English and Asian Flavor in Russian Advertising of the Far East Zoya proshina and Irina ustinova abstract

Russian words are transcribed in Roman script as if they belonged to English: store «Shik & Blesk» (= Style and Glamour), cosmetics store «Zaichiki» (= Little Rabbits), print shop «Platina» (= Platinum), clothes store «Just Moda» (= Just Fashion) and others. In this type of English manifestation, the languages do not switch, but the scripts do. Some of these are pseudo-English words sound similar in nearly all European languages as they share the same Greek or Latin origin, e.g., the words in the Russian ads Pharaon and Pantera are replicas of the English words with the same Indo-European stems but different spellings, Pharaoh and Panther.

Roman and Cyrillic letters that correspond to similar sounds can me mixed, which seems to be a new trend in Russian advertising (Petrova, Chekmez, 2007): СлаDкие Dетки (store for kids; = Sweet Kids), Умный Dом (furniture store; = Clever House); Кульt Личносtи (= Cult of Personality), ПАРАD (= Parade) (clothes stores), ДивиZион (electronic appliance store; = Division), Аргументы неделI (newspaper; = Arguments of the Week), ОКЕАN (night club; = Ocean).

Due to mixture of word parts, word hybrids are coined: ИллюZION (movie theater; = Illusion), СтройSET (building materials store; = BuildSET), ЮнITEL (cello phones shop; = UnITEL). Quite productive is the combination of the suffix –off with a noun stem, which makes an impression of an old emigrant family name: Блинoff (café; = BlinOFF = ‘Pancake’ + -off ), СоколOFF (window-producing company; = SokolOFF < Sokolov, a frequently occurred Russian family name).

Combination of Russian and English words

The Russian name of a flower shop «Цветы» is too trivial. To make it differentiated, the owners of the shops added the English word New цветы (= New Flowers). This kind of combination can be a pun, with two meanings: e.g., MORE купальников can be read as ‘Sea of bathing suits’ meaning their great diversity, as the word MORE can be taken for the transliterated Russian word МОРЕ ‘sea’. Bilinguals, however, can read it literally ‘more bathing suits’. So this is a way to play upon scripts.

This trend has come to Russia from the United States and has developed under the influence of email correspondence: Shoes 4 you (footwear shop); Port@lux (electronics store), V & V (clothes shop for teenagers); ¥€$! Кредиты малому бизнесу [= Bank loans to small business] – the first element (“yes”) is made up of foreign currency symbols: Japanese yen, Euro, and US dollar. The &-symbol is often used in the decorative function: A & T TRADE (equipment), P & I (ad agency), etc. These ways of expression have a double function: they express the phrase laconically, on the one hand, and on the other, attract the customers’ attention to the ad.

Part of a word can be colored differently; letters applied of different size and form, some of them reminding of other, non-European scripts. This makes the signs expressive, original and imaginative, e.g., we can see it in the shop sign Nonsense (Plate 3), which for a bilingual may seem meaningless, yet attracting the eye.

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  unusual division of a word: INTER TERMINAL < interterminal (customs storing service);
  
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  one-worded or hyphenated phrases: Best-service (transporting goods); Wildroses (flower shop); Incity (clothes shop), orientwind (gift shop); Freshstyle (clothes store);
  
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  replacement of graphemes: Xasia-motors - ex>x (car service); BeautiWorld - y>i (cosmetics shop);
  
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  using only capital or small letters: SWAN (dressmaking shop), БАТТЕРФЛЯЙ (BUTTERFLY, cosmetics store), sweet mama (clothes for would-be mothers);
  
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  using capital letters in the middle of a word: ArtLine interior (design studio), DoorHan (production of doors, gates, and locks);
  
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  using capital letters in a part of the word: ЭКОлоджик (ECOlogic; car service), БЭСТ-Партнер (BEST-Partner, computer equipment service);
  
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  newly coined abbreviations: BGI (employment agency) < Big Group Innovative; LVS (advertising group) < Laser Video System.
  

