Idea Transcript
THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING WITH THE CONCENTRATION ON THE LINGUISTIC MEANS AND THE ANALYSIS OF ADVERTISING SLOGANS
DIPLOMOVÁ PRÁCA
JANA LAPANSKÁ
UNIVERZITA KOMENSKÉHO V BRATISLAVE PEDAGOGICKÁ FAKULTA KATEDRA ANGLICKÉHO JAZYKA A LITERATÚRY
tudijn odbor: U ite stvo veobecno-vzdelávacích predmetov pecializácia: Anglick jazyk a literatúra – panielsky jazyk a literatúra
Vedúci diplomovej práce: PhDr. Radoslav Pavlík
Dátum obhajoby: október 2006 BRATISLAVA 2006
Many thanks to my diploma supervisor PhDr. Radoslav Pavlík for his valuable advice and professional help during elaboration the work. I also want to thank my friend Marek Mrázik for his comments and his interest in the fascinating world of advertising which influenced me to choose this theme.
Jana Lapanská
ABSTRAKT Lapanská, Jana: The Language of Advertising with the Concentration on the Linguistic Means and the Analysis of Advertising Slogans. Diplomová práca, Univerzita Komenského. Pedagogická fakulta, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatúry. Vedúci diplomovej práce: PhDr. Radoslav Pavlík. Bratislava: Pedagogická fakulta UK, 2006. 82 s. Práca poskytuje anal zu jazyka reklamy z lingvistického h adiska a pecifikuje jazykové prostriedky pouité v reklamn ch textoch. Práca prináa poznatky o pouití jazykov ch prostriedkov v reklame v tla i. Analytickou metódou autor zistil mieru pouitia jednotliv ch jazykov ch prostriedkov v reklamn ch sloganoch, aj vo vz ahu k produktovému zameraniu.
k ú ové slová: reklama, reklamn slogan, jazyk reklamy, komunikácia, jazykové prostriedky.
3
ABSTRACT Lapanská, Jana: The Language of Advertising with the Concentration on the Linguistic Means and the Analysis of Advertising Slogans. Diploma thesis. Comenius University. Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature. Diploma thesis supervisor: PhDr. Radoslav Pavlík. Bratislava: Pedagogická fakulta UK, 2006. 82 p.
The work provides the analysis of language of advertising from linguistic point of view and specifies linguistic means used in advertising texts. The work brings knowledge about the use of linguistic devices in print advertising. By analytical method, author found out the use rate of individual linguistic means used in advertising slogans, even in relation to product specialization.
Key words: advertising, advertising slogan, language of advertising, communication, linguistic means.
4
PREFACE In this diploma thesis, I will be concerned with the language of advertising. I will scope my attention to the linguistic means used in advertising. The main reason to choose this topic was my interest in English language and advertising, for the most part from linguistic point of view. I find advertising language fascinating; therefore, I want to discover its principles, strategies and anatomy of creative writing and grammatical structures. The objective of the work is to provide the analysis of language of advertising from linguistic point of view and specify linguistic means used in advertising texts. The practical research analyses the advertising slogans and determines the most widely used linguistic means, even in relation to product specialization. The results of the study and analysis are useful for familiarizing and understanding the main issues connected with technique of writing advertising texts; the concrete statements and data can provide information for those, who write advertising texts in English. The diploma thesis is addressed to the students of English language for Specific Purposes, teachers of English language for Specific Purposes, people working in advertising sphere, copywriters and all people interested in language of advertising. I acquired the literature resources and magazines from the library of University of Granada, the University Library in Bratislava and from British Council in Bratislava.
5
CONTENTS ABSTRAKT ............................................................................................................. 3 ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................. 4 PREFACE................................................................................................................. 5 CONTENTS.............................................................................................................. 6 LIST OF PICTURES AND GRAPHS ....................................................................... 8 LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................... 9 0
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................11
1
DEFINING THE CONCEPT OF ADVERTISING ...........................................13
1.1
Definitions of advertising and advertising slogan ......................................13
1.2
History of advertising................................................................................14
1.3
Types of advertising..................................................................................15
2
ADVERTISING AS KIND OF COMMUNICATION ......................................17
2.1
The process of communication..................................................................17
2.2
Verbal and non-verbal communication in advertising................................19
2.3
Public versus word-of-mouth communication of advertising .....................20
3
TEXT OF ADVERTISING AND ITS STRUCTURE .......................................21
3.1
Cohesion of advertising text......................................................................21
3.2
Informational structure within the text – theme and rheme ........................23
4
LINGUISTIC MEANS USED IN ADVERTISING LANGUAGE....................26
4.1
Phonological aspect...................................................................................27
4.1.1
Rhyme...............................................................................................27
4.1.2
Rhythm .............................................................................................27
4.1.3
Alliteration........................................................................................28
4.1.4
Assonance .........................................................................................28
4.1.5
Graphic aspect of the text ..................................................................28
4.1.6
Transliteration ...................................................................................29
4.1.7
Homophones .....................................................................................29
4.2
Lexical and morphological aspect .............................................................30
4.2.1
Verb phrase .......................................................................................30
4.2.2
Noun phrase ......................................................................................30
4.2.3
Adjectives .........................................................................................31
6
4.2.4
Numerals...........................................................................................32
4.2.5
Foreign words ...................................................................................32
4.2.6
Intertextuality....................................................................................32
4.2.7
Formation of new words and phrases.................................................34
4.2.8
Idiomatic constructions .....................................................................36
4.2.9
Collocations ......................................................................................37
4.3
Syntactic aspect.........................................................................................37
4.3.1
Sentence types...................................................................................37
4.3.2
Sentence structure .............................................................................40
4.3.2.1
Schematic pattering .......................................................................40
4.3.2.2
Ellipsis ..........................................................................................41
4.3.2.3
Incomplete sentences.....................................................................43
4.4
Semantic aspect.........................................................................................43
4.4.1
Personification ..................................................................................44
4.4.2
Simile................................................................................................45
4.4.3
Hyperbole .........................................................................................45
4.4.4
Metaphor...........................................................................................45
4.4.5
Metonymy.........................................................................................47
4.4.6
Antithesis ..........................................................................................47
4.4.7
Polysemy and homonymy..................................................................48
5
RESEARCH PART ..........................................................................................49
5.1
The aims of research .................................................................................49
5.2
Hypotheses and questions of the research..................................................49
5.3
Research sample .......................................................................................50
5.4
Research methods and process of research ................................................50
5.5
Results of the research ..............................................................................72
6
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................77
BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................79 SUPPLEMENT A Review of print advertisements SUPPLEMENT B Table of attributes ADDITIONAL MATERIAL - CD
7
LIST OF PICTURES AND GRAPHS Picture 1: the representation of communication process Graph 1: sentence type Graph 2: auxiliary verbs Graph 3: finiteness of verbs Graph 4: tense/aspect of verbs Graph 5: narrator Graph 6: gradability of adjectives Graph 7: form of adjectives Graph 8: comparative adjectives – distribution Graph 9: superlative adjectives – distribution Graph 10: occurrence of linguistic means in individual branches Graph 11: popularity and use of linguistic means by individual branches
8
LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS 1 - See the supplement A of the diploma thesis. N – noun V – verb Adj – adjective Adv – adverb Nph – noun phrase Num – numeral PhrV – phrasal verb AuxV – auxiliary verb finV – finite verb non-finV – non-finite verb grad Adj – gradable adjective non-grad Adj – non-gradable adjective Dec. – declarative Imp. – imperative Int. - interrogative 1st Sg narr. – 1st singular narrator 1st Pl narr. – 1st plural narrator sth – something sb – somebody polys/homon – polysemy/homonymy sent. type – sentence type T –technique product specialization Cl - clothes product specialization S - services product specialization F – food and drink product specialization H – household equipment product specialization A - automobile product specialization P - press product specialization O – online shops specialization Ph - pharamceutical product specialization 9
C - cosmetic product specialization J – jewelry and watch product specialization To - tobacco product specialization
10
0
INTRODUCTION
Advertising has become the part and parcel of present-day life. From everywhere around us, advertisements of diverse types attack our privacy. In spite of it, there is an attractive power, which is able to manipulate the consumer; an invisible voice of advertisement advocates, encourages, asks, announces and deeply embeds into peoples’ minds. In last decades, the market glut of advertising caused the increased intention and interest in linguistic aspect of advertising. Advertising has become a science. People began to describe, analyze the linguistic means and evaluate the language trying to find out the principles, create new kinds of relationship between elements of language and improve the techniques, with the aim to be unique and maximize the effect at full blast. Who might be interested in advertising language? Advertising texts are of great value for the analyses from linguistic, sociologist, sociolinguistic, psychological, ethnologic and last but not least marketing point of view. Linguists are interested in language of advertising because they want to know how particular language works in this type of discourse, which linguistic means are used here and how advertising language is changing in the course time. Sociologists may be interested in the fact, how advertising influences the values, attitudes and behaviour of the society. On the other hand, sociolinguists may study the effects of any aspect of society on the way language is used in advertising in the course of time. Psychologists may try to examine the effect of the advertising on human mind and motivation to fulfill material and social needs. Ethnology may find in this field a good evidence of how the culture of the nation has been developing. And marketing experts and advertising agencies are interested in the language of advertising to find the tricks how to make advertising more effective. English advertising exploits from the high adaptability of the English language. English enables the creators of advertisements to use word puns, figurative language, and to mix individual styles and types of texts. Advertising unifies language, pictures, music; it contains information, invokes emotions and imaginations, it can capture all five senses and, besides it, it has social and practical
11
aim. As a genre, it seems very diversified. There is often an interference of styles and registers; therefore, it is often very difficult to classify advertising stylistically. In the diploma thesis, we will show various aspects and forms of advertising discourse. The diploma thesis is divided into two parts: theoretical part and practical research. The objective of the first part of the work is to provide the basic definitions connected with the issue, the analysis of language of advertising from linguistic aspect, especially phonological, lexical and morphological, syntactic and semantic aspect, and to provide examples and describe the most commonly used linguistic devices and figures of speech in advertising printed text. The second part of the work is dedicated to the research and practical analysis of the advertising slogans. In fact, the phenomena theoretically described in the first part served as a foundation for the practical observation in the second part.
12
1
DEFINING THE CONCEPT OF ADVERTISING In this part of the work we would like to give the reader an idea what
advertising is, how it was developed and which types of advertising exist. This part brings basic definitions necessary for the reader to understand the whole issue. Advertising is an inevitable part of our modern capitalist consumer society whose outstanding feature is its competitive fight. “…advertising is not some external curiosity which we examine, from which we are separate and superior, but something of which we are part, and which is part of us…” (Cook 1996: 182). It is everywhere around us: in newspapers, in magazines, on billboards along the streets, on television, in radio, in means of public transport and any place the sponsor pays to distribute their message. The effects of the advertising influence us whether we like it or not.
1.1
Definitions of advertising and advertising slogan
“Advertising, generally speaking, is the promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas, usually performed by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy.” (http://www.wikipedia.org/) This definition is according to the free encyclopedia Wikipedia, but there are also other definitions of advertising, for example, The American Heritage Dictionary says that the advertising is: 1. “The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media. 2. The business of designing and writing advertisements. 3. Advertisements considered as a group: This paper takes no advertising.” Advertisement is a concrete manifestation of advertising; “a paid public announcement appearing in the media.” (http://www.motto.com/glossary.html)
Another definition of advertising is according to the Investorwords glossary: “Description or presentation of a product, idea, or organization, in order to induce individuals to buy, support, or approve of it.” (http://www.investorwords.com/129/advertising.html)
13
All these definitions have in common the fact, that advertising is a means of promotion the product, idea, or organization on the market with the aim to give information and to persuade people of the advantage of the product and induce them to take and action (e.g. buy it).
To consolidate the terminology, we must define the concept of slogan. Advertising slogan has many definitions. Among the most apt belong: Slogan is “a word or phrase that is easy to remember, used for example by a political party or in advertising to attract people’s attention or to suggest an idea quickly.” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 2001). It is “short, memorable advertising phrase: Examples include "Coke Is It," "Just Do It," and "Don’t Leave Home Without It." When a product or company uses a slogan consistently, the slogan can become an important element of identification in the public’s perception of the product.”
(http://www.motto.com/glossary.html)
The concept of slogan is used among authors of books about advertising in various ways. Advertising layout is divided into several parts: headline, body copy (the main part of the advertising message, often divided into subheads), signature line (a mention of a brand-name, often accompanied by a price-tag, slogan or trade-mark) and standing details (e.g. the address of the firm). (See Leech 1972: 59). In this understanding, slogan is not identified with headline and vice versa and the term is used in narrow sense. However, Greg Myers (Myers 1997) uses the term ‘slogan’ in larger sense - for any catchy phrase, what a headline definitely is. In many cases, the boundaries between slogan and headline disappear. For that reason, we will accept the second idea and will use the term ‘slogan’ in broader sense.
1.2
History of advertising
Advertising traces its history back to ancient times. Wikipedia says that the first forms of advertising messages were transferred by word of mouth, however, in the ruins of Pompeii commercial messages and election campaign displays have been found. Egyptians used Papyrus to create sales messages and wall posters, while in Greece and Rome lost-and-found advertising on papyrus was common. Wall or rock painting for commercial advertising is another manifestation of an ancient media 14
advertising form, which is present to this day in many parts of Asia, Africa and South America. With the form of advertising, we could meet in the marketplaces, where the sellers used to shout and extol their products. In the course of time, people more and more tried to differentiate their products and began to find out new ways of presenting. They started to accentuate the visual aspect of the advertisement. With the expansion of colour printing and colourful posters the streets began to revel in colours. These posters were ancestors to our modern billboards. As the economy and the trade were expanding during the 19th century, the need for advertising grew. Gradually, advertising transformed into a modern, more scientific and sophisticated conception. New visual techniques have been launched. Not only the content of the message is important, but also the form. The creativity of copywriters, who are finding new ways, leads to the richness of various forms of advertising.
1.3
Types of advertising
According to Geoffrey Leech (Leech 1972), most frequent and important type of the advertising is “‘commercial consumer advertising’: advertising directed towards a mass audience with the aim of promoting sales of a commercial product or service. It is the kind which uses most money, professional skill, and advertising space in this country.” (‘this country’, here: Great Britain). Example: “Plump it up. New volume boost liquid lip colour. Paints lips with a high shine lacquer finish. Feel the tingling sensation as formula begins to work.”
Another type of commercial advertising is ‘prestige advertising’. Here the name and the positive image of the company are advertised rather than a product or a service. Example: “The America’s Cup: the oldest and most coveted trophy in the world of sailing. Its organizers have entrusted once again the vital timing of the races to Omega, a company whose experience in watchmaking and sports timekeeping dates back over 150 years…to the very origins of the America’s Cup itself.”
15
We may mention ‘industrial or trade advertising’, where a company advertises its products or services to other firms, so the communication is between equals. They both (copywriter and the reader) have as an interest as a particular knowledge about the product advertised. Therefore, “industrial advertising typically lays greater emphasis on factual information than prestige and consumer advertising and less emphasis on the persuasive elements.” (Vestergaard and Schroder 1985: 2) Example: “You can trust Trenkwalder. We can search for and find the right professional challenge for your career. We offer you: •
Advice about the employment market
•
An analysis of your personal career opportunities, taking into account your knowledge, your experience and your preferences”
As an example of non-commercial advertising, we may mention appeals from associations and societies whether their purposes are charity or political propaganda: “Thanks to the World Food Programme, this little girl in Mozambique knows she won’t go hungry today.”
We can classify the types of advertising also according to the type of medium: TV, radio, brochures, leaflets, magazines, newspapers and other printed material advertising, the Internet and Direct Mail advertising, outdoor advertising, etc.
16
2
ADVERTISING AS KIND OF COMMUNICATION According to Widdowson, human language “serves as a means of cognition
and communication: it enables us to think for ourselves and to cooperate with other people in our community.” (Widdowson 2000: 3). It follows that advertising is a kind of communication between the creator of advertisement (in fact, the copywriter who substitutes the producer/seller and transfers his ideas into advertisements), and the consumer.
2.1
The process of communication
Now
we
will
describe
the
communication
process
in
general.
Communication is the process between at least two sides – the addresser (transmitter – speaker or writer) and the addressee (receiver – listener or reader). Between these two participants, the coded meaning (information) is transmitted through the communication channel. Each communication is proceeding in given context or situation. The communication process is represented in the following picture:
Picture 1: the representation of communication process (Vestergaard and Schroder 1985: 16)
From this graphic representation we can clearly see that, in case of advertising, “the addresser is the copywriter, and the addressee is the reader, the meaning transmitted is about the product (more specifically, an attempt to make the reader buy the product), the code (in the case of press advertising) is language and some sort of visual code, the channel consists of printed publications, and the context will include such features as the reader’s total situation (does he have the product already? can he afford it? etc.), the publication in which the advertisement appears, and last but not
17
least the knowledge that the text is and advert.” (Leech 1974: 49, in: Vestergaard and Schroder 1985: 15). From this we conclude that advertising is a kind of communication with its own principles. The addresser is a producer – a company that tries to persuade the addressee – a consumer - to buy a product. The code of the language has to be known by all participants of the communication. The information communicated by the advertisement is not discussing everything about the product. It is incomplete because there is no space enough to describe the product into details. The information only contains what the producer thinks the consumer needs to know. It always contains the name of the product and usually the information how it can benefit the customer. Angela Goddard emphasizes the idea of narrator and narratees. She says that the writer is the person who constructs the text in reality (in advertising texts, the real writers are the copywriters and artists who work in an advertising agency’s creative department), while the narrator is the storyteller within the text. Copywriters can construct all sorts of different narrators to convey to us the message, for example, a female writer can construct a male narrator, or an adult writer can construct a child narrator: “ “She’s got more than me, mum.” ” Narratees are, on the other hand, people who appear to being addressed. In fact, in advertising communication a narratee is not a certain person, but at least a target group, or a whole public. “The widest address forms to be given to a narratee in an advertisement are: a) no address form at all (0) or b) ‘you’ (or the possessive form, ‘your’). In both these cases, any person reading the advert can feel addressed by it and not excluded from the communication.”
