從語言學觀點分析台灣雜誌平面廣告的說服策略

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(1)國立台灣師範大學英語學系碩. 士. 論. 文. Master Thesis Graduate Institute of English National Taiwan Normal University. 從語言學觀點分析台灣雜誌平面廣告的說服策略. A Linguistic Analysis of Persuasive Strategies in Print Advertisements in Taiwan’s Magazines. 指導教授：張妙霞博士 Advisor: Dr. Miao-Hsia Chang 研究生：邱怡婷 Student: Yi-Ting Lina Chiu. 中華民國一百零一年六月. June, 2012.

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(3) 中文摘要研究普遍認為廣告語言有著其他文體沒有的特殊結構及特性，其創意性和新穎性一直是研究的主題之ㄧ。從大眾傳播的角度探討廣告語言的相關研究不勝枚舉，然而從語言學角度切入探究廣告語言特性的研究卻相當有限，也甚少研究從語言學的各個面向對廣告語言作全面性的分類及探討。本研究分析台灣雜誌平面廣告中的說服策略，語料取自天下雜誌、遠見雜誌、親子天下、漂亮家居和壹週刊的平面廣告。依據語言學的觀點，全面性地把說服策略就音韻、構詞、搭配語、句法、語意、語用及其他策略，進一步分成次分類進行討論。以使用單一策略的分析單位而言，研究結果顯示語用策略為最常見的語言策略，以次分類而言，預設為最常使用的策略，其次為隱喻，再者為祈使句、引用、轉碼和隱涵。這些策略皆有『訊息導向』的特質，其目的在於增加訊息感官收入的可能性、使訊息傳遞更有效率、更直接，亦或使廣告標語更具體化、更生動，進而引起消費者注意並激起其購買的慾望。就這些策略的組合方式而言，「重複＋對稱」不但最常使用，也展現高度與其它組合並用的可能性，而「押韻＋重複＋對稱」的出現次數也頗為頻繁。本研究指出押韻、重複和對稱之所以易與其它策略結合，在於其皆具有『結構導向』的特質。即使使用它們無法傳遞更多的訊息，但其帶來的韻律及節奏感，能美化廣告標語、加強語氣，以增加消費者對廣告標語的記憶性。這樣的特質使它們傾向和其它策略同時出現而非單獨使用。. 關鍵詞：語言學、言談分析、廣告語言、說服策略. I.

(4) ABSTRACT Ad language, which is regarded as a distinctive type of discourse, has long been a hot issue under investigation on the basis of its creativity and innovation. Although there are a considerable number of researches dealing with the features shown in ad language from the field of mass media, little attention has been paid to the persuasive strategies from a linguistic perspective. Moreover, there is hardly any study comprehensively incorporating all of the linguistic subfields in the analysis of ad discourse. This thesis aims to investigate the persuasive strategies exploited in print ads in Taiwan’s magazines. The data in the present study are collected from Global Views, Common Wealth, Education/ Parenting/ Family Lifestyle, My Home, and Next Magazine. All units of analysis are categorized into phonological, morphological, collocational, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and other strategies from a linguistic perspective. Among all of the single-strategic units, pragmatic strategy is the most commonly adopted compared with those from other categories. In terms of each type of sub-strategy, it is found that presupposition is the most ubiquitous strategy in ads since it is designed to transmit more information than consumers can be aware of within limited time and space. What follows presupposition is metaphor. Its easily-designed nature and concretizing function lead to its popularity. Reported speech and implicature are also frequently adopted based on their high efficiency in transmitting information. Imperatives are also favored due to their semantic transparency in encouraging consumers to buy the products. In addition, the popularity of code-switching cannot be neglected because of its function to increase the probability of sensory input. Based on these findings, it is concluded that strategies commonly observed in single-strategic units are all message-oriented strategies in that they can increase the salience of messages, transmit information with high efficacy, or make ads more concrete and thus II.

(5) more reader-friendly. As far as the combinational patterns are concerned, it is observed that the pattern “repetition + parallelism” is not only the most common double-strategic combination but also displays the highest potential in integrating with other strategies. In addition, “rhyme + repetition + parallelism” is also very prevalent in triple-strategic tokens. We conclude that the structure-oriented nature of rhyme, repetition, parallelism results in their high frequency in multiple-strategic units. Their poverty in expressing new messages but high potential in beautifying the rhythm, strengthening the voice of utterances, adorning the structure of language, and increasing the memorability of ads give rise to their high tendency to actively collocate with other strategies instead of standing alone.. Key words: linguistics, discourse analysis, ad language, persuasive strategies. III.

(6) TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION.........................................................................001 1.1 Motivation and goals........................................................................................ 001 1.2 Research questions........................................................................................... 001 1.3 Methodology..................................................................................................... 002 1.4 The organization of the thesis...........................................................................007 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................................008 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)……………………………………..…… 008 Persuasion……………………………………..……………………………... 009 Advertising as a distinct type of communication…...…………...…………... 012 Advertisement………………………………………………………………...012 2.4.1 The difference between advertising and advertisement……….…….. 013 2.4.2 The structure of an advertisement………………………….………... 014 2.5 The language of advertisements……………………………………………... 019 2.5.1 Leech (1966)………………………………………………..………...020 2.5.2 Dyer (1982)……………………………………...…………………... 022 2.5.3 Geis (1982)…………………………………………………………... 024 2.5.4 Lakoff (1982)…………………………………………….…………...028 2.5.5 Vestergaard and Schrøder (1985)……………………………..……... 031 2.6 Summary…………………………………………...………………………... 035 CHAPTER THREE DATA ANALYSIS.....................................................................039 3.1 Units of analysis……………………………………………………………... 039 3.2 Single strategies………………….................................................................... 043 3.2.1 Phonological strategies…..................................................................... 044 3.2.1.1 Rhyme…................................................................................044 3.2.1.2 Homophone…....................................................................... 047 3.2.1.3 Homonym….......................................................................... 050 3.2.1.4 Similar sound…..................................................................... 051 3.2.1.5 Repetition of words, phrases, or sentences............................ 055 3.2.2 Morphological strategies….................................................................. 057 3.2.2.1 Newly-coined compounds or terms....................................... 058 3.2.2.2 Morphological reanalysis...................................................... 062 3.2.3 Novel-collocational strategies….......................................................... 064 3.2.3.1 Novel chunks......................................................................... 064 3.2.3.2 Collocational anomaly........................................................... 068 3.2.3.3 Change of grammatical role.................................................. 070 3.2.4 Syntactic strategies…........................................................................... 074 IV.

