Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 261

Part of Session 161: Commercialism and language use (Other abstracts in this session)

The typology of Romanian firms in urban areas

Authors: Felecan, Oliviu; Felecan, Daiana
Submitted by: Felecan, Oliviu (North University Center of Baia Mare, UTCN, Romania, Romania)

Starting from the analysis of a linguistic material that consists of firm names, the present study^{^[1]} aims

- to illustrate the semiotic (pragmatic) relationship established between the owner (as name-giver) and the addressee (as interpreter of the semiotic message sent by the former party), in order to discover the linguistic and social motivation behind firm names, by taking into consideration the implicit communicative relation between the sender-owner and the receiver-customer ;

- to discuss the formation of firm names, thereby highlighting various corresponding aspects: the grammatical component, the lexical-semantic configuration, the onomastic level, the names’ origin.

The corpus we will analyse was gathered either from field research or from specialized publications (Pagini aurii) and websites. It contains names of firms from certain Romanian cities (Bucharest + cities in the counties of Cluj, Maramureş, Suceava).

With reference to its onomasticon, the contemporary public landscape is varied, cosmopolitan and multilingual, as opposed to what it looked like during the communist regime (before 1989). To illustrate this, we will take into consideration both smaller firms (shops, pubs, restaurants and the like) and those that can be found in malls.

References:

Anderson, J. 2010. The Grammar of Names, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Coulmas, F. 2010. Sociolinguistics. The Study of Speakers’ Choices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gumperz, J.J., and S.C. Levinson (eds.). 1996. Rethinking linguistic relativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hudson, R.A. 2009. Sociolinguistics, 2^nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jourdan, C., and S.C. Levinson (eds.). 2008. Language, Culture, and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Matras, Y. 2011. Language Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Trudgill, P. 2000. Sociolinguistics: an introduction to language and society, 4^th ed. [London]: Penguin Books.

Van Langendonck, W. 2007. Theory and Typology of Proper Names. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

[1] The paper refers to a more consistent research project called Onomastics in the Contemporary Romanian Public Space: Socio- and Psycholinguistic Research, funded by CNCSIS, through the Human Resources PN II program, for the stimulation of the building of young independent research teams (TE), code 3, contract number 57/2010; the project spans three years (2010-2013).

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

The typology of Romanian firms in urban areas