Informative-advertising potential of names with a colour component (from the data of eating facilities names)

Colour is one of the most ancient categories of world comprehension. Every culture has its own particularity both in colour naming composition, and in different symbolic significance assortment of colours and in different levels of their symbolic nature. This thesis is proved in the article by the consideration of this vocabulary when it is used for naming eating places. Different peoples have their own peculiarities concerning colours, for example, the restaurant name ''Red and White'' is connected with the types of alcoholic drinks for the Russians, while Chinese people may understand it as a philosophical indication of the changeable character of existence: the idiom hong bai xiang wei (good and bad fortunes take turns) is translated literally as ''red and white take turns'' because these conceptions are opposed according to the colour symbols in the Chinese culture. The data was collected from the reference sites of several Russian regional centres; over 300 names (ergonyms) were analyzed, such as '' Orange'', ''Dark-lilac'', ''Purple'', ''Life in Pink'', ''Red & Black'', ''White Tiger'', ''Red Grot'', ''Green terrace'', and so on. This group of Russian ergonyms had 28 colour definitions including dark and light, gold and silver. The most popular adjectives for commercial naming were the following: gold (65 names), white (43), green (40), and red (31): ''Gold Crucian'', ''White Grand Piano'', ''Green Sea'', ''Red Sun'', etc. With the rare exception the names have the attributive word combination structure with steady or variable composition and they must perform different functions. The first type is represented by a) nomenclative word combinations (''Black Swan'', ''Pink Flamingo''), and b) names of precedent type (''Golden Fleece'' ''Green Carriage'', ''Black Gold'', ''Yellow Submarine''), including those with negative associations (''Black October'', ''Grey Gelding''). The second type is c) realonyms (''Blue Roof', ''Green Hill''), and d) oxymoron type combinations (''Blue Crow'', ''Orange Lime''). In the conditions of the common onomastic space new names are created by analogous principles while both components of a word combination take part in the naming and form nominative rows with great differentiating potential. There are some examples: ''Black Square''/ ''White Square'', ''Red Square'', ''Blue Square'', ''Green Square'', and ''Black Triangular'', ''Green Pyramid''; ''Black Orange''/ ''Blue Orange'' and ''Blue Melon'', etc. The attractor function (catching the attention of potential clients) is easier to perform for the names of the subgroups b) and d): ''Green Piglet'', ''Pink Elk'', ''Lialia-Mumu in Red Toad'', ''Black Orange''. The identifying one (pointing out the type of activity of the eating facility) and the qualitative one (specification of the eating place) are better performed by a) (''Yellow Cafe''), and b) (''Green Mustard''), that of address - by c) (''Cafe in Red Avenue''). Thus, the advertising-informative potential of such names is supported by the general connotative-association group of the vocabulary units they consist of and it has been formed, to some part, due to the symbolical nature of colour perception. In particular, colour may indicate the national cuisine: yellow and red are the symbols of the Chinese cuisine (''Yellow Dragon''), green - of the Irish (''Green Duck''), light blue - of the Thai (''Blue Elephant''), and it corresponds with the flags of these states. Green is also the symbol of a vegetarian menu (''Green House''), aquamarine - places with fish and seafood (''Aquamarine Wave''). Aquamarine and indigo colours mark the masculine essence, and pink (scarlet) - the female essence. That is why ''Indigo Beard'' is a masculine club-cafe, ''Aquamarine Lagoon'' is a gay-saloon, ''Pink Rhinoceros'' - a striptease-bar. Obviously or partly unconsciously the nominators support and provide the colour symbolism in the naming, for example, the idea of becoming blue from drinking: Why ''Blue Elephant''? The elephant is an animal that can drink more than others, and becomes blue after that.

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