Western countries, especially America, have relatively vague hierarchical concept. The shop names listed above intend to show how sumptuous the shops are or what a good service they can provide, although some of them carry a stint of hyperbole with Burger King and Diary Queen as typical examples. In a word, as symbols for traditional concept and a fine brand, these shop names are of exceptional charm in metropolis pervasive with modern fashion.
3 Rhetorical Methods in Naming Shops
As a sign system, shop names bear with them distinct features from other sign systems, and moreover, it performs an obvious pragmatic function as well. In fact, shop names are considered as brief and short advertisements, which intend to motivate the customers to purchase what the shops want to sell. Therefore, rhetorical methods have always been adopted to add some color to these advertisements.
3.1 Simile, Hyperbole, etc in Chinese Shop Names
Some rhetorical methods applied in naming shop names could make them attractive and vividly express their uniqueness. For example, The Barber’s, as a shop name, could specifically identify itself. But if it adopts a sort of rhetorical method, it will really make difference such as Golden Scissors, and some drugstores, like Shen Nong Drug Store (Shen Nong expresses something magical which specifically refers to a man with magical power), Hui Chun Tang (Hui Chun: go back to the state of well-being with Chun expressing best wishes for the patients), Le Ren Tang (Le Ren: happy and kind), Jiu Sheng Tang (Jiu Sheng: long life), and some spectacle shops, such as Kang Ming Yan Jing (Kang Ming: healthy and bright; Yan Jing: spectacles), and Jing Liang Yan Jing (Jing Liang: as bright as crystals), and some shoe shops, like Shuang Xing Shoes(Shuang Xing: double stars), Yuan Da Shoes(Yuan Da: reach as far as possible), and Shou Wang Shoes(Shou Wang: the king of animals).
The shop names mentioned above have applied the rhetorical methods of metaphor and hyperbole to specify the specialties of different industries and features of products so that the consumers’ association is stimulated by the safety, economy, practicality, originality, and magnificence implied by the shop names. As a result, the consumers and the merchants are well bridged.
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3.2 Modification of Nouns in Creating English Shop Names
The case is the same with English shop names. For example, the copy industry is so developed in America, and generally, Copy Shop or Copy Man is commonly used as shop names. However, these names only indicate the differences between industries, but fail to list the advantageous characteristics, so they have relatively less power upon the consumers. In the shop names with adjectives as modifiers that confine or describe the center words like nouns, if proper modifiers are applied, it will vividly show the nature of shops of any kind.
Some merchants would like to take full advantage of such a feature to name a copy shop as Quick Copy or Clean Copy to skillfully boast about the service that they could offer so that the consumers’ requirement for speed or quality can be well embodied.