Park Eun-ha. 2013. Socio-linguistic study on women's cosmetics' brand names in television advertisements. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 21(3). This study aims to investigate the linguistic perspective and social aspect of women's cosmetics' names. This research focuses on the names of women's cosmetics in TV advertisements from January 2008 to May 2012. From a linguistic perspective, this study analyzes the compounding structure of women's cosmetics' names on the basis of four determinants company name, brand name, product name, and the type of cosmetics. It also classifies brand names of women's cosmetics as Korean, Sino-Korean, English, and foreign language. Results show that brand names and compound words with brand name & product name were used more frequently in 2008-2009, while multi-syllable names such as brand name/company name+product name+types of cosmetics were used more frequently in 2010-2012. Moreover, there is a strong preference for English and foreign language (French) names in women's cosmetics. Four aspects can be found in the social aspect of women's cosmetics' names. In order of frequency of occurrence, “use of medicinal herbs or food”, ranks the highest, followed by “combination of science and medicine” and “emphasis on a nature-friendly environment” as the second and third most frequent in social aspect. Finally, “identification of object of envy” reflects that Korean women wish to be promoted to a higher status and to be seen as beautiful and assertive. In this study, attempts are made to generalize the characteristics of women's cosmetics' names in television advertisements over the past five years from linguistic and social perspectives. The results may contribute to guiding principles related to women's cosmetics' names and provide an insight into future research. (255 words)

• 박은하(대구대학교) | Park Eun-ha