(Goddard 1998: 31). The widely used pronoun ‘your’
symbolizes the closeness of the product to the consumer. A narrator might be: o
The first person singular narrator ‘I’ – a character in the story itself; this kind of text sounds more personally; the narrator talks to us:
“I’m a big looser.” “ “I am unique. Moissanite is me.” ”
18
o The first person plural narrator ‘We’ – This may evoke the effect the whole company or association talks to the narratee. It makes a corporate impression: “We bring Olympic energy to your home.” o The third person omniscient narrator ‘He’, ‘She’, ‘It’, ‘They’ or ‘0’– it is ‘an observer’ of events, telling us about actions or product: “In their eyes, they can tug forever.” “Stop seeing broken hair everywhere.” “One just right for you.”
2.2
Verbal and non-verbal communication in advertising
In this branch, various media embody the communication channel, for example billboards, radio, cinema and television, web banners and web popups, skywriting, press (magazines, newspapers, printed leaflets), advertisements in public transport, floating advertising on blips and balloons, illuminated signs, and many other possibilities to promote the product in public. In most cases of advertising, we use verbal language for express ideas often accompanied by a picture or symbol, music, some kind of computer animation or video related to the verbal text. Verbal language is concerned with words; it is not a synonym for oral or spoken language. Non-verbal (wordless) message can be sent or received “through any sensory channel - visual perception, sound, smell, touch, taste; through gesture, body language or posture, facial expressions and eye gaze; object communication such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture; symbols and infographics; prosodic features of speech such as intonation and stress and other paralinguistic features of speech such as voice quality, emotion and speaking style” (http://www.wikipedia.org/). The use of non-verbal communication, also called paralanguage, is inevitable part of advertising language. There are many examples of use of non-verbal language in advertising: web banners of bright colours moving quickly in front of our eyes, a romantic music in an advertisement for a new women’s perfume and a fragrant stripe of the same inside the Cosmopolitan magazine, surprised face of a woman who has 19
just found a fantastic washing powder and a mild voice of a young man in radio advertising for an insurance company. A nice example of facial gestures expressing 1
the smell and taste in printed advertising is included in the supplement A ( ). It depends on media used whether verbal, non-verbal or both communications are used in particular advertisement.
2.3
Public versus word-of-mouth communication of advertising
Another question is whether advertising is public (non-personal) or private (personal) communication. “Private communication is a process which involves a known number of persons who are well-known to each other” (Vestergaard and Schroder 1985: 13) and, on the other hand, public communication is defined as communication between the addresser and anonymous public - like in literature, film, press and advertising. (See Vestergaard and Schroder). It follows that advertising is one-way public communication, because anonymous public cannot answer the copywriter back and cannot express their opinion. The feedback is missing. However, each seller would confirm that the best for his or her business is word-of-mouth advertising. The customers, employees, and friends – they all can be propagators, whether in positive or negative sense. Many copywriters are completely sure that this is the most important kind of advertising.
20
3
TEXT OF ADVERTISING AND ITS STRUCTURE Text is a structured unit consisting of smaller units. It is “a stretch of language
which makes coherent sense in the context of its units. It may be spoken or written; it may be as long as a book or as short as a cry for help.” (Quirk et al. 1990: 434). Advertising, if we mean the verbal one, is a type of text. We can find advertising texts in printed materials or, in spoken form, broadcasted by radio or TV. In printed advertising, the text may serve only for catching the reader’s attention, provide information about the product or serve as an anchorage (the link between the image and its context; some guidance to the reader) for the image.
3.1
Cohesion of advertising text
To achieve the unity, continuity and fluency of the text, “English sentences can be linked in various ways, among which repetition of an element and back reference by means of pronouns are among the more important.” (Halliday and Hasan 1976, in: Vestergaard and Schroder 1985: 18). Other techniques are also used to join sentences together, for example, we use synonymy, place and time relaters, determiners, pro-forms (pronouns, pro-verbs, other pro-forms), ellipsis, enumeration, parallelism (repetition of sentence structure), conjunctions and various transitions. All these ‘sentence signals’ refer back or forward to neighboring sentences. This principle is called cohesion. Widdowson defines cohesion as “the ties that connect up units of language to form text. (…) The repeated pattern provides a kind of texture to the text, sets up a kind of connection or cohesion across the sentences.” (Widdowson 2000: 125, 38). Here we give an example of cohesion in advertising text: “The starting point of a great soup, casserole, or risotto is simple, well-made stock. Knorr Simply Stock is just that. Made from natural ingredients, with no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, it’s a great way of enhancing the flavour of your dishes.” We see here that the main subject that everything derives from is Knorr Simply Stock. In the first sentence, it is expressed by the identification attribute ‘simple, well-made stock’, in the second sentence by the pronoun ‘that’ and in the last sentence by the
21
pronoun ‘it’. All are cohesion devices used for prevent unnecessary repetition in the text. We can see in this advertisement also another feature typical for advertising, and that is cataphora: first the description of the product, later on the name of the product is mentioned. It is because the sellers want to induce the favourable impression that the product is the solution for given situation. We can observe cohesion not only at the level beyond sentences but also within sentences. This is achieved by use of coordination and subordination of clauses: “Peter is tired. He wants to sleep a lot.” We can connect these two clauses into one sentence: “Peter is tired, so he wants to sleep a lot.” Coordination is especially important cohesional factor in advertising language. There are three types of coordination – linking (use of coordinating conjunctions and, or, so, but), parataxis (“short, simple clauses, often without the use of conjunctions and often sharing the same subject” (http://www.wikipedia.org/); “it is applying to the omission of both coordinate and subordinate conjunctions, and to clauses and phrases both.”(https://lists.usm.maine.edu/) and apposition (“two elements are placed side by side, with the second element serving to define or modify the first.” (http://www.wikipedia.org/)). Leech says, that in some cases, copywriters show tendencies to use 1. Coordination in places, where subordination would have made the relationship between clauses more explicit, and 2. Non-linking coordination (parataxis and apposition) in preference to linking coordination.
(Leech 1972: 143)
He demonstrates the first case on the following example: “Just water it on, and weeds shoot up, then curl and wither away.” This is an imperative linked to an affirmative clause. It might be paraphrased by a sentence with a conditional clause: “If you just water it on, weeds shoot up, then curl and wither away.” There is also a type of sentence in advertising, which consists of a pair of imperative clauses in apposition: “Be sure of yourself. Use Body Mist, the perfumed deodorant.” This, too, might have been expressed by a subordinate clause: “To be sure of yourself, use Body Mist, the perfumed deodorant.” 22
In press advertising, we can observe noun group parataxis for example in the listing of the addresses of the advertising firm: “New York – Paris – London”. Parataxis of adjective groups is also common and serves the same kind of purpose as the listing of pre-modifying adjectives in a noun group. (See Leech 1972: 147) (here: noun/adjective group = noun/adjective phrase). Following example is a parataxis of separate adjectives: “New. Better. Happier.” According to these examples we can suppose, that the headline “Thinking larger. Moving faster.” is the example of verb phrase parataxis. The apposition of two noun groups is a construction highly represented in advertisement language. Usually the product name precedes the noun group, which describes it, but the reverse order also occurs: “Neotec. The only tripod with built-in zoom.”
We can observe the tendency to cut up the sentences in places where linking conjunctions, commas or dashes usually appear: “After 173 years, we know quite a bit about diamonds. But love is still a complete mystery.” “It’s just another Renault. Reliable. Technically superior. Best in its class. Just like every other Renault we make.” We could remake these two advertisements: “After 173 years, we know quite a bit about diamonds, but love is still a complete mystery.” “It’s just another Renault – reliable, technically superior and best in its class – just like every other Renault we make.”
3.2
Informational structure within the text – theme and rheme
The textual structure can be studied not only from the point of view of the connection of the sentences to make up a text, but we can also consider it from the
23
informational point of view. It means, how we can structure units of information within the sentences. Units of information can be placed in various ways, according to the degree of their prominence. In case of sentence where unmarked end-focus principle is applied, the RHEME (also called new, focal element; comment) is the informationally most prominent element of a tone group containing the new information, while the THEME (also called given, non-focal element; topic) is the least prominent element containing given information, which is assumed to be known from the former text or from the context. The most important information goes at the end of the statement and the least important one, by contrast, at the beginning, functioning only for “announcing that the starting point of the message is established” (Quirk et al. 1972: 397). In following example, (and in most cases), the theme is the subject of the sentence, while the rest of the sentence is rheme. The hearer or reader usually expects this unmarked form: “I wrote Ann a letter.” We put the characteristic accent (intonational nucleus) on the last stressed syllable of the tone group. “It is natural to place the new information after providing a context of given information, so we can regard focus (identified prosodically) as most naturally and normally occurring at the end of informational unit.” (Quirk et al. 1972: 398). In this case, the subject ‘I’ is the theme; the rheme is the rest of the sentence increasing the communicative dynamism from ‘ wrote Ann a’ towards the last word ‘letter’. This occurs very frequently also in advertising language, where copywriters are in the habit of making short but condensed sentences. This evokes the impression of much new and important information within a short text. This technique saw its ‘boom’ in the 1960s. Copywriters try to remove verbs at all, or to remove finite verbs and replace them by their non-finite forms, eliminate pronouns and create as short sentences as possible in order to “cut up the sentences into more information units”, so that the same sequence of words will contain more focal elements rather than one. (See Vestergaard and Schroder 1985: 23). Following advertisements offer examples: “Solgar ingredients are selected on quality. Not price.” “Take the World. Touched by THAI.” “DVD triple boxsets. From £15.97. Typical. 3 for the price of 1.” 24
“Jeans that fit. Beautifully.” Now we will consider the fourth example as a single utterance: “Jeans that fit beautifully.” This does not mean the same as the original text. “The original asserts that these are jeans that fit (implying they fit well), presenting the verb "fit" as new information, then following up with the further new information that the jeans fit beautifully. In the revised version, only "beautifully" is new information. Additionally, by segmenting the first utterance in the original as "Jeans that fit", the advertisement authors create the
implication
that
there
may
be
jeans
that
do
not
fit
(well).”
(http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/Unit_02/given-new.htm) These advertisements reflect the quest to make the text more dynamic; the utterances are organized into smaller units to underline the content of each. In each group, there is new information, a new rheme, each containing its own nuclear accent. Nowadays, copywriters still remain creating text with short sentences full of important information about the product. However, many advertising texts are more compact; the text is an integrated unit, ordinary connected whole rather then some unnatural sequence of phrases. In the supplement A, we offer the reader an example of an advertisement showing, how copywriters today compose the texts even into 2
short narrations ( ).
25
4
LINGUISTIC MEANS USED IN ADVERTISING LANGUAGE
Leech in his book (Leech 1972: 25) writes, that the language of advertising belongs to so called ‘loaded language’. Wikipedia defines it as “the writing or speech, which implies an accusation of demagoguery or of pandering to the audience.” Leech says that loaded language has the aim to change the will, opinions, or attitudes of its audience. He claims that advertising differs from other types of loaded language (such as political journalism and religious oratory) in having a very precise material goal – changing the mental disposition to reach the desired kind of behaviour – buying a particular kind of product. To persuade people to buy the product is the main purpose of the advertising. Among such great competition, the producer wants to demonstrate the uniqueness of his product. He wants to differentiate it from the rest. He is trying to find new techniques of advertisement. Also, the advertisement texts must be more attractive and more unexpected. They must catch the attention of the audience and then identify the product. Copywriters create uncommon, surprising, interesting texts with catchy slogans or phrases. The reader or listener must give it some thought and the result is manipulation with him in order to buy the product. Leech sets following principles of advertising texts: Attention value, Readability (by means of simple, personal, and colloquial style), Memorability (most important in the process of advertising is to remember the name of the product) and Selling power (Leech 1972: 27). The last principle is crucial. David Ogilvy (Ogilvy 1985: 7) in his book says: “I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative’. I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.”
We may identify the advertising as a type of discourse, because “it can tell us a good deal about our own society and our own psychology (…) Discourse is text and context together.” (Cook 1996: 2-5). We could analyze the whole discourse of advertising, it means “the interaction of all elements that participate in advertising discourse: participants, function, substance, pictures, music, a society, paralanguage, language, a situation, other advertising and other discourse.” Although such analysis would be complete, it would be very difficult to elaborate it in such limited space. For
26
that reason, in this work we will analyze the language of advertising from the linguistic, especially phonological, lexical and morphological, syntactic and semantic point of view. We will provide examples and describe the most commonly used linguistic devices and figures of speech in advertising printed text.
4.1
Phonological aspect
Advertising language often uses the techniques similar to those in poetic texts. The advantage of so-called mnemonic devices (rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and assonance) is the mnemotechnical effect. It guarantees that the receiver of the advertisement better remembers the text and recalls it at the right moment.
4.1.1 Rhyme Rhyme is a pattern of “identity of sound between words or verse-lines extending from the end to the last fully accented vowel and not further.” (Concise Oxford English Dictionary 2004). Rhyme refers to sounds, not spelling. It is commonly found in jingles, slogans and headlines, like in this one: “Eukanuba gives their teeth the strength they need.”
4.1.2 Rhythm The aim of advertising is to be catchy and easy to remember. One of the devices how copywriters can reach it is to use prosodic features – intonation, rhythm and lexical stress - because they have a great emotional and mnemonic effect. Even the scientists cannot explain why has rhythm and repetition so powerful attraction on human mind. Some suggest that it recalls the regular sound of the mother’s heartbeat in the womb (Langer 1967: 324; Stetson 1951, in: Cook 1996: 120) or other compare it to the dances of ritual magic (Olson, 1950, in: Cook 1996: 120), that they have an enhancing effect on neuronal circuits in the brain (Newman 1986, in: Cook 1996: 120). Copywriters often use language with rhythmical arrangement. The listener or reader need not notice it and he perceives it only subconsciously. The result is, that the text is memorable and linguistically neat. If the rhythm has some regularity, it is called metre. “Metre is a pattern composed of rhythm groups (feet) consisting of 27
similar or identical patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. (…) Metrical scheme may easily pass unnoticed.)” (Leech 1972: 186). English poetry has various types of metrical feet. Among the most important belong an iamb (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: x / ), a trochee (a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one: /
x ), a dactyl (a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed
syllables: / x x ), a spondee (consisting of two stressed syllables: / / ), a pyrrhic (two unstressed syllables: x x ), and an anapest (two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one: x x / ). Advertisement slogans often benefit from the metrical regularity: “Flatter your figure with Dietrim.” This slogan is composed of three dactyls. /
x
x
/ x
x
/ x
x
'flæ/t(r) j(r) 'fI/g(r) wI 'daI//trIm
4.1.3 Alliteration Alliteration can be defined as “literary technique, in which successive words (more strictly, stressed syllables) begin with the same consonant sound or letter.” (http://www.wikipedia.org/). It is widely used in advertising slogans. There are 20 consonant sounds in English, but those that are made by stopping the air-stream completely (p, b, m, n, t, d, k and g) are according to Greg Myers (Myers 1997) most used, because stand out more than others. “Performance. Prestige. Passion for Innovation.”
4.1.4 Assonance Assonance is a linguistic device, in which the same vowel in successive stressed syllables creates a vowel harmony. It is not so obvious type of scheme as alliteration. “How much reality can you handle?”
4.1.5 Graphic aspect of the text We will not devote ourselves to the graphic aspect of the advertising text into details, but we will draw attention to the most important ways in which the letters can be presented. It does not have anything with sounds. It deals only with graphic elaboration of the text. Almost all printed advertisements exploit from the fact of being printed. Copywriters have to decide how to make the layout. The selection of 28
script, its colour, type and size is the inevitable part of making a good advertisement. However, not only this may contribute to the final effect. The other possibilities are: o Unpredictable spelling of words (“Beanz Meanz Heinz”, “4ever”, “Bar B Q”, “süper”, etc.) o Higher
frequency
of
low-frequent
letters
that
produce
outstanding sounds (‘X’ is very popular: “Xerox”, “Botox” and use of palato-alveolar consonants /t/, //, /d /). o
Unexpected print of letters - whether the size or their shape is similar to some object and this object replaces the letter.
o Acronyms and initialisms with graphic exploitation – the letters of abbreviation create the first letters of words. The effect is highlighted by means of colour, size or layout: “XTROVERT. XPLOSIVE. LOVE THE COLOUR.
COLOR XXL”
Examples of in an interesting way printed texts are provided in the supplement A 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
(
).
4.1.6 Transliteration Using of transliteration in advertisement is not so frequent, but when occurred, it makes a positive result. It definitely attracts reader’s attention. Transliteration means the transformation of foreign words into English. Usually the spelling of the foreign word is different but the pronunciation in these special cases is the same as English: “BE COINTREAUVERSIAL.”
(here: COINTREAU is the name of French
alcoholic drink)
4.1.7 Homophones In English, there are many words that sound the same but are spelled differently. Linguists call them homophones. Copywriters use homophony to create puns in advertising language. This kind of play works best in print. As the fantastic example we show following example: “Sainsbury’s have discovered that the finest whisky is kept under loch and quay.” (Myers : 43).
