专 科 生 毕 业 论 文（设 计）
中文题目: 试论广告英语的语言特点 外文题目： The Linguistic Features of English
Commercials
学 号： 29220139 姓 名： 李 冲 年 级： 2009级 专 业： 商务英语 系 别： 信息与管理工程系
学 院：山西机电职业技术学院
指导教师： 张 杰 完成日期： 2011年4月8日
内容摘要
广告,顾名思义就是广而告之。作为一种宣传和传播模式,广告的作用不容忽视,因为它不仅只是一种说服顾客进行消费的技巧,更重要的是,它已逐渐成为社会交流的必须手段之一。本文通过对大量英语广告实例进行分析,并参照国外着名广告人Guy Cook等的理论,详细剖析了广告英语的语言特点。
本文共分为三章,第一章追溯了广告的起源,对广告的分类、作用及定义做了简单概要;第二章从句法学、修辞学、词汇学等理论切入,用大量例子分析了广告英语的语言特点,并从语篇分析的角度对其语言特点进行了剖析;在语篇分析的章节中,引用了Guy Cook的语篇分析模型,并引入了广告问题研究领域新近提出的\"文章关联性\"等概念;第三章,通过具体英语广告实例对标题中的用词、句子结构、称谓模式、修辞格进行了阐述,分析了广告语言对广告效果的影响;总结部分指出了广告发展的口语化和简单化趋势及其目前存在的模糊性语言特点,揭开了广告华丽词藻下所掩盖的非真实的广告氛围,批判了其模糊性误导消费者的消极一面。
关键词 : 广告; 广告英语; 语言特点
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Abstract
As a way of propagating and transmitting information, advertising's role can not be
underestimated because it is not only an artful technique in persuading people to buy, but
also gradually has become a must for social communication which in turn influences the
development of society and economy. The purpose of this paper is to study the linguistic
features and sociological features of advertising English, in the hope to help copywriters
at home markets in their creating process.
The whole paper is divided into three chapters. The first chapter traces back the origin
of advertising and a brief introduction on the classifications, roles and definitions of
advertising is presented for the later discussion. The second chapter starts from the
theories in syntax, lexicology, rhetoric and ends with the linguistic features analyzed in
the field of discourse analysis.The third chapter combines the viewpoints from the
previous chapter second and explores the effect of the advertising English as a whole
advertising process. The last summary, also the conclusion part, shows that though
advertising language appears to be flowery and refined, its content is no better than
commonest language could convey. By exposing the various techniques advertisers have
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employed in their writing, this part hopes to remind consumers that advertising English is
gradually attaining the negative and ambiguous role in guiding people to buy.
Key words: Advertising, Advertising English, Linguistic Features
Table of Contents
内容摘要……………………………………………...………….…………………...2 Abstract………………………………………………………..……………………..3 Introduction ………………………………………………………….….…………..6 Chapter One Advertisement……...……………………………………………..8 Chapter Two
English vocabulary characteristics of advertising……….........13
Ⅰ Use adjectives and the comparative and superlative adjectives............13 Ⅱ Simple words, have colloquial tendency……………………...................13
Ⅲ Make new words attract consumers…………..……….........…................14 IV Use loan words, strengthen the extension effect .....................................14 Chapter Three Explores the English advertising structure of the sentence.......15
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………...………....18 Works
cited………………………………………………………………..…............19
Acknowledgement ……………………………………………………….………......20
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Introduction
No other statement could have summed up the charm of advertisement than what
Aldous Huxley has commented. As he has said advertisement as a literary form is the
most exciting, the most arduous literary form of all, and the most pregnant in curious
possibilities. In his comment he asserted advertisement is a literary form and the
copywriting process is the delightful and salubrious exercise for the mind. But all in all,
what is advertising, and what makes it unique?
Advertising is the paid, impersonal communication of information about products or
ideas by an identified sponsor through mass media in an effort to persuade or influence
behavior. Not all advertising is alike. Advertisements differ depending on who the
Message is intended for, where the advertisement is shown, which media are used, and
what the advertiser wants to accomplish.
Advertising can be classified in four ways: by target, geographic area, media used,
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and purpose.
Of the above four senses, the first and second come nearest to what is meant by style
As a starting-point, the aim of stylistics is to analyze language habits with the main
purpose of identifying from the general mass of linguistic features common to English as
used on every conceivable occasion. Those features which are restricted to certain kinds
of social context are to explain, where possible, why such features
have been used, as opposed to other alternatives, and to classify these features into
categories based upon a view of their function in the social contex.
