JEZIČKI PEJZAŽ KRAGUJEVCA: NAZIVI PRIVATNIH RADNjI

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the linguistic landscape of the city of Kragujevac, focusing on private company names. The goal is to examine the way language is used in naming companies, i.e. to determine the main language tendencies by analyzing private company names in Kragujevac. Another goal is to investigate whether the language used in naming depends on the type of business activity involved. The study included three main business activities: sales, catering industry, and services. The corpus involved 530 company names collected by searching through the databases of the Business Registers Agency and Serbian Business Directory. A detailed corpus analysis confirmed that the choice of names typically depended on the type of business activity. In terms of borrowings, Anglicisms prevail – especially those which reflect the given business activity (e.g. using hair and beauty in the names of beauty salons) as well as those which point to exclusive and high-quality services (e.g. using elite and style in the names of boutiques). A great diversity in using “popular” lexemes in the names of cafés and clubs visited by young people can be noticed (WHAT’S UP, PLAY OFF), which is how café owners want to attract customers. Serbian words are most frequently used in the form of personal names and hypocorisms (e.g. the names of flower shops, convenience stores and hair salons). Serbian names are also dominant when it comes to traditional Serbian taverns (Serb. kafana), whose owners seek to develop a sentimental relationship with their guests – most often realized as a sense of belonging (e.g. STARA SRBIJA, NAŠ KUTAK, BALKAN).