ENy (S26). Researching ergonyms (plain version)

1. SE Linguistics Seminar Ergonyms Company, Brand & Product Names Georg Marko SS 2026

SE Linguistics Seminar
Ergonyms
Company, Brand & Product Names
Georg Marko
SS 2026
Researching ergonyms

2. Screencasts

In the second half of this presentation, there
are several screencasts (short videos where
you can see what I am doing on my computer
plus you can hear my audio commentary).
These are too large to upload to Moodle, so
you get the plain version here, but you can
access the full version with the screencasts via
this link to my Google Drive (it is actually a
folder, but you will easily find the
presentation here).

3. Ergonomastic research (general)

Analysing various aspects of names and
related data, finding patterns in the data and
interpreting what these patterns could mean
on a superordinate (e.g. sociocultural) level.
E.g. showing that ergonyms for foods and snacks
aim for simplicity (number of syllables, structure
of syllables, preferences for certain sounds,
reduplication). (→ infantilization).
E.g. showing that highly technical products and
brands often use nature-related words in their
ergonyms (→ naturalization, greenwashing)

4. Ergonomastic research (general)

E.g. showing that pub names often contain
references to certain animals that are hunted, but
less often to livestock (→ the role of outdoor
experience over farming).
Research questions going beyond patterns:
E.g. ergonyms are used with verbs of creating in
PR materials by the company.
E.g. when discussing creating ergonyms, people
only mention semantic, associative aspects.

5. Ergonomastic research (structured)

• Contextualization
Defining the issue, formulating a research question,
contextualization the study.
• Operationalization
Turning the issue into a feasible linguistic study.
– Data
• Collecting names of a particular type (or other types of
data concerned with names).
– Methodology
• Defining a way of how to systematically examine the data.

6. Ergonomastic research (structured)

• Analysis
– Description
• Identifying and describing patterns in these names (or
occurrences).
– Correlation
• Correlating patterns with non-linguistic factors, e.g.
time, social features of people or situations.
– Interpretation
• Interpreting these patterns with respect to different
relevant dimensions, e.g. aesthetic, social, cultural, etc.

7. Structure of your study

• Literature review
• Data collection
• Formal description
• Semantic description
• Functional description
• Historical development
• Sociolinguistic distribution

8. Analysis

Analysis = description plus interpretation.

9. Literature review

• Make sure you read background materials
explaining the theoretical concepts and
models you are planning to draw upon.
• Make sure you read literature that
contextualizes your ergonym type. This will
primary be sources that are not concerned
with linguistics or onomastics.
E.g. craft beer names → implies that you know
what craft beer is and what its cultural and
economic significance is.

10. Literature review

• Find studies of your ergonym type and explore
studies of a superordinate category.
• Focus on the following questions:
– How many studies are there? (Many, few, none?)
– What kind of studies (with respect to research
questions, data, methodology)?
– What are their insights and conclusions?
– Do the studies point in a direction for further research?
• How many articles/studies can you get?
– Full text, abstract, title

11. Literature review

• Take a non-chronological approach
whenever and wherever possible. A
chronological approach means that you
present one study after the other rather than
the gist of several ones.
• Try to develop your own structure or set of
categories, which you then impose on the
literature, rather than the other way around.

12. Three types of data

• Inventories
Lists of names.
• Textual data
Textual data on the use (and usage) of names.
• Metalinguistic data
Data on the use of or the attitudes towards names.
This data may be elicited (e.g. questionnaires,
interviews, experiments) or observed (e.g.
discussions on aspects related to names).

13. Inventories

14. Textual data

15.

16.

17. Metalinguistic data

18. Collection

• Create a list of ergonyms that represent
your target category, exhaustively,
comprehensively or exemplarily.
• Use your mind, dictionaries, search engines,
corpora and/or concrete texts, or even AI in
this task.

19. Popular boy names

20.

And then …

21.

22. Nicknames of celebrities

23. University names Canada

24.

25. Hip-hop song titles

[Screencast]

26. Anglophone names of European teams

[Screencast]

27. Drug names

[Screencast]

28. Names of sex toys

[Screencast]

29. Formal analysis

• What does the formal structure of your
names look like?
– Orthographically
– Phonologically
How many syllables, which sounds/letters, which
sound/letter combinations, etc.?
– Morphologically
Is there morphological transparency, i.e. do you
recognize morphemes?

30. Formal analysis

– Syntactically
Is there syntactic complexity (more than one syntactic
word), which syntactic units (single words, phrases,
clauses, coordination, etc.), which morphosyntactic
categories (number, tense, voice, person, etc.), etc.?
(With respect to usage) Is there a tendency of your
names to occur in particular syntactic
constructions/functions?
– Schemes
Are there formal stylistic devices (rhymes, alliterations,
etc.)?

31. Formal analysis

• Can you identify what the motivation
behind using these formal patterns are? Are
they related to anything you can say about
semantics?

32. Semantic & lexical analysis

Semantic & lexical analysis
• Is there semantic (recognizing meanings)
and/or lexical (recognizing words)
transparency?
• What are the meanings of your names?
• Are there semantic patterns? Are there
semantic domains that play a role in several
ergonyms from your list?
• Are there tropes (metaphors, metonymies)?

33. Semantic & lexical analysis

Semantic & lexical analysis
• Can you identify what the motivation
behind using these semantic patterns are?
Are they related to anything you can say
about formal aspects?

34. Semiotic analysis

• Are there any semiotic patterns (concerning
typography, logograms, pictograms,
colours, shapes, pictorial elements,etc.) in
logotypes and logomarks semiotically.
• Can you identify what the motivation
behind using certain semiotic patterns are?
Are they related to anything you can say
about the other aspects of ergonyms?