A SOCIO-ONOMASTIC STUDY OF RESTAURANTS’ NAMES IN SHIRAZ

Language and identity are intertwined in sociolinguistics. Drawing on the importance of names and their impact on social, cultural, psychological, and linguistic relations, this study aimed to contribute to the understanding of how the names of restaurants in Shiraz are chosen. Since the significant role of socio-onomastic concepts on language has been underestimated in the literature, the present study investigated the role of socio-onomastic factors (gender, ambience, cultural association, national, international, and religious identities) in naming restaurants in Shiraz. In order to obtain the results, the researcher applied frequency and chi-square tests for the goodness-of-fit test. The results revealed significant differences between socio-onomastic factors and restaurant naming. Accordingly, the names of the restaurants reflected national identity as the most prevalent characteristic in restaurant naming. The next common feature was dedicated to international identity, followed by gender, ambience, cultural association, and religious identity. The results were not only discussed but also compared with previous research in the field. It is suggested that social and cultural perspectives in a country play significant roles in people’s tendency and attitude towards naming places. Finally, it is hoped that the findings of this study will broaden the horizon from a more comprehensive perspective in social domains integrated with the field of language and linguistics.

Keywords:

identity , language , linguistics , names , socio-onomastic