I. Introduction
With increasing communication in the world and acceleration of economic globalization, English advertising has found its way into people’s life. Every day, people are exposed to a large number of advertisements no matter whether they like them or not. But what is advertising? What are the objectives of advertising? What are the functions of advertising? And what significance does a study of advertising possess? These are the questions of which we must have a good idea before we proceed to explore the main features or characteristics of English advertising texts.
1.1 Definition of advertising
In English, the word “advertise” has its origin in “advertere” in Latin, meaning “to inform somebody of something”, “to bring into notice” or “to draw attention to something”, etc.
There are different definitions of advertising. Abert Lasker, father of modern advertising, said that advertising was “salesmanship in print”(赵静，1992：302).
This definition was given a long time before the advent of radio and television came into being. In the past, the nature and scope of advertising were considerably different from those today. The definition indicates that the ultimate objective of advertising is to sell. Obviously, this is not an all-round definition, for it can not cover all advertisements. An advertisement may be defined as a public notice ‘designed to spread information with a view to promoting the sales of marketable goods and services’ (Harris and Heldon, 1962:40), or defined as a vital marketing tool as well as a powerful communication force. American Marketing Association (AMA) (赵静，1992：1)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.”
The Essay on Definitions in English
Day 1 Notes (July 5, 2010) Foreshadowing Hints about what will happen later on. Pathos Literature evokes pity or sadness (reading makes feel sad) Irony -Dramatic- Audience knows something that the character doesn’t. -Verbal/Situational- Inconsistency between what you expect and what actually happens or is said. Verbal is spoken or written whereas situational is acted. Contrast Finding the ...
Although advertising can be defined in many different ways, the essential points concerning its definition may be summarized as follows: Advertising is a kind of extensive communication of information usually highly paid for and strongly persuasive by nature.
1.2 Functions of advertising
Which type of advertisements is successful? And what features does a successful advertisement possess? American Marketing Manager’s Handbook points out that an advertisement should have four functions: AIDA, which represent four words—Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
Attention—a good advertisement should attract the consumer to direct their attention to the product being adverised.
Interest—the introduction and publicity of an advertisement should arouse consumers’ great interest.
Desire—the advertisement should stimulate consumers’ desire to buy the product, and make them realize that this product is just what they want.
Action—advertising is supposed to make consumers respond to the advertised information and evoke them to take the action of purchasing.
Broadly speaking, an advertisement has at least one of two functions: informing or persuading, though overlapping may often take place in one single piece. Informative advertisements inform “customers about goods, services, or ideas and then tell people how to get them by means of an identified sponsor” (Bolen, 1984:6).
An advertisement of this type supplies basic, factual information and sometimes shows a photo or an illustration of the product/service to give the target audience a better view of the advertised product. Persuasive advertisements are the instruments used by advertisers “who have defined their target audiences and determined the effect they hope to achieve through persuasive advertisements in the media” (Bolen, 1984: 9).
The Essay on Advertisement on Axe Products.
In this article, you will se that this guy is covered in chocolate. It’s to promote one of axes body sprays for men. Although the body spray smells like chocolate that is not the only reason hes covered in chocolate. This product has advertisements that portray the deoderant, body sprays, etc. To be a major factor in attracting girls. It also says it will last up to 24 hours. This makes the ...
A persuasive advertisement should try to persuade the potential customers to buy the new product (Bolen, 1984: 6).
The persuasive function is directed not only at attracting the potential customers to buy a certain commodity, but also at the selling of services, ideas, norms and values.
1.3 Brief survey of relevant literature
As far as we know, some books and papers concerning English advertising have been published at home and abroad. Professor Huang Guowen wrote and published an academic book entitled Analyses of Advertising Texts (2000), which is the most influential in China. The Language of Advertising by Torben Vestergaard and Kim Schroder, which was first published in 1985, is mainly concerned with the language features and communication functions of advertising. They support 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 Language of Television Advertising by an American writer named Michael L. Geis explores the linguistic features and non-verbal understanding of television advertising. Contemporary Advertising by Courtland L. Bovee, William F. Arens, which was first published in 1989, discusses the characteristics of contemporary advertising, the effects of advertising as a major form of communication, etc. Language in Advertising by Geoffrey N. Leech, which appeared in Britain in 1966, lays the foundation for exploration of the language of English advertising. The above-mentioned works discuss language characteristics of English advertising from different angles, each of them emphasizing some particular aspects or a type of advertising in English.
1.4 Main ideas and arrangement of the thesis
Contemporary advertising is so commonly ubiquitous and so widely influential that it is considered to be part of modern life. It also greatly influences our thoughts, feelings and outlooks, and of course our lives. Since advertising in English occupies such an important position in modern society, we need to understand, assess English advertising and know how to create English advertising texts. However, whatever the promotional strategies advertising takes, language is the main carrier of advertised messages all along. To achieve this awareness, what is most important is to have a good grasp of the language characteristics of English advertising.