(7) 3.3. 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7. 3.2.4.1 Rhetorical question................................................................ 074 3.2.4.2 Imperatives............................................................................ 077 3.2.4.3 Parallelism............................................................................. 081 3.2.4.4 Topicalizaion......................................................................... 086 3.2.5 Semantic strategies............................................................................... 088 3.2.5.1 Metaphor…………............................................................... 088 3.2.5.2 Analogy.................................................................................. 096 3.2.5.3 Hyperbole.............................................................................. 098 3.2.5.4 Contrast..................................................................................100 3.2.5.5 Metonymy.............................................................................. 103 3.2.6 Pragmatic strategies.............................................................................. 105 3.2.6.1 Reported speech.....................................................................105 3.2.6.2 Presupposition....................................................................... 109 3.2.6.3 Implicature............................................................................. 118 3.2.7 Other strategies..................................................................................... 122 3.2.7.1 Code-switching..................................................................... 123 3.2.7.2 Euphemism........................................................................... 127 3.2.8 Summary............................................................................................... 129 Double strategies.............................................................................................. 132 3.3.1 Phonological-phonological strategies................................................... 135 3.3.2 Phonological-syntactic strategies......................................................... 135 3.3.3 Phonological-other strategies............................................................... 138 3.3.4 Semantic-pragmatic strategies.............................................................. 139 3.3.5 Summary............................................................................................... 141 Triple strategies................................................................................................ 141 Quadruple strategies......................................................................................... 145 Multi-strategies................................................................................................. 147 Summary and discussion.................................................................................. 148 3.7.1 The use of sub-strategies...................................................................... 148 3.7.2 The type of strategies............................................................................149 3.7.3 The potential in collocating with other strategies….............................150 3.7.4 The combinational patterns.................................................................. 152 3.7.5 The decline of multiple-strategic units................................................ 153. CHAPTER FOUR CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.................................155 4.1 4.2. Answers to the research questions and significance of the thesis.................... 155 Limitations and suggestions for further researches.......................................... 157. REFERENCES............................................................................................................158 V.

(8) LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 Information of the five magazines selected................................................... 003 Table 2.1 Summary of the previous works on ad language........................................... 037 Table 3.1 Corresponding numbers of each type of units of analysis............................. 043 Table 3.2 Subcategories of change of grammatical role................................................072 Table 3.3 Distribution of positive and negative rhetorical questions............................ 076 Table 3.4 Distribution of positive and negative imperatives......................................... 079 Table 3.5 Respective numbers of the tokens of text-initial and text-final imperatives................................................................................................... 081 Table 3.6 Candidate content appearing in parallel constructions.................................. 083 Table 3.7 Distribution of the three subtypes of personification.................................... 192 Table 3.8 Distribution of these two functions of contrasts............................................ 103 Table 3.9 Distribution of three types of reported speech............................................... 108 Table 3.10 Distribution of each type of presupposition triggers................................... 112 Table 3.11 Distribution of the violation of the four maxims in conversational implicatures..................................................................................................119 Table 3.12 Distribution of single-strategic tokens......................................................... 130 Table 3.13 Numbers of each type of strategy in double-strategic units........................ 133 Table 3.14 Types of double-strategic combination and the corresponding number of units of analysis........................................................................................... 134 Table 3.15 Distribution of phonological-syntactic strategies........................................ 136 Table 3.16 The collocation of parallelism with repetition............................................. 136 Table 3.17 Distribution of phonological-other strategies.............................................. 139 Table 3.18 Distribution of semantic-pragmatic strategies............................................. 140 Table 3.19 The combination of three strategies and the corresponding numbers of tokens ..................................................................................................................... 142 Table 3.20 The frequency of each strategy in single and other strategic units.............. 151 Table 3.21 Numbers of single, double, triple, quadruple and multi-strategies and their corresponding percentage............................................................................ 153. LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 An ad for Dr. White’s sanitary towels......................................................... 015 Figure 2.2 An ad consisting of reduplication of visual images………………………. 123 Figure 3.1 The homophonic representation in the lexicon in Shared Hypothesis……. 148. VI.

(9) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Motivation and goals There have been a number of studies investigating the unique language styles in ads, and most of them focus on how advertisers exploit and manipulate language in order to catch every prospective consumer’s eye, arouse their interest, and make firm decision to purchase the commodity. While numerous studies have been exploring the language styles in ads by selecting different linguistic elements as their focus (Leech 1966, Dyer 1982, Geis 1982, Lakoff 1982, Vestergaard and Schrøder 1985, Tanaka Keiko 1998, Sun 2005, Yang 2005, Chen 2007, Shang 2007, Wang 2007), little effort has been made to comprehensively investigate the strategies employed and the combinational patterns of these strategies from a linguistic perspective. Thus, a complete and detailed linguistic analysis of ad language is needed. The goal of this study is to explore how advertisers deliberately design the linguistic devices to draw attention from prospective consumers, maintain their interest, and enhance their desire to own the promoted products.. 1.2 Research questions Based on the goal of the present study, the research questions addressed in this research are as follows.. 1 What are the major linguistic strategies employed in advertisements to attract consumers’ attention and to persuade them to purchase the products being promoted? 2 Among all the major linguistic strategies, which one is most commonly used? What are the frequency and distribution of the linguistic strategies in ads? What may be the reasons resulting in their variation in frequency and distribution? 1.

