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.”
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
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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). 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
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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.
In modern society, English advertising has gradually formed its own features in
several aspects. Therefore, an analysis of the linguistic features of English advertising
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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
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understand and memorize.
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
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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.
(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
6
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 .
(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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
frequently employed
For example:
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For this reason, compounds are
(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”.
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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.
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(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,???
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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
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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(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.
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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
22
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
23
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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