NATIONAL AND CULTURAL SPECIFICS OF COMMERCIAL ERGONYMS IN SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article is devoted to identifying national and cultural specifics in the naming process of companies and business associations that reflect various areas of intercultural communication between business actors and potential clients in the local market of South Africa. The relevance of the article is determined by the tendency to study commercial onomastics in regional business discourse. The naming strategies and effective techniques of representing ergonyms used in the discursive practice of the South African business community are analyzed. Regional ergonymic units are presented in the pragmatic aspect, taking into account the markers of the national identity and the territorial brand naming. The idea of a nominator’s intention and its role in the corporate naming are identified. The classification of business-ergonyms is based on functional-thematic, structural, lexicosemantic and pragmatic criteria. Pragmatic potential of informative and associative types of business-ergonyms is considered from the point of view of marketing linguistics. The linguacultural approach to the study of commercial ergonyms allows the company’s corporate image being linked with the national and historical peculiarities of developing the multiethnic South African region.