(10) 3 How are these strategies combined? What is the force for these combinational patterns?. In this thesis, previous researches on the distinctive language styles of ads will be reviewed, and a comprehensive discussion and classification of the linguistic strategies commonly employed in print ads will be provided. 1.3 Methodology The data in this research include print ads collected from five magazines: Global Views (天下雜誌), Common Wealth (遠見), Education/ Parenting/ Family Lifestyle (親子天下), My Home (漂亮家居), and Next Magazine (壹週刊). The first two magazines, Global Views and Common Wealth, are monthlies classified as “financial magazines” (財經類) according to Publication Annual published by Information Office of Executive Yuan in 2007, although in fact both of them also cover political issues. As for the third and the fourth periodicals, Education/ Parenting/ Family Lifestyle and My Home, they are grouped together as “magazines of family and leisure” (生活休閒類) in Publication Annual. The last one, Next magazine, is identified as “news magazines” (新聞類). There are two reasons for selecting these five magazines. First, they are all very popular magazines with a large number of loyal readers, and most of them are usually the best-sellers in comparison with other magazines of the same category. Second, selection from three categories will increase the variety of the ad types; and the reason why there are two financial magazines and magazines of family and leisure but only one news magazine is because the ads in Next Magazine outnumber those from the others. In order to investigate the linguistic strategies employed in current print ads, we 2.

(11) chose the issues published in 2011. More information of the magazines chosen is given in Table 1.1.. Global Views (天下雜誌). Time of Publication Issue number. Common Wealth (遠見). Education/ Parenting/ Family Lifestyle (親子天下). My Home Next (漂亮家居) Magazine (壹週刊). 2011.7. 2011.1. 2011.8. 2011.5. 2011.8. 301. 465. 26. 123. 533. Table 1.1 Information of the five magazines selected. A total number of 261 print ads from these three types of magazines were collected and analyzed from a linguistic perspective. In addition, the print ads in these magazines were further divided into 15 types on the basis of the products that are promoted. A preliminary classification of the products is as follows: real estate, domestic appliance, daily necessities, food, vehicles, cosmetics, luxuries, medicine, entertainment, 3C (i.e. computer, communication, and consumer electronic), financial service, educational service, government policy, tourism, and service business. One dilemma in collecting our data lies in the feature of advertising language to be strange, novel, unique, and bizarre in some cases but simple, crystal-clear, and straightforward on other cases. To avoid subjective judgment of whether a slogan deserves further analysis, it is suggested that only novel or attractive texts which are linguistically significant were selected and analyzed. Several criteria were set to determine whether a unit of ad language should be included in our databank. First, slogans which have rhythmic cadence can facilitate memorability of ads and are included. In this way, tactfully repetitive use of any 3.

(12) linguistic units is counted. An example is in jiankang shi jiao gei bailanshi (健康事，交給白蘭氏 ‘for things about health, turn to Brand’s’, a brand of chicken soup). The repetitive ending adds rhythmic flavor to the slogan and increases its memorability, thus should be seen as an attractive unit. Second, interesting slogans which require people to figure out their meaning are successful in arousing consumers’ curiosity. Thus, they are undoubtedly novel messages that deserve our analysis. This category includes any manipulations of language, as shown in zhexia, bing ku le (這夏，冰酷了 ‘this summer/time, it is very cool!’), in which the sound xia is manipulated to acquire two meanings. Third, new terms and deliberate change of the original meanings of a linguistic unit are arguably a kind of novelty and attractiveness. For instance, baoganqian (爆肝錢 ‘exhaustive-liver-money’) is a new term whose meaning should be figured out by inferring from the segments of this term. Besides, in cases such as chuanshang ta, binfen shang shen (穿上它，繽紛上身 ‘Put it on, and colorfulness will get on you’), the term binfen has been changed from a property to something which can be put on one’s body. A unit with such deviation from conventional use is also viewed as a novel expression. Fourth, to transmit more information within limit space, successful ads are expected to convey more than their literal meanings. Therefore, messages that have hints, puns, or information which implies presupposition or presumptions taken by the ad maker are treated as attractive texts. For example, rutiedanbai you duo zhongyao ( 乳鐵蛋白有多重要 ‘how important is Lactoferrin?’) expresses the idea that Lactoferrin is an indispensable element for human body even without asking if consumers really agree on it. Texts expressing information beyond the original claims are also worth discussion in the present work. Fifth, the significance of the credibility of an ad has been widely attested as an 4.

(13) important feature of an ad (see section 2.2). Thus, if an ad successfully appeals to a person’s image or influence on the public, we also regard it as an attractive message. In shumake buzhi daiyan qinshen tiyan shinian (舒馬克不只代言親身體驗十年 ‘Schumacher not only recommends it but also has used it for ten years’), the advertised mineral water is successfully promoted by the influential image of a very famous racing driver. Ad language with celebrities’ influence is treated as a type of attractive use in this study. Sixth, texts which manipulate the sentence pattern in avoidance of plain description of the promoted product are also unusual and special. In sentences like xiangwan,haizai deng sheme (想玩，還在等什麼 ‘Want to play? What are you still waiting for’), the ad maker uses a more provocative and alluring mood instead of directly suggesting how good the product is. These messages are counted and analyzed as well. Seventh, some comparison of events or concepts may yield interesting or funny descriptions, which are also regarded as attractive messages. An example is shown in fumu ye xuyao cong haiz de baoquan biancheng jiaolian (父母也需要從孩子的保全變成教練 ‘parents also should be their children’s coaches but not their guards’). Instead of just asking parents what to do, the comparison of parents to an occupation is creative and deserves readers’ attention as well. In other words, interesting comparisons should also be collected in our data for analysis. Eighth, sentence mood in ad slogans should also be considered. Intended circumlocution in ads is a strange phenomenon, thus worth for discussion. The example rangni wandejinxing (讓你玩得盡興 ‘it allows you to have a lot of fun’) is actually used to sell sex toys, and thus is a circumlocution for having sex. Excessively straightforward and direct suggestions are in accordance of the ultimate goal of an ad,. 5.