The Term Paper on Weird English Words Facts
The oldest English words are about 14,000 years old that originate from pr-Indo-European language group called “Nostratic” which means “Our language”. Words that have survived from this language group in modern English include: Apple (Apal) Bad (Bad) Gold (Gol) Tin (Tin) The oldest words in the English language are around 14,000 years old, originating in a pre-Indo-European language group called ...
In modern society, English advertising has gradually formed its own features in several aspects. Therefore, an analysis of the linguistic features of English advertising is worthwhile. This thesis briefly deals with the most common linguistic characteristics of English advertising texts, which include characteristics of wording, syntactical features and rhetorical devices.
This thesis is made up of five parts. Part One briefly discusses the definitions, functions and significance of a study of English advertising. Part Two is concerned with major wording characteristics of English advertising texts. Part Three investigates major syntactical features of English advertisements. Part Four deals with main rhetorical devices in English advertisements. In the concluding part, the thesis emphasizes again the importance of studying language features of English advertising, and points out the influence of English advertising on the English language, so as to provide some insights for admen in their practices.
II. Wording characteristics of English advertising texts
Generally, advertisers try by various means at their disposal to get people to buy the products or services advertised. An advertiser attempts to construct an advertisement that will fully attract the attention of the potential purchaser and have persuasive effects. Therefore, he or she makes full use of every word to draw readers’ attention and arouse their interest. English advertising texts (EAT) display many unique features of wording, such as frequent use of simple words, clever use of coinages, loanwords, monosyllabic verbs, and simple adjectives, as well as compounds, etc. which will be discussed briefly and separately in this part.
2.1 Simple and informal words
Shakespeare said, “Brevity is the soul of wit”. The function of advertising is to provide information, attract consumer, exploit market, and promise the quality. A simple advertisement is intended not only to arouse the reader’s attention and interest, but also to make consumers remember it. Therefore, an advertisement must pay attention to its language, and the first step is to use popular and oral language, the second step is to use some single-syllable words or fewer letters to make it easy to understand and memorize.
The Essay on The Most Beautiful Word in the English Language
You’re one of the shooters, and you know for a fact that there are two University scouts amongst the spectators that are very eager to choose one girl for a scholarship. Suddenly you’re in the circle and the ball is passed to you, you get ready to take the shot… but then… you see the other shooter for your team with an expression that cannot be described on her face. You know she is jealous and ...
For example:
(1) “I couldn’t believe it, until I tried it!
I’m impressed! I’m really impressed!
You’ve gotta try it!
I love it!”1
This is an advertisement of a microwave oven. The words in it are very simple and oral. It uses the slang “gotta”, which means “got to” in American English, to give an impression that this advertisement comes from real life.
(2) “Buy one, get more.”2
This is an advertisement of selling automobile. “buy” and “get” which are two simple monosyllabic verbs show the bilateral activities between advertisers and consumers directly. It expresses advertiser’s sincerity, and on the other hand the advertisement lets consumers have the feeling of simple, efficient, affordable in order??? to increase the reliability between advertisers and consumers.
2.2. Misspelling and Coinages
In some of advertisements, the advertising copywriter misspells some words on purpose, or adds some suffix or prefix to some common words. New original words are created to attract addressees’ attention and to meet their needs for curiosity and novelty. Such freshly made words and phrases may suggest that the product or service being advertised possesses peculiar qualities as well as the value of novelty. Many words in advertisements, especially in trade names, are words newly coined, or deliberately misspelled and abbreviated. Furthermore, some misspelling words help the advertiser to disseminate the information effectively and also let the advertising become more charming.
For example:
(3) “We know eggsactly How to sell eggs”3
In this advertisement, “eggsactly” not only has the similar pronunciation as “exactly”, but it has connections with the last word “eggs” in this sentence, thus impressing people a great deal.
(4) “The Orangemostest Drink in the world.”4
When one reads or hears example (4), he or she may think “Orangemostest” is a wrong word, but actually it is deliberately created by the advertiser, Orangemostest in this advertisement consists of three elements: orange, most and est. It is well known that orange juice is a popular drink liked by the old and the young for its nutrition and thirsty-quenching quality. Two superlatives most and est are added to orange so as to stress the best quality of this product.
The Essay on Advertising and Beauty Product Advertisements
This study examined beauty advertisements in local English magazines from a Critical Discourse Analysis perspective. This study mainly focused on the use of language in beauty advertisements and strategies employed by advertisers to manipulate and influence their customers. The analysis is based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework. It demonstrates how the ideology of ‘beauty’ is produced ...
