英语专业毕业论文-广告英语语言特色分析.doc

广告英语语言特色分析An Analysis of Language Features in English Advertisements摘要本文旨在通过对书面英语广告的语言分析总结出广告英语在词汇句法篇章上的语言特点。通过日用品广告科技设备广告服务业广告的深入细致的分析，总结出广告英语在此三类广告中的相同点与不同点，并且根据语言的意义，风格及功能解释广告英语的共性以及广告英语在不同类型广告中的特殊性。 本文共分五个部分，第一部分和第五部分分别为介绍与总结，中间三个部分为本文核心，分别展开广告英语在词汇句法篇章三个层面的分析。本文作者衷心希望此论文的分析结果能给英语广告的写作者以及广告英语的学习者提供帮助。关键词: 广告英语；词汇；句法；篇章AbstractThis paper presents an analytical study of the language features of English advertisements at lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. It is hoped that through the detailed survey of three types of advertisements: daily consumer goods ads, technical equipment ads, service ads, similarities and differences in advertising language features can be summarized and possible reasons will be given in the light of the meaning, and function of language.This paper will be presented in five parts. The first part is the introduction and the last conclusion. The focus of the paper is laid on the three middle parts which respectively analyze language features at lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. It is hoped that the study can shed light on the language features of advertisements and also provide help to advertising copy writers and advertising English learners.Key Words: English advertisements; vocabulary; syntax; discourseTable of ContentsIntroduction.1Chapter One Advertising.31.1 Definition of advertising.31.2 Classification of advertising.41.3 Emphasis of the study.5Chapter Two Lexical Features.72.1 Similarities at the lexical level.7 2.1.1 Use of few verbs.8 2.1.2 Use of emotive words.9 2.1.3 Use of simple words.10 2.1.4 Misspelling and coinage.112.2 Differences at the lexical level. .11 2.2.1 Gender identity.11 2.2.2 Selection of adjectives.14 2.2.3 Use of compound words16 2.2.4 Use of pronouns.18Chapter Three Syntactical features.203.1 Similarities.203.2 Differences.23 3.2.1 Headline23 3.2.2 Comparison of headlines of different types of ads24Chapter Four Discourse features.284.1 Body Copy.284.2 Differences in Body Copies.29Conclusion.33Bibliography.362IntroductionAn Analysis of Language Features in English AdvertisementIntroductionWe live in a world of advertising. As potential consumers, we are endlessly filled with all kinds of product or service information from various media including newspapers, magazines, television, radio and Internet, etc. Advertising provides a valuable service to society and its members, because it gives consumers the meaning and the role of products, services, and institutions. It indicates the difference that exists between brands of products and alternative services, as well as the distinguishing characteristics of companies and institutions. Advertising also tells the consumer what a specific product, brand or service should do when it is used and thus helps him or her to understand and evaluate experience with the products and services that he or she uses. On the other hand, by making people aware of products, service and ideas, advertising promotes sales and profits. Finally, advertising is one of the major forces that are helping improve the standard of living around the world. Combined with all these marketing and social functions, advertising becomes indispensable in the modern world.Naturally, advertisements in English have become an important means of communicating ideas demonstrating a variety of linguistic features of its own. The present study attempts to examine these features at the lexical, syntactic and discourse levels, in the hope of bringing them to light and, thereby, offering help to advertisement writers and language learners.AdvertisingChapter One Advertising1.1 Definition of advertisingAmerican Marketing Association (AMA) defines advertising as “the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.” Today, with the development of the technology and the diversity of the mass media, advertising has influenced us pervasively in our daily life. However, whatever the primitive strategies advertising takes, language is the main carrier of message all along, as The Language of Advertising, by Vestergaard & Schroder, says, “Advertising takes many forms, but in most of them language is of crucial importance.” Advertising language is a style of immediate impact and rapid persuasion. The point of an advertisement is to persuade you of the merits of a particular product or service, in order that you will take out some of your money.1.2 Classification of advertising Generally speaking, advertisements can be divided into two types: public relation ads and commercial ads. The former tries to advocate reputation for a social group, whose purpose is to leave a favorable impression upon the potential audience. The latter persuades people to purchase the products or use the recommended service. Commercial ads are much more presented through mass media for the reason that manufacturers and companies are willing to spend a large sum of money to make a certain product known or to boost the image of a certain brand. In some cases, competitors, like Coca-cola and Pepsi, even spare no expense to launch advertising campaigns to win over the market share. Commercial advertising can also be divided according to the target audience into consumer advertising and business advertising. Most of the ads in the mass media are consumer advertisements. They are typically directed at consumers. Since consumer advertising is most accessible to common people, the present study will focus on consumer advertising.1.3Emphasis of the study海量英语论文尽在英语论文网，免费下载网址：/需要其他类型英语论文可以咨询 QQ 253771735Usually, advertising conveys information