(14) as shown in 3 zhong lidun naicha,yige dou bie fangguo (3 種立頓奶茶，一個都別放過 ‘three kinds of Lipton milk tea, do not miss one of them!’) Since these slogans have the function to summarize what the whole ad actually intends to convey, these suggestive sentences are included. Last, messages which use a different language code are salient and thus are usually more attractive to readers. Thus, sudden switching to another language is treated as a type of novelty. However, we only consider code-switching where the switched code is a newly used one rather than a well-established use. A new code-switching is illustrated in zhaocai nafu smile meiyitian (招財納福, smile 每一天 ‘become rich and fortunate, smile every day’), in which switching to the English word smile adds energetic vigor to the claim. A cliché code switching is in han pengyou skype lianluo ganqing (和朋友 skype 聯絡感情 ‘to keep in touch with friends by skype’) since the communicational software SKYPE has always been talked about in English by people in Taiwan. Contrary to the criteria for attractive persuasive messages, plain descriptions without any innovative use of language will be excluded. Plain language with no novelty includes utterances like pinzhi anxin you baozhang (品質安心有保障 ‘guaranteed quality makes you relieved’), in which there is no innovative effect since the default feature displayed by all advertisements is to claim their product is good, not bad. Other cases which will be filtered out are like positively-evaluative terms such as dingji gaoxia (頂級高效 ‘top level and highly efficient’) because almost every ad contains these kinds of selling strategies, and whether a positively-evaluative term is attractive enough or not is too subjective and thus depends on personal judgment. Still other cases are comparative or superlative constructions such as chuangzao geng meihaode weilai (創造更美好的未來 ‘to have a better future’) because it is always not surprising for advertisers to emphasize the improvement 6.

(15) brought by the promoted products. The selection of novel or attractive persuasive texts was made by the author and another rater, who is a 31-year-old high-school teacher. Only the novel or attractive units that are agreed by both of the raters will be included in our databank. After the process of filtering, 713 units, which are coded by both raters as being novel and attractive, are retained. The inter-rater reliability is .94. Linguistic classification of strategies is conducted by the author according to the literature, and then each linguistic unit was coded according to the classification scheme. Then the linguistic persuasive strategies adopted are further counted and analyzed. 1.4 The organization of the thesis This thesis is composed of four chapters. Chapter one deals with the motivation for carrying out this study, the research questions, and the methodology. Chapter two is concerned with previous works on critical analysis, persuasion, communication, and linguistic features displayed in ads. Chapter three is devoted to the functions of the linguistic persuasive strategies, their corresponding frequency and distribution, and the related findings or interpretations from the data. Chapter four presents the conclusions and the directions for future studies.. 7.

(16) CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction In this chapter, a number of researches dealing with the study of ad language will be reviewed. In section 2.1, studies on CDA approach and its significance on how it is related to the analysis of advertising language will be provided. Section 2.2 provides an overview on Aristotle’s theory about how persuasion is achieved. Section 2.3 is devoted to the concepts about communication. Section 2.4 copes with studies on advertising, advertisements, and some indispensable elements required in an ad in order to attract consumers’ eye and maintain their interest. Section 2.5 is mainly structured by previous literature investigating the linguistic features generally observed in ad language. Last, an overall summary of the literature reviewed will be presented in section 2.6.. 2.1 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) Discourse analysis consists of a number of linguistic approaches to analyzing language so as to reveal social characteristics behind a certain communicative event rather than the text structure itself. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA henceforth) is a type of discourse analytical approach that probes into how social power, dominance, and inequality are exploited, reproduced, and resisted by talks and texts in the social context (Van Dijk, 2001: 352). CDA focuses on how discourse can be structured to rationalize, reproduce, and challenge power relationship and dominance in a society since how texts are organized and how each linguistic unit is selected is thought to have its own reason. Thus, each selected element is interpretive and explanatory. To be more specific, groups that have power can control the acts and thoughts of other groups through the linguistic resources they have. Take media discourse for example. Journalists can be seen as a dominant group on the basis of their abundant knowledge 8.

(17) of their specialized fields. CDA is a kind of linguistic analytical approach to studying how these authoritative and credible groups which have the so called “symbolic resources” actively and deliberately manipulate talks and texts in order to gain control over the meaning, form, or styles of the discourses. Advertisements are commercial-oriented messages designed in the form of videos, audio clips, or texts with their goal aiming at “advance and penetrate the ideas and values (Dyer, 1982)” of the perceivers. Based on CDA, it is expected that a deliberately-designed text may have great influence and impact on other people’s thoughts and values, and a certain linguistic item or pattern in an ad is designed to achieve successful persuasion.. 2.2 Persuasion According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, persuasion is opposite to non-artistic proofs such as laws, witness, or documents, since the above three do not involve any deliberate speaking skills. Instead, persuasion is defined as artistic proofs which involve proper application of the art of Rhetoric and logical arguments. These arguments can be analyzed on the basis of the credibility or reputation of the source. Persuasion has the attempts to arouse hearers’ curiosity and stir their emotions so as to influence their choices. Aristotle further proposed that three appeals required in the process of persuasion are “ethos, pathos, and lexis”. Ethos in persuasion is referred to as convincing the audiences through appropriate speakers or characters so as to win the audiences’ confidence or bring audiences into the right state of feeling. That feeling, in ads, is of course to make the consumers agree with advertisers and then take actions of purchasing. In other words, ethos lays emphasis on the image of a person, and a person of intelligence and good virtue especially does better in convincing his audiences. 9.