(5) “Give a Timex to all, and to all a good time.”5
In example (5), Timex= time + excellent. In English advertising the suffix ex is often added to the root, showing the good quality of a product. In addition, “good time” here has a double meaning: it may mean “pleasant time” or “showing time exactly”.
(6) “Come to our fruice”6
In example (6), fruice = fruit + juice. This newly coined word arouses people’s attention by its novelty in form.
Coinages of this kind are nowhere to be found in dictionaries, but they seem familiar to readers in appearance. One can guess their meanings by means of the context without help of dictionaries. When customers come across newly coined words, their interest is stimulated, and they want to go on reading and take action. Thus, the aim of advertising is reached. But coinages must be well based on after-taste and implication, stressing the novelty and uniqueness of the products, without which coinages can produce little effect and will be meaningless.
Misspelling some common words is also a clever use of coinages. Now let’s see the following examples:
(7) “Going East, Staying Westin.”7 (Westin is the name of the hotel)
In this advertisement, the advertiser wrote “Western” into “Westin” on purpose in order to win a seat in consumer’s memory. In fact, this advertisement achieved the expected results which impressed people immensely.
(8) “For twogether the ultimate all inclusive one price sunkissed holiday”8
Example (8) is an advertisement on providing a couple with a holiday inn. “Twogether” and “together” are similar both in spelling and pronunciation. “To” is misspelled as “Two” on purpose by the advertiser to indicate that the couple could get the romantic yesterday once more if they spend their holiday together in this inn. Psychologically, emotion between lovers tends to become common and ordinary on the surface after a long period, “Twogether” here can remind them of the romantic time in the past. This advertisement is just intended to cater for such a psychological need .
The Research paper on How Advertising Affects What You Buy
How Advertising Affects What You Buy Catherine Crawford English 1 A MW 4-515 Dr. Bergmann November 13, 1994 (Research Paper) OUTLINE Thesis: Advertising has different effects on consumers, it changes their prospective on what is, and what is not, worth buying, what they buy and when they buy it. 1. How advertisers target a certain background or area for their product, and how they get your ...
(9) “Surefit Shoe Ltd”9 (舒飞鞋业有限公司)
When the consumers see the word “Surefit” at first sight, they must imagine “surely to fit your feet” immediately and have a deep impression of this brand.
(10) “Ezyrub”10 (advertising shoe polish)
“Ezy” has the same pronunciation as the word “easy” and it is combined with “rub”, which means “easy to rub”. This coinage not only shut the name of the product,??? but also describes the quality of the product.
(11) “Hi-fi, Hi-fun, Hi-fashion, only from Sony”11 (advertising Sony Audio)
Hi-fi means high fine (quality), Hi-fun means high fun, and Hi-fashion means high fashion. These three coined words make the effect differ from the common words through the form of words and pronunciation.
It is easy to see from the above examples that newly created words vividly express the desirable features, qualities, or functions of the product or service being advertised.
2.3 Loanwords
If an advertisement emphasizes the product’s quality or the origin abroad, loanwords would be the best choice for it. The most frequently used loanwords are those from French and Spanish in English advertising, mostly for wine, food, cosmetics, clothing, ect. Added some French in advertising for wine, then the quality of this product is undoubted.??? Perfume companies usually add to the romantic atmosphere of their products by using French words such as Vol de Nuit. Automobile manufacturers will increase the mysterious atmosphere for their product by use of foreign words such as: Cordova, Biarritz. The commonest use of foreign words is in a restaurant, like their food labels: Del Taco, L’Auberge, and La Scala.
For example:
(12) “Order it in bottles or in canners
Perrier……with added je ne sais quoi.”12
This is an advertisement for a French drink. The manufacturer uses a sentence with French words at the end. “je ne sais quoi” means “I don’t know what”. Suddenly this English advertisement is characterized by a French style. The purpose to use this simple French phrase is to show the French flavor of this drink. The loanwords in some advertisements are intended to express the exoticism of the products. In other cases, loanwords provide quality protection in some degree and stimulate the desire to take action .
2.4 Frequent use of verbs
Monosyllable verbs are widely used in English advertising, furthermore, most of them are colloquialisms. These common verbs make advertising in English simple and easy to understand. That can give consumers a feeling of friendliness and help tehm to remember the products easily.
The most frequently used 20 verbs and phrasal verbs are:
Try, ask, get, take, let, send for, use, call, make, come on, hurry, see, give, come, remember, discover, serve, introduce, choose, and look for.
