CHAPTER2
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1
Advertising
Bovee and Arens (1999:5), defined 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." Similarly, Sandage, Fryburger, and Rotzoll (1983:5) stated
that "advertising is paid non-personal
communication form used with
persuasive intent by identified sources through various media." Moreover,
Wells, Burnet, and Moriarty (2006:5) defined advertising as "paid persuasive
communication that uses non personal mass media- as well as other forms of
interactive communication- to reach broad audiences to connect an identified
sponsor with a target audience."
In short, advertising is a paid non-personal communication form used
with persuasive intent from an identified sponsor through media advertising to
promote the products or services and advertising persuades people to use the
products or services being advertised. Advertising uses mass media to
promote the products or services and to influence an audience.
The functions of advertising according to Wells, Burnett, and Moriarty
(1992:15) are:
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1. Provides product and brand information. Providing the consumer
with relevant information that will aid decision making.
2. Provides incentives to take action. Gives consumer reasons to
switch brands. Convenience, high quality, low price, warranties,
etc. might be stressed in advertising.
3. Provides reminders
and reinforcement. Constantly
remind the
consumer about the name, benefits, and value.
In other words, the main function of advertising is to give information
about the new product and persuade audience to buy and use the product.
2.2
Printed advertising
Wells, Burnett, and Moriarty (1992:238) defined printed media as
media that deliver messages one topic at a time and one thought at a time.
They also stated that advertising includes printed advertisement in newspaper,
magazines, brochures, and on other printed surfaces, such as posters and
outdoors boards. (2006:213).
There are several elements of printed advertising. They are headlines,
sub-headlines, illustration and body copy. Each.ofwhich is discussed below.
2.2.1 Headline ·
Headline is the most important element in a printed advertisement.
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printed advertisement. It conveys the main message so that people get the
point of the advertisement (2006:360). Bovee and Arens (1999) said that
"headline is the word that will be read first as it gives the most attention in an
advertisement". That is why headlines are usually set in larger type than other
elements
in an advertisement. Furthermore, Mandell
(1984:449) said that
"headline is an attention getting device.It selects an audience by appealing to
a specific group." Similarly, Smith (1994:104), defmed "headline is the most
important individual element in newspaper advertisements." Moreover, Lane,
King, and Russel stated that headline is the most important part of an
advertisement. It is the first thing to read, and it should arouse interest so the
consumer wants to keep on reading and get to know more about the product
being sold (2005:485).
Wells, Moriarty,
and Burnett (2006), Bovee and Arens (1999),
Mandell (1984), Smith (1994), and also Lane, King, and Russel (2005) agree
that headline is the most important element in the advertisements. They say
that the function of headline is to grab audience's attention and also persuade
audience interest to know more about the product.
Six functions of headlines according to Boove and Arens (1986:262):
1.
The headline mnst attract attention to the advertisement
2. ·
The headline should select the reader, it tells whether the
subject matter of the advertisement interest the reader
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4.
The headline must present the complete selling idea
5.
The headline should promise the customer a benefit
6.
The headline should present product news of interest to the
reader.
Smith (1994) also mentioned that the headline has two main functions;
the first one is to attract the audience's attention and the second one is to
provoke audience's interest. Similarly, Wells, Moriarty, and Burnett said that
the headline purpose is to catch attention (2006:360).
2.2.2 Sub-headline
According to Lane, King, and Russel, a sub-headline can spell out the
promise presented in the headline. It can be longer than the headline, it can
invite further reading, and it serves as a transition to the opening paragraph of
the copy (2005:490). Furthermore, Boove and Arens said that the sub-headline
should be reserved for important facts that may not be as dramatic or
memorable as the headline information. The sub-headline should reinforce the
headline and advertisement theme (1999:266). Moreover, they described that
sub-headline usually appear in a smaller type size than the headline. The subheadline is almost invariably larger than the body copy or text type size
(1982:265).
The purpose of sub-headline is to make logic clear to the reader
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2.2.3 Illustrations
The illustration, therefore, carries a great deal of responsibility for the
success of an advertisement (Boove and Arens, 1982:293). Book and Schick
stated that advertisements with illustration covering 50 percent or more of the
advertisement space usually
get better readership
than these with smaller
illustration (1998:65). They also stated that illustration is designed to attract
the reader's attention.
Illustration must:
I.
Capture the attention of the reader
2.
IdentifY the subject of the advertisement
3.
QualifY readers by stopping those who are legitimate prospects
4.
Arouse interest in reading the headline
5.
Create a favorable impression of the product
6.
ClarifY claims made by the copy
7.
Help convince the reader of the truth of claims
8.
Emphasize unique feature of the product
9.
Provide continuity for all advertisements
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2.2.4 Body copy
Body copy amplifies what was announced in the headline or subheadline (Lane, King, and Russel, 2005:491). The body copy tells the
complete sales story. It is a logical continuation of the headline and subheadline (Bovee and Arens, 1982:266). The body copy can explain the details
of product or service features that can't be explained in the headline.
The purpose of body copy is to explain the idea or selling point of the
advertisement (Wells, Moriarty, and Burnett, 2006:360).
