AN ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE FEATURES IN ENGLISH
ADVERTISEMENTS
Contents
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Rationale of the study
1.2 The value of the study
1.3 Summary
Chapter Two Towards Advertising
2.1 What is advertising?
2.2 The history of advertising
2.3 The functions of advertising and its language?
2.4 The basic principles of advertising language
Chapter Three Lexical Features
3.1 Wide use of nouns in brand names
3.2 Extensive use of monosyllabic and simple words
3.3 Bulk use of compounds
3.4 Coinages
Chapter Four Syntactic Features
4.1 Sentence patterns
4.1.1 Statements
4.1.2 Imperative sentences
4.1.3 Interrogative sentences
4.1.4 Exclamatory sentences
4.2 Sentence structures
4.2.1 Ellipsis
4.2.2 Sentence fragments
Chapter Five Main Rhetorical Devices
5.1 Simile & Metaphor
5.2 Personification
5.3 Pun
5.4 Hyperbole
5.5 Repetition
5.6 Alliteration
Chapter Six Conclusion
Acknowledgement
My grateful acknowledgement is devoted to my tutor
Professor Tan Weiguo, who gave me so much insightful and
helpful advice, which contributed to the completion of the
present thesis.
(上面还可多写一点)下面提供的致谢供你参考。
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to
express my gratitude to my tutor Mr. Tan Weiguo, who offered me
enlightening instructions, patient guidance and valuable suggestions,
which contributed to the completion of my thesis.
I would also like to acknowledge my indebtedness to all the
instructors who enlightened me with good ideas and taught me different
courses and various skills from which I benefited a great deal. In addition,
I am very grateful to all my classmates and friends who have given me
generous support and helpful advice in the past four years.
Finally, I wish to dedicate this paper to my beloved parents,
who
always love me and affectionately care for me.
Abstract
This paper presents an analytical study of the language features of English
advertisements at lexical, syntactic and rhetorical levels. In order to conduct a
data-driven study, varieties of English advertisements are examined and analyzed.
Through a detailed survey of these advertisements advertising language features are
summarized and possible reasons given in the light of the meaning and function of
language.
This paper is presented in six chapters. The First Chapter is the introduction and
the last the conclusion. The Second Chapter gives the general idea about advertising
and its language. The third, forth and fifth chapters of the paper, which constitute the
main body, respectively analyze language features at lexical, syntactic and rhetorical
levels. In the process of analysis, examples are provided to make the paper
understandable and persuasive.
It is hoped that this study can shed light on the language features of English
advertisements and also provide help for copywriters and advertising English learners.
Key words: advertising, language feature, lexical, syntactic, rhetorical
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﹑
修辞方面的语言特点。为了使研究从数据出发得出科学结论，作者选用各类英文
广告实例加以深入细致的定量和定性分析，总结出广告英语的语言特点，并且根
据语言的意义与功能解释广告英语的共性及特殊性。
全文共分六章，第一章和第六章分别为介绍与结论，第二章介绍广告的基本
情况，第三、四、五章为本文核心，分别探讨广告英语的词汇﹑句法和修辞特点，
从这三个层面对英语广告的语言特点进行分析与概括。
希望此论文的分析结果能给英语广告的写作者以及广告英语的学习者提供
帮助。
（摘要的第二部分可多写几句话，使结构平衡！！！）
关键词: 广告英语；语言特点；词汇；句法；修辞
Chapter One
Introduction
1.1 Rationale of the study
Advertising is something that we are all exposed to. It is also something that is
likely to affect most of us in a number of different spheres of our lives. It is
reasonable to say that we live in a world of advertising. As potential consumers, we
are always bombarded with all kinds of product or service information from various
media, including newspapers, magazines, television, radio, Internet, etc. Advertising
indicates the difference that exists between brands of products and alternative services.
Advertising also tells the consumer what a specific product, brand or service should
do when it is used, thus helping 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. Therefore, the forms of advertising are very
important. Advertising has many forms, but in most of them language is of crucial
importance. The words in advertisements are carefully crafted to meet particular
needs.
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.
这里要写明论题的研究现状！！！！
1.2 The focus of the study
Advertising language sometimes is intended to inform, but more often, and more
importantly, to persuade and influence. It has developed its own features.
Graph 1 a framework of advertising language analysis(说明出处!!)
No matter what form advertisements take, the advertising text is most important.
Accordingly, this thesis focuses on the language features of English advertisements at
lexical, syntactic and rhetorical levels through argumentation and illustration.
1.3 Methods and Significance
这里要说明研究方法和研究意义。
Chapter Two Towards Advertising
2.1 What is advertising?
Advertising is with us all the time. Whenever we open a newspaper or a magazine,
turn on the TV, or look at the posters in underground stations or on buildings, we are
confronted with advertisements. Then what is advertising?
The word advertising first appeared around 1655. It was used in the Bible to
indicate notification or warning. An advertisement is a public announcement,
generally printed or oral, made to promote a commodity, service, or idea.