29
Myers says: “The spelling and pictures make us think of the relevant Scottish meanings first, but we must also recall the idiomatic phrase that fits in the sentence, lock and key. (…) Each of two interpretations – as spelling or as sound – has some support.”
4.2
Lexical and morphological aspect
This part of the work will be concerned with typical characteristics of the vocabulary of advertising and most commonly used figures of speech.
4.2.1 Verb phrase There exist two types of structure of verb phrase: finite verb phrase and nonfinite verb phrase. The first one is “a verb phrase in which the first or only word is a finite verb (it has the tense contrast, person and number concord with the subject), the rest of the phrase (if any) consisting of nonfinite verbs. (…) The infinitive, the –ing participle and the –ed participle are the non-finite forms of the verb.” (Quirk et al. 1990: 41). In advertising, “verbal groups are mostly of maximum simplicity, consisting of only one word.” (Leech 1972: 121). It is obvious by a quick look through our advertising material in research part that the majority of finite verb phrases are either simple present forms (to satisfy the customer’s desire for the present state of the product and its implication of universality and timelessness) or else simple imperatives. Phrasal verbs are also used. According to Leech, passive voice occurs very sporadically and so does the application of auxiliary verbs. Two auxiliary verbs often used in advertising are the future auxiliary ‘will’, because it evokes the impression of ‘promise’ and the modal auxiliary ‘can’. If an animate subject precedes the verb ‘can’, (in most cases ‘you’ = ‘customer’ ‘you can…’), the consumer is told that the product gives him or her the ‘ability’ to do this or that. If an inanimate subject (in most cases the brand-name e.g. ‘Nivea peeling can…’) precedes ‘can’, the consumer is told what ‘possibilities’ the product offers. (See Leech 1972: 125).
4.2.2 Noun phrase In general, noun phrases in advertisements are far more complex than verb phrases. In advertising language, the interesting part of the noun phrase is the pre-
30
modifying part, which is usually very complex and is characterized by certain unusual structural features. The complexity of pre-modification is based on the effort to catch, describe and specify the properties of the product in attractive way: “First automatic chronograph with a 72-hour power-reserve and patented compression push-buttons. Mechanical automatic movement 751, made inhouse.” Here the only verb is the verb ‘make’ in passive voice. In many cases, whole advertising text does not contain any verb; it consists only of noun phrases. Inside the noun phrase, clusters of two, three or more adjectives are possible: “Gingery Fudgy Nutty Creamy Mischievous Mouthfuls.” A word ‘fudgy’ is a neologism created by copywriters. Normally it is a noun and it does not exist in form of an adjective. High number of genitives occurs in names of manufacturer, names of time and names of towns. “Bigham’s gourmet canapés” “Britain’s No.1”
4.2.3 Adjectives While reading the advertisement, the reader may notice the hyperbolic character of the language. This exaggeration causes increased number of comparative and superlative adjectives. The product is better, nicer, newer, and tighter and the customer is happier and more satisfied. The product offers more information, more entertainment, more comfort, more than any other product. We may observe in our list of advertisements that gradable adjectives (they describe qualities that can be measured in degrees; they can be used in comparative or superlative forms) outnumber non-gradable adjectives (“they describe qualities that are completely present or completely absent; they do not occur in comparative and superlative forms, and cannot be used with adverbs such as very or extremely, because we don’t usually imagine degrees of more or less of the quality being described.” (http://www.onestopenglish.com/teacher_support/ask/Grammar/grammar15.htm), e.g. biological, school, telephonic.)
31
Epithet is a descriptive word or phrase, which “emphasizes particular characteristic of described object or event and concretizes its idea, eventually expresses author’s evaluative and emotional attitude.” (Slovník literární teorie 1997, in: mejrková 2000: 91). There are two types of epithets: epithet constans (commonly used stereotyped collocation, e.g. heavy rain, bright day) and epithet ornans (decorative). In advertising, most widely used are epithets like fresh, new, gentle, creamy, silky, delicious, beautiful, ideal, excellent, unforgettable, eternal, etc., and, accordingly, the gradational forms of them.
4.2.4 Numerals In many advertisements, we can see the use of numerals. It is necessary if the copywriters want to define the characteristics of the product exactly. Numerals are used to define quantity of various aspects, for example percentage of some substance in a product, number of years in connection to the length of the tradition of the product, the number of satisfied customers, etc.
4.2.5 Foreign words Foreign words are used in advertisements to emphasize the origin of the product or exclusiveness of the product in relation to particular country: “La crème de la crème of lipcolour.” French word ‘crème’ evokes the impression of good-class French cosmetics. Even more, the phrase ‘crème de la crème’ is taken from French and it means ‘the best people or things of their kind’ (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 2001).
4.2.6 Intertextuality Intertextuality is “the way in which one text echoes or refers to another text. It means that, for example an advertisement: “To be in Florida in winter, or not to be in Florida in winter” would contain an intertextual reference to a key speech in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Intertextuality can operate at many different levels of language, from phonological and lexical references in titles and slogans to visual aspects such as layouts and images. (…) Intertextuality can be an important component of and advert’s meaning, in that the original text being referred to establish a message, which the second text can then use and elaborate on. (…) For intertextuality to work completely, readers 32
have to be able to remember the original advert and place the reference being established. But if they don’t, it doesn’t matter too much, for the contemporary advert will simply be enigmatic…” (Goddard 1998: 124) In advertising, the intertextuality is used in such conditions, where there is justifiable supposition that the original text is well-known among people. “Tyto texty (jsou-li krátké) nebo jejich prvky (v pípad vt ích celk) se bu doslova citují, aneb – astji – se modifikují. Pozmují se ov em tak, aby odkaz k pvodnímu textu zstal zejm a aby se text a jeho kontext vnímateli vybavil. Na základ tohoto kritéria se nkdy rozli uje citát, kter je doslovnou reprodukcí podkladového textu a bvá, nikoli v ak nutn, vyznaen v novém textu uvozovkami, a aluze (z latinského alludere = zahrávat si), která je jen narákou, poukazem k njakému podkladovému textu.” (mejrková 2000: 169-191). Svtla mejrková further presents various ways how intertextuality can be used in advertising. It can be based on: o Fixed phrases, idioms and collocations (“A SMOOTH MOVE HAIR REMOVAL FROM HEAD-TO-TOE”), o Biblical sentences (“Do unto you as you would have others do unto you. Toyota.” The original statement says: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”), o Quotation of famous people or employees of the company, o Statements of historical persons (“iThink, Therefore iMac.” ‘I am’ is replaced by ‘iMac’. The original phrase is a philosophical statement by René Descartes: “I think, therefore I am.”; a phrase used by Julius Caesar “Veni, vidi, video.”) o Proverbs and sayings, o Names of literary works, films, or television programmes (“Not trying it would be a Greek tragedy”), o Quotations from songs and fairy tales, o Mixing of various styles - e-mail, letter, interview, telephonic conversation, recipe, etc. (“Pleased to meet you”). As example of intertextuality in visual aspect, see the advertisement in the 8
supplement A of the diploma thesis ( ).
33
4.2.7 Formation of new words and phrases In English, there exist many different ways of adding new words to the vocabulary. Advertising texts take advantage of using made-up or adapted words and expressions in order to support the creative aspect of advertisement and its attraction. In the text, of course, occur words formed by affixation, compounding, conversion, shortening, blending, and back-formation and by other ways of creating new words. The readers even needn’t notice such words, because they sound familiar and ordinary to them. However, if a new word is ‘deviated’ (it is accommodated somehow to the context of the advertising text), it becomes striking and interesting for the reader. Let us introduce you a few examples: We can find new words and phrases formed by compounding. Very striking feature of advertising language is a variety of “lexical units, where each unit is consisting of two or more bases (roots)” (Kvetko 2001: 40) They are called compound words. A compound word may be characterized by its inseparability (it cannot be interrupted by another word), semantic unity, morphological and syntactic functioning and certain phonetical and graphic features. (See Kvetko 2001: 40). Examples of compounds are: breakfast, hard-working, double-click, within, fine-tune, airship, world-wide, etc. Compounds may be of two types: coordinative (south-west) and subordinative. Subordinative compounds are divided into 1. Germanic type = determinant + determinatum (e.g. highway) and 2. French type = determinatum + determinant (e.g. snow-white). (See Kvetko 2001: 43) The creativity of copywriters goes beyond the normal frequency of compounds used in other types of discourse. Because of the intentions to render in best possible way the product, various compounds are used and created (e.g. good-as-homemade, Jus-Rol, pain-relieving, state-of-the-art, hand-crafted, head-to-toe, one-of-a-kind, platinum-inlayed, all-new, front-facing, touch-sensitive, built-in). Affixation is another “very effective process of building new words by adding an established prefix or suffix to the existing base. (…) It is a most productive process of creating new words in English.” (Kvetko 2001: 35). A suffix occurs after and a prefix occurs before the base. “A suffix usually changes not only the lexical meaning of a word but also its word class” (Kvetko 2001: 36), e.g.: to read (V) a reader (N); a friend (N) friendly (Adv); a clock (N) clockwise (Adv, Adj); to differ (V) different (Adj) differential (Adj). “A prefix usually changes or concretizes the
34
lexical meaning of a word and only rarely word class.” (Kvetko 2001: 38), e.g. nonsmokers, dislike, rebuild, postwar, autobiography, antinuclear, hypersensitive. The following examples show the creativity of advertising language: “provodkative, cookability” (Cook 1996: 140), anti-aging, jewel-like, Casiology. Shortening in general is “a process in which part of the original word is taken away. It expresses the trend of Modern English towards monosyllabism.” (Kvetko 2001: 47). Shortening contains clipping, acronyms and initialisms. Clipping is “a reduction of a word to a shorter form. It is a cutting off one or more syllables of a word.” (Kvetko 2001: 47), e.g. fan (fanatic), gym (gymnastics), bus (omnibus), exam (examination), taxi (taxicab), phone (telephone), mobile (mobile phone), fridge (refrigerator), lab (laboratory), photo (photography). Acronyms are words formed from the initials of expressions consisting one or more word and read as ordinary words, e.g. NATO, UNESCO, AIDS. Initialisms are abbreviations with alphabetical reading, e.g. VIP, XXL, TV, PC. We have already mentioned the possibility of taking advantage of acronyms and initialisms in connection with the graphic layout (See p. 30 of the diploma thesis). Blending is similar process to shortening, combined with fusing the elements of two different words, e.g. smog (smoke + fog), vegeburger (vegetarian + hamburger), motel (motorway + hotel), brunch (breakfast + lunch), tellyphone (television + telephone). “The process of coining new words in a different part of speech without adding any derivative elements is called conversion.” (Kvetko 2001: 44) The two words differ in meaning and syntactic function within the sentence. The major types of conversion are: the formation of verbs from nouns: a call to call; nouns from verbs: to walk a walk; adjectives from nouns: an orange orange and nouns from phrasal verbs: to make up a make-up.
(See Kvetko 2001). Conversion is more
productive in some languages than in others; in English, it is a fairly productive process. In advertising, application of puns created by conversion is often very resourceful. The most frequent strategy is to replace a word (of any word class) with a brand name (N), so the brand name acquires syntactic features of original fictive word. This tendency is still used after a hundred years: “Get that Pepsi feeling.” ‘Pepsi’ is the adjective “TDK it.” ‘TDK’ is the verb “Let’s go Kroegering.” ‘Kroegering’ is the verb (to ‘kroeger’) 35
Conversion may be used not only with the association with brand names. Here is an example of advertisement for Penguin books situated on railway platforms. (Myers 1997: 65): “Book at any station.” Book is both the verb (‘reserve a ticket’) and the noun (‘a a written work published and dedicated to reading.’). The picture of the trademark Penguin at a station links the two.
4.2.8 Idiomatic constructions “An idiom is an expression (i.e. term or phrase) whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through conventional use. In linguistics, idioms are figures of speech that contradict the principle of compositionality (the principle, which tells that the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its constituent expressions and the rules used to combine them.).” (http://www.wikipedia.org/). Idioms have multiword character, they are fixed and they have common figurative meaning. The phrase ‘to be in the same boat’ has the literal meaning ‘to be in the same boat’, and also the idiomatic figurative meaning ‘to be in the same difficult situation’. We write more about figurative meaning in a part Semantic aspect. A proverb is a type of idiomatic construction. It is “a well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or says something that is generally true.”
(Oxford
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 2001), e.g.: ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth.’ means that if too many people are involved in something, it will not be well done. Copywriters use idioms and proverbs in advertisements, because these constructions are familiar to most potential customers in a society. The idiom or a proverb in a text may be used without formal changes, or in a creative way, where an element of a proverb or idiom is slightly changed or replaced by another word to create a pun and, consequently, a connection with a product. If the picture accompanies the text, the picture usually does not represent the figurative - and, of course - correct and common meaning of the idiom, but it represents the image and 9
representation of the literal meanings of its constituents ( ):
36
“Challenge us – and get yourself a bigger slice of the cake.”
(Siemens
Financial Services) An idiom ‘a bigger slice of the cake’ means a share of the available money or benefits that you believe you have a right to. A picture represents two happy young women eating a cake.
4.2.9 Collocations A collocation is “a combination of words in a language, that happens very often and more frequently than would happen by chance.” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 2001). Collocations are used in advertisements, however often without any deviation or play on words and for the reader it is often imperceptible. We offer here an example of and advertisement with the use of deviated collocation: “Do you believe in love at first touch?” The original collocation sounds ‘love at first sight’, but this advertisement emphasizes a “sleek stainless steel body” of a mobile phone.
4.3
Syntactic aspect
4.3.1 Sentence types
We may distinguish four sentence types: declaratives, interrogatives, imperatives and exclamatives. Following definitions of each of them are quoted from Quirk et al. 1990: 231. “Declaratives are sentences in which it is normal for the subject to be present and to precede the verb. Interrogatives are sentences, which are formally marked in one of two ways: yes-no interrogatives (an operator is placed in front of the subject), and wh-interrogatives (an interrogative wh-element is positioned initially and there is generally subject-operator inversion). Imperatives are sentences, which normally have no overt grammatical subject, and whose verb has the base form. Exclamatives are sentences which have an initial phrase introduced by what or how, usually with subject-verb order.” To these types of sentences are normally associated four discourse functions: statements, questions, directives and exclamations. However, the association
37
between syntactic type and discourse function does not always match, as the following case shows: “Give me a glass of water.” is an imperative, a directive. “Could you give me a glass of water?” is an interrogative, but semantically it is a directive, more precisely an indirect command. A statement can also function as an indirect command: “I’m thirsty.” So can exclamations: “What a fresh cold water!” Because most advertisements approximate to every-day conversation, there is relatively free selection of sentence types. Leech offers us the results of the research dealt with the frequency of sentence types in English advertising: “…in the television sample, over one in thirty major independent clauses were interrogative, and over one in four major independent clauses were imperative.” Therefore, according to the results of the research, we can say, that the second most widely used sentence type after declarative type are the imperative clauses. However, this research does not say anything about the frequency of direct and indirect commands. We cannot identify the imperative sentence type with discourse function. Imperative is not the same as directive. We may say that the imperative is always a directive but a directive need not necessarily be an imperative. Copywriters use imperatives, because it creates a sense of “one person is talking to another (…) because all ads are urging us to some action.” Leech establishes certain groups of verbal items, which are especially frequent in imperative clauses: Items, which have to do with the acquisition of the product: get, buy, ask for, choose, etc. Items, which have to do with the consumption or use of the product: have, try, use, enjoy, etc. Items, which act as appeals for notice: look, see, watch, remember, make sure, etc. “Prohibitive warnings are very infrequent. (…) Only about one imperative in fifty is accompanied by a negative form.” (Leech 1972: 111) Myers accentuates the absence of ‘please’ in imperative sentences and lack of politeness. “One explanation may be that in our culture we cut out the politeness devices if we are asking somebody to do something that benefits the hearer, not the speaker, like in phrase “Take a seat.” ” (Myers 1997: 48) 38
Why do advertisements use questions? It is for the same reason as why they use commands: it evokes the sense of personal communication in the reader. It causes that the reader cooperates with the text having his own individual situation in mind. Although the copywriters cannot expect the direct answer and feedback (as we have mentioned in section about public communication above), they expect the readers to answer themselves silently. Another reason is the presupposition. Presuppositions are present in any communication and many questions presuppose something. Here comes an example of it: “Why do leading beauty experts and models use and recommend Perfectil?” In this case, we can deduce and belief from the content of this advertisement that beauty experts and models use and recommend Perfectil. In advertising language, presupposition is very frequent way of expressing the content. Advertisers rather use presupposition than assertion because it is much easier to deny an assertion than a presupposition: The statement “Leading beauty experts and models use and recommend Perfectil.” one may oppose: “I don’t believe. No way.” But in question mentioned above, the receiver is unconsciously led to believe that the content is truthful and that there are no doubts about the fact that they use and recommend it. Another example of presupposition is following: “Just the touch of the button gives you voice control of your music, climate control and your Bluetooth hands-free phone.” It presupposes that the car will certainly have got a button, radio player, air-condition and hands-free set and that everything will be able to be controlled by voice. Angela Goddard writes that presupposition is “all about reading between lines; since this is, as it suggests, a hidden process, it is very interesting to advertisers, as we can be taking in all sorts of assumptions without consciously paying attention to them.” (Goddard 1998: 125) In advertisements, there are often cases where the question is stated as kind of a ‘problem’ and then the text offers an answer – ‘a solution’ for the problem: “Got wedding on the brain? Time to visit our new website.” Another typical type of question used in advertising is rhetorical question. It assumes only one possible answer: “What more could anyone ask from a Clarins gift?” The implied answer to this is “Of course, nothing.” 39
There is one other sentence type plentifully presented in advertisements – exclamatives. The use of exclamation marks is very liberal and widespread. (We may notice that exclamation marks are more frequently used in exclamations than in imperatives in English; that is why it is called ‘exclamation mark’ and not ‘imperative mark’; while in Slovak the exclamation mark is more often used in imperatives than in English.) “And, it’s already wrapped!” Exclamations may have the sentence structure as simple statements, but the exclamation mark tells us to read them emphatically.
