Semantic Diffusion in the Proprial Marketing Space, or Trends in the Use of Native Appellative Names

Abstract

The article is devoted to the contemporary names of retail and service facilities. Its purpose is to characterize the very productive type of compound brand names, created in the course of semantic diffusion. While semantic diffusion consists of the expansion of meaning on the appellative level, it produces additional persuasive functions on the proprial level. The proper names discussed in this paper consist of lexemes from such semantic fields as: state administration (ministry, embassy, republic, empire), territorial administration (county), science (academy, institute, club), medicine (clinic), geography (land, park, world, oasis, island, zone, corner), trade (centre, delicatessen, wholesale, outlet, shop, stall), economy (farm, barnyard), industry (factory), art (gallery, lab, parlour, lounge, atelier, studio) and transport (station). The article also discusses the origins of trends in the use of compound names such as: the Nail Embassy, the Ministry of Advertising, the Chocolate Republic, the Movement Factory, the Form Workshop, and shows that they are affected by globalization and geolocation.