(Encyclopedia Britannica, 这里写明出版年代:105).
American Marketing Association 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” (加夹
注！
！！)
“Advertising is a paid non-personal communication form with an identified sponsor
using mass media to persuade or influence the audience” (Wells & Burnett & Moriarty,
1989:8).
Otto Kleppner in the book Advertising Procedure defines advertising as “a method
of delivering a message from a sponsor, through an impersonal medium, to many
people...” （加个夹注即可）.
In Creative Advertising – Theory and Practice by Sndra E. Moriarty（加个夹注
即可）, “An advertisement is a conversation with a consumer that gets attention,
provides information, makes a point, and encourages someone to buy, try, or do
something.”
From these definitions, we can see that advertising is very important not only to
producers but to consumers as well. Besides, it has great impetus to the society.???
It develops and changes with the evolution of society. It is “a mirror of society”
(Russell, 1996:508) which reflects the society we live in. Let’s see the evolution of
advertising.
2.5 The history of advertising
Advertising as a way of propaganda has long existed. At first, people were
unconscious of it. Early in 3000 B.C, ancient Babylonians had already publicized the
ointment sellers, book-copiers and shoes-makers. In ancient Greece, most messages
were delivered by criers who stood on street corners, shouting the wares of their
sponsors. In ancient Rome, stores and merchandise that people carried were identified
by signs－a row of ham represented the butcher, a cow stood for the dairy, a leather
boot meant the shoes shop and so on (谢文怡，1997：1). In ancient times, advertising
was a kind of early commercial information. Information rather than persuasion was
its aim.
The development of advertising was greatly influenced by advancing technology.
The invention of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 moved society
toward a new level of communication – mass communication. No longer restricted by
the time required by a scribe to hand-letter a single message, advertising could now be
mass-produced (Wells & Burnett & Moriarty, 1989:21). Around the 17th century,
newspaper came to the stage. It provided the advertising with the best carrier. The
availability of printed media encouraged more business to advertise.
Along with the passage of time, the history of advertising entered “the Formative
Years” (Wells & Burnett & Moriarty, 1989:23).
The mid-1800s marked the beginning of the development of the advertising
industry in the U.S. The emerging importance and growth of advertising during this
period resulted from a number of social and technological developments associated
with the Industrial Revolution.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, emerging technologies have dramatically
impacted and fueled the growth of advertising. The modern media, such as
radio-communication, enabled the advertisers to achieve their aims in advertising and
made long-distance communication become possible. Television made advertisement
colorful and attractive. Advertising entered the modern years. The industry had
become a major force in marketing, and had achieved a significant level of respect
and esteem.
2.6 The functions of advertising and its language
Up to now, advertising has fully developed. It’s very crucial not only to consumers,
but also to social development. It performs three basic roles in society.
1. Marketing role－helping companies sell their products or services
To the producers, advertising provides the chances of promoting the products or
services, communicating with the consumers and developing the business, which does
much good to economic development.
2. Educational role－helping people learn about new products and services
As consumers, we can get information of the world from advertisement. Then it
performs the educational role. We can compare the products or services of one brand
with another from which we can make our choices.
3. Social role－helping increase productivity and raise the standard of living
To the society, advertising can accelerate the growth of economy, and thus improve
the standard of living. It also promotes the mass-media and gives the society very rich
cultural meaning.
In order to fulfill these roles, advertising may have various forms and strategies to
stimulate the sale of products. It has resorted to all kinds of techniques ––
audio-visual, sound and light, display and acting, photographs and drawing and so on.
But its language plays the most important role. Language is the most important tool of
human communication. Language serves as an effective tool in persuading and
influencing the audience, and, most important, in doing the selling.
According to Leech (1978:47-50), as a tool for communication, language has five
functions. First, language has the informative function to convey information to
people through words, expressions or gestures. It also has the expressive function to
express human feelings, attitudes, etc. The directive function of language enables us
to influence the behavior or attitudes of others, such as commands and requests. The
aesthetic function is used for the sake of linguistic artifact itself. Last but not least,
language has the phatic function to keep social relationships in good repair. All the
different kinds of functions of language are highly effective in advertising. For
example, the informative and expressive functions are used in advertising to convey
the messages about the products or services, while the directive function influences
the attitudes and behaviors of consumers and persuade them to purchase the products
or enjoy the services.
In short, the functions of language in communication play crucial roles in the
linguistic strategies of advertisements. There’re also some basic principles of
advertising language. And thus, the advertising language forms its own style and
characteristics.
2.7 The Basic Principles of Advertising Language
Lund (1947:83) summarizes the task of the adman as being to:
1. attract attention;
2. arouse interest;
3. stimulate desire;
4. create conviction;
5. get action.
Professor Xie and Professor Liu (加夹注！！！)summed up the following four
principles in Advertising English.
