English Presentation

English in advertising and brand naming

sociolinguistic considerations and the case of Brazil

Adrià Muñoz Abril Rodriguez Hajar Talbi

1 Introduction

4 Portuguese versus Romance languages

Index

2 The relevant literature

5 English in the city & countryside

6 Advertising

3 Motivations

7 Conclusion

Introduction

• Analyzes English loans and advertising.

• The literary world describes the use of English loanwords all over the world.

• Developing nations: superiority attributed to what is foreign.

• Germany and Japan are also recognized by their reliability and credibility.

• This article discusses the phenomenon of English loanwords and advertising using the case of Brazil as a scenario.

The relevant literature

• Symbolizes modernity

• Is accessible enough to be intelligible

• Has linguistic properties

• Has a connotation of Westernization

• Provides extra linguistic material

The Englishization of business names in Brazil: motivations

• E.g.: "computer mouse" → raton

• E.g.: "Shopping center"→ centro comercial

• E.g.: "light & diet" → leve & dietético

• Assimilated phonologically & morphollogically.

• A loan is not motivated by the lack of a suitable term in the local language.

• English-inspired in Brazil is not that high.

• Rio de Janeiro: 9.75%

• E.g.: dog → Hotdog

• E.g.: "disk”+ smthg → disk-pizza

Brazilian Portuguese versus other Romance languages

Brazilian Portuguese versus other Romance languages

• Kachru disagrees with the premise of loanwords simply filling in lexical gaps

• Pseudoloanwords: e.g. "outdoor" → billboard

Advertising

• The level of complexity of the names

• Universal factors described in several cross-linguistic studies

• Enlargement of the stylistic range available for the users of the receiving language

• The Brazilian print media are connected with the English language

• A large majority of advertisement agencies are subsidiaries of American and British agencies

• The use of English in advertising is more for sight than sound.

English in the city and in the countryside

Conclusion

• Brazilians also make use of indigenous languages (to make products look natural).

• Make use of French (to look elegant).

• Also of Italian (to appear artistic).

• And of other languages to achieve other desired effects.

• Nothing is more effective than education in making a population critically alert and empowered to deal with the on-going realities of language contact.

Thanks for your attention!