4.3.2 Sentence structure
In this part of the work, we shall focus our attention on the structure of sentences in advertising language. We will mention the most important structural tendencies used by copywriters.
4.3.2.1 Schematic pattering The formal schemes can be represented in various ways. Parallelism is one of the forms of schematic pattering. It can be defined as “repetition of formal patterns” (Leech 1972: 186). Parallelism means the parallel presentation of two or more than two similar or relevant ideas in similar structural forms. It is a rhetorical device heightening the emotional tone of the message and its importance. We offer here an example of parallelism of clause with the same structural pattern: “Tips for a good night’s sleep:
- Drink less caffeine. - Take warm baths. - Arrange your insurance with NFU Mutual.”
Each clause has the same idea and structure beginning with verb in imperative following by direct object. The typography and layout often contributes to the text; in this case, each clause is printed in separate line. The last clause makes up a semantic and formal parallel to first two clauses. Parallelism is often accompanied by -
anaphora – “the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of several consecutive sentences or verses to emphasize an 40
image or a concept” (http://www.wikipedia.org/): “Explore the hills. Explore the rivers. Explore the mountains. Explore the sea.” -
epiphora - “the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences.” (http://www.wikipedia.org/)
“See new. Hear new. Feel new.”
We suppose that an antimetabole is another form of schematic pattering. It is defined as “the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in reverse grammatical order, e.g. ‘I know what I like, and I like what I know’.” (http://www.wikipedia.org/): “Instead of moving the furniture around, why not move around the furniture?” Schematic pattering occurs in all levels of language. Anaphora, epiphora, alliteration, assonance and antithesis also belong to techniques of schematic pattering.
4.3.2.2 Ellipsis Ellipsis belongs to cohesive devices and it is defined as “the omission of part of a structure.” (Goddard 1998: 123). Ellipsis in advertising is used for many purposes: For economical reasons; to save space and money because words cost money. Guy Cook (Cook 1996: 170) gives following example of anaphoric textual ellipsis: “When Lisa made a surprise visit, you didn’t have time to worry about spotted glasses. Fortunately, you didn’t have to. Cascade. Because you don’t have time for spots.” The second orthographic sentence contains ellipsis: Fortunately, you didn’t have to =
Ø
Ø
Ø
Ø
Fortunately, you didn’t have to worry about spotted glasses.
The ellipted elements correspond to the preceding sentence. Repetition of these elements would be needless. There is ellipsis also in the last two orthographic sentences ‘Cascade’ (a single word) and ‘Because of you don’t have time for spots’ (a subordinate clause). Cook suggests: “In the latter case, a main clause seems to have been ellipted in entirety. But the missing elements are by no means clear.” The main clause we can only deduce.
41
It may be started with “You ought to use Cascade… “You ought to buy Cascade…
…because you don’t have time for spots.”
“We recommend Cascade… “To avoid drawing attention to features of the message which do not serve the advertiser’s interest” (Cook 1996: 169) To create a sense of informality. Ellipsis is normally used in spoken language, in face-to-face casual communication. Ellipsis in advertising creates an effect of closeness with the reader and conversational tone; sometimes suggests immediacy. In advertising, we can find many examples of situational ellipsis of interrogative clauses: “Expecting guests?” In this case, we can observe the omission of subject and operator: = “(Are you) expecting guests?” It creates proximity and intimacy. “…it is indicative of shared knowledge and interests, (…) it suggests a trusting relationship, in which people assume a desire to understand on the part of their interlocutor.” (Cook 1996: 171). “…people who know each other well don’t need to be all that explicit about their meanings, because they know the other person will fill in the gap as a result of shared knowledge and shared history.” (Goddard 1998: 42): “Nespresso. What else?” This is the advertisement headline for a coffee. Everybody may recognize that the person, who asks the question, is a waitress in a café. The whole utterance may be “You’ll take Nespresso. What else would you like to drink?” It is clear to everybody that ‘What else’ means that they can order something more. The intention to make short dynamic slogans leads to the tendency to use the symbol of colon between two noun phrases: “Summer 2005: True Bronze.” We can complete the expression with deduced words: “In summer 2005, with Clinique cosmetics you may take pleasure in true bronze skin.”
42
4.3.2.3 Incomplete sentences In advertising text, one can read whole advertisement without coming across a main verb. There is a widely spread tendency to punctuate phrases. One reason is, that the reader of the advertisement turns to the visual layout, which provides him many clues to correct interpretation, so the explicit structure of the sentence is not so 10
important. A L’OREAL advertisement text ( ) says: “Revolutionary lift. Revolutionary results. REVITALIFT DOUBLE LIFTING. Intense Re-Tightening Gel + Anti-Wrinkle Treatment.”
It is accompanied not only by the picture, but also by the body copy explaining the phrases above. We can supply more possibilities in the beginning of the phrases, for example: “If you /For those who want/need a revolutionary lift of your skin and to see revolutionary results, try/buy Revitalift Double Lifting Intense Re-Tightening Gel and Anti-Wrinkle Treatment.” “The effect is to suggest that we already have these desires, that they are completing our own thoughts.” (Myers 1997: 56)
Following advertisement shows the lack of linking verb: “The curls of your dreams. Now available when you’re awake.” We may connect these two incomplete sentences with the linking verb ‘are’. In this case, the verb can be clearly deduced from the context and integrated, but there are cases where the tense and aspect are not so definite. Another reason for omitting verbs is that there is no importance to define neither the tense nor the aspect of the verb or it would be cumbersome.
4.4
Semantic aspect
Each linguistic expression has its literal meaning. Literal meaning denotes what it means according to common or dictionary usage (or more exactly, what “the reader is most likely to assign to a word or phrase if he or she knows nothing about the context in which it is to be used.” (http://www.wikipedia.org/)). The same linguistic expression, however, may have also its figurative meaning. It connotes
43
additional layers of meaning and evokes associations; for example, the word ‘professional’ has connotations of skill and excellence. It is not possible to give an exhaustive account of the connotations of the expression, because connotative meanings, which have been evoked in an individual, depend on people’s entire previous experiences and on conventions of community. Therefore, the connotations of the same expression will differ slightly from person to person. Furthermore, the same denotations can have different connotations in different context. Vestergaard and Schroder (Vestergaard and Schroder 1985) believe that in advertising language, the most frequent word for ‘acquisition of product’ is ‘get’, and not ‘buy’, because ‘buy’ has some unpleasant connotations, like ‘money’ and the parting with it. For people, associations are very powerful, so the advertisers pay attention to this aspect of language. They play with colours, because colours may have various positive or negative connotations: innocence / snow / ice / race, and others for white; passion / blood / stop signal /fire for red; etc. They must be careful about the target group, because each culture may have different connotations to the same expressions: in Chinese and Indian tradition, white is the color of mourning, death, and ghosts. In India, white also stands for peace and purity. Red colour in Eastern European countries may have slightly negative connotation in relation to the identification of communism with "socialist" red. A trope is “a word or phrase that is used in a way that is different from its usual meaning in order to create a particular mental image or effect.” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 2001). It is a figurative expression. In this part, we give a list of most important tropes used in advertising language: personification, simile, hyperbole, metaphor and metonymy. In relation to semantic aspect of language, we define also antithesis, polysemy, and homonymy.
4.4.1 Personification Personification is a term used mainly in literature to name the figure of speech, which “involves directly speaking of an inanimate object, or an abstract concept, as if it were a living entity, often one with specifically human attributes. These attributes may include sensations, emotions, desires, physical gestures and expressions, and powers of speech, among others.” (http://www.wikipedia.org/). The readers of advertisements usually do not register or realize that there is used personification in the text. It is used very widely – in all the expressions like “…(name of a facial 44
crème) gives you silky skin”, “…(name of a product) fulfills your wishes” or “Dirty kitchen? Nothing cleans it up like … (name of a cleaner)” are on the base of personification of a brand name: a cleaner ‘cleans’, but even thought, cleaning is an activity proper to human beings.
4.4.2 Simile Simile is defined as “a direct, expressed comparison between two things essentially unlike each other, but resembling each other in at least one way.” (http://home.cfl.rr.com/eghsap/apterms.html). Usually, similes are marked by use of the words ‘like’, ‘than’, ‘as’ or ‘as if’. We may also find comparative constructions used when comparing two things or two situations: “as…as”, “so…as”. “Ibuleve gel as fast & effective as pills? Now there’s clinical evidence.” “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”
(Myers
1997: 125)
4.4.3 Hyperbole A hyperbole is “the deliberate use of overstatement or exaggeration to achieve emphasis. Businessmen and manufacturers use the figure of speech to advertise their goods in as attractive a way as possible.”mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (http://www.languageinindia.com/march2005/advertisingenglishhongkong1.html): “No other pain-relieving gel works like Deep Relief.” “The best just got bigger!” “The number one to Eastern Europe.”
4.4.4 Metaphor A metaphor is very difficult issue to define and there are many ways how to define it. We shall introduce here a definition of metaphor from Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: it is “a word or phrase used in an imaginative way to describe sb/sth else, in order to show that the two things have the same qualities and to make the description more powerful.” Lakoff and Johnson in their book (Lakoff and Johnson 1980) define metaphor as “statements and/or pictures which cause a receiver to experience one thing in terms of another.”, for example: “Clearly, Mother Nature is a romantic.” 45
A single metaphor may be worth of a hundred words of advertising text. It has an interesting value and stimulates the curiosity of the reader about the product. In advertising, a metaphor usually creates a comparison between the product or service and some other quality the advertiser wishes to be associated with the product or service advertised: “One touch. One light, effortless touch and she realized freedom was something you feel.” This advertisement is for Revlon face powder. The sentence indicates that the freedom is actually the powder, because when you put the powder on your face, you will feel free. There are two types of metaphor: verbal and visual. Visual metaphors do not relate only to words, but they depict relationships between a product or service and some object or visual element with qualities that the advertiser wishes to attribute to the product or service. In print advertising, visual metaphor is widely used, because it takes advantage from the possibility to accompany the text by the image (or vice versa). The following advertisement for deodorant clear stick would be 11
incomprehensible without the picture explanation ( ): “AVOID UNWANTED CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS.” 12
Another advertisement for Austrian Airlines ( ) says: “The number one to Eastern Europe.” A picture of caviar on a plate designed in a way that each small ball of caviar represents one of the European destinations makes the parallel between the caviar (it connotes luxury) and luxurious airlines. The picture of woman with a scarf ‘knitted’ from pills makes the relation 13
between the pills Redoxon – all day defence ( ): “Keep yourself covered all day.” Advertisements for perfumes often without the body text but with the picture of a young beautiful model in light transparent dress use a metaphorical implication: a perfume will ‘cover’ you in the same way like the dress gently covers the woman in the picture. There are cases, in which a famous person stands for and represents the whole brand. The qualities of him or her are attributed or aligned with the qualities of the
46
product, as in the following advertisement for charm bracelet. Sasha Cohen, a famous figure skater, represents the unstoppable quality and charm of the product: “UNSTOPPABLE Charm
SASHA COHEN HAS IT. So does her Citizen
Eco-Drive.” The simplest advertising phrase pattern is the pattern of a brand name (one element) and the additional phrase in apposition (second element). It creates a metaphorical parallelism between a product and a feature or quality to which is compared: “Infusium 23. A remedy for your hair.”
4.4.5 Metonymy A metonymy is “the use of a single characteristic to identify a more complex entity. (…) It is extremely common for people to take one well-understood or easy-toperceive aspect of something and use that aspect to stand either for the thing as a whole or for some other aspect or part of it.” (http://www.wikipedia.org/) Wikipedia offers some clear, commonly used examples of metonymy: ‘The press’ for the news media, ‘Wall Street’ for the American financial industry, ‘The Crown’ for the British monarchy. Among other examples belong following sentences: ‘He reads Shakespeare.’ (= his books), ‘I drink Champagne’ (= a drink), etc. In advertisements, an associated word often expresses the whole group: ‘I like Volvo’ (= Volvo cars), ‘woman is an uncharted territory’ (= all the women), ‘a fragrance of Sabatiny’ (= perfumes made by Sabatiny).
4.4.6 Antithesis “Antithesis is a figure of speech, which uses the same or similar structure to express two opposite ideas so as to achieve the effects of emphasizing the meaning and the contrast. The figure has the characteristics of harmonious combination of sound and rhyme, balanced syllables, sharp rhythm and compendiousness. The combination of pleasant senses of vision and hearing often stimulates the good feelings of readers and arouses consumers' buying desire.”mmmmmmmmmmmm (http://www.languageinindia.com/march2005/advertisingenglishhongkong1.html) Antithesis relates to words, clauses or sentences. It is based on antonyms (words of opposite meaning) or opposite ideas: “Talks inside. Shouts outside. New 2006 Fiesta.” “Imagine a mini phone with maximum style and design.” 47
“Feel the surge of calm.”
4.4.7 Polysemy and homonymy According to Ladislav Trup, there is a difference between polysemy and homonymy from the point of view of etymology. A homonym is a lexeme, which has the same pronunciation and spelling as another lexeme, but a different meaning, so there is no semantic connection between the two lexemes, only phonological one (Trup 1999: 90). For example, ‘seal’ = 1. Sea animal (N), 2. A piece of wax on letters and boxes (N); ‘fair’ = 1. Treating people equally (Adj), 2. A market at which animals were sold. (N). A polyseme is a lexeme with two or more multiple, related meanings, so the connection is not only phonological, but also semantic. The additional meaning/-s are derived from the original meaning of the lexeme: ‘seal’ = 1. A piece of wax on letters and boxes (N), 2. To close an envelope (V); ‘fair’ = 1. Animal market (N), 2. An event at which people, business, etc. show and sell their goods (N). It is usually very difficult to define, which of the meanings is original and which are derived. Often it is difficult even to define whether the meanings are related 14
or not. The following advertising shows an example of a polyseme ( ): “To tackle weeds permanently you have to get to the Root of the problem.” A picture shows the root of a plant in detail. The first meaning of ‘root’ is ‘the part of a plant that grows under the ground, and the second meaning, which is related to the first one by the value of ‘something substantial’ means ‘the main cause of a problem or difficult situation.’ In addition, the collocation ‘to get to the root of the problem’ has here both literal meaning (‘to get under the ground and get rid of the root of the problem = weed’) and figurative meaning (‘to find out the cause of the problem’).
48
5
RESEARCH PART
5.1
The aims of research
The aim of practical research analysis is to determine the use rate of linguistic means used in advertising slogans, even in relation to product specialization.
5.2
Hypotheses and questions of the research
1.
What is the percentage of slogans containing ellipsis?
2.
What is the percentage of slogans containing phrasal verb?
3.
What is the percentage of slogans containing parallelism?
4.
On the basis of observation of the research sample, we suppose, that the most
widely used sentence type is the imperative sentence type and the second most widely used is the declarative sentence type. 5.
On the basis of Leech’s ideas (p. 30 of this work) we suppose, that the most
widely used auxiliary verbs are ‘can’ and ‘will’. 6.
On the basis of observation of the research sample, we suppose, that the
majority of verbs is finite. 7.
On the basis of Leech’s ideas (p. 30 of this work) we suppose, that the
majority of finite verbs is in present simple form (due of timelessness of present tense) and the second are future forms of verbs (due to promise something). 8.
On the basis of observation of the research sample, we suppose, that the
majority of slogans are of third person omniscient narrator. 9.
Because of the fact, that advertisements usually describe qualities that can be
measured in degrees, we suppose that the majority of adjectives are gradable. 10.
On the basis of observation of the research sample, we suppose, that after
basic form of adjectives (majority) the second most widely used form is comparative form. 11.
Slogans of which product specialization mostly use comparative adjectives?
12.
Slogans of which product specialization mostly use superlative adjectives?
49
13.
On the basis of the fact that jewelry slogans put their attention to long-lasted
tradition of their products (expressed in number of years), we suppose that the majority of numerals are used specially in jewelry slogans. 14.
Which of three tropes (metaphor, personification, polysemy/homonymy) is
most widely used in advertising slogans and in which product specialization?
5.3
Research sample
We observed the slogans from 270 random advertisements from the sample of 48 different copies (25 titles) of English-writing magazines from UK, USA and Slovakia. The sample did not contain newspapers. The magazines were of various types: political, technical, business-oriented, nature-oriented, cooking-oriented, women magazines, tabloids and scientific.
5.4
Research methods and process of research
First we wrote out the advertising slogans and collected the research material. Once completed the list of slogans, we made a linguistic analysis of them and determined the linguistic means used in each of them (p. 51 – 71). We made an overall observation and stated questions and hypotheses. Then we produced a table of attributes for exact enumeration of linguistic means (supplement B). This table was the basis for the measurable evidence. From the table we could make the general statistics and consequently generate graphs and interpret data. The interpretations and explanations of graphs are on pages 72 – 76.
50
Photography 1.
5.
CATCH EVERY MOMENT. Imp. Winning results, time after time. idiom ‘time after time’ = on many or all occasions; Nph; comma is used unnecessarily; non-grad Adj Cameras at the ready, the 2004 Photo Award is here! ellipsis ‘Have the cameras at the ready’; idiom ‘at the ready’ = ready for immediate use; exclamation; clipping THE TOUGHER THE BETTER.. idiom ‘the…the…’; 2x grad Adj in comparative form meet the king of prints
6.
