On Linguistic Features in Advertising English

On Linguistic Features in Advertising English院系：外国语学院班级：英语07-2班姓名：赵素梅学号：310714010223广告英语的语言特点摘要：作为一种传播信息和宣传的模式，广告的作用不容忽视，因为它不仅只是一种说服顾客进行消费的技巧，更重要的是，它已经成为社会交流的必须手段之一。

广告在今天的社会几乎是无孔不入，它的传播介质多种多样，包括报纸、杂志、电视、广播、网络等。

广告有鲜明的目的性，即说服顾客进行购买，这种目的性决定了其语言的特色风格，是其独立于其它文体，在语言范畴内值得研究。

本文主要研究关高英语的语言特征。

全文总共分为四章：第一章主要是对广告以及对其语言特点进行研究的必要性做一简单的引入，第二章内容为广告的定义和文体学知识的简单论述。

第三章是从广告的词汇、句法以及修辞方面分别对广告加以剖析。

最后一章是对整篇文章的一个概括和总结。

关键词：广告，语言特征，文体学，句法，词汇，修辞。

On Linguistic Features in Advertising EnglishAbstractAs a way of transmitting information and propagating, advertising‟s role cannot be underestimated because it is not only an artful technique in persuading people to buy, but also gradually has become a must for social communication which in turn influences the development of society and economy. This thesis mainly focuses on the linguistic features of advertising English. Nowadays advertising has penetrated into every corner of our lift as its transmitting media in many forms: newspaper, magazine, TV, radio, as well as network. The goal of advertising decides its language to be simple and director, distinct from the characteristics of other discourses. Thus an analysis on the linguistic features of advertising English in the linguistic field is very worthwhile. The whole thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter gives a brief introduction of advertising and the necessity of having a research on the linguistic features of English advertising the second chapter focuses on the rhetorical knowledge of stylistics. The third chapter discusses the detail linguistic feature in syntax, lexicology, rhetoric, and the last chapter is a conclusion of the whole paper.Key words: advertising, linguistic feature, stylistics, syntax, lexicology, rhetoric.Chapter 1 Introduction1.1 research backgroundNowadays advertising penetrates every corner of society, especially in developed countries. Newspapers (most of which devote 60 to 70 percent of their space to advertisements), radio and TV ( in the U.S for instance, often a 30—minute newscast is interrupted at least four times for commercials ), magazines ( for some, as much as half the space is given to advertisements ), highway billboards, streamers, window shows, floor and counter displays, transport decorations, fairs and exhibitions, telephones and direct mails, and even sandwich man ( man who walks about the streets with two advertising boards, one hanging over his chest and the other over hisback )—indeed almost all the media, all usable spaces are employed to get all sorts of information to all people in all places, since places to be filled are everywhere. The amount of advertising is not determined by the needs of advertising, but rather by the opportunities for advertising, which have become unlimited.1.2 The function of advertisingAdvertising has consistently played a very important role in the development of capitalism. Some people point to the vital role ads played in the settlement of the New World: Brochures published in England in the 17th century were full of hopeful overstatements, half truth, and downright lies, along with some facts, by which the promoters for the American colonies enticed people to settle in there. Nowadays, advertising performs four basic roles in society:1)Marketing role ---helping companies sell their products or services;2)Educational role ---helping people learn about new products and services;3)Economic role ---encouraging competition in product / service improvement and lower price;4)Social role ---helping increase productivity and raise the standard of living.1.3 The language of advertisingIn order to fulfill these roles, advertising has resorted to all kinds of techniques---anodal and visual, sound and light, display and acting, photographs and drawing, ect. But the most basic is the language ---its mode being either written to be read or written to be spoken as if not written. Language is of crucial importance and the language is required to be simple and sweet. Thus a comprehensive analysis on the linguistic features in advertising English is worthwhile. As advertising English is characterized by many special features, there arises the demand that the advertising copywriter be engaged in creative writing. It is to be understood that advertising English is not merely a business of words, but also a kind of original English with its peculiar features.As advertising English is characterized by unique morphology and syntax and as so many rhetorical devices are found in it, this thesis presents an analytical study of linguistic features in English advertisements at lexical, syntactic and rhetorical levels.This thesis will contain five chapters: chapter one is an brief introduction of advertising, including the importance of advertising in modern society and the function of advertising. Besides giving a very simple introduction of advertising