According to the proponents of this position, Allah functions like the word El in the OT, namely as a
generic noun for God.
The
generic noun that identifies the product or service should be used immediately after the trademark name.
Duke and Kays (1998) state, "these young children produced proportionally more timeless verb constructions, more
generic noun constructions, more repetition of the topical theme, more characteristic information book openings, more classificatory structures, and more comparative/contrastive structures" after they were exposed to information book language over 3 months period (p.306).
See also RANDOM HOUSE WEBSTER'S UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY, supra note 129 ("Critics of the use of MAN as a generic maintain that it is sometimes ambiguous when the wider sense is intended."); PUBLICATION MANUAL OF THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, supra note 29, at 66 ("The use of man as a
generic noun or as an ending for an occupational title (e.g., policeman) can be ambiguous and may imply incorrectly that all persons in the group are male.").
Only on three occasions, however, is it used as a
generic noun. Generally, "black" is exploited as an adjective and used metaphorically ("black shapes," "black shades," "black bones," "black frenzy"), as if Conrad was hesitant about using it generically, preferring the word indicating the Negroid race instead.
First, the
generic noun is used without modifiers as a noun phrase to convey 'someone' or 'something' in sentences of the type 'I saw a person'.
A trademark is only properly used as an adjective to modify a
generic noun. It should never be used as a noun or a verb.
Genericization theory developed as a response to claims from outside of linguistics that generic use in brand names (for example, using Kleenex as a
generic noun for all facial tissues, or Xerox for all photocopiers) is the result of marketing factors or misuse by consumers.
noun--a word that names something--a person, place, thing, or idea; a common noun may refer to categories of persons, places, and things; a proper noun refers to a specific person, place, or thing and is always capitalized; a
generic noun names the typical member of a group; see also collective noun
(4) In English, for instance, each of the above-mentioned three types of
generic noun phrases is ambiguous in the sense that they may be associated with a generic interpretation and one or more nongeneric interpretations: in addition to the generic reading, the definite singular phrase is associated with a specific/definite reading, the indefinite singular phrase with a specific/indefinite and a nonspecific/indefinite ("attributive" or "narrow-scope") reading, and the bare plural phrase may likewise carry a specific/indefinite and a nonspecific/indefinite interpretation; cf.
Unfortunately, people started referring to the fastener itself as a "zipper"--by 1928, the Oxford English Dictionary Supplement shows that the word had become a
generic noun. Goodrich tried to save his trademark through legal channels, but it was too late.