Linguistic devices used in ads:
1. Phonetic devices (sound perceived by the ears)
2. Orthographic devices (funny writing perceived by the eyes)
3. Morphological devices (adding morphemes to brand name root)
4. Semantic devices (the figure produces menaing, perceived through culture-based interpretations)
There are 10 common phonetic devices:
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Alliteration:
consonant repetition
Coca-Cola, Cocoon
Assonance:
vowel repetition
Kal Kan Free to be me
Consonance:
consonant repetition with intervening vowel changes
Tic Tac Weight Watchers
Masculine rhyme: rhyme w/ end of syllable stress
Max Pax
Feminine rhyme:
unaccented syllable followed by accented syllable
American Airlines
Weak / imperfect / slant rhyme: vowels differ or consonants similar but not identical Black & Decker
Onomatopoeia: words containing sounds similar to the noises they describe
Hiss Bang Pop
Clipping:
product names attenuated
Chevy for a Chevrolet
Morphemic combination: usually with elision-- leaving out the sound of a part of a word when you are pronouncing it,
as in we’ll, don’t, ecc.
Duracell, Aspergum
Initial plosives: An initial is said to be plosive if, to produce the sound, one needs to first stop the flow of air completely,
then audibly release the air previously compressed. /b/, /c-hard/, /d/, /g-hard/, /k/, /q/, /t/
Bic Dash Pliz
Pim’s
There are 3 common orthographic devices:
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Unusual or incorrect spelling:
Abbreviations:
Acronyms:
Kool-Aid
7-Up for Seven-Up
FIAT, BP, BNL
There are 2 common morphological devices:
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Affixation:
adding a letter or group of letters to the beginning or end of a word to change its meaning
Jell-O, Tipp-Ex
Compounding:
Janitor-in-a-drum
There are 8 common semantic devices:
Metaphor:
representing something as if it were something else: Arrid
Simile:
when a name describes a likeness and not an equality: Aqua-Fresh
Metonymy: Application of one quality or object for another: The White House, Palazzo Chigi
figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by
the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept. For instance, "London",
as the capital of the United Kingdom, can be used as a metonym (an instance of metonymy) for
the British government; Washington for the US government.
word
damages
original meaning
destructive effects
word
a unit of language
sweat
tongue
the press
Perspiration
oral muscle
printing press
Houston
largest city in the state of Texas
Annapolis
the capital of the state of Maryland
Detroit
Hollywood
the largest city in Michigan
a section of Los Angeles
A fortified construction in historic cities of
Russia and the Soviet Union
an unincorporated community in Virginia
The Kremlin
Langley
metonymic use
money paid in compensation
a promise (to give/keep/break one's word); a
conversation (to have a word with)
hard work
a language or dialect
the news media
NASA Mission Control (for which the call sign is
"Houston")
the United States Naval Academy, which is located
there
the American automotive industry
the American film & television industry
The Government of Russia or the Moscow Kremlin
The Central Intelligence Agency
Washington
Ottawa
Foggy Bottom
Wall Street
K Street
Madison
Avenue
Broadway
The Hill
The White
House
The Pentagon
the capital city of the United States
the capital city of Canada
a neighborhood in Washington, D.C.
a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City
a street in Washington, D.C.
an avenue running the length of Manhattan
Island in New York City
an avenue running the length of Manhattan
Island in New York City
a historic neighborhood in Washington, D.C.
and the physical location of the United States
Congress
the official Presidential residence in
Washington, D.C.
a large government office building in
Arlington, Virginia
A street in the City of Westminster, on which is
located No. 10, the official residence of the UK
Prime Minister
New Scotland A London building, the headquarters of the
Yard
Metropolitan Police
The City
City of London
The Crown
A monarch's headwear
The Palace
Buckingham Palace
Westminster A City in Greater London
A street in the City of Westminster, the
Whitehall
headquarters of the British Civil Service and
various Governmental Departments
Fleet Street
A street in London
Downing
Street
The Vatican
The Vatican City State
Schengen[5][6]
a village and commune in Luxembourg on the
Moselle River
the government of the United States
the government of Canada
The United States Department of State
the American financial and banking industry
the U.S. lobbying industry
the American advertising industry
the live theater district of New York
the legislative branch of the federal government
the US President, his staff and close advisors
the United States Department of Defense, the United
States Secretary of Defense, and high-ranking military
officials, all based in said building
The British Prime Minister's Office
Metropolitan Police
the British financial and banking industry
the legal embodiment of executive government
the monarch's office
the UK Government, which is located there
the British Civil service or a Government Department
the British press, particularly newspapers
The Pope and Magisterium of the Roman Catholic
Church
Schengen Agreement, Schengen Area, Schengen
Information System
When the distinction is made, it is the following: when A is used to refer to B, it is a synecdoche if A is a component of
B and a metonym if A is commonly associated with B but not actually part of its whole.
Thus, "The White House said" would be a metonymy for the president and his staff, because the White House (A) is not
part of the president or his staff (B) but is closely associated with them. On the other hand, "20,000 hungry mouths to
feed" is a synecdoche because mouths (A) are a part of the people (B) actually referred to.
One example of a simple sentence that displays synecdoche, metaphor, and metonymy is: "Fifty keels ploughed the
deep", where "keels" is the synecdoche as it names the whole (the ship) after a particular part (of the ship); "ploughed"
is the metaphor as it substitutes the concept of ploughing a field for moving through the ocean; and "the deep" is the
metonym, as "depth" is an attribute associated with the ocean.