language and the necessity of having a research on linguistic features in advertising English. Chapter two will give some knowledge of English stylistics. In chapter three, the thesis will focus on the lexical, syntactic and rhetorical levels respectively. The last chapter will give a summery of the whole thesis.Chapter two Theory of Advertising and Stylistics2.1 Theory of advertising2.1.1 Definition of advertisingAfter a brief introduction of the classifications and roles of advertising, we now come to the definitions of advertising. From different perspectives or purposes, the definitions might also vary. In English, the word "advertise" has its origin in "advert ere" in Latin, meaning "to inform somebody of something", "to bring into notice" or "to draw attention to something", etc. In Chinese, the equivalent term "guanggao" means "widely announce". The father of modern advertising, Albert Lasker said that advertising was "salesmanship in print". Although the definition was given long before the advent of radio and television, and the nature and scope of advertising at that time were considerably different than they are today, this often-repeated saying indicates that the ultimate objective of advertising is to sell. Obviously it is not a working definition because we cannot use it to cover all advertisements. Today, a widely quoted working definition of advertising was put forward by Courtland L. Bovee and William F. Arens :" Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products (goods or services) or ideas by identified sponsors through various media."(Cook,Guy. The Discourse of Advertising. London: Routledge,1992) Another linguist Bolen defines advertising as a "Paid, non-personal communication through various mass media by business firms, nonprofit organizations, and individuals who are in some way identified in the message and who hope to inform or persuade members of a particular audience." (Carter, Ronald and Goddard, Angela, Reah Danuta et al. Working with Texts. London: Routledge,1997) If the definitions of advertising were too vague and abstract to comprehend, a few words of its function would help to clarify this crucial term. Broadly speaking, advertisements have at least one of two functions: informing or persuading, although overlap may often take place in one single piece. The trick here is that an informative advertisement informs "the customer about goods, services, or ideas and then tells how to get them means of an identified sponsor" (Bolen 6). Examples of informative advertisements are not a few, ranging from flyers to insertions in magazine and newspapers, all of that aim to advertise new products/services or special prices on certain products/services. This type of advertisement gives basic, factual information and sometimes shows a photos or an illustration of the product/service to give the target audience a better view about the advertised product. Persuasive advertisements are thus 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 9). And a persuasive advertisement should try to persuade the potential customers to buy the new product. (Bolen 6) The persuasive function is not only limited to attracting the potential customer into buying a certain object, but also including the selling of services, ideas, norms and values. To summarize, we would get the idea that firstly advertising is a communication process. Secondly, at least a medium is used. Thirdly, this communication process has a definite purpose to convince the target audience. The above three characteristics suggest advertising is closely connected with the society, employing its media, interconnecting with its people and guiding their buying habit. Also in achieving the advertising effect, the advertising language should be vivid and attractive, whose linguistic characteristics would be covered in the Chapter 3.2.1.2Classification of advertisingAdvertising can be classified in four ways: by target, geographic area, media used, and purpose. By Target By Geographic Area By Media Used By Purpose Audience Consumer Business: Industrial Trade Professional Agriculture International National Regional Local Print: Newspaper Magazine Electronic: Radio Television Internet Out-of-home: Outdoor Transit Direct mail Directories Other media Productive or nonproductive Commercial or noncommercial Primary demand or selective demand Direct action or indirect action The purpose of copywriting is to persuade or remind people to take some action to satisfy a need or want. But first people need to be made aware of the problem or, if the problem is obvious, of a solution. To create awareness, the copywriter must first get people's attention-for example, by using large type and provocative visuals. Next, the copywriter must stimulate the prospect's interest in the product and build credibility for the product claims. Then the copywriter focuses on generating desire and finally on stimulating