Imp.; graphics; metaphor: ‘king’ = the best + visual metaphor: picture of Elvis Presley (king of music); assonance of /i/; hyperbole Perfect Pictures Posted Pronto
2.
3.
4.
7.
8. 9.
10.
11. 12. 13.
14. 15. 15
16.
ellipses of verb ‘Pictures are Posted’; non-fin. V; alliteration of /p/; rhythm; ‘pronto’ (informal); non-grad Adj Photospeed. Inspiring perfection. apposition; parataxis; metaphor: ‘Photospeed is perfection’; 2x Nph; grad Adj in basic form Expanding your creativity with Interfit. Dec.; non-finite V The route to better photography Nph; metaphor; grad Adj. in comparative form; ‘photography’ = metonymy for all photographs Sharing Your Passion For Photography Dec.; ellipses of subject and verb ‘We are/Elinchrom is sharing…’; non-finite V; sound // You can CANON Dec.; AuxV; conversion with brand name JESSOPS. NO. 1 IN PHOTOGRAPHY apposition; parataxis; metaphor; 2x Nph; Num make the paper work better Imp.; assonance of /ei/; personification ‘paper to work’; grad Adj in comparative form NEOTEC. THE ONLY TRIPOD WITH BUILT-IN ZOOM. apposition; parataxis; metaphor; 2x Nph; non-grad Adj + compound Adj.; hyperbole When you only get one chance, take it with Fujifilm. Imp.; ‘get one chance’ = collocation; ellipsis ‘chance to take a photo’; cohesion it a) take it – chance (idiom) b) take it – photo; finV; present; active “It’s the abstract in nature that fascinates me – the ability to make you see things completely anew.” Daren Seymour quotation; intertextuality
51
Olympus camera Pentax camera
Panasonic
Lowepro bags Photobox online laboratory
Photobox online laboratory
Photospeed
Interfit Sekonic
elinchrom
Canon JESSOPS Imajet paper
NEOTEC
Fujifilm
Fujifilm
Good Food 17.
18. 19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
GET HEALTHIER WITH 5 MINUTES OF CRUNCHES EVERY DAY. Imp.; grad Adj in comparative form; Num; metonymy – ‘crunches = eating crunches’ Solgar ingredients are selected on quality. Not price. Dec.; parataxis; fin. V; passive; present; new rheme Waitrose. The best of everything this Christmas. apposition; parataxis; metaphor; 2x Nph; grad Adj in superlative form; hyperbole expecting guests? Bigham’s gourmet canapés … just pop them in the oven for 10 minutes, relax & wait for the doorbell to ring! Int.; ellipsis ‘Are you expecting…’; non-finV; ellipsis – ‘Take Bigham’s gourmet canapés and then just pop them…’; genitive; grad Adj in basic form; 3x Imp.; cohesion ‘them’; Num; metaphor – ringing doorbell = guests; hyperbole Real stock. Real simple. Knorr Simply Stock is just that. Nph; AdjPh; metaphor; parataxis; anaphora; parallelism; Dec.; present; finV; active; hyperbole If your kitchen costs less you can work less. Dec.; 2x present; 2x finV; 2x active; 2x grad Adj in comparative form.; AuxV; logical implication Live your life, love your home. parallelism; 2x Imp.; alliteration of /l/; rhythm; metaphor: If you love your home and live your life, IKEA is for you. Life shouldn’t be this easy. 2 – tronic fingertip gears. Convenient gear changing that’s always within reach. Also with electric sliding doors. From only £10.850. Dec.; AuxV; parataxis; 2x Nph; Num; 2x compound Adj; 4x non-grad Adj; grad Adj in basic form; finV; present; active; ‘within reach’ = collocation; hyperbole Burgundy. The home of Pinot Noir. apposition; parataxis; metaphor; 2x Nph; metonymy – ‘Pinot Noir’ stands for all Burgundy wines Jus-RolTM Jus delicious. Cook this simple but stunning recipe in jus 20 minutes. ellipsis – ‘Jus Rol are Jus delicious.’; unpredictable spelling of ‘just’; pun of a brand name; Imp.; 2x epithet; sound of /s/; Num; hyperbole; 3x grad Adj in basic form The ideal Christmas present. (And, it’s already wrapped!) Treat yourself to something special, try Wyke Farms Farmhouse Cheddar. Nph; 2x grad Adj in basic form; parataxis; Dec.; exclamation; present; passive; finV; 2x Imp.; hyperbole; rhyme; rhythm It’s never just another day. Dec.; finV; present; active; hyperbole; metaphor
52
Ryvita
Solgar Waitrose champagne
Bigham
Knorr
IKEA
IKEA
Peugeot
Burgundy wine
Jus-Rol ready pastry sheets
WYKE FARMS
Arniston Bay wine
29.
1000 years of heritage
Arniston Bay wine
Num; Nph SPANISH CLEMENTINES ARE NATURE’S SWEETS. ALL THE GOODNESS OF THE SPANISH SUN IN ITS OWN PHONE LITTLE WRAPPER. Dec.; finV; present; active; non-grad Adj; 2x metaphor; genitive; epithet; grad Adj in basic form; ellipsis of verb ‘of the Spanish sun is in…’; clipping 31. 1 AROMA GENEROSO Nph; foreign word; epithet 32. Talks inside. Shouts outside. New 2006 Fiesta. 2x Dec.; parataxis; parallelism; antithesis; ellipsis ‘It talks…’; 2x finV; 2x active; 2x present; grad Adj. in basic form; Num 33. Oh! that’s smart! Oh! that’s delicious! Oh! that’s quick! 6x exclamation.; 3x finV; 3x present; 3x active; 3x grad Adj in basic form; parallelism, anaphora 34. Get juicing with the Magimix Le duo Imp.; conversion: ‘juice’ (N) new word ‘to juice’ (V) 35. Potty about food? 30.
36.
37.
38.
39.
Int.; ellipsis ‘Are you potty…’; grad Adj in basic form It is a pleasure to eat good meat. Dec.; finV; active; present; non-finV; rhyme ‘eat – meat’; grad Adj in basic form Simply süper for süpper parties! Available in Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose and other Gü-d supermarkets. Dec.; exclamation; 2x ellipsis ‘It is simply/ It is available …’; unpredictable spelling ‘süper’for ‘super’ + ‘Gü-d’ for ‘good’ – adapted acc. to brand name GÜ BioFresh & NoFrost – a cool combination ‘cool’ – homonymy/polysemy 1. very cold, 2. non-problematic, great; 2x Nph; metaphor EAT TO YOUR HEART’S CONTENT… idiom = as much as you want; Imp.
Bertolli sauce Ford
Samsung oven
Magimix juicer a Gastronaut book Campbell’s
GÜ chocolate puds
Liebherr fridge
Mornflake
Computer act!ve 40. 41.
42.
Enjoy more of your favourite entertainment. Imp.; grad Adj in comparative form; grad Adj in basic form .euphoria. STRATO is giving away 100.000 .eu Domains Europe wide! Nph; unpredictable spelling; personification ‘Strato is giving away’; PhrV ‘give away’ = as a gift; Num; non-grad Adj; compound; Dec.; exclamation; finV; present, active Clear Picture, Clean Sound – PureAV 3x Nph; parallelism; alliteration in /kl/; metaphor; 3x grad Adj in basic form
53
MESH computers STRATO webmaster
AV home cinema
43.
44. 45. 16
Sony recommends Windows XP for Business. More than you’d expect Less than you thought 2x Dec.; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active; antithesis; parallelism; comparison; 2x grad Adj in comparative form; ellipsis ‘It is more than…and less…’; AuxV the biggest brands at low low prices Nph; grad Adj in superlative form; hyperbole; grad Adj in basic form; pleonasm Tiny dots. Astonishing detail. 2x NPh; alliteration in /t/ and /d/; 2x grad Adj in basic form
Sony
dabs.com
Canon
Gardeners’ World 46. 14 To tackle weeds permanently you have to get to the Root of the problem. non-finV; Dec.; AuxV; poysemy –root; collocation ‘get to the root of the problem’; metaphor – ‘problem’ = ‘weeds’ 47. The Iron Rose connotation ‘iron’ = ‘very strong and resistant’ like if it were from iron; Nph 48. Gladiators of the garden, advance and choose your weapons. addressing; metaphor – ‘gladiators’ are ‘brushcutters’; 2x Imp.; metaphor – ‘weapons’ = good knives, for example 49. Professional results start with STIHL. Dec.; finV; present; active; grad Adj in basic form 50. The complete range of versatile master gardeners Nph; 3x grad Adj in basic form; metaphor – ‘gardener’ = tractor 51. 17 Looks different works better. Viking 6 series. Easy start, quick finish. Dec.; ellipsis ‘It looks… and works…’; parataxis; 2x finV; present; active; 2x parallelism; antithesis; 3x Nph; 3x grad Adj in basic form; grad Adj in comparative form; visual metaphor: a goat with a missile on its back 52. Not trying it would be a Greek tragedy.
53. 54. 55. 56.
57.
non-finV; AuxV; Dec.; intertextuality aD’ORABLE a word pun No other pain-relieving gel works like Deep Relief. Dec.; finV; present; active; hyperbole; compound Adj Let’s get composting. Imp.; collocation ‘get + V-ing’ = to do it now Food for Thought! Blueberries and strawberries to grow at home! 2x exclamation; idiom ‘food for thought’ = ‘an idea that makes you think seriously and carefully’, non-finV; idiom ‘at home’ John Deer. Nothing Runs Like A Deer. apposition; Nph; hyperbole; Dec.; finV; active; present; personification ‘Deer runs’; metonymy – ‘a Deer’ for John Deer mowers; figurative mean. ‘Nothing runs like a deer’ (animal + mower)
54
Bayer Garden
Bayer Garden
Efco brushcutter
STIHL tractors Viking mower
CARTE D’OR icecream CARTE D’OR Deep Relief
John Deere mower
58. 18 Pressed on Boxford Farm, Suffolk.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
Copella Apple juice
Dec.; non-finV; visual simile ‘pressed’ like flowers are pressed Wyevale blooms in summertime Wyevale graphics: i in ‘summertime’ in form of a flower; Dec.; finV; present; active; personification ‘Wyevale blooms’ The 4head Garden of Dreams natural headache treatment unpredictable spelling; 4head = forehead + for head; epithet; Nph Ibuleve gel as fast & effective as pills? Now there’s clinical Ibuleve evidence. Ellipsis ‘Is Ibuleve…’; Int.; simile; 2x grad Adj in basic form; Dec.; finV; present; active; non-grad Adj Is there an easier way to get my prescriptions? Boots st Int. rhetorical; grad Adj in comparative form; 1 narr.; finV; present; active Superior from every angle greenhouses ellipsis ‘It is/ They are superior…’; polysemy – ‘angle’ a) a position from which you look at sth b) a particular way of presenting or thinking about situation; non-grad Adj; hyperbole
eve 64.
Flatter your figure with Dietrim Imp.; rhythm; alliteration in /f/. Vitabiotics – blending of ‘vitamins’ + ‘antibiotics’
Vitabiotics
We know it’s the best. But don’t just take our word for it. Dec.; 1 st Pl narr.; 2x finV; present; active; grad Adj in superlative form; a dot where comma would be more appropriate; collocation ‘take our word for it’ = believe us; negat. Imp.; 2x present;2x active “She’s got more than me, mum.” Aunt Bessie’s Crispy Roast Potatoes. intertextuality – dialogue of mother and child; 1st Sg narr.; genitive; 2x grad Adj in basic form; Nph; ‘crispy’ – (approving) Not sure how to help build your baby’s natural defenses if you’re not breast feeding? Int.; ellipsis ‘Are you…’; genitive; compound Adj; non-finV; finV; present; active Gingery Fudgy nutty creamy mischievous mouthfuls. Nph; parataxis; ‘fudgy’ – neologism; 5x epithet; 5x grad Adj in basic form Obeys when spoken to (unlike most blokes). New 2006 Fiesta. Dec.; ellipsis ‘It obeys…’; finV; present; active; ‘bloke’ – a man (informal); Nph; personification ‘a car obeys’; Num; epithet In their eyes, they can tug forever. Eukanuba gives their teeth the strength they need. 2x Dec.; AuxV; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active; rhyme ‘teeth – need’; rhythm; collocation ‘in their eyes’ = to see the situation from their point of view; personification ‘Eukanuba gives’; ‘they need’ – a) they = dogs b) they = teeth
Nivea visage
Reveal 65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
55
Aunt Bessie
Cow&Gate milk for babies
chocolate
Ford
Eukanuba
71.
Anchor: Incredible Spreadable
Anchor Spreadable
a word pun: affixation ‘to spread’ ‘spreadable’, original phrase: ‘Incredible edible’; ellipsis ‘Anchor is…’Nph; AdjPh THE WEEK 72.
73. 19
74.
75.
76.
TAKES YOU MILES AWAY IN SECONDS. LEXUS Dec.; ellipsis ‘It/Lexus takes…’; personification ‘Lexus takes’; idiom ‘to be miles away’ = figurative: to be thinking deeply about sth and not aware about of what is happening around you. + literal: miles away = very far; finV; present; active We have hidden 400 CDs in this picture. Guess where? BANG & OLUFSEN st Dec.; 1 Pl narr.; finV; pres. perf.; active; Num; inicialism; Imp.; visual metaphor – mp3 system is able to compile 400 CDs of music First to bring broadband internet to your seat. Lufthansa First to give you access to your network in flight. First to let you follow your team at 35.000 feet. All for this one moment. parallelism; anaphora; ellipsis ‘Lufthansa is/ We are the first…’; 3x non-finV; non-grad Adj; collocation ‘in flight’ = when it is flying; ‘follow your team’ = figurative: watch the match of your favourite team; Num; hyperbole; ellipsis ‘Lufthansa does all for…’; graphics the bigger they are, the longer they take bmi small British airline idiom ‘the…the…’; 2x grad Adj in comparative form; Dec.; 2x finV; present; active; parallelism PETER’S SCANNER. MICHAEL’S COPIER. MARY’S FAX hp MACHINE. EVERYBODY’S HP COLOR LASERJET. parallelism; 4x genitive; 5x Nph; graphics
VOGUE 77. 78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
Fight wrinkles! Renew collagen in just 48 hours. 2x Imp.; exclamation; hyperbole; Num Yes. Great skin can be created. exclamation; grad Adj in basic form; epithet; AuxV; Dec. What extraordinary love looks like. Int.; (the question mark is missing); grad Adj in basic form; epithet; simile ‘extraordinary love looks like Cartier’; finV; present; active; figurative: ‘love looks’ This year, old man winter will be conquered by a little squirt. Dec.; grad Adj in basic form; metaphor: ‘winter’ = old man; AuxV; metaphor: ‘a little squirt’ = body lotion love this skin you are in Imp. or ellipsis ‘You should/may/etc. love…’; rhyme ‘skin – in’; rhythm The new Chevy HHR is proof that cool can be useful & useful can be cool. Dec.; epithet; 3x grad Adj in basic form; antimetabole; 2x AuxV
56
Lancôme Clinique
Cartier
Olay body lotion
Olay
Chevrolet
83.
84.
85. 86. 87.
88.
THE WORLD’S BEST COSMOPOLITAN STARTS WITH GREY GOOSE L’ORANGE. Dec.; finV; present; active; grad Adj in superlative form; genitive; metonymy: ‘cosmopolitan’ stands for all cosmopolitans (name of alcoholic long-drink); ellipsis ‘starts with adding grey…’ Proof…not promises. ellipsis ‘It’s/ Give me a proof, not …”; logical antithesis reveal your glimmering blond highlights Imp.; 2x grad Adj in basic form; epithet discover your jewel-like brunette Imp.; affixation needle or not? How do you plump your lips? Lose the needle. (No needles. No waiting. No kidding.) non-finV; 2x Int.; finV; present; active; Imp.; the needle = metonymy for ‘plastic operations’; parallelism; anaphora Give a new woman to your husband. You.
Imp.; epithet; grad Adj in basic form; a dot used where a dash would be appropriate 89. The curls of your dreams. Now available when you’re awake. Nph; ellipsis of verb ‘…dreams are now…’; grad Adj in basic form; finV; present; active; unconventional collocation ‘the curls are available’ 90. IN CASE OF FIRE STOP, DROP & ROLL AROUND. fire spicy cinnamon chewing gum 3x Imp.; PhrV ‘roll around’ = to be laughing so much that you can hardly control yourself.; Nph; 2x grad Adj in basic form; non-grad Adj; Picture shows two people rolling on the floor. 91. Discover the secret for truly radiant skin. Imp.; metaphor: ‘secret’ = Aveeno; grad Adj in basic form; epithet 92. Cure for the wintertime blues. metaphor; Nph; non-grad Adj 93. Mountains have crumbled. Glaciers have melted. Continents have drifted. Diamonds remain the same. Clearly, Mother Nature is a romantic. 5x Dec.; parallelism; 3x pres. perf.; active; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active; parataxis; metaphor 94. Celebrate your past, present & future with one thing on Earth as timeless as love. Imp.; simile; metaphor: ‘one thing’ is ‘a diamond jewel’; Num 95. 6 Navigating the LAND OF CREDIT with Citi Simplicity. IT’S SIMPLY THE CARD THAT TREATS YOU RIGHT. non-finV; rhyme ‘city – simplicity’; 2x Dec.; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active; rhyme ‘card – right’; rhythm; personification ‘a card treats’; picture of ‘the land of credit’ 96. The Address.
97.