A number of the above-mentioned verbs are frequently used in the imperative clauses which encourage the audience to buy the product. Although the ultimate purpose of advertising is to persuade consumers to buy the adverised products, advertisements seldom use the word “buy” in it. Statistics show only two out of ten advertisements use the verb “buy” directly. In imperative clauses the word ‘buy’ is rarely used. The tendency to avoid “buy” might be put down to the unpleasant connotations of this verb. It is of course of vital importance to the adman that he should not appear to be imposing himself on his audience, for if the reader feels the advert to be too obtrusive, he/she is likely to react negatively to its message, or simply forget about it altogether. The adman is therefore confronted with a problem: on the one hand his advert should make people buy the product; on the other hand he must not say this in so many words lest they should take offence (Vestergaard, T. and Schroder, K. 1985: 67).
Leech (1966:154) points out that in advertising language the most frequent word for ‘acquisition of product’ is ‘get’ instead of ‘buy’. The reason for this is undoubtedly that ‘buy’ has some unpleasant connotations (money and the parting with it) which ‘get’ lacks. Advertisers usually make very careful efforts not to use the word ‘buy’. Instead they often use such synonyms as: ‘try’, ‘ask for’, ‘get’, ‘take’, ‘send for’, ‘use’, ‘choose’, ‘look for’.
The common verbs that indicate that consumers have some goods are such words as have, get, give, keep.
The verbs express the progress of using some goods are: take, use, have;
The verbs express consumer’s favorite of some goods are: like, love, need???
For examples:
(13) “Getting places in the business world is easier if your banker is there to meet you.”13 (Security Pacific Asian Bank)
(14) “We can give you a better view of investment opportunities from both sides of the Pacific.”14 (City Bank.)
The widely used disyllable and multi-syllable verbs include accept, adopt, assure, award, contact, design, discover, enjoy, hurry, introduce, obtain, offer, provide, receive, request, remember, secure, supply, welcome.
The following sentences are frequently seen or heard in advertisements: “Make X your toothpaste.” “Give him / her an X.” “Discover the smoothness, etc. of X.” “Introduce your family to X.” “Serve X.” “Let X solve your problems.” In these imperative sentences X stands for the product with a certain brand name. In other cases, however, advertisers don’t ask their customers to buy the product or service, but try to make sure that their names will be present in their mind in a buying situation. They usually employ such imperative sentences as: “Look for X at your dealer’s.” “Remember there’s only one X.” This latter group requests the customers to contact the dealer/agent with greater or lesser urgency. “Call /See your X agent.” “Come to our showroom.” “Come on / hurry, book now.” These sentences are particularly frequent in advertisements for services such as insurance, travel, and provision of luxurious accommodation or for products in the more expensive range, such as cars.
Frequent use of monosyllabic verbs can help kill two birds with one stone: on the one hand, it makes the language of English advertising more concise and lively, and on the other hand, it saves space, time and money.
2.5 Use of Adjectives
The primary function of adjectives with deep emotion is to describe head nouns. Meanwhile, evaluative adjectives and the form of “-er” and “-est” are very frequently used in advertising in order to emphasize that the product is better than the others and build a perfect and fuzzy image in readers’ mind, and to persuade consumers to buy the products.
We can imagine that many businessmen extremely want to use evaluative adjectives to describe their products and services. Therefore, it is reasonable for appearing a series of modified ingredients in front of noun or noun phrase in all of English advertisings.???
G.N. Leech，a well-known linguist in Britain, lists in his Language in Advertising (1966: 152) the following most frequently used adjectives: (1) new (2) crisp (3) good/better/best (4) fine (5) free (6) big (7) fresh (8) great (9) delicious (10) real (11) full, sure (12) easy ,bright (13) clean (14) extra, safe (15) special (16) rich.
For example:
(15) “What’s on the Best-Seller list in IBM personal Computer Software?”15
(Advertising for IBM)
People prefer IBM Personal Computer software for a variety.
Because, for just about anything you want the IBM Personal Computer to help you do, there’s software to help you do it. Software helps improve productivity, efficiency and planning. To help teachers teach and students learn. Or help you become an even more astute games player. Every program in our software library makes the IBM Personal Computer a truly useful tool for modern times. That’s why a lot of buyers like you have made them best sellers. And the library is still growing.
(16) “Why do our special teas make your precious moments even more precious?”16 (Advertising for Lipton)”
From these two advertisements you will find the “-er” and “-est” form of words as mentioned are also widely used in English advertisings. Adjectives add vividly images into the advertising and help create a natural feeling so as to strengthen attraction.
(17) “Kent. Fresh. Calm. Mild.
Kent. The taste you’ll feel good about. The Mild International cigarette.”17
As we all know, ladies are unwilling to get close to smokers; however, when you hear the advertisement of “Kent”, you may imagine a picture: a man is smoking a Kent and a beautiful lady is nestling beside him. This advertisement wants to let you know that you need not worry about losing your lover, and that when you smoke the Kent, your sweet would love you more. Just owing to these adjectives in this advertising, the advertiser get the effect expected.
