The word is not enough? : a linguistic analysis of James Bond film titles

Abstract

It is undisputable that the James Bond movies constitute the longest and the most successful series in the history of cinema.. The titles of particular movies may be treated as specifi c brand names contributing to the commercial success of the fi lms. Successful brands, in turn, are developed and evaluated with the participation of linguists. The article analyses them from the perspective of the linguistic features of a successful brand name. The analysis focuses on the relationship between the titles and the fi lm plot. It also covers the identifi cation of the lexical and grammatical features of the titles. The author will endeavour to prove that linguistic features have played a vital role in the creation and the promotion of the 007 myth.