Nph New level of radiance, revealed. Dec.; ellipsis ‘radiance of the skin is/has been revealed’; non-finV; epithet
57
GREY GOOSE vodka
EA anti-aging treatment Pantene Pantene LIPFUSION XL
Guitay body optimizer
OUIDAD
Dentyne
Aveeno essie nail polish jewelry
A DIAMOND IS FOREVER credit card
Armani Hotel Dubai Clinique
98. 99.
100. 101. 20
102.
103.
104.
winter rescue Nph; metaphor; non-grad Adj Gorgeous makes EFFORT look effortless. Dec.; finV; present; active; non-finV; epithet; 2x grad Adj in basic form The new rush. Nph; metaphor; epithet; grad Adj in basic form; polysemy: ‘rush’ = a) fast movement b) sudden demand for goods THE FEMINE MYSTIINT. STILL UNCHARTED TERRITORY. 2x Nph; ellipsis ‘…mystique is still…’; non-grad Adj; metaphor: ‘femine mystique = uncharted territory’ Redken reinvents hairspray. Dec.; finV; present; active; affixation; assonance of /e/; personification ‘Redken reinvents’ Ever think you’d see “beautiful” and ”heels” in the same sentence? Moisturizer actually heals dry skin so even your roughest parts get noticed. Int.; ellipsis ‘Do you ever…’; grammar deviation; AuxV; personification ‘moisturizer heals’; Dec.; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active; homonymy: ‘heel’ + ‘heal’; metaphor: ‘roughest parts’ = ‘heels’; 2x grad Adj in basic form; grad Adj in superlative form Euphoria. Live the dream.
107.
apposition; Nph; metaphor: ‘Calvin Keil fragrance provokes euphoria and with this fragrance you will live your dream’; parataxis; Imp. it’s a mousse revolution! matte-perfect foundation with an amazing air-soft feel Dec.; exclamation; finV; present; active; non-grad Adj; conversion: ‘a mousse’ (N) a new word ‘mousse’ (Adj); 2x compound Adj; epithet; metaphor: ‘make-up’ = ‘revolution’ Dear Ketel One Drinker Not everyone likes Ketel One Then again, not everyone’s tried it. intertextuality – a letter Britain’s No.1 beauty brand arrives in America
108.
personification: ‘brand arrives’; metaphor: ‘Boots’ = ‘No.1.beauty brand’; genitive; Num; grad Adj in basic form Picture your Perfect LVI Smile
109.
Imp.; alliteration of /p/; polysemy: ‘picture’ = a) imagine b) to show in photograph; conversion – a brand name is used in a place of Adjective. The adjective may be ‘white’, ‘nice’, ‘beautiful’, etc.; 2x non-grad Adj lift your spirits. BE COINTREAUVERSIAL
105.
106.
2x Imp.; ‘lift’ = synonym of ‘raise’; homonymy: ‘spirits’ – a) a person’s feeling or state of mind b) ‘spirit’ as a strong alcoholic drink; idiom: figurative meaning: ‘raise sb’s spirits’ = to make sb feel more cheerful or brave + literal meaning: ‘raise the glasses with alcohol drink’; transliteration; grad Adj in basic form
58
Pantene Jaguar
Land Rover
ROLEX
Redken
Jergens
Calvin Klein fragrance
Maybelline make-up
Ketel One vodka
Boots online cosmetics
The LVI Smile dentist
Cointreau alcoholic drink
110.
111. 112. 113.
114.
115.
116.
117.
118.
Vogue. TAKES LONDON TO NEW YORK Nph; ellipses ‘It takes London…’; apposition; personification: ‘Vogue takes’; metonymy: ‘London’ = England, ‘New York’ = USA; Dec.; finV; present; active REVEAL NEW SKIN. Imp.; epithet; grad Adj in basic form Instant lash extensions! Extend lashes up to 60%. Nph; exclamation; 2x non-grad Adj; Imp.; Num More defined. More conditioned. More beautiful lashes. More Than Mascara with more black impact 2x Dec.; Nph; parallelism; parataxis; anaphora; 2x non-finV; ellipsis: ‘You will have more…’, ‘It’s more than mascara’; grad Adj in basic form; comparison; non-grad Adj Saks love art for art’s sake. Dec.; finV; present; active; collocation ‘art for art’ sake’ = because of value art has, not because of the advantages it may brings; similarity of the phonic aspect of the words ‘Saks’ and ‘sake’ DESIGN LIP PERFECTION IN ONE COAT. LASTING. LUSCIOUS. SENSATIONAL EFFECTS. Imp.; parataxis; non-grad Adj; alliteration of /l/; ellipsis ‘…coat and make lasting, luscious and sensational …’; 3x grad Adj in basic form New. Perfectly Real Compact Makeup. Believably perfect. epithet; parataxis; 3x grad Adj in basic form; Nph; hyperbole; pleonasm – unnecessary words ‘perfectly, perfect’; affixation ‘perfectly’ + ‘believably’; non-grad Adj RÉNERGIE MICROLIFT. 25,000 MICROLIFTS FOR VISIBLE RESULTS. My skin is tighter. Firmer. More defined. apposition; Num; 2x Nph; affixation ‘micro-‘; metaphor: ‘microlifts’ = microelements, which tighten the skin’; Dec.; 1st Sg narr.; finV; present; active; parataxis; 2x grad Adj in comparative form; non-finV La crème de la crème of lipcolour. Nph; the phrase ‘crème de la crème’ is taken from French and it
Vogue
ROC Lancôme Estee Lauder
Saks 5th Avenue online store
Lancôme lipstick
Clinique
Lancôme
L’Oreal
means ‘the best people or things of their kind; compound N 119.
120.
121.
122.
GET IT FIRST. GET IT FAST. graphics: I in form of lipstick; 2x Imp.; parallelism; anaphora; hyperbole DON’T JUST APPLY! STYLE YOUR LASHES! UP TO A 65% LIFT. A BOLDLY THICKENED LOOK. 2x Imp. negat.; ellipsis ‘…apply, but style…’; Nph; Num; ellipsis ‘It is up to… for a boldly thickened/ and have a boldly…’; parataxis; compound Adj ‘boldly thickened’ Escape from toxic town Imp.; metaphor: ‘to escape from toxic town’ = to use Noxzema cleaner and feel clean as escaped from dirty place MORE THAN A FASHION STATEMENT. A CULTURE. THE CULTURE OF COLOR. ellipsis: ‘It’s more than a fashion statement. It’s a culture.’; new rheme: ‘…of color’ – emphasis; parataxis; metaphor: ‘O.P.I. is the culture of color.’; comparison
59
shopvogue.com
Maybelline mascara
Noxzema cleaner
O.P.I. nail polish
123. 124.
125.
126.
127.
128.
129. 130.
131. 132.
133.
134.
135.
136.
137.
Stop seeing broken hair everywhere. Imp.; rhyme ‘hair – everywhere’; grad Adj in basic form Flirting with an idea of an eye lift? Int.; ellipsis ‘Are you flirting…’; non-finV; PhrV ‘flirt with’ = to think about but not very seriously’ A SMOOTH MOVE HAIR REMOVAL FROM HEAD-TO-TOE Nph; compound Adj ‘smooth move’; non-grad Adj; assonance of /u:/; idiom ‘from head to toe’ = covering all your body – here used unnecessarily with hyphens Serious Dark Circles? ellipsis ‘Have you got/ Are you afraid of serious…’; 2x grad Adj in basic form; Nph; sound of /s/; rhythm Shine on. Imp.; PhrV ‘shine on’ does not exist, but the preposition ‘on’ evokes the idea that sth starts or continues, similarly like ‘go on’, ‘switch on’ ‘Shine on your hair’ Your Life. Your Car. Connected. 2x Nph; parataxis; parallelism; anaphora; non-finV; ellipsis: ‘Your life and your car are connected.’ Why ask your doctor about BOTOX Cosmetic? Int.; non-finV Finally, a paste that does more than just talk about whitening. Nph; finV; present; active; comparison; hyperbole; non-finV; personification: ‘a paste that talks’ Infusium 23. A remedy for your hair. apposition; 2x Nph; metaphor My clothes don’t stink. Dec.; 1 st Sg narr.; presupposition that her clothes stank before “Do unto you as you would have others do unto you.” intertextuality - a command based on words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” saying: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” Twice the lashes… for eyes that smile. ellipsis of verb ‘Make twice the lashes for …’; metaphor: ‘eyes smile’; assonance of /ai/ 171 years of offering very small objects that express very large emotions. Nph; Num; antithesis; 2x grad Adj in basic form; parallelism; metaphor: ‘small objects that express emotion’ = jewelry; figurative: ‘objects express emotions’ I am timeless, not a trend.
Pantene OLAY eye lifting serum
Surgi Wax
Hylexin
hair treatment
Acura car
Rembrandt tooth paste
Nicoderm CQ plaster Toyota
Max Factor
Tacori jewelry
The Concord Saratoga watch
Dec.; 1 st Sg narr.; logical antithesis; non-grad Adj; metaphor: those, who wear Saratoga watch is timeless, not only a trend, which passes away Men will melt. Elizabeth Arden fragrance for women Dec.; AuxV; assonance of /e/
60
138. 139.
140. 141.
142.
143.
144.
145.
146.
147.
148. 149.
150.
151.
152.
Was there beauty before there were beauty products? Int.; finV; past; active NOT MANY THINGS KNOCK YOU OUT LIKE MIGRAINE BUT YOU CAN KNOCK OUT A MIGRAINE WITH RELPAX. Dec.; PhrV ‘knock sb out’ = 1. (informal) to surprise sb 2. to make sb very tired 3. to defeat sb; figurative: ‘migraine knock you out’; AuxV; antimetabole The first creme that renews your skin during the night. Nph; hyperbole; personification: ‘crème renews’ FRÏS lime graphics: I letter has two green dots ‘created’ from limes; the pronunciation of the name is /freeze/: evokes the effect of refreshing cold alcoholic drink Shake up your night. Imp.; phrV ‘shake up’ - it relates to a) drink of Bacardi (literal) b) the night (figurative) ‘to move’ cool just got hot Dec.; finV; past; active; 2x grad Adj in basic form; antithesis; rhyme ‘got – hot’ Dirty mouth? Nothing cleans it up like Orbit. Nph; ellipsis ‘Have you got dirty…’; hyperbole; Dec.; finV; present; active; PhrV ‘clean up’= to remove dirt; personification: ‘Orbit cleans sth up’ Little. The next big thing. Meet iPod mini. Nph; parataxis; ellipsis ‘The fact that it is little is the next big…’; 2x grad Adj in basic form; antithesis; Imp. Protect. Bodify. Beautify. 3x non-finV; parataxis; affixation = a neologism ‘bodify’ made as parallel to ‘beautify’ (to make sb beautiful) – it means ‘to make your body being a nice body (again); a body what it should be like’ “I’m a big loser.” Whoopi Goldberg intertextuality – quotation by W.G.; Dec.; 1st Sg narr.; antithesis; ‘big loser’ here means that she lost weight and she is therefore ‘a big’ – enthusiastic real woman Smooth Move. Nph; grad Adj in basic form; rhythm; assonance of /u:/ After almost two centuries, we’ve found more than a few ways to say “I love you.” Dec.; 1 st Pl narr.; finV; pres. perf.; active; Num; comparison; allusion on the tradition; metaphor: ‘ways to say I love you’ = to give a jewel to sb as a present’ “I am uniInt.” Moissanite is me. 2x Dec.; 1st Sg narr.; intertextuality – quotation; 2x finV; present; active; grad Adj in basic form; metaphor: I am moissanite; logical implication: Moissanite is unique Brings out the glow. Dec.; finV; present; active; PhrV ‘bring out’ = to produce; polysemy: ‘glow’ = a) the pink colour in your face b) a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction’; personification: Olay brings both Got wedding on the brain? Time to visit our new website. Int.; finV; present; active; ellipsis ‘Have you got…’; idiom ‘Have sth on the brain’ = to think about sth all the time; Nph; ellipsis ‘It’s time…’; non-finV; epithet; grad Adj in basic form
61
Evian Relpax
Nivea Frïs Vodka
Bacardi Limón
hot. diamonds
Orbit
Apple
Redken
Slim Fast
Veet. Bailey Banks & Biddle jewelry
jewelry
OLAY
Brides
153. 154.
Light. Loose. Layered. parataxis; 2x grad Adj in basic form; non-finV; alliteration of /l/ Your heart should race from being in love, not from a diet pill.
John Frieda online advice service
Dec.; AuxV; collocation ‘in love’ – sth healthy; metonymy: ‘a diet pill’ for a diet – sth unhealthy – logical antithesis The Scientist 155. 21 Growing excellence… eBioscience present IL-17, IL-23, IL-27 eBioscience Nph; grad Adj in basic form; metaphor: a new products IL-17, IL-23, IL-27 are excellence; visual metaphor: a big tree (is matured but still grows); Dec.; finV; present; active 156. BD Photosflow. Phospho-Specific Flow Cytometry Reagents BD cell analysis apposition; 2x Nph; inicialism; 2x compound Adj ‘phosphospecific’ + ‘flow cytometry’; 2x non-grad Adj 157. Thinking Larger. Moving Faster. exelixis.com work offer 2x Dec.; 2x non-finV; parataxis; parallelism; 2x grad Adj in comparative form 158. Now! Real-Time PCR results in under 40 minutes! Applied Biosystems 2x exclamation; ellipsis ‘…results are/ can be set in under…’; Num; 159. No Contaminating Ig Bands! eBioscience Nph; exclamation; grad Adj in basic form; inicialism 160. delivery>purification>analysis>detection BIORAD 4x Nph; parataxis 161. FOR EVERY ACTION THERE’S A OLYMPUS SIMULTANEOUS ACTIONREACTION intertextuality – Isaac Newton’s third law of motion says: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”; Dec.; finV; present; active; graphics 162. The best just got bigger. Invitrogen gel Dec.; finV; past; active; hyperbole; grad Adj in superlative form; grad Adj in comparative form 163. We’re all ears! Free Technical Assistance For expert solutions Cole -Parmer Dec.; exclamation; 1st Pl narr.; idiom: ‘be all ears’ = to be waiting with interest to hear what sb has to say; parataxis; Nph; 2x grad Adj in basic form; non-grad Adj Science 164.
The complete blotting solution is easy to spot.
Dec.; finV; present; active; grad Adj in basic form; non-grad Adj; ‘to blot’ = to make spots – ‘easy to spot’ = to notice; visual metaphor: a ladybird.
62
BIORAD protein blotting equipment
Scientific American 165.
166.
Plastic optical filter networks in tomorrow’s cars will put more pleasure in the road ahead. Dec.; 3x non-grad Adj; genitive; AuxV; personification + figurative: ‘networks put’; metonymy: ‘road’ = all roads This innovative technology can watch the human brain at work – using only light… Dec.; AuxV; personification: ‘technology can watch’; grad Adj in basic form; non-grad Adj; metonymy: ‘brain’ = ‘brains’; dash functions as the way to make more focal elements; non-finV
HAMAMATSU
HAMAMATSU
Business Journal Slovakia 167.
168. 169.
170.
171. 172.
173.
174. 175.
Your World of Certainty Allianz Nph; metaphor: Allianz is your certainty; idiom ‘world of certainty’ = to emphasize how much certainty there is with Allianz Who will pay for Your healthcare? Union Int.; AuxV; rhyme ‘pay – care’; compound N Pleased to meet you AQUACITY congress services intertextuality – a collocation, phrase said by introducing; personification: Aquacity welcomes you You are on the right way Crown Plaza Dec.; finV; present; active; visual metaphor: picture of compass; ellipsis ‘…way to Crown Plaza’ Blazing speed. Cool price. Copy. Print. Scan. Fax. Get it Done. Xerox 2x Nph; 2x epithet; 2x grad Adj in basic form; parataxis; 5x Imp. We bring olympic energy to your home Slovakia Olympic Team & Západoslovenská Energetika st Dec.; 1 Pl narr.; finV; present; active; non-grad Adj; ‘olympic energy’ – epithet + metaphor = from Olympic Games; metonymy: ‘home’ = ‘all homes’ We want you to be the best in your business. ORANGE st Dec.; 1 Pl narr.; finV. present; active; non-finV; grad Adj in superlative form; alliteration of /b/ Always aim for technical perfection. Toshiba ellipsis ‘There’s always…’; non-grad Adj Thanks to T-Mobile you can always have office in your pocket. T-Mobile Dec.; idiom ‘Thanks to sb’ = sth has happened because of sb/sth; AuxV; hyperbole; metaphor: ‘office’ = mobile phone; idiom ‘to have sth in your pocket’ = figurative: to be certain to win sth + literal: to have mobile in your pocket; idiom ‘be in sb’s pocket’ = to be controlled – we can say that you can control your office if your mobile phone is in your pocket
63
The Economist 176.
177.
178.
179.
A partner to design & integrate your global network end-to-end. Nph; metaphor: ‘verizon business is a partner’; 2x non-finV; idiom ‘end to end’ = in a line, with the ends touching; unnecessary use of hyphens; grad Adj in basic form; At Cardif, you are not just a number
verizon business
CARDIF insurance company
Dec.; finV; present; active; figurative: ‘to be just a number’ = not to treat with sb like a person, only like a registration number; picture of people with numbers on their clothes On a quest for the right values? We Hear You Huawei Int.; ellipsis ‘Do you go/ Are you on …’; grad Adj in basic form; Dec.; 1st Pl narr.; finV; present; active Game, set, history. Rolex watch intertextuality – ‘Game, set, match’ = parts of tennis match; it is used here because Rolex watch are worn by tennis players; 3x Nph
DigitAll 180. 181.
182.
183.
184.
