In times past, drugs often derived from plants and were quite naturally named after them. Nowadays, considering the significant economic issues at stake (Dutchen 2009), pharmaceutical companies increasingly entrust brand agencies with the naming of their products (Kenagy 2001). In this article, we offer to analyze the names of some brand and generic drugs, exploiting the French VIDAL dictionary, the British National Formulary and the US FDA corpora, with the aim to bring to light the evolution of lexical trends over the last century. Whilst doing so, we wish to demonstrate that, in the field of pharmacology, the process of naming is nowadays not so much underlain by a legitimate need for clarity and scientificity but rather by marketing strategies some of which prove to be misleading for patients. Considering the now international dimension of the pharmaceutical industry, drug names are often the same around the world. Yet, there are exceptions, which we point out and explain. Furthermore, we deemed interesting to underline the extent to which medicines are part of our everyday life by pointing out nicknames that patients tend to give to their treatmentsusually sedatives, neuroleptics and the like -and metaphors they may resort to in English and in French. We conclude with the acknowledgement that medicines are henceforth like any other goods, whose financial stakes are such that, besides developing forceful new names, the pharmaceutical industry goes so far as inventing new diseases (disease mongering) to increase its market share (Even and Debré 2012).

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The English language] is the present language of the future and there is no reason why it should not be the international language of medicine and science wherever and whenever such a language is required. It would seem, therefore, to be the duty of English-speaking physicians to […] do all in their power to make their tongue the universal language of medical science. […] English medical literature is proportionately greater in volume than any other, and the fact that it is largely overlooked by continental writers should inspire us to more firmly demand its recognition. Medical knowledge should use the language which is destined to be foremost of all. (Journal of the American Medical Association Anonyme 2000 [1900]) Des discours de la médecine multiples et variés à la langue médicale unique e...

L'apprentissage d'une langue 2 ne peut se passer de l'apprentissage de la grammaire. La question n'est donc pas de savoir s'il faut, ou non, enseigner la grammaire mais de tenter de trouver une approche qui rende cette matière, réputée ardue, à la fois plaisante et claire. Le recours à une pédagogie de l'humour pourrait être une des solutions possibles à l'ennui anti-didactique qui règne trop souvent dans les salles de classe. Il s'agirait alors d'utiliser l'humour de façon systématique afin de créer une atmosphère propice à l'apprentissage et d'amener l'apprenant à une conscientisation accrue et à une meilleure mémorisation des structures langagières. Mais, comment intégrer des éléments humoristiques dans un cours de grammaire anglaise ? Quel est le degré d'efficacité de l'humour en tant que technique pédagogique ? Le recours à l'humour en pédagogie a-t-il des limites ?

This paper is a lexicological study of the brand names of newly FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved drugs which aims at highlighting the new trends observed in drug naming. For our corpus, we used a listing of 320 drugs approved by the FDA for sale in the United States for the years 2012 to 2017. In our study, we showed that the commonly used letters X and Z were giving way to A and O endings so as to attract Romance languages speaking clients. We demonstrated that this trend matched a less recent ploy in food and automotive marketing. We focused on the “Vowel/Consonant+lexeme” matrix that is found almost exclusively in the drug industry because it permits to create a name shorter in writing – an advantage for prescribers. Although the FDA recommended that “unsubstantial beneficial” connotations be banned, we uncovered the presence of promotional affixes as well as hidden emotional contents that are meant to be persuasive.