First of all, an advertisement must be attractive. Besides the pictures or music, the
words in an advertisement should be exotic or fresh if the sponsor wants to arouse the
consumers’ interests. Using sentence fragments or puns will catch people’s eye and
make them curious about the product or services. Thus, the advertisement works.
Secondly, the advertising text should be easy to read. It is necessary to choose easy
or colloquial words and to use simple sentences. Because they will let the readers
keep reading.??? Too difficult sentence structures or too long passages will make the
readers feel tired. Of course, when choosing the language, targeted consumers’
level should be considered.??? Advertisement writers should use the language
that is suitable to the consumers which the products or services aim to.??? For
example, the words in Cartier’s advertisement were carefully chosen. (上下文不
连贯！！！)
“Like some fabulous, legendary jewel box, the Cartier boutique offers
treasures of dazzling refinement. Exclusive creations from a celebrated jeweler.
Cascades of stunningly inventive objects. From the luxuriously prestigious to
the elegantly functional. Everything is extraordinary. Everything tempts.
Jewellery, wrist-watches, lighters, writing instruments, leather goods,
perfumes, eyewear…the Cartier boutique epitomizes the fine art of living, the
fine art of giving.”
Thirdly, the advertising text must be memorable. If the consumers can remember
the advertisement, then they will be the potential customers. Using parallelism or
alliteration or other rhetorical devices will make the advertisement impressive. E.g.
In love there is no lack.
The best marksman may miss the mark.
…I came sudden, at the city's edge,
On a blue burst of lake…
(The Harbor, by Carl Sandburg)
Lastly, the ad text should so well designed as to stimulate consumption. The final
aim of advertisement is to promote products or services. So the advertising language
should be vivid and have the force to drive the readers to consume.
Chapter Three Lexical Features
In order to make the information accessible to audience, 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 consume the product or use the service. Both
linguistic and psychological aspects are taken into consideration in the choice of
words. Sharing the same purpose of advertising－to familiarize or remind consumers
of the benefits of particular products in the hope of increasing sales, advertisers pay
great attention to choice of words. Generally speaking, advertising texts show the
following prominent features.
3.1 Wide use of nouns in brand names
It’s no doubt that nouns are most widely used in advertising. Almost every sentence
and every phrase have nouns because nouns are the key words. They are crucial and
indispensable.
The most representative use of nouns in advertising lies in the brand names of the
products or the services. A brand name, also a trade name, is “an arbitrarily adopted
name that is given by a manufacturer or merchant to an article or service to
distinguish it as produced or sold by him and??? that may be used and protected as
a trademark.” (Webster’s, 1994:1250) A good brand name can help develop the
consumer’s loyalty to a specific brand or product. It also gives the consumers
different feelings about different products or services. For example:
Clinique
Clarins
Lancome
These brand names of cosmetics give consumers the feeling of cleanness, elegance
and natural beauty.
The brand names of cars, such as Blue Bird, Jaguar and Mastang are full of charm
of speed and power (谢文怡, 1997:44).
Nouns are also widely used in simile, metaphor and metonymy. For example:
Laurent Beaute invites you to discover his new collection of colors, as warm and
sheer as a summer breeze: delicate corals, pinks and peaches for lips; matte,
muted earthy neutrals for eyes; and whisper of color for nails….” (New York
Times Magazine, (NYTM), Sept. 1993)
In this way, the quality, characteristic and function of the product can be well
delivered to the readers. And the advertisement is most likely to stimulate
consumption.
3.2 Extensive use of monosyllabic and simple words
Monosyllabic and simple words are preferred in advertising, for they are smooth to
read and easy to understand. G. N. Leech, a great English linguist, lists 20 most
common 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.
We often read simple advertisements. E.g.
Buy one. Use it. We make… One will give you what you need. You’ll love one.
Get one free.
We’ll make this quick. (Hertz Car Return)
Get great coverage that’s so weightless and water-fresh. (ALMAY)
All you need is a taste for adventure. (Millstone Coffee)
You’ll love it even more with the 2.1 megapixel C-2000 ZOOM. (Olympus
Camera)
Don’t have much of a personality? Buy one. (Honda Motor)
All the verbs used in the above examples 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 help win consumers by their exact, effective expression and a kind of
closeness. Etymological studies show that eighteen of the 20 verbs listed above,
except use and taste, which are from ancient French, are of 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.
As to adjectives, monosyllabic ones are also preferred with the same reason. The
most frequently used adjectives are as follows:
new, good/better/best, fresh, free, delicious, sure, full, clean, wonderful,
special, crisp, real, fine, great, safe, and rich.
About 89% of frequently employed adjectives in English advertising are
monosyllabic words. Such simple words are compact and crisp.
3.3 Bulk Use of Compounds
Advertising aims to transmit as much information as possible to the consumers
within the shortest possible time. Compounds just meet this requirement in that they
condense two or more than two words into one. They have the flexibility in word
building, which satisfies the need of creativity in advertising. Thus, many product
names apply hyphenation process for conveying messages to the consumers.
