Proper names as a basis for language games in online advertising messages — exemplified by the fan page LIDL Polska

Abstract

The aim of the article is to look at which proper names are used by the authors of advertising messages on the Internet, what transformations they are subject to, and what are the relationships between the slogan based on the name and the description of the promoted product. The material base consists of posts published on the fan page Lidl Polska via Facebook in 2020–2021, in which proper names have become the basis of language games. The analysis of formal procedures has shown that the most frequently used are contamination of propria with appellatives, while the replacement of an element in a multi-component proper name is equally eagerly used. Modifications consisting of phonetic and semantic manipulations, as well as the reduction of the segment of a several-element onymic unit, are much less common. The use of several transformations at the same time has also been frequently observed. In decoding advertising slogans and assessing the functionality of treatments, an important role is played by the connotative value of the names used for language games. The positive connotations associated with the proper name are to be transferred to the advertised product. First of all, various types of chrematonyms are transformed. For language games, not only are the names of well-known artistic works, music groups and places used, but also onyms that are recognizable by a narrower group of recipients.