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Results and DiscussionH1 predicts that there will be a strong preference for multi-syllabic brand names preferably three or more syllables. Table 2 shows that one-syllable brand names are very rare, only accounting for 0.6 percent, and multi-syllable brand names altogether account for 99.4 percent in our sample data. Three- or more- syllable brand names account for 86.2 percent. As predicted in the Hypothesis 1, there is a strong prefe- rence for multi-syllable brand names preferably three or more syllables.
Regarding the order of preference, four-syllable (25.5%) brand names are the most preferred followed by three- (21.8%), five- (16.0%) and two-syllable (13.2%) brand names. This result is in contrast to Chinese brand names that are preferably two-syllables. One possible explan- ation is that two syllables are typical in Chinese words and brand names in Sino-Korean used to have two syllables, while relatively recent brand names are made of pure Korean and have more syllables. H2 hypothesized that if there are codas, they are liquids or nasals (l 'ㄹ', n 'ㄴ', m 'ㅁ', ng 'ㅇ', swun- mae-sil '순매실'); there is also a strong tendency to avoid consonant clusters. Being different from our expectation, the part of a strong preference for syllables without coda was not confirmed. Table 3 shows that the brand names without codas in our data account for only 18.4 percent. The second half of the H2, however, turns out to be supported since the majority of the brand names (55.4%) have codas of nasals and liquids.
It was also found that there is a strong tendency to avoid consonant clusters. Consequently it is confirmed that there is a strong tendency that brand names with coda of liquids/nasals are strongly preferred. Nasals and liquids in most cases of brand names with coda are explained for the phonological reason, i.e., for the ease of articulation. Avoidance of consonant clusters is also due to the same phenomenon. There is a possibility that these two types of consonants as coda are used specifically more for drinks than any other products. The present study has a limitation to present any conclusive answer for the possibility and we leave it for future research. H3 states that there will be few mono-morpheme brand names, and more compounds and wherein the compounding structure follows the pattern of modifier-noun (yeol-ryang-ml '열량밀'). As shown in Table 4, in terms of compounding structures, the majority of the brand names in our data show a preference for a modifier-noun compound name.
The mono-morpheme brand names account for 33.8 percent while the multi-morpheme brand names account for 66.2 percent. Therefore, it is confirmed that the majority of brand names in our data have a compounding structure following the pattern of modifier-noun. H3 is directly related to H7 in a recent trend for phrasal names since a phrase consists of more than one morpheme. But an increase of multi-morpheme names even on the word level shows that names should not only sound good but also be meaningful. In other words, a brand name in recent years tends to con- tain its function, substance, and origin so that the product can be differentiated from other brands of the same category. The general guiding principle of morphological simplicity in the naming of brands seems to be con- ntradictory here. But it also appears to be true that the number of brand names bearing product chara- cteristics is increasing. As a result, the effect of this morphological principle can be lessened. H4 proposes that the compound brand names will have a positive connotation(hae-co-mi-in '해조미인'). Table 5 shows that positive connotations of brand names are clearly demonstrated by the large proportion of the brand names in our data.
39.4 percent of the brand names have direct and/or indirect positive meanings; the remaining 60.6 percent are neutral in meaning. It is quite interesting that very similar results were found in Chinese naming of brands analysis (Chan and Huang 2001). Chan and Huang (2001) reported 32 percent of positive con- notations and 68 percent of neutral connotations. No negative connotations were found in either Korean or Chinese. H5 predicts that there will be a semantic pattern that the substance property of the brand is preceded by the function and origin of the brand (sam-kang-hel-ssi-cin-da-e-chwu '삼강헬씨진대추'). As indicated in Table 6, only 22.0 percent of the brands sh-ow the proposed semantic pattern. Consequently the predic- tion proposed in Hypothesis 5 is not verified.
One of the proposed linguistic principles is that brand names may bear product characteristics. The finding in this study confirmed the principle. However, the precedence of function and origin followed by substance of brand names has not yet been verified. H6 hypothesized that there will be a recent trend that foreign-like brand names is preferred (kul-ran-bi-a '글란비아’). Table 7 shows that foreign-like brand names in our data account for 54.2 percent; non-foreign-like brand names account for 45.8 percent.
To test the trend in time difference predicted in Hypothesis 6, one-way ANOVA has been used to compare the means of foreign-like brand names across the following four categories of years: before 1996, 1996 -1997, 1998-1999, and 2000-2001. As reported in Table 9, there did not exist statistically significant differ- ences between the four different time categories (F=0.366, P>0.05). Additionally, in Table 8, the order of mean scores is not descending, either.
Therefore, the recent trend proposed in Hypothesis 6 has not been confirmed. Even though the tendency is not perfectly proportional, we can say that there is an overall increase in the number of foreign-like brand names. The small decrease of foreign-like names in most recent years is probably related to the increase of phrasal names in that the latter has to be normal Korean.
Finally H7 states that there will be a recent trend that phrasal brand names is preferred (nae- chin- kwu- nun-swul-chin-kwu '내친구는 술친구'’). Table 10 shows that phrasal brand names only account for 10.2 percent; non-phrasal brand names account for 89.8 percent.
To test the trend predicted in Hypothesis 7, one-way ANOVA has been used to compare means of phrasal brand names across the following four categories of years: before 1996, 1996-1997, 1998-1999, and 2000- 2001. As reported in Table 12, there exist statistically significant differences between the four different time categories (F=2.928, P<0.05). Therefore, the recent trend proposed in Hypothesis 7 has been confirmed.
Additionally, in Table 11, the descending order of mean scores also confirms that it is a recent tendency in Korean brand naming that phrasal brand names are preferred. |
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