in three ways: audio, visual, and written language. It is a more common case that an advertisement is a mixture of the three. In radio advertisements, music is always accompanied by language; on TV and motion pictures, music and language illustration are mixed with each other. Although music and pictures can provide some hints, or create a kind of atmosphere, the information about the product is limited. Even worse, it may lead to misunderstanding. Thus, we may say that language in a way provides more exact, detailed and dependable information whereas music and pictures only act as a supplementary means in advertising.Advertising language, playing a role of communication and persuasion, has developed its own features.This paper will focus on the language features of English advertisements at lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. It is hoped, by a contrastive study of advertisements on three types of products (daily consumer goods, technical equipment and service), similarities and differences of the three types of advertisements will be summarized and possible reasons will be given in the light of the meaning, and function of language.6 Lexical Features Chapter Two Lexical FeaturesIn this chapter, I will discuss the lexical features of advertising English. In linguistics, lexical is the vocabulary of a language.2.1 Similarities at the lexical levelIn order to make the information accessible to audience effectively, the choice of words in advertising is very cautious and skillful. The aim of the advertiser is quite specific. He wishes to capture the attention of the members of a mass audience and by means of impressive words to persuade them to buy a product or behave in a particular way. Both linguistic and psychological aspects are taken into consideration in the choice of words. Sharing the same purpose of advertisingto remind consumers of the benefits of particular products in the hope of increasing sales, the techniques used at the lexical level by advertisers do not vary markedly. The following points are some prominent similarities.2.1.1 Use of few verbsG. N. Leech, English linguist, lists 20 most used verbs in his English In Advertising: Linguistic study of Advertising In Great Britain (方薇, 1997:20). They are: make, come, get, give, have, see, buy, go, know, keep, look, need, love, use, feel, like, choose, take, start, taste.You will often read such sentences in an advertisement:Buy x. Use it. We make X will give you what you need. Youll love x. Get x.Well make this quick. (Hertz Car Return)All you need is a taste for adventure. (Millstone Coffee)Dont have much of a personality? Buy one. (Honda Motor) Most of these frequently used verbs have Anglo-Saxon origin that is the common core of English vocabulary. Linguistic study shows English native speakers tend to use words of Anglo-Saxon origin, because native words have comparably stable meaning. In advertising, these simple words can win the consumers by their exact, effective expression and a kind of closeness. Etymological studies show that the 20 verbs listed before, except use and taste which are from ancient French, all are Anglo-Saxon origin. Even the two words, use and taste have long become indispensable lexical items in the stock of common core vocabulary of the English people, developing their stable meaning and usage.2.1.2 Use of emotive wordsA close scrutiny of recent advertisements suggests that the soft-sell technique is now popular. By soft-sell technique we mean the one that favors a more emotive and less directive approach to promote a product, mainly focusing on the building of brand image. As a result, emotive words, most of which are pleasant adjectives, are greatly encouraged to use.Data from the corpus shows that the most frequently used adjectives are as follows:new, good/better/best, fresh, free, delicious, sure, full, clean, wonderful, special, crisp, real,fine, great, safe, and rich.These adjectives help to build a pleasant picture in readers minds and manage to create a belief in the potential consumer: If I buy this product or if I choose this service, I will lead a better life. In addition, comparatives and superlatives occur to highlight the advantage of a certain product or service. For example:Nothing comes closer to home. (Vegetable and Chicken Pasta Bake)Good better best never let it rest. (Aucma) 2.1.3 Use of simple wordsThe function of advertising is to provide information, attract consumer, exploit market, and promise the quality. Therefore, advertisement must pay attention to its impelling language, and the first step is to use popular and oral language to make it easy to understand and memorize.For example:Just do it. (Nike)Ask for more. (Best)The taste is great. (Nestle Coffee)2.1.4 Misspelling and CoinageIn some of advertisements, the advertising copywriter misspells some words on purpose. Although the new words still keep the original meanings, they are quite different from the original words in spelling, which will make the advertisement more vivid, interesting and attractive.E.g. We know eggsactly how to sell eggs.In this advertisement, “eggsactly” is the variation of “exactly”, a echo the word “eggs” at the end of the sentence.The Orangemostest Drink in the world.In this drink advertisement, the word “orangemostest” actually is “orange+most+est”. It uses this word to express the high quality a purity of the drink.2.2 Differences 2.2.1 Gender identity in advertisementsWhile we found quite a lot of similarities in the choice of words, we have also found some delicate differences in the choice of