An Analysis of Advertising Language.doc

An Analysis of Advertising LanguageAcknowledgementsHere and now, I extend my sincere thanks to all those who have helped me to make this a better thesis than it would otherwise have been. Among them, I would like to show my heartfelt thanks and enormous gratitude to Professor Xi Yaxian, my supervisor, for her insightful guidance and earnest help all through the searching, analysis and paper-writing stages. I really appreciate her painstaking perusal of this thesis and valuable counsel for the advance in it. And it has been a great privilege and pleasure to work with and learn from her.In addition, the author also wants to extend her thanks to all the teachers at the Language School, especially Professor Lu Naisheng, whose enlightening instruction and insightful theory have guided me through the past three academic years and all the way to the completion of this thesis. Finally, I would like to thank all of the people who have given me love and support. It is a pleasure to dedicate this thesis to them all. Contents内容提要.1Abstract.2Chapter I Introduction1.1 1.1 Background.11.2 1.2 Previous Studies.11.3 1.3 Sources and Methodology.31.4 1.4 Overview of Advertising.3Chapter II Advertising Elements2.1 Headline.72.1.1 Definition of the Headline.72.1.2 Function of the Headline.82.2 Body Copy.82.2.1 Definition of the Body Copy.92.2.2 Categories in the Body Copy.92.3 Slogan.122.3.1 Definition of the Slogan.122.3.2 Syntactic Features of the Slogan. Short Sentences. Elliptical Sentences. Interrogative Sentences. Negative Sentences.14Chapter III General Features of Advertising Claim3.1 The Weasel Claim.163.2 The Unfinished Claim.173.3 The Conclusive Claim.183.4 The Superfluous Claim.193.5 The “So What” Claim.193.6 The Vague Claim.203.7 The Endorsement of Testimonial.20Chapter IV Lexical Features of Advertising Language4.1 Use of First and Second Person Pronouns.224.2 Use of Emotive or Evaluative Adjective or Adjectival Phrases.234.3 Use of Technical Terms and Scientific Sounding Words.244.4 Use of Negative Words.254.5 Use of Inclusive Words.254.6 Use of Compound Words .264.7 Use of Coined Words.26Chapter V Syntactic Features of Advertising Language5.1 Frequent Use of Simple Sentence.275.2 Frequent Use of Interrogative Sentence and Imperative Sentence.275.2.1 Interrogative Sentence.285.2.2 Imperative Sentence.285.3 Use of the Active Voice.295.4 Use of Minor Sentence.295.5 Use of the Present Tense.30Chapter VI Rhetorical Features in Advertising6.1 Pun.326.2 Alliteration.336.3 Repetition.336.4 Parallelism.346.5 Simile.356.6 Metaphor .356.7 Personification.366.8 Euphemism.37Conclusion.40Bibliography.41内容提要广告与我们的生活息息相关，在这个信息爆炸的时代，我们更是随处可见广告的踪影。电视，广播，报纸，网络，室外广告牌等等无不充斥着各种商品信息。广告已经成为促进销售，开拓市场的一个重要手段；相应地，外国广告的大量涌入也使之成为我国企业和消费者获取商品信息的重要来源。如何恰如其分的运用和理解英语广告语言以实现广告的目的，已是摆在进出口商、广告从业人员及广大消费者面前的一个现实问题。广告英语作为一种应用语言，因其所具有的特殊效用，已逐渐从普通英语中独立出来而发展成非规范化的专用语言，用词造句也具有与普通英语不同的特性，并随着广告的发展、时代的前进、社会的变更而变化。广告语言可以说是受语言学、心理学、经济学、营销学、社会学甚至美学多门学科诸多因素综合影响所形成，具有多方面的研究价值。本文试在结合广告学和语言学基本理论的基础上对各类具有典型特点的广告加以分析，以求为读者在理解广告英语的语言规律和从事广告英语实践上，提供一些启示和参考资料。本文共分七章：第一章为引言，阐述了广告英语语言的研究背景、研究方法以及对广告英语的纵览。第二章分别论述了广告各个组成部分的特点。第三章论述了英语广告语言中的词法特点。第四章论述了英语广告语言中的句法特点。第五章从广告语言的宏观出发，阐述了广告语的几大特点。第六章阐述了广告语言中的修辞手法。结尾部分对全文作了简要概述，并指出了本文欠缺之处及有待研究的方向。AbstractThis paper presents an analytical study of the language features of English advertisements at lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. In order to conduct a data-driven study, the author builds a corpus of over 100 English advertisements. It is hoped that through the detailed survey of all the advertisements including daily consumer goods ads, technical equipment ads, service ads, etc. advertising language features can be summarized and possible conclusion can be given in the light of persuasiveness and effectiveness of advertising.This paper will be presented in five parts. The first chapter is the introduction of the study background, sources and methodology, as well as the overview of advertising. The focus of the paper is laid on the five middle parts, which respectively analyze elements of advertising, lexical features, syntactic features, features of the claim, and the rhetorical features. It is hoped that the study can shed light on the language features of advertisements and also provide help to copywriters and advertising English learners. Chapter I Introduction1.1 BackgroundWe are living in an era of information explosion in which advertising seems to be an indispensable building block of the media. Radio, TV, and the press are, to a great extent, financially motivated to present ads. Seen in a sociological perspective, advertising will only flourish in a community where individuals live above subsistence level and where technological advancement makes mass-production possible (see Vestergaard & Schroder 1985). Over-production and under-demand often lead to a competitive market where advertising is justified. Now advertising is an integral part of our social and economic system. Everyday we are exposed to so much advertising. Just as Blake Clark said: “.the average man lives with the advertising mans work more hours a day than with his family, and is certainly more familiar with advertising slogans than with the proverbs in his bible.” (Blake Clark, The Advertising Smokescreen, 1998) we are so heavily and continuously barraged by advertising in modern life. Of all business activities, probably none is