Branding and Linguistic Anthropology: Brand Names, Indexical Fields, and Sound Symbolism

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-41
Author(s):  
Andrew Wong
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Anthropology ◽  
Brand Names ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Related Information ◽  
The World ◽  
Anthropological Research

While the last few decades have witnessed a growing interest in the value of sociocultural anthropology to marketing and advertising (e.g., Sherry 1995; Sunderland and Denny 2007), linguistic anthropology has received significantly less attention from marketing theorists and practitioners. One notable exception is linguistic and linguistic-anthropological research on sound symbolism (e.g., Nuckolls 1999). Sound symbolism is the idea that speech sounds (i.e., vowels and consonants) by themselves convey meanings. For instance, the high front vowel [i] has been found to suggest small size to speakers of different languages around the world. Marketers have taken notice of ideas like this and used them to develop brand names that highlight brand- and product-related information.

scholarly journals ADVERTISING BRANDS BY MEANS OF SOUNDS SYMBOLISM: THE INFLUENCE OF VOWELS ON PERCEIVED BRAND CHARACTERISTICS

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Catalina Duduciuc
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Brand Names ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Brand Name ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Applied Social Psychology ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
And Performance

The aim of this study is to test the influence of sound symbolism on perceived characteristics of a brand as well as to highlight the importance of applied social psychology to current practice of advertising. Previous research showed that the phonetic structure of brand name communicates its characteristics, i.e. it drives consumers to assess certain features and performance of the product. I assumed that when consumers encounter an unknown brand name, they automatically infer characteristics from the meaning conveyed by the sounds (e.g. phonemes). Therefore, I supposed that a brand name for a shampoo (artificially created on experimental purpose) containing back vowel is evaluated better by consumers when they compare it to another brand name with front vowels. Furthermore, for the accuracy of responses, I used the semantic differential scale to measure the differences between two brands in terms of certain attributes of product. To this end, fifty students (N=50) participated in a research based on questionnaire. As the results of the current research showed, the brand name with back vowel outnumbered the brand name with front vowel on two dimension, i.e. on brand activity and brand efficiency. The brand name containing front vowel was rated better when subjects evaluated the product in generally. Last, but not least, when it comes to convey meanings, the sound of back vowels [a] could be used more when marketers promote products that communicate its characteristics such as efficiency, velocity and health. The back vowel could be also assessed to products with larger packing or special sailing such as extra quantity. Meanwhile, the brand names with front vowels [ie] could be created for more expensive products with good quality, mainly addressed to men.

Theatricality in Ethnography at the World Trade Organization. The Para-Site as Experimental Form

Paragrana ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadi Nicholas Deeb ◽  
George E. Marcus
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Linguistic Anthropology ◽  
Research Project ◽  
The World ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
Para Site

AbstractContemporary anthropological research requires innovation in method that can take the measure of consequential reflection by many subjects on knowledge production within their own domains and anticipate how a research project might connect productively with various discursive communities and networks given the increasing complexity of ethnographic scale and context. One such innovation, the para-site, addresses these challenges by enlisting reflexive subjects as epistemic partners in orchestrated interactions situated alongside ongoing fieldwork activities. Our experiment set the para-site in the “Green Room” of the World Trade Organization and employed linguistic anthropology to facilitate exchanges at the level of our ethnography′s guiding concepts.

scholarly journals BRAND NAMING: SOUND SYMBOLISM, BRAND PREFERENCE AND BRAND PERFORMANCE

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Catalina Duduciuc ◽  
Loredana Ivan
Keyword(s):  
Applied Research ◽  
Brand Names ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Brand Preference ◽  
Brand Name ◽  
Brand Performance ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Experimental Purpose ◽  
And Performance

The aim of this study is to highlight the importance of sound symbolism for Romanian marketing and advertising applied research. Previous research showed that the phonetic structure of brand name communicates its characteristics, i.e. it drives consumers to assess certain features and performance of the product. We assumed that when consumers encounter an unknown brand name, they automatically infer characteristics from the meaning conveyed by the sounds (e.g. phonemes). Therefore, we supposed that a brand name for a shampoo (artificially created on experimental purpose) containing back vowels is evaluated better by consumers when they compare it to another brand name with front vowels. Furthermore, we tested the influence of the stops and fricatives consonants in inferring certain attributes of product. To this end, fifty nine students (N=59) participated in a research based on questionnaire. The results revealed that subjects evaluated better the brand names containing back vowels than brand names with front vowel. No effect was obtained regarding the presence of stops and fricatives consonants in assessing the brand performance.