Professor Xie and Professor Liu mentioned some frequently used compounds in ads
(加夹注！！！). They are:
adj.+n.+ed:
a curly-haired man
adj.+-ing:
good-tasting oats
adj.+-ed:
quick-frozen chicken
adv.+-ing:
fast-foaming new S.R.
adv.+-ed:
the wide, well-clad behind of a woman???
n.+-ing:
a relief-giving liquid
n.+-ed:
flower-and-herb-planted terrace
n.+adj.:
oil-free formulas
adj.+adj.:
a fabulous deep-cold freezer
-ing+adj.:
shining-clean pans
n.+n.:
tree-house; consumer-protection
adj.+n.:
low-key; fresh-milk
v.+ing+n.:
waiting-room
n.+v.+ing.:
sun-bathing
adv.+n.:
outbreak
v.+adv.:
Break-through
Some other examples:
Sophisticated sweet-to-drink Pink Lady. (Pink Lady)
The adv.+n. compound “sweet-to-drink” gives readers the feeling of beauty and
desire.
Kodak Single-use-cameras take pictures where you wouldn’t normally take your
camera. (Kodak)
The adj.+v.+n. compound “Single-use-cameras” shows the product’s purpose and
quality thoroughly.
3.4 Coinages
Coinage is a word or phrase recently invented (Longman: 263). Language is always
developing with the passage of time. We are familiar with such words as “brunch”,
“multiversity”, “babysitter” and so on. They are all coinages. New products and
services are emerging in an endlessly stream. Advertisers are good at word invention.
These factors influence the language of advertising. As a result, coinages are born
continuously and endlessly.
There are many methods to create new words, such as compounding, derivation
acronym, etc. A number of coinages in advertisements are names or brands of
products. For example, cellophane refers to thin transparent material used for
wrapping goods. It comes from cellulose and diaphane, two raw material names of
cellophane. “Cellophane” is a compound word. ??? “Cellophane” is not a
compound, but a clipped word. !!!A compound word is often a noun or an adjective
made up of two or more words but it functions as a single word. Compound adjectives
are often seen in advertisements. In the present study, ??? we found compound
words turn up much more frequently in technical equipment advertisements with the
rapid development of high-tech. For example:
The new four-wheeled servo-assisted disc brakes …
Compound words in technical equipment advertisements usually give an exact
description of a certain feature or a certain function. Let’s examine such compounds
as high-volume, full-color, multi-functional, non-stop, and water-cooled. Often
numbers are employed in front of the hyphen, which is seldom seen in other
advertisements, such as 64-bit, 24-valve, 4-wheel, 255-horsepower.
In comparison with daily consumer goods and services, technical equipment is much
more complicated in function and structure. It is just the advantageous function or
newly designed structure that the advertiser wants to highlight in technical equipment
advertisements. The advertiser employs, even coins??, so many compound words that
they can make the introduction of complicated technical equipment brief and precise.
Grammatically, compound words help to avoid using clause, which enhance the
readability of advertisements.
More examples:
Slimnastics means gymnastics that slim you down.
Housemaker is used instead of housewife in advertisements to avoid the
meaning of tiring housework.
Weddingwhite is a reminder of a white wedding gown.
Powerpack accumulates huge amount of energy and power.
Another main method is using prefixes and suffixes to create new words in
advertisements. Word choice in advertisements is flexible. In advertising language, a
lot of words begin with super-. Most of these words are usually rhetorical. Some
others end with –ex, which tends to be associated with the word excellent. For
example, Kleenex (a brand of tissue) is a combination of clean and excellent. Windex
(a kind of window detergents) conjoins window and excellent. More examples:
Washmatic and hydromatic comes from automatic. The suffix –matic
associates with a machine or equipment.
Booketeria and valeteria (a place in a hotel offering pressing clothes service)
come from cafeteria. –teria means places offering things or service.
Motorama comes from panorama. –rama means view.
Footique and bootique come from boutique, a French word, which means a small
shop for women selling up-to-date clothes and other personal articles of the newest
kind.
New words are created outright to fit some purpose. These coinages reflect the ability
of advertising language to keep up with the changeable market. “Madison Avenue has
added many new words to English, such as Kodak, nylon, Orlon, and Dacron.
Specific brand names such as Xeron, Kleenex, Jell-o, Frigidaire, Brillo, and Vaseline
are now sometimes used as the general name for different brands of these same types
of products” (Victoria & Robert: 120).
Chapter Four Syntactic Features
The purpose of all advertising is to familiarize consumers with or remind them of
the benefits of particular products in the hope of increasing sales, and the techniques
used by advertisers do not vary markedly. An advertisement is often merely glimpsed
in passing and so, to be effective, its message must be colorful, legible,
understandable and memorable. The rules governing the language of advertising are
similar. We have summarized the lexical features of English advertisements. If words
are leaves of a tree, and sentences branches; the branches must also possess their own
features.