better known, more widely discussed, or more highly criticized by the public than advertising. One reason for this is that advertising has become the spokesman for business. As a form of mass communication closely linked with the world of commerce and marketing, advertising is a powerful tool for the flow of information from the seller to the buyer. It influences and persuades people to act or believe. It is also something which affects most of us in a number of different spheres of our lives. It not only influences any human society but also reflects certain aspects of that societys values and structure. There are many special and specific reasons for using advertising in its several forms. Announcing a new product or service, expanding the market to new buyers, announcing a modification or a price change, educating customers, challenging competition, recruiting of staff and attracting investors are a few of such reasons. In the process of creating advertisements for all these reasons, language, i.e., choice of expression is of crucial importance. What kinds of choices make an advertisement highly effective is something worthy to be studied from a linguistic perspective. As a form of mediums, advertising owns its distinctive linguistic characteristics which are generalized from the abundant examples presented in this thesis. 1.2 Previous Studies The study of language of advertising from a linguistic perspective has been attempted by several scholars (Leech 1966; Geis 1982; Vestergaard and Schrodder 1985; Mencher 1990, etc.). Leech (1966), in his pioneering and comprehensive study on English in advertising, has analyzed in detail different aspects pertaining to grammar, vocabulary, discourse and rhyme and rhetoric of advertising with special reference to television. He has effectively related these aspects with the functional factors such as attention value, listenability/readability, memorability and selling power. Illustration, display typography, vocal emphasis, prompt spelling, grammatical solecism, metaphor and paradox are some of the aspects linked with attention value. Simple and colloquial style and familiar vocabulary are connected with readability. Phonological regularities such as alliteration, rhythm, rhyme and jingle are related to memorability. Frequent use of imperatives and superlatives are connected with selling power. The distinctive property of advertising language has been closely identified with the use of clauses, phrases and words as minor sentences, which constitute a different kind of grammar called as disjunctive grammar. Geis (1982) has made an attempt to describe how language is used in American advertising, especially television advertising. He has focused on certain linguistic devices that figure most prominently in advertising. According to him, the advertising claims employing the word help as in phrases like helps to achieve and comparative phrases like more or less are impressive because they are indistinguishable from the law like generic claims of scientists. He has concluded that advertisers in general tend to prefer vague language rather than language with explicit empirical consequences and to prefer subjective claims to objective claims. Vestergaard and Schroder (1985) have studied the language use in commercial press advertising in relationship with communicative functions of language such as expressive, directive, informational, contextual and poetic etc. They have also identified the importance of imperatives and directive speech acts in encouraging the audience to buy the products. Mencher (1990) has looked into the aspect of vocabulary in advertising and identified ten words as the most personal and persuasive. They are: “new”, “save”, “safety”, “proven”, “love”, “discover”, “guarantee”, “results”, “you” and “health”. The psychological impact of these words on the consumers has also been discussed.1.3 Sources and Methodology I have used text materials from well-known newspapers and magazines, including such titles as THE TIMES, ELLE, FORBES etc. In addition to these titles my research included also newspapers FINANCIAL TIMES, SHANGHAI TIMES, CHINA DAILY, SHANGHAI STAR. Some are quoted from the books such as Advertising and Promotion, English Advertising, Contemporary Advertising, etc. To find more examples for my study, I have also acquired advertisements on the World Wide Web. All the material is divided into such subgroups: syntactic features, lexical features and rhetoric features and other distinctive features of ad claim. Some of the advertisements studied correspond to more than one subgroup and therefore feature in several occasions. I have also placed a caption before or after each example showing the company or the content (item advertised) of the advertisement. I have looked separately on both the slogans and the text body of the advertisements when discussing the syntactic features. In lexical investigation special attention is paid to the usage of specific vocabulary and special register.1.4 Overview of Advertising As you read the literature of the advertising field, you find many references to advertising, as an art and as a science. Is advertising an art? Is it a science? Can it be both? If we distinguish a science-a systematized body of knowledge-from an art, which may be defined as knowledge made efficient by skill, we can see that advertising is to some degree a science, inasmuch