action. These five aspects should be present in every advertisement or commercial. Here is the advertising pyramid.2.2 Knowledge of stylistics2.2.1 The definition of stylistic sStylistics can be defined briefly as “ the study of style” (Wales, 1989:437). However, if we examine it closely, we find that it is not as simple as it seems. Before the 1950s, stylistics was mainly concerned with the study of literary works. So Widdowson defines style as “ the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation”, and he says further,”I shall take the view that what distinguishes stylistics from literary criticism on the one hand and linguistics on the other is that it is essentially a means of linking the two”(1975:3). Leech holds exactly the same view, and defines style as “the study of the use of language in literature”, a” meeting—ground of linguistics and literary study”(1969:1-2).However, in the last three or four decades, the object of analysis in stylistics is not restricted to literary works any more, but expands its scope of analysis into the study of nonliterary texts. So we can say now that stylistics can be defined as “the study of discourse or text on the basis of modern linguistic theories.English stylistics has developed on the basis of traditional rhetoric which can be traced back to the time of the great Greek civilization with Plato and Aristotle as pioneering figures. But it was not until the late 1950‟s that stylistics became a field of academic inquiry. Linguistically, it was initiated by the development of two most influential theories of linguistics: Chomsky‟s transformational generative grammar and Halliday‟s systemic functional linguistics(see formal stylistics and functional stylistics below). Apart from these two main schools of linguistics, there are many other schools and theories developed in the last three or four decades, and the work done by all these linguists has provided stylisticians with effective and completely new tools for investigating language in use in both literature and other types of discourse.2.2.2 The purpose of stylisticStylistic theory is studied for a number of reasons in practical terms. Halliday talks about two main goals of stylistic inquiry. the first is concerned with the nature of the text, that is,” to show why and how the text means what it does”. So through the analysis, we can have a more profound understanding of the nature of style in language, which may be helpful for the appreciation of literary works or for some practical uses, such as teaching the language under consideration, or the use of language in a more appropriate way. This goal is immediate andunquestionable, and easy to obtain as it is the same as that of ordinary discourse analysis.The second is more difficult to achieve. Ti is concerned with evaluation, that is,‟‟to show why the text is valued as it is‟‟. To achieve this goal, we need to know why this text is good and that text is bad, or why this text can be received into the canon of major literary works, but that one cannot. This is certainly a much more difficult task since now we have done little research on how value rests in literary texts. There are many factors involved, and there still many things we do not know yet on this aspect.Chapter three The linguistic features of English advertising3.1 The lexical characteristics of advertising English3.1.1 Simple to understand and popular to rememberShakespeare once said “Brevity is the soul of wit”. Advertisement charges due to its length, so a advertisement should get the greatest benefits in a limited time and space, and use the most simple words to express what it is needed to completely and clearly. A very brief advertising can make its readers very clear about its content. It not only attracts people‟s attention, but also stresses the point that a advertisement focusing on. Besides, the feature of brevity, advertisement should also be easy to understand in that readers can remember its content if only they have a glance at it. So some monosyllabic words and words that consist of fewer letters of appear in advertisements. For example, Buy one, get more. This is an automobile advertisement, …buy‟ and …get‟ are two very simple monosyllabic verbs. They can express the bilateral behavior between the advertising manufacturer and consumers. On the one hand, it shows the manufacturer‟s good faith, on the other hand, it makes the consumers feel simple, fast and beneficial.3.1.2 Novel and specialThe purpose of an advertisement is to attract readers and create limitless seeing and hearing impact on its readers in a limited space. Compound words can make it. Because the construction of compound words in cannot be limited by the order of words in syntax. It is more flexible and more colloquial. Besides its structure is quite novel, and it can easily make a deep expression on its reader. For example. Fresh up with severn-up-seven-up(七夕广告)。