The most frequently used sentence patterns are statements, commands,
interrogative sentences and exclamations. As for the sentence structures, elliptical
structures, sentence fragments and comparative constructions are most widely used in
English advertising.
4.1 Sentence Patterns
4.1.1 Statements
Statements, especially simple statements, are the most frequently used in
advertising. Well-composed statements will give the readers a very deep impression.
Let’s first see an example.
It’s a powerful PC with a Pentium processor and 95 preloaded. It’s a CD player for
Audio CD, Video CD, and CD ROM… It uses your TV as a full screen monitor.
It can link with you Video and Hi Fi. It’s a link to the Internet. …
(INDEPENDENT , Oct.17th, 1995, London.)
In this advertisement, all the sentences are simple statements. They are clear
enough to show the capability and quality. They also stimulate the readers’ desire and
help realize the function of advertising——do well in selling.
Another example:
We lead. Others copy． (Ricoh)
Only two very short and simple sentences show the leading position of this product
and let the buyers feel very proud of using it.
In advertisements, complex sentences are not often used because they will most
likely frustrate readers in understanding the advertiser’s message because of their
trickiness and obscurity. With the neat structure and easy flow, simple statements are
more reader-friendly though similarly info-packed, thus becoming quite effective in
getting messages across to readers.
4.1.2 Imperative Sentences
As mentioned before, persuading is one of the most important functions of
advertising. The final aim of advertising is to arouse the consumers’ desire and make
them consume the advertised product. So imperative sentences which are
grammatically featured as “pertaining to, or constituting the mood that express a
command or request” (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
1981) are extensively used.
Here are some examples:
Obey your thirst. (Spirit)
Take time to indulge. (Ice-cream of Nescafe)
Come to where the flavor is——Marlboro Country. (Marlboro)
Just do it. (Nike)
Take TOSHIBA, take the world. (TOSHIBA)
Start ahead. (Rejoice)
All these imperative sentences are short, encouraging and forceful. They are used to
arouse audiences’ wants or encourage them to buy something immediately. As in an
order tone,??? the audience will follow it unconsciously. As Leech (1966:80)
mentioned “…the imperative in public communication does not suffer from the
implication of its use in private contexts. We are used to receiving exhortations and
directives in the imperative mood from all manner of public sources: road sighs(‘Halt
at major road ahead’); public transport notices(‘Do not lean out of the window’);
instructions from Government departments…”So Most of the commands are really to
the point and make the readers very interested in the products or services. Thus, it
stimulates the desire and creates the consumption.
4.1.3 Interrogative Sentences
Another heavily used sentence pattern in English advertisements is interrogative
sentence. In the explanation of the high frequency of the use of interrogative
sentences, Linguist G.N. Leech (方薇, 1997:77) discusses two main functions of
interrogative sentences. Viewing from the perspective of psychology, interrogative
sentences divided the process of information reception into two phases by first raising
a question and then answering it. Thus it turns the passive receiving into active
understanding. From the linguistic perspective, interrogative sentences decrease the
grammatical difficulty, because they are usually short in advertisements. Take the
following interrogative sentence as an example: if it is asked to condense to one
sentence???, the condensed one will be complex and dull.
A What’s in Woman’s Realm this week? A wonderful beauty offers for you.
B There’s a wonderful beauty offer for you in Women’s Realm this week.
Apparently, the sentence A is much more attractive to the audience than the
sentence B.
4.1.4 Exclamatory Sentence
Let’s first see an example.
Where else can you find so many hit shows in one place? Only in New York!
(New York Times Magazine, Nov.11,1993)
In this advertisement, the writer put emphasis on the place——New York where
you can watch the shows. The exclamatory mark at the end of the sentence gives
readers a profound impression. Thus, it stimulates the consumers’ desire.
Another example:
“…I couldn’t believe it, until I tried it!” “I’m impressed! I’m really impressed!”
(ibid)
This advertisement used the words said by the consumers. It sounds very true and
then strengthens its function.
As exclamatory sentences should be accentuated and they are very emotive, using
exclamatory sentences will make the information that the advertisement wants to
deliver become more important.
4.2 Sentence Structure
4.2.1 Ellipsis
Ellipsis refers to the omission of the unnecessary elements of a sentence or of those
that have already occurred in the context. It can be used to avoid redundancy, to give
prominence to a message, to narrow the intervals of communication, to simplify the
procedure of expression, and to intensify the linguistic effect, etc. Greg Myers
(1994:57) mentioned that “The omission doesn’t just let you fill in what you want. It
makes you active in interpreting the sentence…” When used in advertisements,
ellipsis results in conciseness and vividness. Elliptical sentences are actually
incomplete in structure but complete in meaning. The adoption of elliptical sentences
also can spare more print space, and take less time for readers to finish reading. In
addition, a group of sentence fragments may gain special advertising effectiveness.