as there has evolved over the years a generally agreed-upon body of knowledge. That is, there are certain principles that people should know if they are to engage in advertising. Indeed, if this were not the case, there would be little justification for textbooks on advertising. But advertising is also an art, for creativity plays a considerable role in advertising, and it is also essential for the advertisers to know when and how to use advertising principles for greatest effectiveness. The advertisements can be classified into non-commercials and commercials on the basis of the object and purpose involved in advertising. In non-commercial advertisements, selling and buying are not involved and certain ideas, morals or appeals are communicated to the common public from government agencies or various associations and societies. The purpose may be related to charity, political propaganda, or different social welfare measures. Commercial advertisements are sub-classified into commercial consumer advertisements and prestige advertisements. The commercial consumer advertisements involve consumer goods such as cosmetics, medicines etc., while the prestige advertisements include services like banking, insurance etc. Of the different classes of advertisements, the commercial consumer advertisements are the most prominent in terms of both quality and quantity. A successful advertisement is expected to accomplish five functions namely (1) attracting attention, (2) commanding interest, (3) creating desire, (4) inspiring conviction and (5) provoking action. (Vestergaard and Shrodder, 1985). All these five functions are inter-related and in concert serve to promote the selling power of the product advertised. In achieving these functions in the production of an advertising copy, an effective use of language becomes all the more important. Commenting on the extreme care that one should take with regard to the use of language in advertisements, Ranade (1998) states: “Incredible, the amount of damage one may cause with a slight play on words here and there, or a twist in the title, or even by the willful omission of a single comma”.Before proceeding with a detailed discussion of advertising, we need to establish some definitions. The nature of advertising is such that definitions and classifications are arguable. Still if a discussion is to proceed in a systematic way, it is necessary to explain what is meant by the term “advertising”. Although it is difficult to concretely define the complex concept, there are some widely quoted definitions of advertising that can suggest some limits. At the turn of the 20th century a well-know advertising copywriter named John E. Kennedy remarked that advertising was “salesmanship in print”. This often-repeated saying indicates that the ultimate objective of advertising is to sell. In 1948, the Definitions Committee of the American Marketing Association developed what is, to this day, the most widely quoted definition of advertising:“Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.”The key words describing advertising are “presentation” and “promotion”. “Presentation” refers to an offering; “promotion” involves communication and persuasion; therefore, advertising is designed to offer people ideas, goods, or services and persuade them of the benefits, utility, and desirability. From the linguistic perspective, much of the language that occurs in commercial advertising is characteristic of what might be called the “advertising register”. “Register describes variation in language according to use. It captures the intuition that there are functionally distinct varieties of language in such context of situation as sport, science, or advertising.” (W. Downes, Concise Encyclopedia of Sociolinguistics, 2001) According to Leechs (1966:27) (Jefkins Frank, Advertising, 1985) classic treatise, the language of advertising is characterized by a number of preferred linguistic patterns and techniques: (1) Unorthodoxies of spelling and syntax, and semantic oddities are common to attract attention. (2) Simple, personal, and colloquial style and a familiar vocabulary are employed to sustain attention. (3) Phonological devices of rhyme and alliteration and sheer repetition are utilized to enhance memorability and amusement. Repetition is usually of two types: intra-textual and inter-textual. In the former, the products name and certain highlighted features are repeated several times. In the latter, a single slogan is consistently used in different ads for a single product or manufacturer. (4) An intimate, interactive addressing of the audience and a conversational mode is employed. (5) Abundant use is made of superlatives and hyperbole in characterizing the product, with often indirect reference to rival products. In advertising register, certain types of expressions are frequently used, such as elliptical comparatives (25 percent less tar), complex comparatives (more car for less money), imperatives used to make suggestions such as “Try it, and youll like it”, rhetorical questions (My friends, what is hamburger? Chopped ham?), adjectivalizations (meaty taste), etc. In the following chapters, detailed discussion will be presented in the lexical, syntactic and discourse level respectively.Chapter II Advertising ElementsUsually, advertising communicates information in three types: audio, visual, and language. It is a more common case tha