(18) The second appeal in persuasive communication is Pathos, an emotional appeal which attempts to stir up either the positive or negative emotions of the hearers. Since people would make different decision under the sway of joy or pain, it stands to reason that consumers’ emotion must be taken into account in persuasion. This appeal can be supported by the fact that effective persuasion can be achieved either by arousing consumers’ positive emotions toward the product such as pride, joy, love, safety, or by enhancing addressees’ negative emotions for not buying the product such as danger, fear, or guilt. In addition to the importance of the above two factors about what to say, Aristotle stated that how to say something is in some cases even more crucial. Hence comes the last appeal lexis, which deals with the ways in which the thoughts of the speakers are expressed. Simply speaking, lexis is concerned with the choice of words, sentence structure, and issues about how the arguments are presented. According to Aristotle, clearness and appropriateness are two basic features of lexis. Clearness can be achieved through the use of current expressions, so it is expected that compounds and coined words should be properly avoided due to their sense of unfamiliarity and remoteness. Appropriateness designates the proper use of rhetorical figures such as simile, metaphor, rhythm, or other devices such as purity of language, impressiveness, and propriety. For purity of language, it depends on five things (Cooper, 1960: 194-195): 1 The right use of connective particles. 2 The use of specific, rather than vague, words. 3 The avoidance of ambiguity. 4 Attention to gender in conjoined words. 5 Attention to number- singular and plural. As for impressiveness, Aristotle also suggested six points (Cooper 1960: 196-197): 10.

(19) 1 Describe objects instead of merely naming them. 2 Use metaphors and epithets. 3 Use plurals for singulars. 4 Use the definite article rightly. 5 Use connectively particles according to the proper and desirable effect. 6 Use negatives, say what a thing is not, what it does not do. Rhetoric is absolutely important in the style of persuasion, and Aristotle suggested that rhetoric is “defined as the power of discovering in the particular case what are the available means of persuasion” (Cooper, 1960: 7). In other words, lexis concerns rhetoric as much as it does poetry. That is why Aristotle discussed many rhetorical figures in the section of lexis. He raised examples of how homonyms and synonyms are applied by sophists and poets respectively, and how metaphor gives clearness and charm to the original style. To sum up, ethos is related to the influence of the speaker, and pathos has something do to with the attitude of the hearer. The last factor, lexis, pertains to how arguments are demonstrated. Following Aristotle, different scholars have proposed some other elements in persuasive communication. The Roman orator Cicero came up with five elements of persuasive speaking: inventing or discovering evidence and arguments, organizing them, styling them artistically, memorizing them, and finally delivering them skillfully (Larson, 1989: 9). Wallance Fortheringham (1966: 7) defines persuasion from receivers’ perspective as “that body of effects in receivers that is caused by persuader’s messages”. Larson (ibid: 11) refers to persuasion as “a process that changes attitudes, beliefs, opinions, or behaviors”. In his opinion, persuasion should be achieved through the cooperation of both the message-sender and its receiver. Hence, both the source and target of the message are important in making successful 11.

(20) persuasion. Similarly, holding that the source and the target are in cooperation, Ross (1974) takes one step further in taking into consideration human’s social and psychological needs. Since humans born into a society will gradually learn to search for psycho-social satisfactions much the same as they seek survival for biological needs, having a better understanding of addressees’ psychological needs, value system, expected roles, or life experience is assumed to be crucial in an effective and influential persuasive process.. 2.3 Advertising as a distinct type of communication Persuasion is included as one of the goals in communication. Vestergaard and Schrøder (1985: 15) contend that communication involves three components. The first is the meaning the speaker wants to convey, which will be realized as codes. For example, the meaning “stop” can be transmitted by the word stop or by red lights in traffic lights. The second element is the channel through which communication can take place. For instance, people have conversations through sound waves and write to others through letters. In such cases, sound waves and letters are channels for communication. Last, every communication takes place in a situation, called a context. The temporal and spatial information of communication is all included in the so-called context. In the case of advertising, according to Vestergaard and Schrøder (1985:16), the addresser is the advertiser, and the addressee is the viewer or reader. The meaning transmitted is the information about the product being promoted, and the channel consists of print ads.. 2.4 Advertisement The history of adverting has its origin which can be traced back to ancient 12.

(21) Greek (Nevett 1982: 3), and the root of advertisement, that is “advertise”, is originated from the Latin verb “advertere”, which means “to turn toward”. Observing the etymology of advertisement, we can boldly conclude that the main purpose of advertising is to inform people something so that their interests will be increased. Different scholars have different definitions of advertising. Harris and Sheldon (1962) defined advertisements as a public notice “designed to spread information with a view to promoting the sales of marketable goods and services.” O’Donnel and Jowett (1986: 104) defined advertising as a message conveyed to draw attention from a group of audience to strengthen their desire to buy a certain product. The definition adopted most widely is that made by American Marketing Association, which states that advertising is a type of interpersonal communication with the ultimate goal to persuade perceivers about products, services, or ideas of sponsors by a diverse of media (Bovee and Arens, 1994: 7).. 2.4.1 The difference between advertising and advertisement According to Chen (2007), although both “advertising” and “advertisement” are the derivative nouns of the verb “advertise”, whose meaning has just been discussed, they focus on different concepts (Chen, 2007: 5). Advertising refers to the complete marketing planning based on thorough investigation, feedback survey, and detailed analysis upon the whole market as well as the product, which emphasizes a dynamic process. On the contrary, advertisement indicates a static state. It refers to some particular product, including the elements such as picture, text, colour, layout, music, voice, language, etc. The term “advertisement” used in Advertising Law refers to commercial ads that publicize, directly or indirectly and through certain media or forms, some kind of commodities or services at the expense of the suppliers of the commodities or services. (boldface original) 13.

(22) Based on Chen’s view, advertising in this study is defined as the planning of tactfully designed persuasive and attractive ads by advertisers, and advertisements in this study is regarded as any persuasive communication that aims to encourage consumers to buy the products and the service, or to participate in the promoted activities through various kinds of media. With its ultimate goal to persuade audience to take actions of purchasing, advertisements are in nature delivered with persuasive strategies, which is mainly composed of “advertising language”, a distinct type of discourse whose characteristics will be the focus of this thesis.. 2.4.2 The structure of an advertisement Although there is a wide diversity of print advertisements on the market, most of them largely exhibit a set of resembling elements and a similar procedure since their desired goals are consistent in drawing the attention from not only all prospective consumers but also those who may originally ignore and skip the ad. After catching the consumers’ eye, the ads then continue to increase the customers’ interest and encourage them to take actions. Vestergaard and Schrøder (1985: 49) proposed that basically, a prototypical advertisement is composed of five components, which are designed to carry out five tasks. All of these will be elaborated in the following section.. 2.4.2.1 Five components There are five elements that are extensively shared by all print advertisements. An example is given in an ad for Dr. White’s sanitary towels (Vestergaard and Schrøder 1985: 51).. 14.