words in the three types of advertisements as classified before: daily consumer goods ads, technical equipment ads, and service ads.Language, as a communicative tool, is not only to impart information, to communicate ideas about a product, etc., but also to convey information about the relationship between the addresser (advertisement) and the addressee (the audience). An intimate relationship between the advertisement and the audience is always hoped to achieve. So according to different audience, language applied is different.What constitutes a female and a male identity, according to advertising? Table 1, based on the language of advertising (Torben Vestergaard & Kim Schroder, 1981:74)the following tables are adapted from the same place , gives the commodity profile of two gender-identified magazines: Women and Playboy and also provides the distribution of the different types of advertisements. Percentage of ads Women (%) Playboy (%) DailyConsumerGoodsHygiene103Beauty181Clothes1214Food, Detergents31-Tobacco815Beer, Spirits-25Leisure-3 Technical EquipmentVehicle-27Radio, hi-fi-4Computer-7ServiceInsurance, banking2- Others191Table 1 Distribution of three types of advertisementsIt can be seen from table detergents ads are dominant in the womens magazines while technical equipment ads prevail in mens magazines. The reason is that women are potential purchasers of daily consumer goods while men are potential purchasers of technical equipment. So advertising language tries to win its audiences by noticing the audiences gender identity.2.2.2 Selection of adjectivesAdjectives, as emotive and exciting words, are used to enhance the facts of a certain product or service. In the study of the selection of adjectives, we have first divided adjectives into two groups: descriptive adjectives and evaluative adjectives. The former is used in objective description and the latter give the advertisers subjective comments. Then we have listed those frequently used descriptive adjectives and evaluative adjectives in daily consumer goods ads and technical equipment ads, and we surprisingly have discovered descriptive adjectives differ from each other in two kinds of advertisements. Descriptive adjectivesEvaluative adjectives DailyConsumerGoodsAds radiant, shiny, dazzling, goldsoft, smoothfreshcreamy, crispyclean easy, convenientrich, effective, crucialhealthy, fastvaluable, flewessentialgood/better/bestmagic TechnicalEquipmentAds audible, visiblehigh-volume, full-color,high-speedmagnetic, sharpinvisible, multipleflexible, versatileTable 2 Comparison of frequently-used adjectives in daily consumer goods ads and technical equipment adsTable 2 shows that descriptive adjectives in daily goods ads such as fresh, crispy, and soft, tend to convey the sense of sight, touch, and taste. The temptation aroused by this vivid description of a product is hard to resist especially for women who tend to be moved by pleasant senses; compared with men, women are inclined to think in terms of images and perceive through senses. However, men, the target audience of technical equipment, are good at rational thinking. Men are not controlled by senses. On the contrary, the products interior quality and function is what they pay attention to. So the descriptive adjectives used in technical equipment ads are the ones conveying information of the product, such as taudible, visible, high-volume, high-speed, etc.2.2.3Use of compound wordsA compound word is often a noun or an adjective made up of two or more words. Compound adjectives are often seen in advertisements. In the present study, we found compound words turn up with varying proportions in three types of advertisements. Compound- used AdsTotal AdsPercentageDaily Consumer Goods52025%Technical Equipment132065%Service72035%Table 3 compound words used in three types of adsObviously, compound words turn up in 65% equipment ads, 40% points higher than that of daily consumer goods ads; 30% points higher than service ads. Compound words in technical equipment ads, are usually combined to give an exact description of a certain feature or a certain function such as high-volume, full-color, multi-functional, non-stop, water-cooled. Often numbers are employed in front of the hyphen, which is seldom see24-valve, 4-wheel, and 255-horsepower. This difference can be accounted for in ter complexities of the goods. In comparison with daily consumer goods and services, technical equipment is much more complicated in function and structure. It is just the advantageous function or newly designed structure that the advertiser wants to highlight in technical equipment ads. Thus, the advertiser employs, even coins, so many compound words that they can make the introduction of complicated technical equipment brief and precise. Grammatically, compound words help to avoid using clause, which enhance the readability of advertisements.2.2.4 Use of pronouns海量英语论文尽在英语论文网，免费下载网址：/需要其他类型英语论文可以咨询 QQ 253771735Pronouns of the first and second person: we, outnumber the other pronouns in advertisements. It is because that you, we and I help create a friend-like intimate atmosphere to move and persuade the audience. Advertisements that go like talking with friends closely link the advertisement and the audience. The audience recommended them. Though pronouns of the first and second person are pop advertisements, there are some differences in the use of these pronouns in the three kinds of advertisements. The first person we almost never occur in daily consumer goods ads and technical equipment ads, whereas we is used in almost 80% the service ads