Cosmetic Products in German-Language Online Advertising: Naming Methods and Patterns

Abstract

Advertising is constantly developing as it attempts to keep pace with the ever-changing reality. German producers of cosmetics advertise their brands in German-language online magazines, and these ads often reflect the current changes at the language level. The authors identified and described the current naming methods and patterns in online advertising of German cosmetic brands. The naming strategies followed the rapid global changes and adapted to the constantly emerging new cosmetic products. The most recent nominations proved to be structurally and semantically diverse. Along with the typical German word-formation, they demonstrated some novel methods, which indicated the most recent transformations in the language. The modern German cosmetic advertising is subject to the process of neologization. While each neoplasm adds to the linguistic expressiveness of the language in general, it increases the reader’s involvement in each particular ad. The neologisms were coined in line with German as well as English patterns while some were combinations of them both.

Keywords

• advertising texts
• german language
• naming methods
• neologisms
• borrowings
• world building