(23) Figure 2.1 An ad for Dr. White’s sanitary towels (From Woman April 1977) (Vestergaard and Schrøder 1985: 51). The first element is headline, the most outstanding lines which are usually printed on the background of the pictures as shown with ‘I came back’. The second element is body copy, which is a text whose major function is to offer more information or activate consumers’ curiosity, interest, and desire for the commodity. The texts in the left lower quarter are all named body copy. The third element is signature line, which is ubiquitously printed with eye-attracting word types and gives the name of the product. The signature of the ad is the boldfaced Dr. White’s following body copy. What follows the signature line is a slogan, which usually consists of one to two concise and 15.

(24) memorable sentences so that the customers will keep in mind the most representative sentences standing for the product. The slogan for the ad is ‘two kinds of comfort’, which is just below the signature. The last one is illustration, pictures of the product or some drawings which are in correspondence with body copy so that the information conveyed in the body copy will be more concrete and easily-remembered. The illustration in the provided example is the picture showing a woman, a man, and a boy standing on the beach in the sunset.. 2.4.2.2 Five tasks Different from other channels of communication, advertisements are well-designed media with an ultimate aim for selling the commodity. In order to achieve this goal, advertising agents are required to overcome some obstacles which may hinder consumers from buying the products. Therefore, according to Vestergaard and Schrøder (1985: 49), a prototypical ad should be composed of five tasks (so called AIDA principle): Attract attention, arouse interest, stimulate desire, create conviction, and get action. In the following review, the first two tasks will be introduced together since only when a consumers’ attention is drawn can s/he be interested in something. Then the third and fourth tasks will be elucidated together because once a consumer is attracted to the commodity, how to maintain their interest becomes the advertising agents’ main job. The last task is, of course, to convince consumers that it is worthwhile to take actions immediately. By following this procedure, advertising agents try their best to ensure that the addressees’ interests toward the products will be enhanced, which eventually leads them to take action of purchasing.. 2.4.2.2.1 Attention and interest The simplest way to arouse consumers’ attention and increase their motivation to 16.

(25) buy the commodity is to convince consumers that the product is very special. One way to fulfill this goal is by making hyperbolic claims, and some widely-used candidates are “unique”, “improved”, or “best” (Vestergaard and Schrøder, 1985: 58). Sometimes words like “at last” are used to imply that this product is available on the market for the first time, so it is a pity not to give it a try. (1) At last! An entirely NEW collection of beautiful underwear and lingerie. (Cosmopolitan, April 1977) Sometimes hyperbolic claims can be made by promising that the consumers will get free gifts or buy at a lower price. (2) Banks don’t give students free gifts for nothing. (Sunday Times Magazine, August 1977) In addition to hyperbolic claims, sometimes advertising agents may appeal to another strategy to draw attention from potential consumers. That is, they may make claims which emphasize that consumers’ need will be satisfied if they use the product. The following example is an ad which catches readers’ attention by claiming that their material needs will be satisfied after they try that product. (3) Stop itching fast. (Reader’s Digest, August 1977) Also, there are some cases in which the advertising agents may raise some questions for consumers to find the answers so as to arouse their curiosity. (4) How much do you see when you look at this painting? (Sunday Times Magazine, August 1977) Similar to the aforementioned example, sometimes ads are disguised as other 17.

(26) genres such as quizzes or comic stripes to arouse readers’ attention, a phenomenon called “role borrowing”. (5) How much do you know about the real cost of electric central heating? Test your knowledge in our Heating Plus Quiz (News of the World, September 1977). 2.4.2.2.2 Desire and conviction After consumers’ attention is attracted, it is of great importance to stimulate their desire for owning that product and keep their interest to it. One of the most commonly observed strategies is the use of “Unique Selling Proposition” (USP), in which how the product takes advantage over other competitors are emphasized by ways such as linguistic innovations, recommendation of celebrities, or desired goals. The three ways are illustrated respectively in the following three ads. (6) It tastes minty good. (Reader’s Digest, August 1977) (7) Whenever and wherever Team Lotus races, this winner of 6 World Championships and 61 Grand Prix events depends on Valvoline Racing Oil. Exclusively. You, too, can depend on Valvoline […] (Reader’s Digest, August 1977) (8) The wrong policies can make free farming difficult and force the sale of forest land for other purposes. The right policies can assure continuation of America’s forests- a renewable natural resource. (Ms Magazine, May 1977) In example (6) the word “minty” is newly-invented. Example (7) appeals to Team Lotus as one of the eminent consumers of their product. In example (8), the need to save energy and switch to other potential natural resources is emphasized.. 18.

(27) 2.4.2.2.3 Action Even though “Buy X” is the most direct way to persuade, advertising agents should not be too direct to the consumers for fear of imposing too much pressure on them. Instead of directly using imperative sentences, sometimes declarative or interrogative sentences may also be used to give suggestions. Sentence patterns which have the same functions as imperatives are called “synonyms of imperatives” by Vestergaard and Schrøder (1985). More information and examples will be provided in 2.5.5.4.. 2.5 The language of advertisements Cook (1992: 1) suggested that advertisements should be regarded as a distinct type of discourse due to some reasons. For instance, an ad is a multi-modal interaction of elements which are composed of language, paralanguage, pictures, participants, a society, participants, and so on (Cook, 1992: 3). In addition, advertisements make use of language in several modes such as writing, speech, songs, or even in combination. These factors make advertisements a special and distinct channel of communication. There are a considerable number of studies exploring the distinct linguistic features exhibited in advertisements, with each study looking into advertised language from different perspectives. Cook (1992) illustrated some unique devices used in ads to attract addressees’ attention such as iconicity, connotations, fusion, foregrounding, politeness strategies, economic effects, or prosodic patterning. Tanaka Keiko (1998) provided a very detailed description of how advertised language works by Relevance Theory, in which he combined the advertised expressions with the seductive pictures and came up with interpretations of how inferences and implications can be drawn from these messages. Sun (2005) proposed that persuasive communication found in 19.

