NAZIVI PROIZVODA U SAVREMENOM SRPSKOM JEZIKU

Abstract

In this paper we examined the phenomenon where a certain number of products have transcended the status as a brand and symbol of its manufacturer to the point where we can consider a product name, a legitimate word which can be used instead of generic or foreign names for those products. In the first part of the paper we focused on the study of such products from the point of view of semiotics and presented explanations of underlying principles that enable product names to evolve. In the second half of the paper, we presented the results of our research that was done via a public inquiry. We have implicitly studied the choices that the examinees made, when facing the opportunity to choose between product names or generic varieties, having only a picture of the product (where none of the markings of the brand were present) as a prompt. The results indicate the overall dominance of brands when compared to generic names (with one notable exception), which opens up possibilities for further research of this phenomenon.