Let us compare the following two advertisements.
A. Baked. Drenched. Tested to the extreme. A Motorola cellular phone …
B. The Motorola cellular phone are baked and drenched to extreme.
Obviously, through use of an elliptical structure, sentence A is far more brief,
eye-catching and forceful than sentence B. What’s more, it conveys attitudes that
sentence A lacks. Sentence A implies a kind of appreciation for the phone, by splitting
the sentence into several fragments and rearranging its word order. Therefore skillful
arrangement of elliptical sentences may add color to a sentence.
In advertising English, ellipsis can be the omission of subject, predicate, object or
others, and even one-word or one-phrase sentence can be used. Omitting verbs is one
way of ellipsis as mentioned above, while omitting subject is another way. Subject,
which is omitted often, refers to the products or services advertised. Here is an
example:
made of 100% pure
enjoyment
will not fade until long after
your family returns home
（Universal Studios）
------- Life, October 1999
This is an advertisement about an amusement park. Here, Universal Studios as
subject is left out twice, which makes the advertisement shorter but more concise and
effective.
Certainly, not all the subjects omitted refer to the products or services. It can also
refer to the consumers. In general, the subject omitted is YOU.
In summary, ellipsis is a deliberate omission of words that would normally be
required by grammatical construction, but which are obvious from the context.
Advertising English is a style of immediate impact and rapid persuasion. In general,
whether the medium is print, radio or television, the advertiser can rely on your
attention for only a very short time, and therefore the sales message must be short,
clear, distinctive and memorable. Using ellipsis can make sentences short, concise,
can emphasize the key words, and avoid redundancy. Ellipsis in advertising English is
employed for vividness and aesthetic appreciation of the audience.
4.2.2 Sentence Fragments
In advertisement, we can find language that is clearly written to be read. At the
same time, its sentences structures are also found that are typical of spoken language
and are intended to represent spoken language, like the use of sentence fragments.
“The language used in the advertisements involves a mixture of spoken and written
patterns of languages”. (Fries 1992:468)
Sentence fragment, also called “disjunctive syntax” by Leech (1966:113-116), is
considered to have the unique value of association. Here’s an example from
Advertising English (1997:73):
The Land’s End cashmere sweater. Soft and silky as the beard of a Mongolian
goat.
Two sentence fragments give readers the chance to associate. It allows readers to
understand it differently. It weasels something which won’t let the consumers doubt
about the products. If this advertisement is written in this way:
The Land’s End cashmere sweater is soft and silky as the beard of a Mongolian
goat.
It’s a Standard English sentence, but one question will be raised by the readers: is
the Land’s End cashmere sweater soft and silky as the beard of a Mongolian goat?
Then the function of the advertisement will be affected and can’t be fully realized.
Chapter Five Main Rhetorical Devices
Rhetorical devices serve as a tool to give beauty, variety and power to the language
in which we intend to state. They are highly valued in the development of
contemporary English advertising. To achieve vividness and humor and to appeal to
more readers, various rhetorical devices are employed in advertising. Some of the
most commonly used rhetorical devices are discussed in the following.
5.1 Simile & Metaphor
Smile and metaphor are used in advertisements to illustrate the characteristics of
the advertised products or services. A simile is a figure of speech which makes a
comparison between two unlike elements having at least one quality or characteristic
in common. A metaphor, like a simile, also makes a comparison between two unlike
elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison is implied rather than stated. A
metaphor is in a sense a condensed simile, differing from the latter only in form and
artistry. It is a higher form and requires greater ability on the part of the reader to
perceive the hidden association, the insight into persons, things or ideas that is
implied(冯翠华,1997:158-167). Clearly, with the use of simile and metaphor, two
irrelevant matters can be bridged and observed.
Let’s see an example of simile:
No wonder people say our service is legendary. …Smooth as silk. (You’d better
cite complete sentences!!!)(Thai Airway International)
Silk is known for its quality of smoothness. Here the advertiser uses simile, which
is usually introduced by “like” or “as,” to associate its excellent services provided for
the passengers and thus help create an impressive vivid image in the mind of the
passengers.
Another example:
Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine. (Orange juice)
Here, the writer compares this brand of orange juice to sunshine, which provides
people with comfort and warmth. Drinking the orange juice will give you the pleasant
feeling of have sunshine???, which gives the readers very fresh and warm feeling.
Thus, it realizes its function of persuasion.
Now two examples of metaphor:
Clean skin from head to toe. Neutrogena Body Clear body wash treats, even
prevents body breakouts. (Cosmo Girl, Oct. /Nov., 1999:8) (This sentence
does not involve any use of metaphor!!!)
It's a country rich in art, with a wealth of museums. Blessed by year round good
weather, Spain is a magnet for sunworshippers and holidaymakers. （Spain
Traveling Advertisement）
The first one implies that this kind of body wash can help clean your skin
completely.???? The second one likens Spain to a magnet which strongly attracts the
travelers there.