(28) advertised language can be mainly divided into rational persuasive strategies and emotional persuasive strategies. The former deals with persuasive messages promoting how good the products are, and the latter are strategies to influence consumers’ emotional state so as to increase their desire to purchase something. Yang (2005). analyzed. advertising. language. from. both. micro-pragmatic. and. macro-pragmatic perspectives. Chen (2007) discussed how intensifiers, including amplifiers and downtoners, work in promoting products in advertising language. Shang (2007) provided detailed analysis of the major rhetorical devices employed in persuasive language in business discourse. Wang (2007) proposed several persuasive functions of pragmatic presuppositions in advertisements. Xiang (2010) analyzed advertised parody with a model called CBR, which is an integrated model combined by Conceptual Blending Theory and Relevance Theory. Some of the above-mentioned studies choose one linguistic device (e.g. intensifiers) as their focuses (Chen 2007). Others limit their research scope to either pragmatic or cognitive linguistics (Tanaka Keiko 1998, Yang 2005, Wang 2007, Xiang 2010). Still others do not investigate ad language from linguistic points of view (Cook 1992, Sun 2005). As for studies exploring the characteristics of advertising language from aspects of many sub-fields in linguistics, Dyer (1982) suggested that advertisers use language in quite distinctive ways. That is, some advertising language is strange, novel, unique, and bizarre, whereas in some cases simple, crystal-clear, and straightforward language is favored. Some inspiring works which include detailed multi-dimensional linguistic analysis will be introduced as follows.. 2.5.1 Leech (1966) Leech observed that the morphology of the words appearing in ads is relatively 20.

(29) simple. In other words, prefixes or suffixes tend to be infrequent, and advertisers prefer simple words to complex words. Two of the most common affixes utilized in ads are the prefix super- and the suffix –y. Leech. also. investigated. the. co-ordination. constructions. in. English. advertisements and categorized them into three types: linking, parataxis, and apposition. Linking can be widely observed when advertisers try to enumerate and elucidate the various advantages, properties, and ingredients of the products. (9) For sugar beet, spring wheat and spring barley, you need C.C.F. Nitrogen Phosphate and Potash for vigorous growth, strong roots and healthy crops. (Leech, 1966: 146) Parataxis is semantically similar to linking but is a little unclear whether the conjunctions we should insert is and or or. The conjunctions are just deleted and left for readers to imagine by themselves. Leech suggested that parataxis is closer to spontaneous speech, since in written form we would anticipate what the last element is and add a conjunction before it. Although advertising language is of course well-designed in advance, which is very different from spontaneous informal speech, some of the claims lack a conjunction preceding the last elements. This strategy may provide its consumers with an implication that more items are expected to be added to the list. (10) Here’s all the information- weight, riders, recent performance- all so easy to follow. Wonderful cold dishes, iced drinks, children’s favorite treats. A new world of luxury opens with an Electrolux refrigerator. (Leech 1966: 145) The third type of co-ordination is apposition, which is defined as putting two similar terms together with no conjunction. In advertising language, this construction 21.

(30) is displayed by coordinating the name of the product and its outstanding features. (11) Churchman’s Olympic Tipped – the cigarette that leads the way. The new Roson C.F.L. – the shaver with the golden touch. (Leech 1966: 146) Noun apposition may sometimes be discontinuous. That is, the coordinated elements may be separated from the brand name. (12) Have some Harveys with your Christmas- the most distinguished sherries you can buy. The reason why the apposition of the product is distanced from the product name may be that the final position of a sentence is where emphasis will naturally fall, thus receiving more attention from its prospective consumers.. 2.5.2 Dyer (1982) In Dyer’s book Advertising As Communication, she offered a detailed introduction to advertisements, including the language of advertising and the rhetoric of advertising. In comparison with others’ analysis, Dyer’s analysis on the rhetoric of advertising is the most comprehensive and exhaustive one, which will be summarized below. Rhetoric, which is defined by Dyer as “the effective and artful use of speech and writing” (Dyer, 1982: 158), is usually adopted to make persuasive communication more efficient and efficacious. Its use can be traced back to Ancient Greece and Rome and was not widely-practiced until the nineteenth century. Nowadays, in order to draw and retain the attention of consumers, advertisers frequently appeal to rhetorical language to achieve maximal cognitive effect. Dyer analyzed the implications brought about by the images and illustrations in 22.

(31) print ads with the classification proposed by Jacques Durand (1970), who analyzed thousands of ads and induced four major rhetorical operations, namely addition, suppression, substitution, and exchange. In the category of addition, some common rhetorical devices are repetition, rhyme, and simile. As for suppression, ellipsis and circumlocution fall into this category. With regard to substitution, major skills include hyperbole, metaphor, metonymy, euphemism, and pun. Regarding the last category exchange, inversion is the most popular device that advertising agents usually appeal to. Adopting Durand’s classification, Dyer analyzed the functions that rhetoric figures display in pictures and images in print ads. For example, some ads consist of reduplication of a visual image to indicate that this product can work over a long period of time. An example is given below (Dyer 1982: 163).. Figure 2.2 An ad consisting of reduplication of visual images (Dyer 1982: 163). Dyer suggested that the white space separating the identical images indicates temporal change. Durand further contended that if the space is narrow, the everyday use of the product is implied. If the space is larger, the necessities for using the 23.

