„Co na to słownik? Co na to zasady pisowni? Milczą, wciąż pozwalają…” : O MAKARą (nie?)

Abstrakt

The author of the article discusses the name of the food product MAKARą in the context of unlimited rights of proper names. According to the traditional view, a proper name denotes only and has no meaning, although this theory is undermined in the light of new linguistic phenomena. Lots of chrematonyms has also an advertising function, some of them basing on appelatives and being created  in such a way the relation between an appeletive and a proper name could be readable. This is in case of MAKARą derived from makaron (English noodle) with the transforming of spelling and pronunciation. Regardless of whether the pragmatic effect of the name is successful, from the point of view of the system of Polish language the name brings a lot of trouble. It is not accentuated in accordance with the rules of Polish stress and it cannot be inflected. Its form does not allow to decide about its grammatical gender unamibiguously and when spelt according to the Polish spelling rules (Makarą), loses its advertising power. There is also an ethical aspect of the discussed name – because of its deceptive form, namely the ending –ą, it can have bad influence on the correctness of language. This is because there are specific troubles connected with the pronunciation and spelling of nasal vowels and the group consisting of a vowel and a nasal consonant and the mistakes in this area are still common. The example of the name discussed prompts the author to reflect on whether creating proper names should be at least in some way restricted.