英语广告中的语言特征分析.doc

英语广告中的语言特征分析AN ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE FEATURESIN ENGLISH ADVERTISEMENTS【内容摘要】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。为了使研究从数据出发得出科学结论，本文作者建立了一个拥有60篇各类广告的小型语料库。通过对此语料库中日用品广告科技设备广告服务业广告的深入细致的定量和定性分析，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。 矚慫润厲钐瘗睞枥庑赖。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。本文的结论均来自于对语料库的分析。整个研究从数据出发，由数据驱动，由此进行语言学上的分析与概括。聞創沟燴鐺險爱氇谴净。【关健词】 广告英语；词汇；句法；篇章；相同点；不同点 【Abstract】This 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 60 English advertisements. It is hoped that through the detailed survey of three types of advertisements: namely, 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.残骛楼諍锩瀨濟溆塹籟。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. The conclusion of this paper is drawn from the data analysis. In the analysis, examples from the corpus will be given; figures, tables and graphs will also be offered to make the paper understandable and persuasive.酽锕极額閉镇桧猪訣锥。【Key words】English Advertisements； Lexical； Syntactic；Discourse；彈贸摄尔霁毙攬砖卤庑。Similarities；Differences 1. Introduction 1.1 Rationale of the study We live in a world of advertising. As potential consumers, we are endlessly bombarded with all kinds of product or service information from various media including newspapers, magazines, television, radio, posters and Internet, etc. Advertising provides a valuable service to society and its members, because it defines for 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 communicational, marketing and social functions. Advertising becomes indispensable in the modern world.謀荞抟箧飆鐸怼类蒋薔。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.厦礴恳蹒骈時盡继價骚。1.2 Definition of advertising According to the Definition Committee of American Marketing Association , advertising is defined as follows: 茕桢广鳓鯡选块网羈泪。Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.鹅娅尽損鹌惨歷茏鴛賴。1.3 Focus of the present study Usually, advertising communicates information in three types: audio, visual, and 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. In magazines and newspapers, advertisements are a combination of pictures and language of written information. 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.籟丛妈羥为贍偾蛏练淨。 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.預頌圣鉉儐歲龈讶骅籴。1.4 Sources of data All the advertisements studied in this paper are taken from English magazines. They are chosen from Time, People and Newsweek (issues from 1999-2000), because these three magazines have a huge circulation, covering all kinds of audience. Almost all kinds of advertisements can be found in these magazines. In order to get valuable information for the study, a corpus of 60 advertisements was built, which consists of 20 daily consumer goods ads, 20 technical equipment ads, and 20 service ads. Conclusions will be drawn through quantitative and qualitative studies of the data.渗釤呛俨匀谔鱉调硯錦。2 Lexical Features 2.1 Classification of advertising and its audience 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 leads to the act of purchasing the products or using 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 Perpsi, 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 two groups: consumer advertising and business advertising. Most of the ads in the mass media are consumer advertisements. They are typically directed at consumers. By contrast, business advertising tends to be concentrated in specialized business publications, professional journals, trade shows targeting at a certain group of people involved in some business. Since consumer advertising is most accessible to common people, the present study on will focus on consumer advertising. The classification of advertising is clearly shown in the following graph:铙誅卧泻噦圣骋贶頂廡。Graph 1 Classification of advertisements The bold parts show the scope of advertisements we study. Daily consumer goods are necessities of daily life, such as food, detergent, hygiene, etc. Technical equipment is technical toys and electric equipment such as camera, vehicle, hi-fi, etc. Service covers bank, insurance, fund, etc.擁締凤袜备訊顎轮烂蔷。Actually, advertising works effectively some of the time and doesnt work other times. The single crucial reason that advertising does not work is that in specific instances the information it conveys never reaches the consumer at all, or is judged by the consumer to be either redundant, meaningless, or irrelevant. For example, a motorbike advertisement will probably be invisible to housewives on the lookout for new cutlery. Social status and individual interest decide that consumer goods ads are mainly targeting at women while technical equipment ads are largely aiming at men. The amount of shared knowledge between the advertiser and the audience together with the thinking habit of the audience directly influences the advertising language. Since products and audience change in every advertisement in order to achieve high advertising effectiveness, language used differs in different types of advertisements. Thus, in this paper we discuss not only the similarities of language shared by all types of advertisements but also differences of language used in different kinds of advertisements.贓熱俣阃歲匱阊邺镓騷。2.2 Similarities at the lexical level In 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, such as going to Hawaii for all their holiday needs. Both linguistic and psychological aspects are taken into consideration in the choice of words. Sharing the same purpose of advertisingto familiarize or 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.坛摶乡囂忏蒌鍥铃氈淚。2.2.1 Few verbs are used G. 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, get, give, have, see, buy, come, go, know, keep, look, need, love, use, feel, like, choose, take, start, taste.蜡變黲癟報伥铉锚鈰赘。All these verbs listed above are also popular in the corpus we built.買鲷鴯譖昙膚遙闫撷凄。 You will often read such sentences in an advertisement:綾镝鯛駕櫬鹕踪韦辚糴。 Buy x. Use it. We make X will give you what you need. Youll love x. Get x. Fox example:驅踬髏彦浃绥譎饴憂锦。 