It is not unusual that the English name speaks of a service or goods the company provides. Judging by such names as Auto Oasis, Mr. Doors, Master Gym, Foto Boutique, a bilingual customer can easily guess the activities of the named company. The semantics of one of the name components definitely shows the function of the company: Fashion Point, Style – clothes shops, СпортЛэнд (= SportLand) – sport shop, БрюкЛэнд (BryukLand = TrousersLand) – trousers boutique, Steak Restaurant - name of a restaurant, Double Step Travel – travel agency, George Dental Group – dental clinic – all these names are motivated functionally. Some names emphasize a grand size of the company, e.g., Kосметик-City (Cosmetic City), САНТЕХЛЭНД (SanTechLand, a store of sanitary engineering equipment), Спортлэнд (SportLand); others hint at a supreme quality of provided service: ELITE-СТРОЙ (Elite-Stroy; Elite Construction); REAL Сервис (Real Service, furniture manufacturers), Best-service (transportation).

However, the name may say nothing to the customer, be ambiguous and even cause false associations if it is non-motivated, which is not a rare case. For example, it is difficult to guess what kind of service is offered by the company Fox or what is hidden under the intimidating names Dark Devil and Flying Devil. Even for a bilingual it is difficult to say what kind of establishment is House. It takes effort to decipher the idea expressed in the name ЯRus (lit. ‘I am Russia’ or the entire sound form of the word is translated as ‘tier’) of the furniture company, where the Roman part of the name implies the company’s preference for working with Russian suppliers. The research has revealed that the correspondence of English names with their designata is 2:1, i.e. one-third of the names do not mean what they designate.

Play upon English and Russian words is seen in some names. Thus, in the name of the clothes shop Ё-Style we see the interaction of the English word your transcribed in Cyrillic and the international word style. While the latter is easy to be understood, the former element raises doubts and sometimes is associated with the initial of the word elegant rather than with your. That might serve as an example of an unsuccessful ad.

According to their semantics, company names can be grouped into a) anthropocentric: Principal (employment agency), Фиансэ (Fiance; wedding dress salon), AUTORIDER (car parts);

b) emphasizing style and beauty: Secret fashion (clothes shops), Fresh Style, Maxi Style, In Style (female clothes);

c) expressing creativity: HANDMADE (advertising agency), Brush Studio (polygraphist shop), АРТ ОБЪЕКТ (ART OBJECT; garden design);

d) naming artifacts and materials: FINE BOAT (production and repair of boats), АЙВОРИ (IVORY; production of polyethylene film);

e) referring to dream and delight: Визард (Wizard; window construction), Флэш (Flash; game machine saloon);

f) expressing progress: Эдванс (Advance; organization of holidays), New Life (match-making agency);

g) desire to be the best: primacy (hairdresser’s), Best-service (transportation); БЭСТ-Партнер (Best Partner; computer details);

h) imitating Western culture: Евродизайн Маркет (Euro-Design Market), JeansWest (jeans shop), Studio Hollywood (photo and movies studio);

i) designating natural phenomena: SUNRISE (match-making agency); Silver Wind (shipment), Пасифик Оушн (Pacific Ocean, insurance company);

j) referring to flora and fauna: Wildroses (flower shop), БАТТЕРФЛЯЙ (BUTTERFLY, cosmetics shop).

The semantics of company names reveals cultural values that are shared by the present-time Russian community. The quantitative analysis shows that among the most frequent words are style (Fresh Style, Ё-Style), fashion ( Art Fashion Gallery), and image (Image Studio). The status of a client is very important (clothes shop Status); customers are invited to various VIP-centers: VIP Boutiques, VIP Boutique Persona, VIP Rooms (in a café), etc. Ordinary clothes made in China (which is often associated with poor quality) are sold in the VIP-department of one of the department stores in Vladivostok. This proves that the word VIP is changing its meaning into the attributive ‘first-class’, ‘excellent’. Broadening of meaning is also found in the word Bestseller that is applied not only to books but also to clothes (and, as it might be, to other things.)

The image of a modern business lady has become very popular nowadays: Lady Boss (beauty salon), Golden Lady (clothes store). The name of men’s footwear shop Respect Yourself addresses the value of the individual in a person. At the same time there are names mirroring a traditional collectivist value of Russians: e.g., the movie-theater People’s; applying to traditional Russian names – Marusya (a boutique), or highlighting a typical quality of a Russian character – to reflect on the past and idealize it – Nostalgia (a restaurant and a shop). There are company names that are oriented towards the highest status (Royal Park, Royal Food), or pretend to be related to famous foreign organizations or public figures: (billiards club Hollywood, Churchill Tobacco shop).