Advertising English use a lot of rhetoric means to strengthen the language ability
and expressing effect, vivid language, make a person produce lenovo. Not only promote
the characteristics of the products, communicate the information of the products, also
make most of the advertising in colloquial tone added many literary colour, greatly
improving the advertising and the product grade and attractive, and strengthen the
communication function.
People need to borrow advertising communication product information, establishing
product image, stimulating consumption desire advertising is not a simple language sign
switch, but a comprehensive cross-cultural exchange activities, is across national borders
of cross-cultural commodity marketing forms of propaganda, it can exempt from
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consumers to product of the tradition of religion, and the psychological impact a direct,
which affects the commodities market share and sales of the commodity advertising
language as a practical style, in vocabulary, syntax, rhetorical features unique
characteristics
Chapter one Advertisement
One. History of Advertisement
Advertisement emerged from the womb of commodity production and exchange.
The condition for the existence of advertising is \"at least a segment of the population
must live above the subsistence level\". When this situation occurs it also becomes
necessary for \"the producers of materially 'unnecessary' goods to do something to make
people want to acquire their commodities.\" (Vestergaard and Schroder 4)
The embryonic form of advertising in the world is street cries, which exist even
today. Advertising was not unknown in ancient Greece and Rome, but advertising as we
recognize it did not start until the seventeenth century in the West. It was at about this
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time that newspaper began to circulate. Before that, it is printing which was first
invented in China and then introduced to the West that played a vital role in the
production of print advertising. \"Classified\" (small ads) types of advertising were
dominant before the nineteenth century and style and language used in ads at that time
tended to be direct and informative. The industrial Revolution, which began in England
in the mid-1700s and reached the United States by the early 1800s, facilitated
mass-production of goods. Meanwhile advertising became more and more important in
the industrial market. The great breakthrough for advertising came only in the late
nineteenth century. Technology and mass-production techniques were then sufficiently
developed for more firms to be able to turn out products of roughly the same quality and
at roughly the same price. This brought on a crisis of over-production and under
consumption which meant that the market needed to be stimulated by advertising. At this
time advertising changed its function from proclamation to persuasion. In the twentieth
century, advertising developed rapidly alongside the advent of new media-radio and
television in succession.
According to Richard Pollay's content analysis of two thousand print ads from ten
leading magazines in the USA, ads have progressively turned towards the emotional
rather than the informative approach and there is a shift seeing human nature as
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rational to seeming it as emotional. Today in China, while our economic structure is
shifting from the entirely planned economy to the socialist market economy system,
advertising is becoming more and more active and sophisticated. In 1992, China's
advertising expenditure reached $ 862 million, among the fastest growing countries in
Asia. This year with the entry of China into WTO, this expenditure figure will
undoubtedly rise up, which will support the view that advertising is an indispensable
means for providing the information that all market-oriented industrialized societies need
for their economies to function efficiently.
Two. Classifications of Advertising
Advertising may be classified by medium (newspaper, magazine, radio, television).
By target audience (consumer, industrial, business), by geography (international,national,
regional, local), or by its function or purpose (product or non-product, commercial or
noncommercial, primary demand or selective demand, direct action or indirect action).
Because it is difficult to gain access to enough date for English commercials and ads
on radio or TV, thus, the subject of this research paper will mainly concentrate on the
print advertising.
Three.Roles of Advertising
An advertiser's main purpose is to present and exhibit product or service, and to
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spread the influence and coverage of which to the extent that the potential purchasing
population becomes real and actual. Simply put, advertisers try by the various means at
their disposal to get people to buy the product or service advertised. Moreover,advertisers
want potential purchasers to consider what is advertised to the exclusion of all other
similar products or services. They therefore attempt to construct an advertisement that
will fully involve the attention of the potential purchaser and which will have a
persuasive effect. Advertisers thus create a semiotic world in order to persuade their
audience of essential \"rightness\" of purchasing the product or service advertised.