scholarly journals Reconnecting Language and Materiality in Christian Reading: A Comparative Analysis of Two Groups of Protestant Women

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 499-529
Author(s):  
Britt Halvorson ◽  
Ingie Hovland
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Anthropology ◽  
Analytic Approach ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Recent Interest ◽  
The World ◽  
Embodied Practice ◽  
Reading Texts

AbstractWhat do Christians do when they read? How can Christian reading be understood anthropologically? Anthropologists of Christianity have offered many ethnographic descriptions of the interplay among people, words, and material objects across Christian groups, but descriptions of Christian reading have often posited an androgynous reader. In response to this we begin from the observation that while reading cannot be done without words, it also cannot be done without a body. We propose that an analytic approach of placing language and materiality (including bodies) together will help clarify that reading texts is an embodied practice, while not undermining the importance of working with words. We draw inspiration from the recent interest in bringing linguistic anthropology and materiality studies together into the same analytic frame of “language materiality.” We explore a language-materiality approach to reading by comparing how the biblical story of Mary and Martha was read by Protestant women in two historical situations: 1920s Norway and the 1950s United States. We argue that in these cases the readers’ gendered, raced, and classed bodies were central to the activity of reading texts, including their bodies’ material engagements with the world, such as carrying out women's work. We suggest that paying attention to embodied reading—that is, readers’ social entanglements with both language and materiality—yields a fuller analysis of what reading is in particular historical situations, and ultimately questions the notion of a singular Protestant semiotic ideology that works consistently toward purification.

Traveling the Uncharted Path of Leadership in Federal Anthropology

2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marybeth MacPhee ◽  
Suzanne Heurtin-Roberts ◽  
Chris Foster
Keyword(s):  
Health Disparities ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Good News ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
The World ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
Government Work ◽  
The Government ◽  
Research And Policy

For those of us who have fantasized over the years that the world would be a better place if anthropologists had a voice in government, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that applied anthropologists working in government settings have succeeded in raising awareness of, and respect for, anthropological ideas beyond the classroom. The bad news is that anthropologists face a long road ahead before the field is ready to exercise this newfound agency in leading the direction of research and policy on social problems. Our recent work on health disparities found that the obstacles we encountered were rooted in the habits of practicing anthropology rather than in any oppressive force of bureaucracy or hierarchy of professional knowledge underlying the structure of the government work context. Anthropology is most comfortable on the margins of both community and debate. Our methods and ethics prioritize the values and desires of the communities with which we work above our own bias; our theories and analyses produce holistic perspectives and cultural criticism rather than definitive stances. Although the position of informed outsider has its advantages in the contexts of anthropological research, it has proven to interfere with our work in the community of the federal government.

scholarly journals Are Tims hot and Toms not?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Hartung
Keyword(s):  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Functional Feature ◽  
Physical Size ◽  
Gender Group ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
The Relationship

Sound symbolism – the idea that there are motivated links between the sound of a word and its meaning has been established to be an existing phenomenon across different languages. Especially size sound symbolism seems to be a functional feature in many languages meaning that different types of vowels in words are associated with different physical size. Words with front vowels (e.g. little, tiny) are more likely to be used to indicate small physical size whereas words with back vowels (e.g. humungous, huge) are more likely to indicate large physical size. Because physical size plays an important role in ratings of attractiveness, we tested whether vowels in first names can influence how attractive the bearer of the name is perceived. In our experiment, participants saw faces paired with popular first names and rated the attractiveness of the depicted person. Masculine names were paired with pictures of men and feminine names with pictures of women. The names either contained a front or back vowel in the accented syllable and were within gender group randomly paired with pictures. We found that female raters preferred faces paired with back vowel names while male raters preferred faces paired with front vowel names, showing that the rater's gender – far more than the gender of the depicted person – determined the relationship between vowel quality and perceived attractiveness of faces. Our results confirm the role of sound symbolism in perception of attractiveness.

