Research Information System
in: The Social Sciences Agenda 2020: Turkey and Eastern Black Sea, Musa Yavuz Alptekin, Editor, Serander Yayınları, Trabzon, pp.305-318, 2020
Worldwide supremacy of English language has manifested itself in every facets of life
from art to business. Brand names, window displays, billboards and advertisements are among
the basic manifestations of English language dominance in business context. As an
encompassing sign of English language, business naming practice in a Turkish local context is
taken into consideration in the current study. It has been observed that while many owners
tend to prefer English or Englishized names for their business, several of them seem to resist
this tendency by preferring original Turkish local names. The study aims to reveal and
compare the reasons behind the business naming preferences of these two parties (those who
prefer English names and who prefer local names) by focusing on a university district of a city, a touristic spot located on the north-eastern part of Turkey. To this end, this qualitative
case study employs observations and interviews as data collection instruments.
Keywords: Sociolinguistic, Language Corruption, English, Business naming