The adjectives mentioned above are associated with products, showing their qualities and properties.
2.6 Frequent use of compounds
In English advertisements, you can see compounds everywhere. Some compounds are written as single words and some with a hyphen, but others appear as two separate words. Because lexical restraints on compounds are few, the advertisers are relatively free to create English compounds which are appropriate to the copy text. As a result, English compounds become a conspicuous characteristic of English advertisements. In business advertising, compounds can express the thought that the manufacturers want to show exactly and completely. For this reason, compounds are frequently employed
For example:
(18) “Chocolate-flavored cereal”18
(19) “fresh-tasting milk”19
(20) “top-quality bulbs”20
The following are the main ways of word forming:
adj+noun: short-term goal, high-fashion knitwear
noun+adj: the farmhouse-fresh faste, brand-new
v-ing+adj: shining-clean
noun+v-ed: honey-coated sugar puffs, home-made
adj/adv+v-ed: warm-hearted, perfectly-testured cakes
noun+v-ing: a relief-giving liquid, record-breaking
adj+v-ing: innocent-looking, fresh-tasting milk
adv+v-ing: hard-working, the best-selling soft toilet tissue
noun+noun: economy-size shredded wheat, a state-of-the-art cell sorcer
adv+noun: up-to-the-minute sculling
adj+infinite: easy-to dress; hard-to-reach place
Compounds are very flexible and embody the innovative spirit of advertising fully; they can also make a profound impression on people’s mind when the consumers see the product for the first sight.
For example:
There is a famous magazine called Self in America, the compound “Self-Made” that appears in the magazine encourages women to be independent.
(21) “The Self-Made woman. She’s living better all the time.”21
(22) “Evergreen, Round-the-world service.”22
The advertisement of Evergreen Marine Corp is very short, but the compound “Round-the-world” focuses on the different service form other company??.
(23) “Kodak Single-use-cameras take pictures where you wouldn’t normally take your camera.”23
The properties and usage of this camera is performed perfectly through the ???compound “Single-use-cameras”.
III. Syntax in English Advertising Texts
As a particular branch of language, advertising language should be concise and attractive. It usually has its own characteristics in syntax, such as the frequent use of simple declarative sentences, interrogative sentences and imperative sentences. However, no matter what syntactical features advertisers are adopted, they should perform the following functions: to get attention; to show people an advantage; to arouse interest and create desire; to ask for action. This part concentrates on the major grammatical characteristics of English advertisements.
The function of declarative sentence is to describe the products reasonably and perfectly; the function of imperative sentence is to persuade consumers to buy the product; the function of interrogative sentences is to raise a question then answer it, which helps the consumer to eliminate the doubt of the product. These three types of sentences are all fit for the principle that advertising should have attention value and memory value.
3.1 More simple sentences, fewer complex sentences
The function of declarative sentences is to describe the products reasonably and perfectly. It will get better effect to use simple sentences than compound sentences, because the readers will get bored on reading complex sentences. Another reason is to reduce the cost of advertising, and effectively stimulate the consumers. So “use the least words to express as much information as possible”, that is the truth for the advertisement.
For example:
(39) “It comes with a conscience”39
(40) “Stouffer’s presents 14days to get your life, on the right course”40
Example (39) is an advertisement of Honda cars and Example (40) is a food advertisement. They are mostly made up of simple sentences, which render these two advertisements smooth and easy to understand.
(41) “The label of achievement.”41 (Advertisement for wine)
“label” means “piece of paper describing the name, ect”, and it also can explain that “famous brand”, a simple noun phrase describes the product appropriately and be remembered easily.
(42) “Fresh up with Seven-Up”42
This advertisement only uses five words to describe the benefits of the beverage and to urge readers to buy.
(43) “Natural herb, pure honey.”43
The distinctive characteristics of honey which displayed through simple language and symmetrical structure persuade readers to buy it.
Simple sentences can not only make English advertising easy to read, hear and understand, but also leave a deep impression on the readers’ minds.
4.2. More interrogative sentences and imperative sentences
According to statistics, in every 30 sentences there is one interrogative sentence. The main reason is that interrogative sentences can effectively arouse readers’ response. Moreover, especially at the beginning of an advertisement, interrogative sentences will excite readers’ interests in this product.
For example:
(44)“What’s so special about Lurpark Danish butter? Well, can you remember what butter used to taste like — real fresh farm house butter? Do you remember how you used to enjoy it when you were young? Today — the taste of Lurpark bring it all back to you — that’s why it’s so special.”44
This is an advertisement of Lurpark Danish butter, the writer raises a question, which attracts readers to read this advertisement. During the progress of watching advertising???, consumers get to know this product and develop interests in it. Contrary to the ordinary description, interrogative sentences can catch consumer’s eyes easier.
