L'Oréal e La Vache Qui Rit. Analisi semio-linguistica di due nomi commerciali francesi - L'Oréal and La Vache Qui Rit. A semiolinguistic analysis of two French trade names

Trademarks, being a linguistic category that often escapes the traditional lexical taxonomy, definitely represent an interesting aspect to investigate due to its essentially heterogeneous nature. In this view, our contribution presents an analysis of two French trade names: the brand name L'Oréal Paris and the product name La Vache qui rit. The choice of such trade names moves from the purpose of pursuing a new path in the linguistic field: in fact, by including these names in a wider relation system compared to the traditional bipartite system brand name/product name, we want to give rise to some considerations focusing on the proliferation of names that stems from the articulation of the offer into product ranges, lines and versions. In particular, our work aims to analyse these names by both cultural and semio-linguistic perspectives, examining especially their naming strategies. Considering that most of the currently available literature derives from the sphere of marketing, a reflection that covers aspects such as morphology, pragmatics, referentiality and syntax of trade names is necessary to understand the relationship that exists between linguistic aspects (such as naming strategies) and extra-linguistic aspects (marketing strategies).