When I needed to name my restaurant, I made a list of a dozen French words, showed the list to random people and asked them to say the words.
 
Long story short, my fake-French bistro was named the Bistro Belle Fleur, "belle" being a word that every one of my guinea pigs pronounced exactly the same way, with no hesitation, and "fleur" likewise. Both "beautiful" and "flower" are names that have pleasant connotations, probably in any language and particularly together.
 
OSISTMATT.
 
.brad.12june09.

--- On Fri, 6/12/09, Dick Veit <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Juliet claimed that "that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." That's one of many things she got wrong. Would it really smell as sweet to us if the plant were called the "skunk cabbage weed"? Advertisers and politicians devote untold effort to naming products and programs because they believe names matter. Think of "the death tax," "Operation Iraqi Freedom," "the Patriot Act." People in opinion polls respond differently depending on what the thing is called. You get different results if you ask people if they're "pro-life" or if you ask if they're "anti-choice." Words have connotations, and connotations affect our responses.

Certainly we can have thought and opinions without language. Of equal certainty, names and labels for things affect our responses to them. 


  
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