Imperative sentences have a meaning of claiming, calling and commanding,??? As the goal of advertising is to persuade and urge consumers to accept its product or service, there are lots of imperative sentences in advertising,
For example:
(45)“Have a little fruit after dinner.”45
The manufacturers offers some advice to consumers in this advertisement; in fact, they urge consumers to buy their products through a tactful way.
(46)“Get ready to encounter the new trend in timepieces.”46
–Citizen Watch
3.3. Disjunctive elements
It is often observed that the advertising copy writer has a tendency to chop up sentences into shorter bits by using full stops, dash, semi-colon and hyphen, where ordinary prose would use commas or no punctuation at all. Leech (1966:90-7, 113-16,148-50, 170-4) refers to this phenomenon as ‘disjunctive syntax’. Disjunctive elements which are widely used in English advertisements have become a special phenomenon in English advertising language.
For example:
(47) “an automatic applicator gently smooth on soft crème or high-shine color for a smooth silky finish that lasts. And lasts.”47
(48) “colors that look lastingly tempting. Longer.”48
(49) “Finally. The convenience of Silver Stone combined with glass! It’s a cook’s dream true”49
(50) “Italy’s masterpiece. A delightful liqueur created from wild peanuts, herbs and berries.
Ah!
Frangclico.”50
These examples contain disjunctive elements: ‘And lasts.’; ‘Longer.’; ‘Finally.’; ‘Italy’s masterpiece.’ and ‘Frangclico.’. Each of these is separated from the preceding sentences by a full stop. In fact, each is an element or a constituent of the preceding sentence. The effect of this is to cut up the sentence sinto more information units. As each information unit is articulated in a stressed falling tone and, therefore, emphasizes the message contained, more information units means more emphasized messages. It is easy to see that by frequently using disjunctive syntax advertisers want to emphasize those key or important messages, to render them more attractive to the addressees and to achieve the purpose of promoting consumption.
As can be seen from the examples, disjunctive elements or sentence fragments end in full stops and look as if they were complete sentences. In fact, they are just parts of the sentences concerned. The separate parts are often the key ones that are emphasized in advertising texts. They are very attractive. They are to be read in a stressed falling tone. They usually project or highlight the special features, or characteristics, or fantastic functions of the advertised product or service.
IV. Common Rhetorical Devices in English Advertising Texts
Rhetorical devices are various forms of expression deviating from the normal arrangement or use of words, which are adopted in order to give beauty, variety or force to a composition. Many of them are used in English advertising to achieve three goals: first, it is to form the brand image or corporate image in consumer’s mind; second, to stress the uniqueness of the advertised product; thirdly, to stress the unique sales proposition of the advertised product. Among them, the third is the most important because of its attraction.
Hegel says, ‘beauty comes out of image’ (Albert E. Dipippo, 1986:3).
The beauty of English advertising is first characterized by its ideographic image. It embodies the materialized labor in a lively and vivid way. Psychologically, image is realized through imagination. With the help of rhetorical devices advertising leads people to an artistic conception.
In order to make their advertisements unique and eye-catching, the copywriters have to make elaborate designs and draw up remarkable verbal blueprints by working creatively and aptly applying rhetorical devices. It can be said without any exaggeration that the success of English advertisements has much to do with apt employment of rhetorical devices. Frequently used rhetorical devices are: simile, metaphor, personification, pun, etc. The following rhetorical devices are often used in English advertising, which are discussed briefly in this part.
3.1. Personification
According to A Hand Book to Literature, published by the Bobbs–Merrill Company in 1972, personification is “a figure of speech which endows animals, ideas, abstractions, and inanimate objects with human form, character, or sensibilities; the representing of imaginary creatures or things as having human personalities, intelligence, and emotions; whether real or fictitious, by another person.”
However, the definition in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Of Current English With Chinese Translation is more concise: “treating sth. that is without life as a human being or representing it in human form” (1991:163).
Through personification, animals are endowed with human form or feelings, and inanimate objects, or ideas and abstractions are given life and personal attributes.
Personification is often employed in English advertisements. Personifying the advertised product and giving it feeling and emotion, which only people possess, make an advertisement more acceptable.
For example:
(24) “They will stay on the job longer than most employees.”24
(25) “It handles the road as easily as it handles Mother Nature”25
These two advertisements are for Volvo and Ford. “stay on the job” and “handles the road” are employed to give the car hummer beings’ life and ability, and they are read vividly.
(26) “It’s for your lifetime”26
Here the watch is personified. It is described as a person who accompanies you for your all life. Consumers want to own this watch as soon as they read this advert.
