of meanings and associations. Advertising associates a brand name with the emotional and psychological character of a product. It is generally believed that linguistic principles in the naming of brands include the following: being easy to pronounce, showing positive connotations, and bearing product characteristics. It must not give any negative impressions in its meaning or sound symbolism. It should also be easy to be recognized as the brand name contrasted with general words. It is desirable that brand names include simplicity, distinctiveness, meaningfulness, and association with the product class. Various techniques are used for brand naming to satisfy those conditions. The formation rules of brand names are different from those of ordinary words. New formation techniques which are not accepted in morphology appear in brand naming. For example, truncation, overlapping, reduplication, compounding, and so forth. As a result, many brand names are composed of non-words, or words without any meanings.