Synecdoche:
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a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (as fifty sail for fifty ships), the whole for a
part (as society for high society), the species for the genus (as cutthroat for assassin), the genus
for the species (as a creature for a man), or the name of the material for the thing made (as
boards for stage)
Substitution of a part for a whole, or a whole for a part: Red Lobster, The Crown, Australia
(=the Australian team) lost by two goals
Part of something is used to refer to the whole thing (Pars pro toto), or
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A thing (a "whole") is used to refer to part of it (Totum pro parte), or
A specific class of thing is used to refer to a larger, more general class, or
A general class of thing is used to refer to a smaller, more specific class, or
A material is used to refer to an object composed of that material, or
A container is used to refer to its contents.
A part referring to the whole
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Referring to people according to a single characteristic: "the gray beard" for an older man or "the long hair" for
a hippie. This leads to bahuvrihi compounds.
Referring to animals onomatopoeically
Describing a complete vehicle as "wheels"
Calling a worker "a pair of hands"
All "hands" on deck
Before and during the Cold War, the Soviet Union was commonly referred to by its largest and most wellknown member, Russia.
A whole thing referring to a part of it
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"The city posted a sign," which means that an employee of the local government (but not the geographic
location or all of its residents) posted a sign
"Capitol Hill," when referring to the US Legislature
A general class name used to denote a specific member of that or an associated class
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"truck" for any four-wheel drive vehicle (as well as long-haul trailers, etc.)
He's good people. [Here, the word "people" is used to denote a specific instance of people, i.e. a person. So the
sentence would be interpreted as "He's a good person.")
A specific class name used to refer to a general set of associated things
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"John Hancock" for the signature of any person
"bug" for any kind of insect or spider, even if it is not a true bug
a genericized trademark, for example "Coke" for any variety of cola or "Kleenex" for any variety of tissue
The material that a thing is made of referring to that thing
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"steel" for a sword
"willow" for a cricket bat or "pigskin" for an American or Canadian football
"wood" for a type of club used in the sport of golf
"irons" for shackles placed around a prisoner's wrists or ankles to restrict their movement
"plastic" for credit cards
"lead" for bullets
"silver" for flatware or other dishes that were once made of silver metal
"rubber" for a condom
"threads" for clothing
A container is used to refer to its contents
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"barrel" for a barrel of oil
"keg" for a keg of beer
Personification / pathetic fallacy Humanizing the non-human or ascribing human emotions to the innanimate Kinder,
Betty Crocker, Nonno Nanni
Oxymoron
Conjuntion of opposites:
open secret
larger half
clearly confused
act naturally
alone together
Hell's Angels
Paranomasia
found missing
liquid gas
civil engineer
deafening silence
seriously funny
living dead
Advanced BASIC
tragic comedy
unbiased opinion
virtual reality
definite maybe
original copies
pretty ugly
same difference
plastic glasses
almost exactly
constant variable
even odds
minor crisis
extinct life
genuine imitation
exact estimate
only choice
freezer burn
free love
working holiday
rolling stop
Great Depression
free trade
peacekeeper missile
sweet tart
crash landing
now then
butt head
sweet sorrow
student teacher
silent scream
taped live
alone together
good grief
tight slacks
living dead
near miss
light tanks
old news
hot chilli
criminal justice
peace force
The pun, or paronomasia, is a form of word play which exploits numerous meanings of a
statement, allowing it to be understood in multiple ways for an intended humorous or rhetorical
effect. A pun must be deliberate —an unintentional substitution of similar words is called a
malapropism. Henri Bergson defined a pun as a sentence or utterance in which "two different sets
of ideas are expressed, and we are confronted with only one series of words". [3] Puns may be
regarded as in-jokes or idiomatic constructions, given that their usage and meaning are entirely
local to a particular language and its culture.
Puns are used to create humor and sometimes require a large vocabulary to understand. Puns can be classified in various
ways:
The homophonic pun, a common type, utilizes the exploitation of word pairs which sound alike (homophones) but are
not synonymous. For example, in George Carlin's phrase "Atheism is a non-prophet institution", the word "prophet" is
put in place of its homophone "profit", inverting the common phrase "non-profit institution".
A homographic pun exploits words which are spelled the same (homographs) but possess different meanings and
sounds. Because of their nature, they rely on sight more than hearing, contrary to homophonic puns. They are also
known as heteronymic puns. Examples in which the punned words typically exist in two different parts of speech often
rely on unusual sentence construction. An example which combines homophonic and homographic punning would be
Douglas Adams's line "You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass." The phrase uses
the homophonic qualities of "tune a" and "tuna", as well as the homographic pun on "bass", in which ambiguity is
reached through the identical spellings of /ˈbeɪs/ (a string instrument), and /ˈbæs/ (a kind of fish).
Homonymic puns, another common type, arise from the exploitation of words which are both homographs and
homophones. The statement "Being in politics is just like playing golf: you are trapped in one bad lie after another"
puns on the two meanings of the word lie as "a deliberate untruth" and as "the position in which something rests".
A compound pun is a phrase that contains two or more puns. For example in the anecdotal joke: "The man, awaiting
surgery to remove the malignant tumor, reportedly told interviewers: "This weight is killing me!" " This compound pun
consists of the homophonic "wait/weight" and the play on the idiomatic and literal meanings of the words "you're
killing me".
A recursive pun is one in which the second aspect of a pun relies on the understanding of an element in the first. For
example the statement "π is only half a pie." (π radians is 180 degrees, or half a circle, and a pie is a complete circle).
Another example is "A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother." [8] Finally, we are given
"Immanuel doesn't pun, he Kant" by Oscar Wilde.
Semantic appositeness:
Fit of name with the object
Nutella