Four.Definitions of Advertising
After a brief introduction of the classifications and roles of advertising, we now
come to the definitions of advertising. From different perspectives or purposes, the
definitions might also vary. In English, the word \"advertise\" has its origin in \"advertere\"
in Latin, meaning \"to inform somebody of something\
attention to something\
announce\".The father of modern advertising, Albert Lasker said that advertising was
\"salesmanship in print\". Although the definition was given long before the advent of
radio and television, and the nature and scope of advertising at that time were
considerably different than they are today, this often-repeated saying indicates that the
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ultimate objective of advertising is to sell. Obviously it is not a working definition
because we cannot use it to cover all advertisements. Today, a widely quoted working
definition of advertising was put forward by Courtland L. Bovee and William F. Arens :\"
Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information, usually paid for and
usually persuasive in nature, about products (goods or services) or ideas by identified
sponsors through various media.\"(Cook,Guy. The Discourse of Advertising. London:
Routledge,1992)
Another linguist Bolen defines advertising as a \"Paid, non-personal communication
through various mass media by business firms, nonprofit organizations, and individuals
who are in some way identified in the message and who hope to inform or persuade
members of a particular audience.\" (Carter, Ronald and Goddard, Angela, Reah Danuta et
al. Working with Texts. London: Routledge,1997)
If the definitions of advertising were too vague and abstract to comprehend, a few
words of its function would help to clarify this crucial term. Broadly speaking,
advertisements have at least one of two functions: informing or persuading, although
overlap may often take place in one single piece. The trick here is that an
informative advertisement informs \"the customer about goods, services, or ideas and
then tells how to get them means of an identified sponsor\" (Bolen 6). Examples of
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informative advertisements are not a few, ranging from flyers to insertions in
magazine and newspapers, all of that aim to advertise new products/services or
special prices on certain products/services. This type of advertisement gives basic,
factual information and sometimes shows a photos or an illustration of the
product/service to give the target audience a better view about the advertised Product.
Persuasive advertisements are thus the instruments used by advertisers \"who have
defined their target audiences and determined the effect they hope to achieve through
persuasive advertisements in the media\" (Bolen 9). And a persuasive advertisement
should try to persuade the potential customers to buy the new product. (Bolen 6) The
persuasive function is not only limited to attracting the potential customer into buying a
certain object, but also including the selling of services, ideas, norms and values.
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Chapter two: English vocabulary characteristics of advertising
In order to make the advertising message can more easily, the more effective by
consumers, English advertising in selecting words often both must consider to advertising
language characteristics, and to consider the psychological characteristics of consumers
in general, English vocabulary in advertising, has the following common features
I. Use adjectives and the comparative and superlative adjectives
The role of advertising is to advertising products, describes the nature of the product and
quality so, adjectives in advertising English use plays a very important role in advertising
use of adjectives to play the role of strengthening effect according to the linguists G.H
Leech statistical data, use frequency is highest in advertising English adjectives are 20
from high to low frequency is in the new, good/better/best, free, fresh, delicious, full, that
a clean, wonderful, specia, l crisp, fine, big, great, rea, l easy in extra, safe and rich. And
in addition, there are some of the adjectives compliment such as: fantastic, super, magic,
amazing, excellent, unique and sometimes even using adjectives overlap to read ads
catchy, rise to strengthen the role of the effect.
II. Simple words, have colloquial tendency
Example:My Goodness! My Guinness![2]
This is a beer ads, Guinness beer name, My Goodness for in the spoken language
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surprised says that Goodness and Guinness both rhyme and head musical sound the same,
read to catchy, easy to memory, and vivid.
III. Make new words attract consumers
In the design of the advertisement, some advertisers will purposely misspelled words,
made the new words while new and original words in different forms, but still keep the
original meaning in this way can make consumers don't consciously lenovo to product
originality can greatly enhance the freshness of advertising, increase the appeal of
Advertising.
Example: We Know Eggsactly How to Sell Eggs.
This sentence is exactly Eggsactly homophonic spelling variant, and the back of the egg
photograph echo, this word of the practice of the game similar to appear were having a
unique style, no doubt, will give the reader leave deep impression, strengthened the
advertisement publicity effect.
Example:TWOGETHER The ultimate all inclusive one price sunkissed holiday.
IV. Use loan words, strengthen the extension effect
Advertising English also use loan words, because of historical reasons, English and
French closely related, the most loan words for the French so, some advertising people
directly in French or insert French to advertising to get some kind of imagination, obtain
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satisfactory effect.
Example: Firstly, pour unique bijorl perfumes. Van Cleef& Arpels Paris.
In the article the perfume advertising, the French word more than English words with
typical exotic emotional appeal, catering to the customer of the psychological needs of
advertising to enhance the appeal of imagination perfume, inspired to buy of customers.
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Chapter three Explores the English advertising structure of the sentence and the
Rhetorical characteristics
Compared with other English style, English advertising structure of the sentence
request simple and clear, abound attraction and imagination, therefore, English
advertising use simple sentences or tied for the sentence, with less complex sentences;
Use active structure, with less passive structure; Multi-purpose imperative, less with
negative sentences; Use of the present tense, less with other tenses, give a person with
concise and lively confidence affirmation and true feeling.