(27) “Flowers by Interflora speak from the heart.”27 (Advertising for Interflora)
In Example (27), flowers are personified: they seem to be human beings who speak from the heart. In other words, they are endowed with human feelings of love, kindness, friendship, so they’re really invaluable gifts. When customers see this advertisement, they are likely to buy some of the advertised flowers to express their true and profound feelings.
(28) “She has her own spirit and it graces everyone she comes near”28
(Lauren perfume)
The perfume, Lauren, is personified as a graceful lady. “She” refers not only to the perfume itself, but to the beautiful lady who loves the perfume. The use of the feminine gender “she” indicates that the perfume is used exclusively by females.
We can come to the conclusion that the use of personification in advertising attracts the audiences’ attention, stimulates their interest in what is being advertised and helps create an impressive image of the product or service.
3.2. Simile and Metaphor
Writers often use figures of speech in advertising English. First, figures of speech are employed to describe the characteristics of commodities in a vivid lively manner so as to catch consumers’ eyes and leave a deep impression; second, using a simple and common sample to figure a complicated and unfamiliar product in order to??? achieve the effect of fresh-feeling, creativity and outstanding.
3.2.1. Simile is a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared; in this kind of figure vehicle and tenor appear at the same time, which are introduced or connected by like or as.
For example:
(29) “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”29
This example is a case of simile introduced by the word like. The adman here compares breakfast without orange juice to a day without sunshine. How vivid and imaginative the simile is! As we all know, a day without sunshine is not warm and cheerful. People usually do not like a cloudy or overcast day, or a day without sunshine, and some people might feel sad or gloomy during days without sunshine. In the opinion of the adman, for some people it is not desirable to have breakfast without orange juice. So how nice it is to have a breakfast with orange juice!
Though simile is an important rhetorical device in English advertisements, it is far less frequently employed than metaphor, which is one of the most frequently used rhetorical devices in English advertisements.
3.2.2. Metaphor
Metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison. Myers describes metaphor in this way, ‘Metaphor sets up a relation of similarity between two referents, as if they were the same thing. X is described in terms of Y ’(Myers, 1994:125).
C. Hugh Holmanm defines metaphor in A Handbook to Literature as “An implied analogy which imaginatively identifies one object with another and ascribes to the first one or more of the qualities of the second or invests the first with emotional or imaginative qualities associated with the second”. Metaphor, unlike simile, does not use like or as to indicate the comparison. Without as or like, it becomes more concise and produces profound associations. Metaphor is considered by many to be the most important and the most common rhetorical device in English advertisements.
For example:
(30) “Kodak is Olympic color”30 (Advertising Kodacolor Firm)
In Example (30), Kodak is compared to the color of Olympic. Kodak shows the real color just as Olympic shows the real essence of the sports. The metaphor in this implies that Kodak develops itself by the Olympic spirit—higher, faster and stronger.
(31) “You’d better off under the Umbrella”31
(Advertising Travelers Insurance Co.)
Safety is the most important thing for travelers. This Travelers Insurance Co. takes advantage of the typical psychology of travelers to complete this advertisement. They used “umbrella” to figure their services ???let consumers feel comfortable and enjoy the travel relieved. The advertisement is short, but the advertiser chose an appropriate metaphor to affirm the services of their company and increase the reliability of their advertising.
Obviously, appropriate application of metaphor plays an important role in English advertising, which can not only render advertisements attractive and picturesque, but also informative and persuasive. Undoubtedly, metaphor contributes to promotion of the sale of products and helps make advertised service thrive and flourish.
3.3. Pun
According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1986:1642), the pun is “a humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest different meanings or applications of words having the same sound or nearly the same sound but different meanings: a play on words.” It is a play on words, or rather a play on the form and meaning of words. Nida ( 1993:87 ) describes it as follows, “Playing on the meaning and formal resemblance of words (punning) is a universal phenomenon, and in some languages this rhetorical device is extensively encouraged and practiced.”
Pun is a play on words; it increases the humor of advertising and makes the advertising pregnant with meaning. Appropriate application of pun can attract readers’ attention, make the body copy readable and memorable and arouse consumers’ interest and imagination.
For example:
(32) “Coke refreshes you like no other can”32 (Coca-Cola)
In this advertising, “can” maybe understand as a bottle for drink, and it also can be used as an auxiliary verb. So this sentence has two meanings:
First is “Coke refreshes you like no other can (can refresh you)”;
Second is “Coke refreshes you like no other (drinks) can (refresh you)”
(33) “Ask for More”33
“More” is an American cigarette brand, “More” and “more” has the same pronunciation and different meaning, consumer will connect “More” with the meaning of “much, more” when they heard the advertising. The pun help the brand promote itself and guide consumer buy their product.
(34) “Cutex Strongnail with nylon for long , strong, beautiful nails”34.