(32) product in many occasions are implied. If the pictures are fused together, it implies the continuous use of the product. Besides, a larger border of white space around the images connotes high class (ibid: 162). Since the focus of this thesis is on the analysis of texts but not on images, some of Durand’s classification of figurative language will be revised and incorporated into the analytical framework of my research. More strategies rather than figurative language will also be suggested to include in print ads in the present study.. 2.5.3 Geis (1982) In Geis study, there are approximately 800 television commercials collected between 1978 and 1981 to observe the distinct linguistic features of the persuasive communication of television advertising. He proposed some linguistic techniques frequently adopted by advertisers.. 2.5.3.1 Implicatures Both conventional implicatures and conversational implicatures are commonly seen in TV commercials. An example employing conventional implicature is given below. (13) You know that vivaline removes warts instantly. (Geis, 1982: 41) Due to the presence of the factive verb know, the complement of it is conventionally implicated as something true. In this way, the nominal clause following the factive verb, that is, “vivaline removes warts instantly”, is presented as a fact without any controversy. Geis also pointed out that conventional implicature is less likely to be challenged by audience than assertions (Geis 1982: 47). The other 24.

(33) type of implicature frequently employed in commercials is conversational implicature, whose interpretations strongly rely on the speaking contexts, as shown in the following sentence. (14) We’re building a reputation, not resting on one. (Geis, 1982: 50) According to Geis, virtually everyone he discussed with claimed that the above information implies the following sentence. (15) Some leading competitor of Ramada Inn is resting on its reputation. The maxim of relevance leads its readers to think the reason why the advertisers have to clarify that they are not resting on their reputation. It is because some of their competitors are actually resting on their reputation. Implicature whose interpretations depends on contexts and conversational maxims belong to conversational implicature, which is less likely to arouse consumers’ cognitive defense compared with assertions. Since the audiences have to actively participate in figuring out the meaning behind the sentences, they may find those messages more persuasive and memorable than assertions (McGuire, 1969).. 2.5.3.2 Comparatives Another device usually employed in TV commercials is comparative patterns, which may be rather illusive since the objects to be compared are not identified and thus consumers need to solve the ambiguity by themselves. There are three kinds of ambiguities brought about by elliptical comparatives, namely reflexive comparatives, competing product comparatives, and better-than-nothing comparatives. Reflexive comparatives are comparatives whose objects are the same as the subjects, so this 25.

(34) elliptical pattern describes a process of the improvements of a product. The following example is a reflexive comparative: (16) New Dirtaway gets clothes cleaner. (Geis, 1982: 90) Interpreted from a reflexive comparative perspective, the above sentence can be paraphrased as (17). Notice that product improvements are quite common as technology progresses, so this kind of comparative actually convey little information. (17) New Dirtaway gets clothes cleaner than old Dirtaway did. Competing product comparatives can be defined as comparative patterns whose comparing objects belong to other competing products. Take (16) for example. It has interpretation as (18). (18) New Dirtaway gets clothes cleaner than do other competing products. Although this kind of interpretation has the most attractive and prominent reading, the advertisers are equipped with more responsibilities to prove that what they claim are true and testable. The last category of elliptical comparatives is better-than-nothing comparatives. Our example in (16) can also lead to a very empty interpretation as follows. (19) New Dirtaway gets clothes cleaner than they would get if no detergent (or plain water) were used. Being implicit in what the promoted product is compared with, the sentence can have a variety of interpretations, thus making it empty in terms of new information conveyed. From Geis’ analysis, it is suggested that there is some implicit information 26.

(35) hiding behind the explicitly-stated texts in ads, just like what implicature and comparatives can potentially convey.. 2.5.3.4 Words and phrases 2.5.3.4.1 Product names Geis contends that one interesting property of the words in product names lies in the degree of literacy in the modifiers. For example, Fruit Stripe has stripes on it, and Fruit Roll is made of rolled up sheets. The nouns in the compound nouns can be interpreted literally and thus are more semantically transparent. On the other hand, the modifying noun used in product names are sometimes far less semantically transparent. For example, Fruit Stripes actually contains no fruit in it, and they are artificially flavored. This kind of strategy plays a crucial role in misleading children who are not equipped with the knowledge that advertisers tend to manipulate language in product names.. 2.5.3.4.2 Simile and adjectivalization Geis indicated that the suffix –y is found to be attached to nouns to form adjectives, a way to coin new adjectives called “adjectivalization”, by which a noun is converted into an adjective. Some examples of these newly-coined words are buttery, creamy, or crispy. (20) Margarall has a buttery flavor. (Geis, 1982: 122) The adjectivalization process will change the meaning from the thing that the noun literally means to a property of the noun. Generally speaking, adjectivalization leads the claim to the interpretation “Margarall has a flavor like that of butter”, which 27.

(36) functions as a simile. Other similes found in commercials are more explicit in that patterns such as A is like B or A looks like B implies that A and B are not identical, and some of them are even empty in meaning. The following is an example of empty simile in TV commercial (Geis 1982: 123). (21) Heh, heh! Look at her. She thinks [sic] she’s still a puppy, and she looks like one too. But she’s 14 years old! That’s 98 to you and me. This commercial just informs its audiences that this dog is like a very young one. Nevertheless, it does not provide us with how this dog is similar to a puppy. The advertisers may well argue that it is because she has four legs, two ears, and a tail. Observing in this way, we can argue that some similes are actually very deprived in terms of the information it conveys.. 2.5.4 Lakoff (1982) Lakoff suggested that the identifying feature of persuasive communication in ads lies in the novelty or innovation of expressions. Very divergent from ordinary conversation, which does not especially value novelty since the main purpose for ordinary conversation is for information transmission, persuasive communication often includes violation of Cooperative Principle (henceforth CP, Grice 1975). In Grice’s famous book “Logic and conversation”, he proposed four maxims that are assumed to be followed in conversations, namely the maxims of Quantity, Quality, Relation, and Manner. They can be formulated as follows: Quantity: Make your contribution as informative as is required. Do not make your contribution more informative as is required. Do not speak too much or too less as is required. 28.

(37) Quality: Do not say what you believe to be false. Do not lie. Do not say what you do not have adequate evidence. