Lexicon sources & functions activity summary

Those of you looking at product names (insecticides, cleaning products, prescription drugs) came up with many overlapping points relating to the functions of advertising: I've taken the liberty of synthesizing them.

• Advertising: insecticides, cleaning products, and pharmaceuticals (do over-the- counter medications have more semantically transparent roots?)

  • Non-standard spelling draws attention to the product and its uniqueness
    Bug-B-Gon, Bi-O-Kleen, Drain-O, Spray'n'Wash, No- Doz, Gas-X
    

  • The sound of the words makes product name more memorable or appealing
    
    Alliteration, rhyme, reduplication: Bug-B-Gon, CritterRidder, No-Doz, Creepy Crawly

  • Some product names result from conversion or use words that can be both verb and noun: monosyllabic words sound energetic and forceful
    
    • Cleaning products: verb <-> noun product names like Oust, Shout, Bounce, Whisk, Mr. Clean: cleaning is fast and fun!!
      (Shout also contains out: perhaps a blend with shove, as Cheryl suggested in class?)
      
    • Killing products: Raid
      

  • Word-formation: transparent roots identify function of product:
    
    • Very transparently for many insecticides!: Maggot killer, Earwig destroyer, Liquid Fruit Tree Spray (are most Noun + Noun?)
      
    • Less transparently and a lot less often in the case of pharmaceuticals: e.g. Lubriderm (lubricate skin), Flovent (inhaler: make air flow), Gas-X (expel gas)
      
    • Doesn't seem to be characteristic of most cleaning products (except for President's Choice)
    • Scientific terminology often very precisely specifies composition, application, etc., of product (but not very transparently to most of us)
      
    • Scientific terminology: infinite possibility of combining innumerable roots and affixes from Latin and Greek is useful for a field where there are many generic imitations of many new products

  • There are recurring affixes and roots in many varieties
    
    • Insecticides:
      
      • -cide, -ex and X; -er (killer, destroyer, ridder)
        
    • Cleaning products:
      
      • affixes: -ex, -ax, -ox, -ol, -el; the identical-sounding but more comforting-looking -le (Snuggle, Twinkle), and less scientific adjective ending -y
        (sometimes the more "technical" affixes are attached to a more "transparent" root that denotes the pleasant results of cleaning, as in Purex and Dryel)
      • roots: free, away, -off (and the out in Shout
        (many of these signal elimination, removal!)
    • Pharmaceuticals:
      • common suffixes include -il, -ol, -in
        (common medical affix, gives us confidence)
      • prefix Nova or Novo:
        emphasize that product is new (and that its manufacturer is Novapharm)
        (I wonder if Apotex makes Apofolic?! and if other prefixes signal the manufacturer?)
        

  • Emotional appeal (of scientific and ordinary words) an important characteristic of advertising)
    
    • Scientific terminology connotes the effectiveness of product: it has science and technology behind it!
      
      • Pharmaceuticals: majority of the product names are classical compounds/blends (and perhaps their opacity distracts us from the problems they're supposed to solve)
        
      • Pharmaceuticals: some roots are more transparent to us and signal things like the body part, function, problem: -derm, -nas-, -vent, Lubri- lubricates, Motrin gets things in motion); Lactaid helps with lactose intolerance, the - cid in Pepcid reminds us of acid)
        (are these over-the counter medicines and is it more important for their names to be transparent?)
      • Insecticide: Deritox, Diazinon, Malathion
        
      • Less common for cleaning products: Clorox, Borax suggest that more heavy-duty cleaning needs science behind it?
        
    • "Ordinary" roots often fall into variety-specific semantic fields
      
      • Pharmaceuticals: a few positive roots like Wel- (I'm not sure what Welbutrin does) and -aid
        
      • Pharmaceuticals: a few products for the skin contain roots with highly positive connotations, e.g. Celestoderm, Skintastic (emotional importance of attractive physical appearance)
        (these are over-the-counter drugs too! more transparency/emotional appeal desirable)
        
      • Cleaning products:
        
        • natural world (Sunlight, Sea Spray, Tide, Morning Fresh, Mist-Away, &c.)
          
        • comforting words (Fleecy, Downy, Snuggle, Twinkle) - distract from product's chemical composition and often denote or suggest pleasant results (clean, soft, bright, etc.)
          
        • futuristic, modern words (Comet, Future
          
        • environmentally friendly: connotations of "natural" words above, Ecover, Bi-O- Kleen
      • Insecticides
        
        • TERMINATION AND DEATH: Kill, Killer, End, Destroyer, connotations of X
          
        • Removal or disappearance: -Out, -Ridder, Gon
          

• Slang

  Slang is often very difficult for outsiders to understand: existing words may be shifted in function or meaning, quite dramatically

  • Characteristics
    
    • Subject matter might be taboo (so, function): sex (pull, on the pull "looking for a sex partner"), drinking (messy "very drunk"), drugs (sketchpad "someone who is paranoid from too much drug use")
      
    • Parts of speech: includes not just nouns and verbs but intensifiers (e.g. the now outmoded Way cool), which tend to be ephemeral
      
    • Abbreviation: DJ; sup "What's up?", diss "disrespect"
      
    • Conversion: the noun ghetto to an adjective
      
    • Semantic shift: smashed and shattered as metaphors for "exhausted", sketchpad "someone paranoid from too much drug use"
      Melioration is quite common, so, bad "good", bomb "good"; reclamation of word nigger (but see below)
      
    • Code-switching in cultures with more than one language or dialect: the switches are often indecipherable to non-speakers
      

  • Functions
    
    • Slang often reinforces/identifies group membership, excludes others
      Its semantic opacity and ephemerality often reinforces this
      Can you use nigger from outside the group that's reclaimed it?
      
    • Talking about specific subjects: slang can be used to mask certain activities (e.g. drugs) from outsiders
      
    • Role of the media in adopting and disseminating slang (e.g. hip-hop)