Associative and emotive character is one of the features typical of company names. Names expressing an image provide the company’s success. Trying to emphasize bliss, delight and pleasure a client can experience from the company’s service, creators of company names sometimes use set idiomatic phrases, which can be literal translations from Russian into English, even erroneous ones, like Сэвэн Скай (Seven Sky < Seventh Heaven).

Nowadays very fashionable words that can be seen on a number of signboards are studio, salon, and hall. Studios are intended not only for painters, photographers, film-makers, or designers. The word is often applied for beauty salons (Art Point Studio, The Hairs (sic!) Studio, Студия SunRay, etc.).

By frequency the rank of the word salon follows that of studio: VIP салоны: меха, кожа, обувь, сумки (VIP salons: furs, leather, footwear, bags, and purses), VIP салон элитной одежды (VIP salon of elite clothes), Салон ‘Умный Dом’ (Salon ‘Clever House’). As was observed by the M. Kitaigorodskaya (2003), this word is very popular in the western part of Russia and is used in the meaning ‘a shop where the product is not sold immediately but is made to order.’ However, in Asian Russia, the loan salon is used in a different meaning, though also slightly different from the English one: it indicates not only a shop where smart, expensive clothes are sold (Collins COBUILD 2001, p. 1372) but also a shop for household equipment, i.e. in the Far Eastern ads the meaning of the word salon is generalized.

The word hall was borrowed from English to name a place where public events or concerts are held – formerly, these places were termed Palaces of Culture. For example, the Seamen’s Palace of Culture in Vladivostok has turned into the FESCO Hall (FESCO = Far Eastern Shipping Company). The word hall is also frequently applied to various shopping centers: «Art Fashion Hall», «Digital Hall», «Sony Hall», «Plasma Hall».

Another semantic trend that has been evident these days is a focus on words implying new technologies and technical progress. The imported word high-tech is very popular in ads. We can find it not only in the names of stores selling electronic equipment (A11 Hi-Tech), but also in the names of companies working in other spheres: e.g., High Tech café. No less popular are the words digital (Digital & Mobile, Digital Hall) and web (Webdog computer shop, Webcafe coffee-house; Web Game Internet-cafe), as well as other computer terms (Interface Internet-café; Port@lux electronic equipment store).

The trend has been traced to use nouns with abstract meanings that name qualities, features, and properties (cafes Republic, Format, clothes shops Glance, Status, Style and others). These are the words with positive connotation (beauty salons Bounty, Studio Beauty, national bank Trust, décor-salon Paradise, car service center Auto Oasis). They often designate philosophical ideas, something unusual, mysterious, hardly comprehensible (night clubs Infinity, Millennium, cafe Pustota [= Void], clothes shop Symbol).

Many American and multinational corporations, such as Western Union, , Land Rover, Greenfield, Colgate, Lipton, Old Spice, or Orbit do not customize their messages. They send them to Russian customers unchanged, using English and a familiar graphic form of their company and product names. On the one hand, this is the way for them to get recognized everywhere; on the other hand, their company’s source form in English is expected to be a guarantee of high quality of their product. The product may originate in various non-English speaking countries, but still use the English-looking name: Samsung, LG Electronics (Korea), Sony, Sega, Land Cruiser (Japan), Brook Bond (India). Though using global English, many company names incorporate culturally-bound connotations that can be accounted for by the producing nation’s traditions (Krykova, 2004), like Japanese Fighter (Mitsubishi), Samurai (Suzuki), Cherry (Nissan), Legacy, Crew (collectivist culture) and many others. These brand-names mirror historical traditional and stereotypical features of Japanese culture. The Russian national companies also use English-sounding and English-looking words and Roman script for the names of their products, companies or labels: Лукойл (= LukOil = LookOil; gas company), Perfect Lady (disposable razors), Botchkarev (beer), Cooler (beer). Other multinational companies allow product-name and company-name extensions in Russian as a national language together with two scripts, Roman and Cyrillic: Mountain Dew - Маунтинг Дью, Coca-Cola - Кока Кола, Brook Bond - Брук-Бонд.