Well make this quick. (Hertz Car Return) Get great coverage thats so weightless and water-fresh. (ALMAY) 猫虿驢绘燈鮒诛髅貺庑。 All you need is a taste for adventure. (Millstone Coffee) 锹籁饗迳琐筆襖鸥娅薔。 Youll love it even more with the 2.1 megapixel C-2000 ZOOM. (Olympus Camera) 構氽頑黉碩饨荠龈话骛。 Dont have much of a personality? Buy one. (Honda Motor) 輒峄陽檉簖疖網儂號泶。 All these frequently used verbs are monosyllabic and most of them 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.尧侧閆繭絳闕绚勵蜆贅。 2.2.2 Use of emotive words A 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.识饒鎂錕缢灩筧嚌俨淒。Data from the corpus shows that the most frequently used adjectives are as follows:凍鈹鋨劳臘锴痫婦胫籴。 new, good/better/best, fresh, free, delicious, sure, full, clean, wonderful, special, crisp, real, fine, great, safe, and rich. 恥諤銪灭萦欢煬鞏鹜錦。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:鯊腎鑰诎褳鉀沩懼統庫。Nothing comes closer to home. (Vegetable and Chicken Pasta Bake) 硕癘鄴颃诌攆檸攜驤蔹。Think Lysol is the best disinfecting spray. (Disinfecting Spray) 阌擻輳嬪諫迁择楨秘騖。The worlds coolest CDs arent made in New York, London or L.A. They are made in my apartment. (Philips CD Recorder) 氬嚕躑竄贸恳彈瀘颔澩。The Compaq Armada family is lighter, with new rounded edges for easier packing. (Compaq)釷鹆資贏車贖孙滅獅赘。 2.2.3 Make pun and alliteration Pun is an amusing use of a word or phrase that has two meanings which is called Polysemy or of words with the same sound but different meanings which is called Homonymy. Pun, the game of words, will leave a deep impression on readers by its readability, wit, and humor. However, to make a successful and impressive pun is not easy. Except for its own meaning, the word used as a pun is usually closely related to the characteristics of a certain product or the brand name of the product. Such coincidence doesnt occur often. Here we present several classic pun- used advertisements. For example:怂阐譜鯪迳導嘯畫長凉。 Give your hair a touch of spring. Ask for more. (More is a famous brand of cigarette) 谚辞調担鈧谄动禪泻類。Give your business the sharp edge. (Sharp Corporation)嘰觐詿缧铴嗫偽純铪锩。 By using pun, advertisements will be easily remembered by the readers. In addition, filled with wit and humor, puns help the advertised product win favor from readers.熒绐譏钲鏌觶鷹緇機库。Alliteration is the use of words that begin with the same sound in order to make a special communicative effect. Usually they are pleasing to ears because of the clever choice of the word by the advertiser. In addition, the repetition of the beginning sound emphasizes the meaning the advertisement wants to express. The following are examples picked from the corpus.鶼渍螻偉阅劍鲰腎邏蘞。, everything you need for that big bargain basement special. 纣忧蔣氳頑莶驅藥悯骛。, and vitamin E to leave skin soft and smooth. Treat your weary ghosts and goblins to a warm bowl of chill and 颖刍莖蛺饽亿顿裊赔泷。 2.2.4 Use of weasel words A weasel word is defined as “a word used in order to evade or retreat from a direct or forthright statement or position” according to Webster Dictionary (Philip Babcock Gove, 1976). The use of weasel words has become a device in advertising. Weasel words make people hear things that arent being said, accept as truth that have only been implied, and believe things that have only been implied and suggested. Lets take a look under a strong light at several frequently used words.濫驂膽閉驟羥闈詔寢賻。 Help Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail helps maintain urinary tract health. 銚銻縵哜鳗鸿锓謎諏涼。 It helps control the bacteria in this system. A breakthrough way to help stop wear-out Help finance the video equipment. All the examples shown are from our corpus. 23% advertisements of all samples use the word help. These helps can be omitted because they have lost their original meaning: aid, assist. Yet, help in advertising English is never redundant. It has magic power in advertisers eyes.挤貼綬电麥结鈺贖哓类。Help is the great qualifier; once the advertiser says it, he can say anything after it. Help qualifies everything. The audience has never heard anyone say, “This product will keep you young,” or “This toothpaste will positively prevent cavities for all time.” Obviously, advertisers cant say anything like that, because there are not any products like that made. But by adding that one little word help, in front, they can use the strongest language possible afterwards. And the most fascinating part of it is that the readers are immune to the word. The readers literally dont hear the word help. They only knew what comes after it. That is strong language, and likely to be much more important to the readers than the little word at the front. 赔荊紳谘侖驟辽輩袜錈。 Like Its like getting on bar free. Cleans like a white tornado. Its like taking a trip to Portugal. Like is also a qualifier, and is used in much the same way as help. But like is also a comparative element, with a very specific purpose; advertisers use like to get the audience to stop thinking about something that is bigger than or better or different from the product which are being sold. In other words, they can make the audience believe that the product is more than it is by likening it to something else. Like help, like doesnt catch much attention. However by using it, almost anything can be said and promised afterwards.塤礙籟馐决穩賽釙冊庫。 2.3 Differences at the lexical level 2.3.1 Gender identity in advertisements While 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.裊樣祕廬廂颤谚鍘羋蔺。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.仓嫗盤紲嘱珑詁鍬齊驁。What constitutes a female and a male identity, according to advertising? Table 1, based on the language of advertising (Torben Vestergaard & Kim Schr der, 1981:74), gives the commodity profile of two gender-identified magazines: Women and Playboy and also provides the distribution of the different types of advertisements.绽萬璉轆娛閬蛏鬮绾瀧。Table 1 Distribution of three types of advertisements 骁顾燁鶚巯瀆蕪領鲡赙。 Percentage of ads Women (%) Playboy (%) DailyConsumerGoodsHygiene103Beauty181Clothes1214Food, Detergents31-Tobacco815Beer, Spirits-25Leisure-3 Technical EquipmentVehicle-27Radio, hi-fi-4Computer-7ServiceInsurance, banking2- Others191It c