BaeFoLa-Flyer with a donut text: In recent years, the rise of vegetarianism and veganism has not only transformed consumer habits but also reshaped the language of food. As plant-based products enter mainstream markets, they encounter both legal challenges around labeling and the need for brands to signal innovation and authenticity. This talk explores how linguistic creativity influences product naming by drawing on a manually compiled corpus with product names from international plant-based brands. Instances from the corpus illustrate how spelling innovations, playful blends and positively connotated words, amongst others, create new ways of conveying the product’s ‘plant-based’ nature while appealing to consumer imagination and adapting to both regulatory frameworks and marketing needs. Beyond individual cases, these patterns reveal how branding contributes to a broader shift in English vocabulary, giving rise to persuasive and inventive naming. In conclusion, linguistic devices act as innovative tools for conveying specific product attributes, while fostering lexical creativity and novelty in Modern English and enhancing brand positioning, appeal, and memorability.

November is nearly over so it's time for our next #BæFoLa session! 🍩 This Friday, Nov 28 (12:30-13:30 CET), Isabel Espinosa-Zaragoza will talk on Zoom about "VeggieWords: Lexical Innovation in Vegan and Vegetarian Product Naming". All welcome! #LanguageAndFood #CulinaryLinguistics #VeggieWords 🥕🥬🥦