“nail” means “指甲” and “钉子” show the quality of “Cutex Strongnail nail oil” to the highest level.
(35) “A Deal With US Means A Good Deal To You”35
(Advertising for Department stores)
“a good deal” means “many, much, more” , the advertising is combined meaning with “a good business” increase the interesting of this advertising.
(36) “Every Kid Should Have An Apple After School”36
(Advertising for Computer)
In example (36), Apple refers to either the fruit we eat, or the computer with this brand name: Apple. American children usually eat some fruits or candies as their desserts. The advertisement means that children should not only eat apples, but also have an Apple computer, which is the spiritual food for them.
(37) “You don’t have to be an angel to wear it”37 (Heaven Sent)
“sent” is past participate of “send” ,“sent” and “scent” are homophones. “sent” means “take”, and “scent” is a kind of perfume, so we can understand the meaning of this advertisement—-“heaven sent” is “angel”, it showed the perfume which is expensive form heaven. ?????
(38) “The role of the Volunteer Reserves is changing, If you’ve got any questions, shoot.”38
“Shoot” is slang in this advertising; it means “please say it”. As this advertising is about Army reserve and shooting, so the writer used pun made the language humorous and vivid, and also the topic is closer to us.
Pun which is often emp1oyed by the manufacturers to seek first-hand attention, is almost a most attention-getting device of the rhetorical figures. The nature of pun in advertising is: the pun is the product of a contest deliberately constructed to enforce an ambiguity, to render the choice between meanings impossible, to leave the reader or hearer thinking about products in semantic space.
As far as I know, pun is one of the most favored rhetorical devices employed by copy writers and one of the most common rhetorical devices used in English advertisements.
V. Conclusion
As English is one of the most widely used languages in the world, it is necessary to study and analyze the language features of English advertising. Current advertisements reflect radical changes in the technology, media, the social and economic relations, the sense of personal and group identity.
Up to now, we have discussed briefly the language features of English advertising, focusing on the main features of diction or wording, major syntactical characteristics and common rhetorical devices. The thesis is intended to enable the readers to understand English advertising texts better and to design and create them when necessary. Also, by learning English advertising texts, we can improve our language competence. The author hopes that this thesis can trigger our interest in English advertising texts, which will help raise our language level.
It goes without saying that research into the language of English advertising is both interesting and rewarding. To achieve this awareness, we should not only have a good understanding of the language of English advertising, but also know its influence on the English language.
One obvious influence of English advertising on the English language lies in the fact that English advertising contributes a lot of new words to the vocabulary stock of modern English. The other type of words contributing to the English language are the advertising coinages, whose abundance is one of the lexical features of English advertising. Another main influence on English advertising??? is so-called movement of “colloquialisation”, which is also a main contribution of English advertising to the English language. The influence of English advertising justifies the relationship between a language and its users: people create a language form as desired; this form, in turn affects people’s conception of the language as a whole.
Language is a carrier of advertisements. Advertisers must continually adjust their language to conform to changes and grammatical rules.
This thesis is just an initial and brief discussion of English advertising language. More detailed and more comprehensive research is needed on English advertising language; also, it is necessary to make a detailed comparative study of English and Chinese advertising texts.
Notes:
3,4段胜峰, 李罡，英语广告的词汇创意，中国科技翻译2001第2期, p.24.
5,6赵静编《广告英语》，北京：外语教学与研究出社，1992, p.282.
7，http://www.bigyuwen.com/www/jstd/2005-12-29/1135855398d106739.html
广告英语的特点
8同5,6, p.274.
9，10，11同7
12夏政《英文广告实用手册》，四川：西南财经大学出版社 2003， p.48.
13,14，16同12，p.49，p.50
15同5,6, p.77-78.
17陈金荣，“试论广告英语的语言特点” 《外国语言文学研究》湖南：中南工业大学出版社，1999, p.217-218.
21，22，23同7。
26同7。
27李中行编《广告英语》，长沙：湖南教育出版社, 1987，p.42。
28崔刚主编《广告英语3000句选萃分析欣赏》，北京: 北京理工大学出版社, 1993，pp.172-173。
29 Myers, G. 1994. Words In Ads [M]. Green Gate Publishing Services, UK. P.125.
30谭卫国，英汉广告常用辞格及其功能，上海: 上海大学学报（社会科学版），2002 第1期。
32，37同17，p.222-223。
33，34，35同12，p.53-54。
36孟琳，詹晶辉：英语广告中双关语的运用技巧及翻译，中国翻译，2001第5期, p.48。
38魏玉杰等编《英语广告手册》，北京：机械工业出版社，1995，p.15
39,40同5,6, p.274,89。
41，42，43，45同7。
46同5,6,p125-126。
47,48,49,50同5,6,p277。
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