From these examples, we can find that with these figures of speech, the readers
can get very wonderful imagination??? when reading these advertisements. Besides,
through the abundant application of figures of speech in the advertising, the
creativeness and imagination of the advertisers can be revealed. Simile and metaphor
have been the shortcut to arrest the readers’ attention.
5.2 Personification
By definition, personification is a figure of speech that gives human form or
feelings to animals, or life and personal attributes to inanimate objects, or to ideas and
abstractions (冯翠华, 1997:177). The effectiveness of personification in English
advertisement lies in its potency of giving products with emotion and liveliness. Most
people agree that the personified products can foster more trust and affection in
potential customers and therefore arouse more desire for the purchase. The following
are some examples.
It may be your car, but it’s still our baby. (Ford Quality-Care)
Flowers by Interflora speak from the heart. (Interflora flower shop)
Thirty colors. Some so spectacular they send messages. (Ad. of dye)
Unlike me, my Rolex never needs a rest. (Rolex)
In these advertisements, the products are treated as human beings. The first one is
specifically treated as a baby, since babies are always deeply loved and kindly treated
by their parents and others. From the advertising slogan we can easily know that Ford
Quality-Care workers love and care for Ford cars as much as they do their own
children. The other three advertisements touch upon emotions of love, care and
happiness. Flowers from Interflora are no longer emotionless plants but truthful
messengers. The advertised dye can send messages through its thirty colors. The
Rolex’s excellent quality is quite evident as it doesn’t need rest. They have good
access to the would-be buyers. The advertisement composers succeed in establishing
the affinity between customers and the advertised products with appropriate
application of personification.
5.3 Pun
Advertisers usually play with words to make the advertising language interesting
and attractive. 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. We often use puns to make jokes. Although pun is
implicit, it gives the readers much food for thinking. For example:
To write with a broken pencil is pointless. (Polysemy)
Pointless means dull and blunt here. It also means meaningless. The meaning of
this sentence is that a pencil without a sharp end can’t write well and meaningfully.
A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired (too tired).
(Homonymy)
The one who invented the doorknocker got a No-bell (Nobel) prize.
Pun, the game of words, is used widely in our life. It 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 in advertising language. Such coincidence doesn’t occur often. Here we
present several classic pun-used advertisements. For example:
Coke refreshes you like no other can. (Coke-cola)
“Can” has two meanings. One is to be able to do something. The other is a closed
metal container in which foods or drinks are preserved, called tin also. The two
different meanings of “can” give rise to two different interpretations of this
advertisement: Coke refreshes you like no other drinks can do; Coke refreshes you
like no other can-packed drinks can do. Here is another example:
Give your hair a touch of spring. (a kind of Shampoo)
As a pun, “spring” means a place where water comes up naturally from the ground
and it also means elasticity. This advertising slogan wants to promise the consumers
that the product can keep your hair moist and your hair will have an active healthy
quality through use of this kind of Shampoo. There are more examples:
Ask for More (More is a brand of cigarette)
A deal with us means a good deal to you. (a department store)
Filled with wit and humor, puns help the advertised product win favor from readers
or potential consumers. Through use of pun, advertisements will be easily
remembered by the readers. (More sentences are needed here!!!)
5.4 Hyperbole
LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English (1998：751)defines hyperbole as
“[c;u]（an example of） a way of describing something in order to make it sound
bigger, smaller, better, worse, etc, than it really is.” In advertising, the use of
exaggerated statements puts emphasis on the particular features of the products or
services, or sometimes achieves humorous effect. For instance:
Coverage so invisible,
It’s time to rewrite history. (Ad. of cosmetic)
In this advertisement, the advertiser uses “rewrite history”, which exaggerates the
quality of the product which can give users the incredible beauty.
Another example:
Samsung presents “World best”. (Samsung)
Here, the advertisement composer uses the hyperbole to claim that their product is
the best in the world. It shows the confidence and heroic spirit of this brand of
product. Thus, it gives the readers a very profound impression.
Of course, hyperbole should be appropriately used in advertising, otherwise it will
arouse the readers’ doubt about the products or services and make the advertisement a
total failure.
5.5 Repetition
Repetition is defined by Grolier Academic Encyclopedia as the repeating of any
element in an utterance, including sounds, a word or phrase, a pattern of accents, or an
arrangement of lines (加上夹注！！！). In advertising repetition is applied to emphasize
the important features of the products or services. It can also make the advertising
messages impressive and persuasive. Let’s see an example.
Everything is extraordinary. Everything tempts. (Cartier)
Cartier is a well-known brand for watches in the world，so it is unnecessary to
emphasize the brand. It only emphasizes “everything” to tell the advantages of Cartier.
This advertisement can rhetorically be regarded as anaphora. But not all anaphora are
the repetition of subjects.
The following is another example:
Birth of Napoleon
Birth of Vangogh
Birth of Einstein
Birth of the motherfucker who cut down this tree.