First. Advertising-the advertising. To attract readers, have a high degree of readability, as
far as possible,be clear at a glance. The simple sentence features strong oral English,
close to the life, can move the person, can play its advertisement effect. And the
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compound sentence is generally a long, go against advertising information transfer.
Second. Frequent use imperative. The purpose of advertising is to guide people to take
action(consumption) or accept views. The appeal of persuasion are imperative, strong, so
inadvertising frequent.
The purpose of advertising is to guide people to take action (consumption) or accept
views. The appeal of persuasion are imperative, strong, so in advertise
Third. Usage questions.
No matter which kind of questions (general questions, special questions, questions, the
choice, you can), will make people couldn't help but want to look for the answer to the
question, so can arouse people's interest and curiosity.
Forth. Active tense,instead of passive
According to the statistics, the passive rarely occur in comic dialogue and advertising
(Svartvik, 1996) is due to the nature of advertising. The passive structure will often make
consumers produce passive feeling, and this is what people reluctant
Fifth. less with negative sentences
Advertising is to spread the information function, main is to introduce a commodity
consumer advantages, cause readers to buy desire, and then take action. This need more
from sure meaning of, and negative sentences once appear, mostly for other goods
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compared with foil, used to emphasize product special advantages.
Sixth.used to use the present tense
English advertisements often use the present tense to show that commodity property
durability and timeless they are.
Rhetorical characteristics
Rhetoric is to enhance the effect of language to express the powerful weapon. As a
purpose very strong language, advertising English often will use some literature of
rhetoric method, make oneself of the advertising its own and dramatic. These rhetorical
methods including simile and metaphor, personification, pun, alliteration, etc, all sorts of
figure with concise and vivid humorous, advertising, etc. In Featherwater: lightasafeather
(method ze watt glasses: light as a feather.) This is in the AD, the technique of expression
of metaphor image products and advantages. And as: Oh, Isee! Oh! I see it! (OIC glasses
company) the United States \"OIC\" glasses to the AD and the company name OIC
harmonics, gave the OIC \"oh! I see!\" Of the literal meaning, at the same time, \"Isee\"
brand and product quality clever contact in ?
Advertising English use a lot of rhetoric means to strengthen the language ability and
expressing effect, vivid language, make a person produce lenovo. Not only promote the
characteristics of the products, communicate the information of the products, also make
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most of the advertising in colloquial tone added many literary colour, greatly improving
the advertising and the product grade and attractive, and strengthen the communication
function. Therefore, advertising, advertising people paid attention both vocabulary and
sentence structure of a beautiful, also pay special attention to use rhetoric. English
advertising basically has the following some rheto
Conclusion
To summarize, we would get the idea that firstly advertising is a communication
process. Secondly, at least a medium is used. Thirdly, this communication process
has a definite purpose to convince the target audience. The above three characteristics
suggest advertising is closely connected with the society, employing its media,
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interconnecting with its people and guiding their buying habit. Also in achieving the
advertising effect, the advertising language should be vivid and attractive.
This article mainly from the vocabulary, syntax and rhetoric and so on several aspects
briefly discusses the characteristics of the advertising English. Of course, advertising the
features of English is not just so. Somewhere in this paper can't one. All in all, only the
full knowledge of the advertising English characteristics, they can better appreciate in
advertising English language charm, also can be design is conspicuous, caused the
association, and is novel, the unique and wonderful English Advertising.
Works cited
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95-97.
2.孙达丹.广告英语的特点[J].哈尔滨:哈尔滨工程大学学报,2002, (2): 90-93.
3.唐洪波.论英语广告语言的词汇特色[J].湖南:湘潭大学社会科学学报, 2001, (1): 103-105.
4.胡一.广告英语的修辞魅力[J].英语学习, 1999, (3): 75-78.
5.孟琳.英语广告中双关语的运用技巧[J].北京:中国翻译, 2001, (5): 48-49.
6.朱光.广告英语的修辞特点 [J].长春师范学院学报, 2003, (3): 108-110.
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Acknowledgement
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this thesis.
My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Miss Zhang，who has offered me valuable suggestion in the academic studies. In the preparation of the thesis, she has spent much time reading through each draft and provided me with inspiring adivice.Without her patient instruction, insightful criticism and expert guidence,the completion of this thesis would not have been possible.
I appreciate my classmates, especially my roommates. I want to let them know that you are my proud of my life, being with your guys is the happiest time I ever had. There is a word I have to say，Thanks. Thank you very much for sharing with me all the crying or laughing time.
Last but not least, my gratitude also extend to my beloved family for their loving consideration and great confidence in me all through these years. I also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis.
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