185.
imagine touching beauty. Imp.; metaphor: ‘to touch beauty’ = to touch Samsung mobile phone imagine wearing your favourite music. Imp.; grad Adj in basic form; figurative: parallel ‘wear clothes/ perfume, etc. - wear music’ imagine an LCD-HDTV that reflects your unique style. Imp.; inicialism; finV; present; active; figurative: ‘TV reflects’; grad Adj in basic form Rock On.
Samsung phone Samsung mp3 player
Samsung
Samsung phone with music
Imp.; PhrV ‘rock on’ does not exist, but the preposition ‘on’ evokes the idea that sth starts or continues, similarly like ‘go on’, ‘switch on’ ‘Rock on’ = homonymy/ polysemy 1. start to dance to rock music 2. shock sb 3. move gently from side to side The right thing says everything. Samsung phone intertextuality – evokes the saying; Dec.; finV; present; active; personification: ‘Thing says’; epiphora ‘thing – (every)thing’; visual metaphor: ‘right thing’ = Samsung mobile phone The world’s fastest-moving brand is still on the move. Samsung Dec.; finV; present; active; genitive; compound Adj; grad Adj in superlative form; idiom ‘be on the move’ = 1. be travelling between one place and another (figurative: Samsung products are distributed to whole world); 2. to be going somewhere (figurative: Samsung develops) 3. to become active
Nature 186.
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” Galileo Galilee intertextuality – quotation of famous scientist
64
Shimadzu
187.
188.
189.
190.
191.
Faster protein purification? It’s not rocket science. GE Int.; ellipsis ‘Do you want/need a faster…’; grad Adj in comparative form; non-grad Adj.; Dec.; finV; present; active; idiom ‘It’s not rocket science’ = if something is not rocket science, it is not very complicated or difficult to understand. This idiom is normally used in the negative. (http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/rocket+science.html) Achieve Beadlytenment Beadlyte research products Imp. or ellipsis ‘To achieve…’; affixation + neologism: ‘beadlyte (brand name) + -ment (suffix; the action or result of) “The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the Shimadzu knowledge gained.” David Bohm intertextuality – quotation of famous scientist Everybody, really everybody is welcome to Sunday Brunch! Radisson SAS Dec.; exclamation; finV; present; active; hyperbole; blending ‘brunch = breakfast + lunch); non-grad Adj; this advertisement was written also in Slovak and German language to emphasize that everybody is welcome R&D Systems Reagents. Making discoveries happen for over 25 R&D years. Nph; apposition; non-finV; Num; ellipsis ‘Regents are making…’
Newsweek 192.
193.
194.
195.
196.
How can we produce more energy but lower carbon emissions? Livio Shell Accattatis has an answer. Int.; AuxV; 1st Pl narr.; antithesis; grad Adj in comparative form; nongrad Adj.; metonymy: a name of a person from Shell company represents the whole company; finV; present; active Simplicity is making hospitals feel less like hospitals. Philips equipment Dec.; finV; present; active; figurative: ‘simplicity is making’; personification: ‘hospitals feel themselves like hospitals’; grad Adj in comparative form; simile profession: pilot career: actor Breitling navitimer 4x Nph; parataxis; use of colons; ellipsis ‘His profession is pilot and his career is actor’; picture of John Travolta wearing Breitling watch – a famous person represents the brand – logical implication: only famous people wear Breitling watch, so if you wear Breitling watch, you will certainly be/you certainly are famous, too Heavy industries Hyundai Happy industries 2x Nph; parataxis; 2x grad Adj in basic form; parallelism; epiphora Make the right connections Telecom Imp.; grad Adj in basic form; poysemy: ‘connection’ = 1. literal: a point, especially in an electrical system (here: telegraphing system) where two parts connect 2. figurative: a person or an organization that you know and that can help or advise you in your social or professional life
65
197.
198. 199.
200.
201. 202.
203. 204.
205.
206. 207. 22
208.
209.
210.
YOU CAN LOOK FOR OIL AT GREAT DEPTHS WITHOUT DISTURBING THE NEIGHBOURS Dec.; AuxV; PhrV ‘look for’ = to try to find sth; grad Adj in basic form; metonymy: ‘depths’ = deep parts; non-finV; visual metaphor: picture of marine animals (= neighbours) in the closeness to the divers in the sea ‘without disturbing the neighbours’ = protecting marine life Smile! You are in Spain Nph; exclamation; Dec.; finV, present; active Simplicity is a lamp with the power to purify water. Dec.; finV; present; active; metaphor ‘simplicity is a lamp’; nonfinV I am my music. Nokia N series. See new. Hear new. Feel new. Dec.; 1 st Sg narr.; finV; present; active; metaphor: ‘I am music’; Nph; 3x Imp.; parallelism; epiphora; assonance of /i:/ image is everything Dec.; finV; present; active; metaphor Refresh your Soul in Seoul Imp.; figurative: ‘make new thoughts, feelings and improve your state of mind’; a word pun Exploring the world for gas to warm your winter 2x non-finV; ellipsis ‘We are exploring …’ Xerox Colour. It makes business sense. apposition; graphics; Dec.; finV; present; active; sound of /s/; personification: ‘Xerox makes sense’; idiom ‘to make sense’ = to give meaning Performance. Prestige. Passion for Innovation. 3x Nph; alliteration of /p/; parataxis; sound of //; metaphor: Breitling watch is prestige Nespresso. What else? intertextuality – dialogue in a cafe Take the World. Touched by THAI. Imp.; non-finV; ellipsis; parataxis; rhyme ‘by – Thai’; visual metaphor: ‘Take the world touched by Thai’– take the postcard with the photo of world places, where Thai has the destination’ “A dandy on the boulevards (…) strolling at leisure until his Breguet, ever vigilant, reminds him it is midday.” Alexander Pushkin ‘Eugen Onegin’ 1829 intertextuality – quotation from a novel; it represents tradition of Breguet; Num “He drew out the most delicious thin watch that Breguet had ever made. Fancy, it is eleven o’clock, I was up early.” Honoré de Balzac ‘Eugénie Grandet’ 1833 intertextuality – quotation from a novel; it represents tradition of Breguet; Num; past perf. Hit a hole-in-one. Hit the right impression. 2x Imp.; metaphor between a hole-in-one (an occasion in golf when a player hits the ball from the tee into the hole using only one shot – the best alternative) and Nokia mobile phone – also the best alternative, both a hole-in-one and Nokia phone make a right impression; picture shows a hand worn in a golf glove catching a phone
66
TOTAL
Iberia Philips
Nokia
Toshiba TV Hiseoul
TOTAL Xerox
Breitling watch
coffee Thai airway
Breguet watch
Breguet watch
Nokia phone
211.
212.
213.
It’s just another Renault. Reliable. Technically superior. Best in its Renault class. Just like every other Renault we make. Dec.; 2x finV; present; active; parataxis; apposition; grad Adj in basic form; non-grad Adj; grad Adj in superlative form; metonymy: ‘Renault’ for all Renault cars; simile; 1st Pl narr. Hospitality that knows no borders nikko hotels Nph; finV; present; active; personification: ‘Hospitality knows’; ‘borders’ –the line that divide countries nikko hotels are in many countries and in each country the stuff of the hotels is hospitable Feel the surge of calm Lexus Imp.; logical antithesis
Geographical 214.
215.
216.
217.
Explore the hills Explore the rivers Explore the mountains Explore the sea Explore the moors Explore yourself. Explore plas y brenin. 7x Imp.; parallelism; anaphora Fujifilmed. Award grabbed by crab snap. 2x non-finV; neologism: ‘Fujifilmed’ = brand name + conversion from N to V; Dec.; word puns; sounds of /æp/; visual metaphor: a picture of crab, which has won the award; polysemy: ‘to snap’ = 1. if an animal (here: a crab) bites sb/sth rapidly 2. to take a photograph; ‘to grab’ – means the same as snap, but it is related to humans IT TAKES A BRAVE MAN TO VENTURE DEEP INTO THE JUNGLE. IT TAKES A SPECIAL KIND OF IDIOT TO OPEN THE SUNROOF. 2x Dec.; 2x finV; present; active; parallelism; anaphora; 2x grad Adj in basic form; 2x non-finV SCOTT SPIKER SHOOTS THE WORLD WITH A SIGMA LENS Dec.; finV; present; active; name of the famous professional photographer represents the quality of the brand
national mountain center plas y brenin
Would you put dandruff in this picture? Int. rhetorical; AuxV Save up to price on Oral B toothbrushes. Imp.; PhrV; Num A STROKE OF GENIUS TO MULTILIGHT YOUR HAIR non-finV; ellipsis ‘It’s/Get/Try a stroke…’; collocation + metaphor: ‘stroke of genius’, here: ‘genius’ = brush for dying hair ‘stroke of brush’; compound V That’s a great Christmas in the bag. Dec.; finV; present; active; hyperbole; grad Adj in basic form; metaphor: ‘Christmas’ = cosmetic XTROVERT. XPLOSIVE. LOVE THE COLOUR. COLOR XXL graphics; inicialism; unpredictable spelling; parataxis; Imp.; alliteration of /x/
head & shoulders
Fujifilm
Nissan New Patrol
SIGMA
More 218. 219. 220.
221.
222.
67
Boots GARNIER
Hair cosmetic
Schwartzkopf
New! 223. 23 Spring water with a splash of fruit. Nph; non-grad Adj; layout: splash of water in shape of face with fruit eyes 224. 24 There’s only one naughty thing in Dolmio and that’sa Papa!
Robinsons
DOLMIO Bolognese
Dec.; finV; present; active; Num; grad Adj in basic form; dialect; familiar words; visual metaphor: a man has his finger in a pot with Dolmio sauce, trying it his finger = only naughty thing; Dolmio is without any harmful substances ES magazine 225.
226.
227. 228.
229.
230.
If the world of culture is your choice, your world is Madrid. Dec.; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active; metaphor: ‘world of culture’ is Madrid MUJI Xmas intertextuality – ‘Merry Christmas’ – a greeting used at Christmas; unpredictable spelling; conversion: brand name (N) stands for Adj The Legend is Back. Dec.; finV; present; active; intertextuality UNSTOPPABLE Charm SASHA COHEN HAS IT. So does her Citizen Eco-Drive Nph; non-grad Adj; homonymy: ‘charm’ = 1. the power of attracting people, 2. a small object worn on a chain or bracelet; the characteristic of a famous figure skater (‘unstoppable charm’) represents the quality of the product; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active How will you keep your Gold safe? Int.; AuxV; visual metaphor: a picture of Gold bread in a safe; copywriters took advantage from the name of the bread IT’S YOUR WATCH THAT SAYS MOST ABOUT WHO YOU ARE. Dec.; 3x finV; 3x present; 3x active; personification: ‘watch says’
Turismo Madrid
Muji online shop
ORIS watch watch
KINGSMILL Gold bread
SEIKO
ELLE 231. 232. 233. 25
234.
235.
DARE TO GO THERE. 12 TIMES MORE VOLUME! Imp.; non-finV; sound of /e/; Num; exclamation “Who says you can’t look as young as you feel?” Christey Brinkley intertextuality – quotation of famous person The silky feel of olay bar Nph; grad Adj in basic form; visual metaphor: a picture of silky gown you will feel as silky when you wash with Olay bar as you feel when you wear a silky gown PLUMP IT UP Imp.; PhrV ‘plump up’ = to make sth larger HOW DO YOU DEFINE eternity? Int.; finV; present; active
68
L’OREAL OLAY OLAY
RIMMEL lipstick
236.
237. 238.
239.
240.
241. 242. 26
After 173 years, we know quite a bit about diamonds. But love is still a complete mystery. 2x Dec.; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active; Num; 1st Pl narr.; metaphor: ‘love is mystery’ Your shade. Your finish. Your match. 3x Nph; parallelism; anaphora; parataxis that’s why I bluefly.com Dec.; finV; present; active; 1st Sg narr.; rhythm ‘I – (blue)fly’; graphics; neologism: conversion – verb is replaced by brand name New LAY’S Dips (Finally, dips worthy of LAY’S chips) Nph; 2x genitive; epithet; 2x grad Adj in basic form; rhythm ‘dips – chips’; ellipsis ‘dips are worthy of…’ Do you believe in love at first touch? Int.; finV; present; active; collocation ‘love at first sight’ is deviated to make the relation with the material of the product; metaphor: Nokia phone is love at first sight (touch) Real People. Real Jewelry. 2x Nph; anaphora; parallelism; 2x grad Adj in basic form You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation. 2x Dec.; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active; metonymy: ‘Patek Philippe’ = watch Patek Philippe; PhrV ‘look after’ = to take care of sth; ‘next generation’ = your children
Bailey Banks & Bidle
Estee Lauder bluefly.com online shop
LAY’S Dips
Nokia
Danecraft Patek Philippe watch
you magazine 243.
244.
245.
246.
The digital camera that takes pictures as easily as it takes the plunge. PENTAX Nph; non-grad Adj; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active; simile; figurative: ‘camera takes pictures’; collocation: ‘to take pictures’ = to photograph; idiom ‘take the plunge’ = to decide to do sth important or difficult, especially after thinking about it for a longer time; personification: ‘camera takes the plunge’ YOU MAKE UP YOUR EYES, MAKE UP YOUR LIPS, NOW IMEDEEN MAKE UP YOUR AGE 2x Dec.; Imp.; parallelism; 3x PhrV ‘make up’ = homonym: 1. to put cosmetics on sb’s face, 2. to form sth Summer 2005: True Bronze. CLINIQUE bronzing gel 2x Nph; Num; grad Adj in basic form; ellipsis ‘In summer 2005 you may have with Clinique cosmetics true bronze skin Best before: 1908 food grad Adj in superlative form; Num; ellipsis
heat 247.
tellyphone
Nokia TV in mobile phone
248.
Nph; blending: ‘television’ + ‘telephone’ PRINTS AS REAL AS LIFE Nph; simile; grad Adj in basic form
69
hp
249.
CASIOLOGY Nph; affixation, neologism: ‘Casiology’ = brand name + suffix –logy (a science or subject of study)
CASIO
WALLPAPER 250.
251.
252.
253. 254.
255.
Instead if moving the furniture around, why not move around the furniture? Int.; 2x non-finV; antimetabole A bank of ideas Nph; metaphor: Investec is a bank of ideas; a bank provides money, Investec provides services First Class ESPRESSO EXPERIENCE. Nph; 2x non-grad Adj; sound of /s/; metaphor: Lavazza is first class experience IO, COMANDANTE DEL TEMPO Nph; apposition; intertextuality – quotation; foreign words; 1st Sg narr. For inside. For outside. For ever.
Dyson vacuum cleaner Investec
LAVAZZA
Panerai watch SSS SIEDLE door communication
parataxis; parallelism; anaphora; antithesis; ‘for inside’ = at home, ‘for outside’ = at the gate Merry Kissmas. Alessi intertextuality - – ‘Merry Christmas’ – a greeting used at Christmas; unpredictable spelling; visual metaphor: a picture shows two Alessi bottle-openers kissing
TIME 256.
257.
258.
Your boss changed the meeting. Your client changed the deadline. Your wife changed her mind. Now change to an airline with more departures. 3x Dec.; Imp.; parallelism; anaphora; 3x finV; past; active; idiom ‘change sb’s mind’ = change the decision or opinion; metaphor: ‘boss, client; wife’ = your everyday life; ‘airline’ = at least one good thing, escape from problems “We cannot hang up on the world” Kathryn Walker intertextuality – quotation of employee – she represents the thoughts of whole company Kediaman Kedua-ku – The Malaysian phrase for My Second Home
Scandinavian Airlines
hp
Tourism Malaysia
Nph; foreign words; apposition; non-grad Adj 259. 9 Challenge us – and get yourself a bigger slice of the cake. Siemens Imp.; 1 st Pl narr.; idiom ‘a bigger slice of the cake’ = a share of the benefits or available money that you believe you have a right to; grad Adj in comparative form 260. Slow down. Pleasure up. Camel 2x Imp.; 2x PhrV 261. “Time is the lens through which dreams are captured.” Francis Ford Blancpain watch Coppola. intertextuality – quotation of famous person
70
262.
263. 264.
265. 266.
267.
268.
269.
270.
The better the competition. The better the tyre. The better for you. idiom ‘the…the…’ is deviated in a way that three, not two elements are in relation; parataxis; parallelism; 3x grad Adj in comparative form aim: zero emissions 2x Nph; ellipsis: ‘the aim is zero emissions’; colon; Num When we look into the future, we have hers in mind. Dec.; 1 st Pl narr.; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active; idiom ‘in mind’ = to be thinking of This time the marathon will end in the place where it all started. Dec.; AuxV; finV; past; active; antithesis 3 years of preparation 550 experts 36 nationalities 17 races 17 precious lessons ONE AIM 6x Nph; Num; parallelism; grad Adj in basic form; parataxis; 6x metaphor: Toyota = 3 years of prep.; Toyota = 550 experts; etc. networks shaping cities networks shaping events network shaping deals one network connects them all 3x Dec.; 3x non-finV; finV; present; active; Num; ellipsis of verb ‘networks are shaping…’; anaphora Watch us. Imp.; idiom ‘Watch it’ = used as a warning to sb to be careful, here: deviated to ‘watch us’ = Be careful of us; 1st Pl narr. FLAGS-A-WAVING. PEOPLE-A-DANCING. IT’S GOING TO BE SOME BIRTHDAY PARTY. unpredictable spelling: ‘Flags are waving’; parataxis; 2x Dec.; 2x finV; 2x present; 2x active; non-grad Adj; intention to imitate informal language Small seeds generate big ideas. Dec.; antithesis; 2x grad Adj in basic form; metaphor: ‘seeds’ = attempts, ideas
71
Bridgestone
TOYOTA Siemens
Athens 2004 Toyota
Orange
Toyota
Tourism Malaysia
CNN
5.5 1.
