Now turn to section 3. Section 3. You will hear three linguistics students, Joe, Martin and Angela, discussing the presentation that Joe is giving soon as part of his course. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 26. Now listen to the first part of the conversation and answer questions 21 to 26.
Hi Martin. Hi Angela. Hi Joe.
Yeah, hi Joe. So you're really worried about your presentation, the one about names. I am.
Well, you know your stuff on names pretty well. So it's just a question of selecting what you want to use. That's right.
But there's so much. Well, you don't have to include everything. Let's start somewhere.
Well, for example, there's a lot to discuss about people's names in terms of culture. It would be a good way to start bringing in issues of religion, society. I thought so.
As long as you can keep it concise, since it's potentially a large area. I'll pick out some key points. Good.
Now that will tend to be about differences. What about something on ways in which naming practises are often similar across different languages? That sounds good. I'm not sure how much I could say that's really about just names and not really general language.
Maybe you need to give that some more thought. Yes, I'm not ruling it out. Well, what about what first names mean? That's got to be specific to languages or language groups.
Yes, there are all sorts of different principles at work. It's a rich area for discussion. And you can present lots of examples.
It would mean a good slide or two. I'll enjoy making those up. Don't forget to put our names in.
No, okay. Right, where have we got up to? Yes, now there's the question of place names. Ones where the name of the place is the word for the situation, like something to do with sea or mountain, etc.
Yes, people often don't realise the origin. It sounds like it's just a translation issue to me. Don't you think you might give that a miss? Given the time limit, perhaps you're right.
You need something on place names. Could you get history in? Actually, the way migrants often used to name places after somewhere in their country of origin is interesting. Sounds a bit narrow to me.
Well, I'd hope to build it up a bit. Perhaps you should make a final decision on that later. Okay, I'll see how the rest of it goes first.
Is that the lot? No, there's still country names, the origins of those. I think that's an interesting area. Yeah, because it's something we often don't think about.
It'd be a way to bring in various aspects, history certainly. I could project a map of the world and have people match the original meanings to the countries. Well, that seems to be a foregone conclusion.
Fine. Yes, I'm feeling clearer already. Now you have some time to look at questions 27 to 30.
Now listen to the rest of the conversation and answer questions 27 to 30. You know, there's another aspect that I think I'll cover. Yes? Brand names.
Isn't that more to do with business studies? Well, international companies are finding it increasingly important to have brand names that can be used in many different countries. Oh, so they can advertise the same product everywhere? Yes, and it seems that brand names are very special in our brains. How so? Well, there was a research study recently carried out on a group of about 50 students.
They showed them 108 words and the students had to say whether they recognised them as real words or not. The list included all mixed up, ordinary nouns, brand names and meaningless words, and they were shown all the words quickly. And the brand names seemed to be recognised strongly and in the emotional right-hand side of the brain.
It was interesting that the brand names were recognised more readily if they were displayed in capital letters rather than lowercase, something which doesn't apply to normal words. How strange! What else did the researchers find out? Of course, it's a relatively small study, but they suspect that other visual features are at play. And so that, for example, colour has a major effect in helping us to store brand names in a special way in our brains.
I suppose that's logical. But what do you, well, they mean by a special way? I'm not saying I understood everything about this study. Of course not.
But they seem to be saying that the power of brand names is that they conjure up a range of associations inside our brains, more so than ordinary words or names do. I guess this is great news for international companies. Potentially, certainly.
Though exactly what they do... That is the end of section three. You now have half a minute to check your answers.