It is not only transnational companies that use English names. Today many goods produced locally are also intended for exporting, so Englishization of goods labels and instructions has become part of standardizing. Trade marks and brand names become adapted to the international market: Green Leaf (milk company), Lucky Tours (travel agency), Clover House (department store). This localization, which accompanies globalization, is termed as ‘glocalization’ (Pakir, 2001/2006: 192). The English language adaptation to local settings is a very important aspect of glocalization.

English glocalization in ads can be used for both functional and social reasons (Ustinova, Bhatia, 2005, p. 504-505). It is used functionally to preserve the company identity, to inform the customer of the product and attract attention to it. Thus informative and attractive roles of ads serve functionally. When symbolizing prestige, novelty, and modernization, English is used for social reasons. As we have mentioned above, advertising reflects changing cultural values and imposes new values, which might be labeled as ideological, or social function as well. So we can definitely say that Russian advertisements use English for both functional and social reasons.

The mixing of English and Russian results from a Russian affix added to an English stem. A message on TV screen is written in Cyrillic letters. To make a commercial more pragmatically accustomed to the Russian audience, advertisers use imperative sentences characteristic of Russian speech:

Novii Dirol Kids- zhivi s ulybkoi!

New Dirol Kids - live with a smile!
Rhyming English words with Russian is another way to acculturize English in the Russian commercial, as rhymes are very popular expressive means of Russian rhetoric:

Moloko vdvoine vkusnei esli eto Milky Way.

Milk is twice tastier if it is Milky Way.

That a new product is adjusted to the Russian culture is imposed upon a customer, even though at first it may seem strange:

This is a commercial advertising a new sort of chocolate. The creators of this ad mixed French (Choc), English, and Russian. The word shock should have a negative connotation, as in Russian it means ‘a state threatening one’s life.’ However, the altered meaning of the English word ‘a person’s emotional and physical condition when something very frightening has happened’ hints at a new portion of adrenalin received by a person who goes in for an extreme kind of sport, which is very popular with young people. So the commercial insists that the chocolate is intended for young customers. Besides, it appeals to the Russian value of collectivism, making the customers feel a special group of the clientele.

Many companies use English for decorating their products, especially T-shirts, bags, sportswear, etc. This decorative English (Dougill, 1987) is intended to reveal prestige of the brand, though it “conveys a mood more than a message” (McArthur, 2002, p. 369). That is why many decorative inscriptions prove to be informationally empty. However, their function is to characterize its owner as a progressive, successful, humorous, or defiant person. The example for the last characteristics can be seen in the T-shirt inscription FBI: female bodies inspector. Very often such decorative inscriptions testify to a person’s belonging to some group. Decorative inscriptions can be a proof of one’s traveling and visiting certain places of interest. Russians who traveled to Beijing and visited one of the wonders of the world wear proudly T-shirts saying, ‘I climbed the Great Wall.’ In Russia, manufacturing T-shirts with university emblems is not as popular as abroad yet and is a matter of further commercial development.

To sum up, English advertisements carry out several functions: interactive, informative, and attractive or decorative. The interactive function implies interaction between a customer and a company through advertising of the company’s goods or service in exchange of the customer’s money. The informative function is implemented by the ads explaining what is advertised, what the product is intended for, and where it can be bought or further information received. The informative function is also carried out by the door signs OPEN/CLOSED which infrequently substitute for the corresponding signs in Russian. The decorative function is observed in a specific graphic form of English words, mix of Roman and Cyrillic scripts, or purposeful deviations from spelling rules. It is not surprising that English advertising texts with graphic expressive means implement, along with a decorative function, many other functions, for instance playing (upon words), attractive, and informative (ЯRus, Hall idey). In some cases the English language performs just an attractive function. For example, sellers use the English word new more and more often to draw the customer’s attention to certain information in the ad:

This English word NEW attracts a customer’s attention by both its Roman script and its meaning (which means that more and more Russian customers do know this English word) and drives the customer to swallow the information in Russian that follows the English word.