The Power of Ambiguity: The Nature and Efficacy of the Zamble Masks Revealed by ‘Disease Masks’ Among the Gouro People (Côte d'Ivoire)

Africa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudie Haxaire
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Cote D'ivoire ◽  
Côte D’Ivoire ◽  
Cote D’Ivoire ◽  
World Today ◽  
Côte D'ivoire ◽  
The World ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
The Times

Among the Gouro masks, Zamble, a composite animal figure, and Gù, a fine-featured woman's face, are known to art lovers around the world. Today their profane avatars, Flali and Zaouli, are at the heart of masquerades that are much enjoyed by audiences. But this appreciation concerns only the ‘pretty’ aspects, that is to say the civilized and orderly side of an ensemble that also has a reverse side: the disease masks, sprung from disorder, avatars of the more powerful Zàùlì, described as the wild brother or husband of Zamble in the genealogical idiom employed by the Gouro when referring to the masks. These masks are created by each generation of young people and are central figures in rituals of inversion that express the upheavals of the times. At the same time as they establish their creators’ reputations, they serve as a record of these events for the Gouro. Descended from the initial trio of masks (Zàùlì, Zamble, Gù), they prolong the trend to secularization of this family of masks from the sacred wood. In tracking this tradition over twenty years we can see a process of resacralization. When the youths’ comments are analysed in the light of encyclopaedic knowledge acquired in the course of anthropological research on health, we can understand the necessity of the mask figure, and going further can understand what an ugly profane mask is, what it presents and the role it plays. In return the Zamble mask and its associates take on another dimension, a dimension that opens up exploration of the unknown via their intrinsic ambiguity and the transgressive behaviour they allow during the time of the ritual.

The Process of Wellbeing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iza Kavedžija
Keyword(s):  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
The World ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Do So

The Process of Wellbeing develops an anthropological perspective on wellbeing as an intersubjective process that can be approached through the prism of three complementary conceptual framings: conviviality; care; and creativity. Drawing on ethnographic discussions of these themes in a range of cultural contexts around the world, it shows how anthropological research can help to enlarge and refine understandings of wellbeing, through dialogue with different perspectives and understandings of what it means to live well with others and the skills required to do so. Rather than a state or achievement, wellbeing comes into view here as an ongoing process that involves human and nonhuman others. It does not pertain to the individual alone, but plays out within the relations of care that constitute people, moving and thriving in circulation through affective environments.

SimBody

2012 ◽  
pp. 265-282
Author(s):  
Bruno Vidal ◽  
João Madeiras Pereira ◽  
Guilherme Santos
Keyword(s):  
Cardiovascular Diseases ◽  
Lifestyle Behaviors ◽  
Multimedia Software ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Master Thesis ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Related ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Progression Of Atherosclerosis

Many of the top causes of death in the world are directly related to risk factors that can be avoided with changes in lifestyle behaviors. Computers with Internet access are widely available, and their multimedia capabilities show great potential for e-learning. Furthermore, most of the frequent Internet users already look for health related information online. This chapter presents an interactive simulator that educates people on how to mitigate the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The application is named SimBody and was initially developed in the context of a Master Thesis at Technical University of Lisbon (IST), in collaboration with ZPX, a multimedia software development company. SimBody allows the users to control the behaviors of an avatar. Besides showing the contribution of each decision towards the risk of cardiovascular diseases, it offers contextualized lifestyle advices and depicts the progression of atherosclerosis. After knowledge transmission tests, the majority of the participants stated that after using SimBody they are more aware of the dangers and intend to introduce changes to their lifestyle.

The Study of Language and Society

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bayley ◽  
Richard Cameron ◽  
Ceil Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Linguistic Anthropology ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
The World

This chapter introduces this volume on sociolinguistics, noting how this study differs from existing work. It considers sociolinguistics as an interdisciplinary exercise, emphasizing new methodological developments, particularly the convergence of linguistic anthropology and variationist sociolinguistics. The volume cites sociolinguistic developments in areas of the world that have been relatively neglected in the major journals. While many authors include examples from English, contributors have worked in a range of languages and address sociolinguistic issues in bi- and multilingual contexts. Finally, the volume includes substantial material on the rapidly growing study of sign language sociolinguistics. The focus on bi- and multilingual contexts, and emphasis on developments in numerous areas around the world, give an appropriate place to sign languages.

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