What's in a Name? The Place of Language in the Naming of Programmes in the Zambian Radio and Television Industry

Abstract

The old Shakespearian rhetorical question, 'What's in a name?'’' comes to the fore when we examine the names given to programmes by Zambian radio and television stations. While most people are not bothered by such names and would argue that it is the content of the programmes that is paramount, not the names thereof, it may be argued that the names are worth analysing from the perspective of onomastics, which is the scientific study of names and naming systems. No study has been conducted on the names of radio and television programmes in Zambia, and this is the lacuna that this study is concerned with. The study is qualitative in nature and analyses names of programmes in both public and private media houses. More specifically, the study concerns itself with the language used in the naming – that is, whether local names are used apart from English names and if so, which Zambian languages are the local names associated with. The findings reveal that none of the media houses selected for the study has a formal or written policy on language use. The naming of programmes tends to follow a linguistic pattern similar to what obtains with regard to the use of language: the public media has more programmes with names in local languages than the private media. Ultimately, however, the findings of this study underline the fact that there is no formal language policy guiding the affairs of the nation. It may be concluded, therefore, that the situation cannot be corrected or ameliorated without a clear language policy at national level.