Stop Orestation.
(Jovem Pan)
This advertisement of public utility repeats “Birth” several times to show the tree is
time-honored. At last, it accuses the man who cuts down the tree and calls for
stopping orestation.
Furthermore, an advertisement often pretends to be talking to the prospective
customer. There is therefore heavy use of “You”.
You want to brighten your teeth,
You travel a lot and want a high-quality portable toothbrush.
“You” is repeatedly used to bring the product and the audience much closer.
“You” often has two meanings in advertising language. One is generic reference to
“all” or “everyone”; the other is specific reference to “the audience”. Here, “you”
means the audience. In the advertisement “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and
play.”(Mars is a kind of candy car), “you” means all. Thus, the audience will easily
accept a product, a service or an idea on account of repetition.
5.6 Alliteration
Alliteration is the use of words that begin with the same sound in order to make a
special communicative effect. For instance, “The fair breeze blew, the white foam
flew, the furrow followed free.”
It is often seen in idioms and poems. E.g.
In love there is no lack.
The best marksman may miss the mark.
…I came sudden, at the city's edge,
On a blue burst of lake…
(The Harbor, by Carl Sandburg)
Alliteration is also applied in advertising because of its aesthetic feeling for the
audience. Usually alliterations are pleasing to audience’s ears because of the clever
choice of the word by the advertiser. By using alliteration, rhythms are bestowed on
advertisements. In addition, the repetition of the beginning sound emphasizes the
meaning the advertisement wants to express. The following are examples:
Let Sennheiser headphones and microphones fuel your music fires.
Fly first class for free.
Sea, sun, sand, Seclusion—and Spain! Set in cool, palm-fringed grounds, but
only twenty sun-soaked steps from the beach this new luxury hotel looks out on
a magnificent sweep of the Costa Brava. (Costa Brava is a famous Spanish
beach resort)
… when you consider their carpeted comfort and their crisp, neat, individual
décor. (a hotel ad)
In the above advertisements, the same sound at the beginning of some words
attacks the audience’s ears and minds repeatedly, continually and rhythmically. The
sound has a strong appealing power to the audience. This kind of stress makes the
audience pay more attention to the advertisements and appreciate the advertisements
and even the products as well.
Chapter Six Conclusion
So far, we have analyzed the prominent language features of advertisements at
three levels. Linguistic similarities analyzed in this paper and shared by all kinds of
advertisements are shown as follows:
As to lexical features, nouns are widely used as brand names. They help to make
the consumers remember the products or services and deliver the information very
well.
Monosyllabic and simple words, such as get, make, good and new, are often
used. These short words can hit the goals in the shortest time. Compounds and
coinages are invented constantly. Some of them are so successful that they are added
to our modern English vocabulary.
As to syntactical features, simple statements are often used. Sentences in
advertisements are short. On average, a sentence consists of 11.8 words. Some of the
short sentences are elliptical sentences. Elliptical sentences are used to spare
advertising cost and at the same time improve advertising effectiveness. Imperative
sentences and interrogative sentences are common in advertisements. They make
advertisements like dialogs and easy to be understood. And also exclamatory
sentences, which are very emotive, are frequently used. They make the information
that the advertisement wants to deliver seem more important. Sentence fragments
have the unique value of emphasis and association. Thereby, the advertiser can
encourage people to buy more efficiently.
As to rhetorical devices, smile and metaphor are used in advertisements to vividly
highlight the characteristics or special features or functions of the advertised products
or services. The effectiveness of personification in English advertisements lies in its
potency of endowing products with emotion and liveliness. Puns make advertisements
more meaningful and interesting while alliteration renders advertisements more
effective and rhythmical. Through use of hyperbole, advertisements become effective,
emotional and humorous. Repetition is often designed to make advertisements more
attractive, impressive and memorable.
Last but not least, some features commonly appear in one advertisement together.
Lexical and syntactical features are mixed in one advertisement, which can make it
more appealing to the audience and persuade them to buy the product or use the
service. For example:
Give your hair a touch of spring.
This advertisement is a short simple sentence. In this seven-word sentence three
features, monosyllable words, imperative structure and pun, are used together. This
advertisement assembles three streams of power to inspire people.
Think Once. Think twice. Think bike.
This advertisement’s purpose is to encourage people to use bike. This advertising
slogan consists of three simple imperative sentences, where repetition occurs.
In short, no matter which structure and what words are used in an advertisement, all
of them serve the purpose of attracting the audience, conveying information to them,
urging them to purchase the product or to use the service. That is what an ad for, and
that is also the function advertising language performs.
Bibliography
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小蒋：
我的意见如下：
1． 要下大工夫写好摘要和前言。注意参考穿插在文章中的意见。
2． 注意黑体部分，黑体部分是有问题的。
3． 将文章中的所有例子编上序号。
4． 参考文献已经改好，个别问题注意解决。
5． 整理设计好论文，使之美观大方。