The Linguistic and Thematic Features of Brand Names in Arabic and English: A Contrastive Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1404.09Keywords:
brand, theme, linguistic features, Jordanian, AmericanAbstract
This study investigates the similarities and differences between brand names in Arabic and English, namely Jordanian and American brands. Brand names are analyzed in terms of their thematic associations and their linguistic features. The focus is on three types of Jordanian and American products: food, clothing and services. The methodology followed is quantitative and qualitative, adopting the framework of Chan & Huang (2001) who classify the brands into different categories based on their thematic associations into seven categories. However, this framework has been adapted to include three more categories. The results reveal that the brand names of both countries have similar thematic associations but with different frequencies. It is found that the frequencies of the thematic categories significantly differ between the two countries (and the two languages) regarding the three investigated types of brands. In relation to their linguistic features, some similarities and differences are reported.
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