全球航空公司名稱之地理空間意涵研究

Abstract

命名是將人事物等等概念的精簡化，並且對於命名對象投射命名者的概念、想法或期許，使之名稱內含特別的意義；事實上名稱反映出不同主體、立場等等，其背後蘊含著複雜、豐富和多元的思維及文化意涵。時至今日，在時空收斂的全球化環境中，航空公司成為不可或缺的重要交通工具，其名稱承載著本身的文化或意念進行跨地、跨國的移動，成為現代人們生活的一部分；而且航空公司自出現以來，多屬於國家特許性的產業，不僅要符合政府的種種規定，需要的資金也不容小覷。由此可知，成立一家航空公司並不容易，象徵整家公司的名稱更形重要，一定要考量其意義與代表性。

本研究以航空公司的名稱為例，針對航空公司的名稱類別大致趨勢作了一個廣泛的資料收集，並以全球和區域兩種尺度，分析全球752家、東亞100家和臺灣21家客運航空公司的名稱。搜尋資料的過程發現航空公司有中英文名稱相異的例子，為了建立起一致的分類標準，統一以航空公司的官方英文名稱為準，大致將梳理出的航空公司名稱分成能夠展現「地理空間意涵」的「國家民族」、「地方城市」、「地理方位」，與沒有具備地理空間訊息，無法歸類為前述三者中「非地理空間意涵」的「其他」，總共四項類別（國家民族、地方城市、地理方位、其他），進而探究航空公司四項類別名稱的來由與意義；了解國家民族類別名稱大多和航空產業的特殊性相關，造成世界各國多少都有此類名稱的航空公司，典型的例子就屬載旗航空，扮演一個國家民族象徵的角色。地方城市類別名稱則表示一種對地方、區域的認同，將航空公司變為一種在地的標誌；抑或用來強調自己的所在地點，以及本身航線服務的範圍。而地理方位類別名稱，明顯代表有其主體認知的中心。至於其他類別名稱，其實是隨著時代的進步，想法與觀念更趨豐富，名稱變成多元文化下的產物。

在全球尺度的部分，結果顯示除了非地理空間意涵的其他類別之外，四項類別名稱以地理空間意涵的國家民族類別最多，然後依序為地方城市、地理方位類別。其中觀察土地面積愈大或國家發展程度愈高的國家，航空公司樣本的總數與其他類別名稱的數量容易愈多。而國家發展程度較低的國家，航空公司名稱多數偏向國家民族類別。地方城市和地理方位類別名稱，則是顯著集中在土地面積特別廣大的國家。在區域尺度的部分，分析東亞區域官方語言為中文的國家和地區，其所屬的航空公司出現中英文名稱意思相異的現象，得知以該國官方語言對內，以及英語對外的差別意涵，主要是由於預期客戶的不同；以及與中文和英文本來就是屬於不同語言系統相關。並且整理東亞區域航空公司名稱的現況，可以看出四項類別名稱以地方城市類別為大宗，然後依序為其他、國家民族和地理方位類別。此外戰後至今，臺灣所有航空公司四項類別名稱的歷年變化趨勢，因為地方城市和地理方位類別樣本數量過少，導致大部分受到國家民族和其他類別樣本的影響，至今其他類別名稱占半數以上。Naming not only simplifies various concepts but also projects namer’ s thinking and expectation, which makes those names contain special meaning. As a matter of fact, naming reflects different subjects, standpoints and etc. There are many complicated, rich and multiple meaning behind them. In the world of globalization with time-space convergence, airplanes have become indispensable way of traveling to date. The names of airlines represent their own cultures to fly across the borders. Most of airlines are operated by nations; moreover, they not only need to qualify by the government, but also need many funds. Accordingly, establishing an airline company is not easy. Furthermore, the name of airline is also very important. It must be sufficient for its representation and full of meaning to symbolize the company.

Taking airlines’ names for analysis, this study widely collects and explores the reason of the airlines’ names, and the names of the categories of general trends. This research uses global and regional scales to analyze the name of airlines in total, which including 752 airlines in the world, 100 airlines in East Asia and 21 airlines from Taiwan. It can be found that some airlines’ names in English and that in Chinese are not the same. Therefore, this research is based on the official English airlines’ names for establishing the same standard. The names of airlines can be divided into four categories: nations, local cities, geographical position and the others. The former three have the geo-spatial implications; on the contrary the last one doesn’ t have and belongs to non-geo-spatial implications. It is found that most of airlines in the category of nations are flag carriers, which represent symbol of a country. The airlines from the category of local cities, which mainly use their headquarter’ s name or emphasize the places they serve. Moreover, the airlines for the category of geographical position show their center of cognition. As to the airlines from the others, with the time goes by, the naming has become the product of multiculturalism.

The study shows that except for the category of the others of non geo-spatial implications, from the global scale, most of the airlines’ names of geo-spatial implications belong to the category of nations. The second is the category of local cities, and the last one is the category of geographical positions. The results show large countries or higher level of development of the national State, the total number of samples and the names of the category of the others is more than others. Countries with low levels of development, the name of airlines mostly tend to be the category of nations. The name of local cities and geographical position, obviously concentrated in the countries that land area particularly large. As to the regional scale, this research analyzes the area where Chinese is the official languages in East Asia, and finds out the different meanings of airlines’ names between Chinese and English. It can be found that the meaning of the names of airlines in national official language is different from the meaning in English, the main reason is the different expectations of customers, and the Chinese language system is also different from English language system. Further probing into the status of the four categories of airlines’ names in East Asia, that display most of the name of the four categories is in the category of local cities, the category of the others is next, and then the category of nations and geographical position. In addition, since the end of The Second World War, relating to trends over the years for the four categories of airlines’ names in Taiwan, because the samples of the local cities and geographical position are too little, the four categories of airlines’ names in Taiwan are influenced by the samples of the nations and the others, more than half of the name are in the category of the others so far.