What is the special meaning of greeting
cards
and postcards?
As a consequence of the different developments of customs, techniques and official regulations, a linguistically logical generic term for all products in this field has not exclusively evolved either in Germany or in other countries (English: greeting card, Russian: open letter). Sympathy cards, for example, do not really contain congratulations; cards without any imprinted text are not necessarily congratulatory or greeting cards but can carry completely different messages. The term postcard can also lead to difficulties. An attempt to find a definition has therefore been made as follows, taking not only the professional linguistic preferences used in the field but also customers' general linguistic usage into consideration.
Definitions
Postcards are cards...
... made of cardboard of between 150 and 500 grammes per
qm stength on which a message is written. They are sent without
envelopes, and a stamp has to be affixed by the sender. Where
a local motif is printed on the front side of such a postcard,
it is called a view card.
... made of cardboard of approx. 150 grammes
per qm strength, with an imprinted stamp on the side with the
space provided for the address and with a neutral front side
left blank for the message to be written and sent without envelopes.
They are sold in postal offices by the Deutsche Post AG (German
Post).
A greeting card...
... is a sheet of paper or thin cardboard of most varying
forms on which greetings or emotional messages are written. They
are handed over or sent in envelopes.
Consumer survey
In June 1998, a consumer survey asked 738 people within stationary
departments in
3 branches of a large German department store company in Bremen,
Berlin and Munich what generic term they would spontaneously
use for products of the greeting card branch:
|
60,7 % |
of all asked consumers the term Congratulatery card | |
|
12,4 % |
of all asked consumers the term Cards | |
|
8,5 % |
of all asked consumers the term Best wishes Cards | |
|
6,2 % |
of all asked consumers the term Postcards | |
|
4,0 % |
of all asked consumers the term Greeting cards | |
|
8,2 % |
of all asked consumers other terms | |
It therefore seems apparent that the term "congratulatory card"
(= German: "Glückwunschkarte") should be used as the generic term
for any product made in this field of business, at least until a better term
can be found.
What is the special meaning
of greeting cards
and postcards?
How do postcards and greeting cards take shape?
Greeting Cards
in the change of times
The
history of open to send postcards
An exhibition of
postcards during the "Paperworld" in Frankfurt 1999
The
development
of both the postcard
and the picture postcard
Sympathy
cards
from all over the world
An exhibition during
the "Paperworld" in Frankfurt 1998
The official measurements for envelops in Germany