Results of the research 20 % of all slogans (54/270) contains ellipsis, it means that on average a fifth
of slogans uses ellipsis. 2.
7 % of all slogans (18/270) contains phrasal verb, it means that on average a
fifteenth of slogans uses phrasal verb. 3.
11 % of all slogans (29/270) contains parallelism, it means that on average a
ninth of slogans uses parallelism. 4.
Our assumption was not correct. The most widely used sentence type is not the
imperative one, as we supposed, but the declarative one (120/227). The second are imperatives (85/227), then interrogatives (22/227). There were 130 noun phrases in research sample. Exclamative sentences did not occur in the sample, although exclamations occurred. sentence types
10% Declaratives 53%
37%
Imperatives Interrogatives
Graph 1: sentence types
5.
Our assumption was correct. The most widely auxiliary verbs are ‘can’ (11/23)
and ‘will’ (6/23). The following are ‘would’ (4/23), ‘should’ (1/23) and negative form of ‘should’ (1/23). auxiliary verbs 1 1
can w ill
4
11
w ould should
6
should not
Graph 2: auxiliary verbs
72
6. Our assumption was correct. The majority of verbs is finite (114/163), the rest is non-finite (49/163). finiteness of verbs
30% finite verbs non-finite verbs 70%
Graph 3: finiteness of verbs
7.
Our assumption was correct. The majority of finite verbs are in present simple
form; the second most widely used are future forms ‘will’, then past simple, present perfect and one case of past perfect. 1%
tense/aspect
4% 4% present simple
5%
future 'w ill' past simple present perfect past perfect 86%
Graph 4: tense/aspect of verbs
8.
Our assumption was correct. The majority of slogans are of omniscient 3rd
person narrator (249/270), then 1st person plural narrator (13/270) and 1st person singular narrator (9/270). narrator 5% 3%
3rd person narrator 1st Sg narrator 1st Pl narrator 92%
Graph 5: narrator
73
9.
Our assumption was correct. 76 % (140/185) adjectives were gradable and
24 % (45/185) adjectives were non-gradable. gradability of adjectives
24% gradable adjectives non-gradable adjectives
76%
Graph 6: gradability of adjectives
10.
Our assumption was correct. The majority of gradable adjectives occur in
basic form (104/140), the second group are adjectives in comparative form (26/140) and the third group are superlative adjectives (10/140). form of adjectives
7% 19%
basic form comparative form superlative form 74%
Graph 7: form of adjectives
11.
Comparative adjectives are mostly used by slogans for technique product
specialization (16/26). com parative adjectives - distribution
10
technique 16
other
Graph 8: comparative adjectives - distribution
74
12.
Superlative adjectives are mostly used by slogans for food (3/10) and cosmetic
(2/10) product specialization. superlative adjectives - distribution food
1 3
1 1
cosmetics online shops pharmacy services
1 1
2
technique automobile
Graph 9: superlative adjectives - distribution
13.
Our assumption was not correct. The majority of numerals are not used by
slogans for jewelry product specialization, but by slogans for automobiles. Numerals indicate parameters of the vehicles and years of production.
occurance of linguistic means in individual branches 0,50
technique
0,40
cosmetics
0,30
food
0,20
services
0,10
jew elry automobiles
0,00 metaphor
idiom
personification polys/homon
Num
Graph 10: occurrence of linguistic means in individual branches
75
14.
From the graph 10 and 11 we can see that in advertising the most widely used
trope is metaphor (metaphor: 75/270; personification: 24/270; polysemy/homonymy: 9/270). Metaphor is mostly used by slogans for jewelry (9 in 21 jewelry slogans contain metaphor.). Personification is mostly used by automobile slogans; polysemy/homonymy is mostly used by jewelry slogans. Idioms are mostly used by automobile and technique slogans.
popularity and use of linguistic means by individual branches 0,50
metaphor
0,40
idiom
0,30
personification
0,20
polys/homon
0,10
Num
0,00 technique
cosmetics
food
services
jew elry
automobiles
Graph 11: popularity and use of linguistic means by individual branches
76
6
CONCLUSION In the theoretical part, we approached advertising as a type of communication
between producer and consumer of the product. We analyzed and described basic principles of advertising printed texts. The theoretical part of the diploma thesis provided an analysis of language of advertising and served as a basis for the research part. To be able to make analysis of slogans in such extent, we had to include all the aspects of language – from phonological to semantic aspect.
The results of the research confirmed the correctness of 6 in 8 hypotheses and disproved the correctness of 2 in 8. We shall briefly offer the results of the research: •
On average, every fifth slogan contains ellipsis.
•
On average, every fifteenth slogan contains phrasal verb.
•
On average, every ninth slogan contains parallelism.
•
The most widely sentence type is declarative (53 %).
•
The most widely used auxiliary verbs are ‘can’ and ‘will’.
•
The majority of verbs are finite (70 %).
•
The majority of finite verbs are in present simple form (86 %).
•
The majority of slogans are of third person narrator (92 %).
•
The majority of adjectives are gradable (76 %).
•
The second most widely used form of adjectives is comparative form (19 %).
•
Comparative adjectives are mostly used in slogans for technique product specialization.
•
Superlative adjectives are mostly used in slogans for food product specialization.
•
The majority of numerals are used in slogans for automobile product specialization.
•
From the 3 tropes (metaphor; personification; polysemy/homonymy), metaphor is most popular among slogans and it is most widely used in slogans for jewelry product specialization.
77
•
Personification
is
mostly
used
by
automobile
slogans;
polysemy/homonymy is mostly used by jewelry slogans. Idioms are mostly used by automobile and technique slogans.
By the research we also discovered that the writers of advertising texts often use words like ‘new’ (+ words containing ‘new’: anew, renew) (16 times/sample), ‘just’ (12), ‘perfect’ (+ perfection, perfectly) (8), ‘real’ (+ really) (8), ‘better’ (7), ‘best’ (7), ‘first’ (7), ‘right’ (6), ‘only’ (5), ‘complete’ (+ completely) (5). The values, which express the use of pronoun ‘you’ (27 times) and possessive form ‘your’ (57 times) in research sample confirm the intention of the copywriters to come closer to the consumer and evoke the feeling of intimacy. The correctness of the theory of Vestergaard and Schroder (p. 44) has been in our research certified. We have found 11 cases of using the verb ‘get’, but any case of a verb ‘buy’. We observed that the informal style of advertising language predominates over the formal style. We found the formal style of writing only in scientific and business types of magazines. In scientific magazines, there occurred advertisements for a specific group of people – scientists, doctors, physicists; the vocabulary was technical and incomprehensible for common people. The linguistic means were the same in all types of magazines.
We hope that the diploma thesis will contribute to the present knowledge about advertising language and will introduce new facts, findings and observations on such creative and extremely interesting discourse. We believe that it will be useful and contributing for all who are interested in English language and its multiplicity.
78
BIBLIOGRAPHY MONOGRAPHS: COOK, Guy. 1996 [1992]. The Discourse of Advertising. London: Routledge
COWIE, A. P. et al. 1991 [1983]. Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English. Vol. 2 English Idioms. Oxford: Oxford University Press MEJRKOVÁ, Svtla. 2000. Reklama v etin. Praha: Leda
DOPJEROVÁ-DANTHINE, Mária. 2002. Anglické idiómy pod lupou. Bratislava: Remedium
GODDARD, Angela. 1998. The Language of Advertising. Written texts. London: Routledge
HALLIDAY, M. A. K., HASAN, R. 1976. Cohesion in English. (English Language Series). London: Longman HORNBY, A. S. et al. 2001. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. The 6th edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press
KVETKO, Pavol. 2001. Essentials of Modern English Lexicology. Bratislava
LAKOFF, George, JOHNSON, Mark. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago.
LEECH, Geoffrey, N. 1972 [1966]. English in Avertising: A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain (English Language Series). London: Longman
MYERS, Greg. 1997 [1994]. Words in Ads. London: Hodder Arnold
OGILVY, David. 1985. Ogilvy on Advertising. Vancouver: Vintage
79
PAVLÍK, Radoslav. 2000. Phonetics and Phonology of English. A Theoretical Introduction. Bratislava: Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity Komenského
PICKETT, J. P. et al. 2000. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. The 4th edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
PRESSON, Leslie, LAPICK, John. 1997. A Dictionary of Homophones. New York: Barron’s
QUIRK, Randolph, GREENBAUM, Sidney et al. 1990. A Student’s Grammar of the English Language. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd. SOANES, C., STEVENSON, A. 2004. Concise Oxford English Dictionary. The 11th edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press TRUP, Ladislav. 1999. panielska lexikológia. Banská Bystrica: Univerzita Mateja Bela, Filologická fakulta
VESTERGAARD, Torben, SCHRODER, Kim. 1985. The Language of Advertising. New York: Basil Blackwell Inc.
WIDDOWSON, H.G. 2000 [1996]. Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press
MAGAZINES: BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine. June 2006. UK
Business Journal Slovakia. February 2006, June 2006, July – August 2006. Slovak Republic
Computer Active. May 2006. UK
DigitAll. fall 2003, spring 2005, summer 2005, winter 2005. Samsung brand magazine
80
ELLE. November 2005. UK
ES Magazine. December 2005, UK.
eve. February 2006. UK
Geographical. April 2003, December 2004. UK
Good Food. February 2005, January 2006. UK
Heat. December 2005. UK
More. December 2005. UK
Nature. May 2006, June 2006. Harvard University Press, USA
New. November 2005. UK
Newsweek. February 2006, March 2006, May 2006, June 2006, July 2006. USA
Photography. September 2004. UK
Reveal. December 2005. USA
Science. June 2006. UK
Scientific American. July 2006. USA
The Economist. July 2006. UK
The Scientist. November 2005, December 2005, April 2006. UK
The Week. October 2005, March 2006
81
Time. May 2003, July 2003, September 2003. UK
Vogue. January 2004, January 2005, February 2005, March 2005, May 2006, June 2006. UK
Wallpaper. July – August 2005, December – January 2005 – 2006. UK
You magazine. June 2005. UK
THE INTERNET RESOURCES: http://home.cfl.rr.com/eghsap/apterms.html
http://mktg-sun.wharton.upenn.edu/advertising/dictionary/h.htm
http://www.investorwords.com/129/advertising.html
http://www.languageinindia.com/march2005/advertisingenglishhongkong1.html
http://www.motto.com/glossary.html
http://www.onestopenglish.com/teacher_support/ask/Grammar/grammar15.htm
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOflinguisticTerms/Index.htm
http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/Unit_02/given-new.htm
http://www.thefreedictionary.com
http://www.wikipedia.org/
https://lists.usm.maine.edu/
82
SUPPLEMENT A Review of print advertisements
1 (see: p. 20)
2 (see: p. 25)
3 (see: p. 29)
4 (see: p. 29)
5 (see: p. 29)
6 (see: p. 29)
7 (see: p. 29)
8 (see: p. 33)
9 (see: p. 36)
10 (see: p. 43)
11 (see: p. 46)
12 (see: p. 46)
13 (see: p. 46)
14 (see: p. 48)
15 (see: supplement A)
16 (see: supplement A)
17 (see: supplement A)
18 (see: supplement A)
19 (see: supplement A)
20 (see: supplement A)
21 (see: supplement A)
22 (see: supplement A)
23 (see: supplement A)
24 (see: supplement A)
25 (see: supplement A)
26 (see: supplement A)
SUPPLEMENT B Table of attributes
T T
3
T
4
Cl
5
S
6
S
7
T
8
T
idiom
polys/homon
metaphor
personification
compound
parallelism
Num
superlat.
comparat.
non-grad
Adj. Adj grad form grad
AuxV
PhrV
ellipsis
Nph
1st Pl
1st Sg
non-finV
finV
finiteness narrator Int.
Imp.
Dec.
slogan type
No. of slogan 1 2
No. of slogan
1 1
1 1
1 2
1
1
1 1 2
1
1
9
T
10
T
1
1
11
T
1
12
T
13
T
14
T
15
T
16
T
17
F
18
F
19
F
20
F
1
1
1 2
1
1
1 2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 2 3
1
1
21
F
1
1
22
H
1
2
23
H
24
A
25
F
26
F
27
F
1
28
F
1
1
29
F
30
F
1
1
31
F
32
A
33
T
34
T
35
P
36
F
1
37
F
1
38
T
39
F
1
40
T
1
41
S
1 2
1
1
1 1
1 1
2
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2 1
1
4
1
2
2 1
1 1
2
1
3
2
1
2 1
2
1 1
1
1
1
1
2
2 2
2 3
1
3
1 1
1 1
1 1
1
1
1 2 2
1
1
1 1
2 1
1
1
1 1
1
1
1
42
T
43
T
44
O
3 2
2
1
1
1
45
T
46
Ph
47
Ph
48
T
49
T
50
T
51
T
1
52
F
1
1
2
1
2
2 1
3 2
1
1
2
1
1
1
1 2
2
1
1
1 1
2
3
1
1
53
F
54
Ph
55
T
56
F
57
T
1
58
F
1
59
Ph
1
60
Ph
61
Ph
62
O
63
H
64
Ph
65
C
66
F
67
F
68
F
69
A
1
1
70
F
2
2
71
F
72
A
1
73
T
1
74
S
75
S
76
T
77
C
78
C
79
C
80
C
81
C
82
1
1
3
1
4
2
1
1
1
1
1 1
2
1
1
1
1 1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
2
1
1 1
1
1
1
1 1
1
2
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
5 1
1
1
1
1
1 1
1
1
2 3
1
1
1 1
1
1
2
2
1
1
2
1
2
2 1
1 1
5
1
1
2
1
1
1 1
1
1 1
1
1
1
A
1
2
3
83
F
1
84
C
85
C
1
86
C
1
87
C
1
1
1
2
1
1 2 2
1
1
1
88
C
1
89
C
90
F
3
91
C
1
92
C
93
J
94
J
95
S
96
S
97
C
98
C
1 1
1
1
1
1
5
1 1
1
2
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
1 1
1
1
1 1
1
1
1
A A
1
101
J
2
102
C
1
103
C
1
104
C
105
C
106
F
107
C
108
S
1
109
F
2
110
P
111
C
1
112
C
1
113
C
2
114
O
1
115
C
116
C
117
C
118
C
119
O
2
120
C
2
121
C
1
122
C
123
C
124
C
125
C
1
126
C
1
1
127
C
128
A
2
1
129
C
130
C
131
C A
1
1
99
133
2
1
100
132 Ph
1
1
1
2 1 1
1 1
1
1 1
1
2
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
2 1
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
1 2
1
2 1
1
1
1
1 1
1 1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
3
1
2
2
2 1
1
1
1 1
1
2
1
1 1
1
1
1
1 1
1
1
1 1
1
1
1
1 1
1 1
1
1 1
1
1 2
1
1
1
1 1
134
C
135
J
136
J
1
137
C
1
138
F
139 Ph
1 1
141
F
142
F
143
J
1
144
F
1
T C
147 Ph
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
1
C
146
3 1
140
145
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 2
1
148
C
1
149
J
1
1
150
J
2
2
151
C
1
1
152
O
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
1
153
C
154
O
1
155
T
1
156
T
157
S
158
T
159
T
1
160
T
4
161
T
1
2
1
1
1
1
2 1
1
1
1
2 2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
162 Ph
1
1
163
S
1
164
T
1
165
T
1
166
T
1
167
S
168
S
169
S
170
S
171
T
172
S
1
1
173
S
1
1
174
T
175
T
176
S
177
S
1
178
S
1
179
J
1 1 1 2
1
1
1
2
1
1
1 3
1
1
1
1
1 1
1
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
1
1
1
5
1
2
2
1 1
1
1
1 1
1 1
1
1 1
1
1
1 3
1 1
1 2
1
1
1
3
1
1
180
T
1
1
181
T
1
182
T
1
183
T
184
T
1
1
185
T
1
1
186
T
187
T
188
T
189
T
190
S
191
T
192
T
193
T
194
J
195
A
196
S
197
S
1
198
S
1
199
T
1
200
T
1
201
T
1
202
S
203
S
204
T
205
J
206
F
207
S
208
J
1
209
J
1
210
T
211
A
212
S
213
A
1
214
S
7
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1 1
1
1
1
1
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 4
1 1
1
1
2
2
1
1
1 1
1
1 1 3
1
1
1
1 1
1
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1 2 1
1
1
1 3
1
1
1 1
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
1 1
215
T
1
216
A
2
2
2
217
T
1
1
218
C
219
O
220
C
221
C
222
C
223
F
224
F
1
1
225
S
1
2
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1
1 1
1
226
O
227
J
228
J
229
F
230
J
231
C
232
C
233
C
234
C
235
C
236
J
1
1 1
1
1 1
1
1
1
1 1
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
239
F
240
T
241
J
242
J
243
T
244
C
245
C
246
F
247
T
1
248
T
1
249
T
250
T
251
S
1
252
F
1
255
H
256
S
1
1
C
J
1
1
O
T
1 1
238
254
1
3
237
253
1
1
1
1 1
1
1
2
1
1 2
2
2
2
1
1
2 2
1
1
1
1
1
3 2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
2
1
1 2
1
1 1 1
3
1
257
T
258
S
259
T
1
260 To
2
3
1 1 1
1
3
3
1
2
J
262
T
263
A
264
T
1
2
265
S
1
1
266
A
267
S
268
A
269
S
270
S 1 0 120 85 22 114 49
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1 6
3
1
1
1
1 2
1
1
1
261
3
1
1
1
1 2
1
1 1
9
2 1 13 130 54 18 24 140 45 26 10 32 29 16 24 75 9 27