Body Copy
tion
Figure Ql,
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2.3
Ambiguity
Hurford, Heasly, and Smith (2007:128) stated "a word or a sentence is
ambiguous when it has more than one sense. A sentence is ambiguous if it has
two (or more) paraphrases which are not themselves paraphrases of each
other." Similarly, Kreidler (1998:11) defined ambiguity as "a word, phrase, or
sentence that has more than one meaning." Moreover,
Cann (1994:8)
mentioned that a sentence is ambiguous when the sentence has two or more
different meanings. Furthermore, Jaszczolt (1999:29) stated that a sentence or a
phrase which does not express a complete proposition is an ambiguous
sentence. The meaning of language usually contains two types of meaning,
explicit and implicit meaning or ambiguity. Jaszczolt also stated that in
semantics, we are interested in the relation between linguistic units and the
world or in a slightly different view, how sentences relate to our mental
representations of reality (2002:2). Hurford, Heasly, and Smith (2007) give an
example of ambiguity: We saw her duck. It is a paraphrase of We saw her
lower her head or We saw the duck belonging to her. These two sentences are
not paraphrases of each other. Therefore We saw her duck is ambiguous.
There are some ways of classifying ambiguity. Hurford and Hesley
(1984:128) and Trask (2007:14) group ambiguity into two, lexical and
structural . ambiguity.
On the other hand Kess (1992:133),
categorizes
ambiguity into three levels: lexical ambiguity, surface structure ambiguity and
deep or underlying
structure ambiguity. Furthermore,
Cruse (1986:66)
.
'
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explains four types of ambiguity: pure syntactic ambiguity means ambiguity
in which the variant readings of a sentence is involve identical lexical units,
for example old men and women, French silk underwear; quasi-syntactic
ambiguity require careful consideration because there may be a temptation to
diagnose them as cases of lexical ambiguity, for example The astronaut
entered the atmosphere again, a red pencil; lexico-syntactic ambiguity for
example We saw her duck, I saw the door open, and pure lexical ambiguity for
example He reached the bank, What is his position? We can simplizy these
classifications into two
major
kinds:
lexical
ambiguity
and
structural
ambiguity.
2.3.1 Lexical ambiguity
Lexical ambiguity happens when a word has more than one meaning.
Hurford and Heasly (1994:128) defined lexical ambiguity as any ambiguity
which results from the ambiguity of a word. Similarly, Trask (2007:14)
defined lexical ambiguity as two or more sharply distinct meaning for a single
string of words. For example: The tailor pressed one suit in his shop and one
in the municipal court. It is lexically ambiguous because the word 'suit'
carries more than one meaning. The first meaning, 'suit' is used to refer to an
article of clothing and the second meaning refer to a legal action. Another
example is: I was on my way to the bank. The word 'bank' can mean he/she
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river. The above examples of ambiguity are each a case of one word with
more than one meaning.
Hurford and Hesley (1984:128) divided lexical ambiguity into two
kinds: one of which depends on homonymy and the other on polysemy. The
difference between these two types of lexical ambiguity is easier to explain
with an example.
Hurford, Heasly, and Smith (2007) stated that homonymy occurs when
words have the same spelling and the same pronunciation but the words have
different unrelated meanings. For instance, 'b!Uik', spelling and pronunciation
are identical but the meanings are different. Homonymy itself is divided into
two different types. They are homograph and homophone. Homograph occurs
when words have the same spelling and different pronunciation. For example,
the word dove', the first meaning is a kind of bird and the other one is the
past tense of dive. Homophone occurs when words have different spelling and
the same pronunciation. For example, the words 'two', 'too', and 'to'.
On the other hand, Hurford, Heasly, and Smith (2007) also stated
polysemy occurs when a word has several (apparently) related meanings. The
noun 'head' for instance seems to have related meaning when we speak about
the head of a person, the head of a company, the head of a bed, etc. Another
example for polysemy is the word plain in plain white shirt, plain English, and
Great Plains.
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2.3.2 Structural ambiguity
Hurford and Heasly (1994:128) stated that a phrase or a sentence is
structurally ambiguous when its word relate to each other in different ways,
though none of the words is ambiguous. Similarly, Bach stated that structural
ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying
structure (1994).
Some of the types of structural ambiguity and its example
•
Type 1: Gerund+ VP
•
Type 2: Grouping of words in NP
•
Type 3 : N +Conjunction+ N
Type 1: Visiting relatives can be boring.
Gerunds
VP
The first meaning is the relatives who are visiting us are boring people.
The second one is it can be boring when we are visiting relatives.
Type 2: He is a Tibetan history teacher.
NP
--------------------------------------------------
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It is structurally ambiguous because the sentence has two different
meaning. The first meaning is [Tibetan history] teacher meaning he is a teacher
who teaches Tibetan history and the second one is Tibetan [history teacher] it means
he is a history teacher from Tibet. So the ambiguity is caused by the grouping of
words.
Type 3: He is drawing big squares and circles.
N
C
N
It can be interpreted as he is drawing big squares and big circles or he
is drawing big squares and normal shape circles.
It is said that the entire
ambiguouS
because it has
example above
multiple
can be interpreted as
meanings, lack
incompleteness (Owen and Swe:eney, 2004:1).
of information, and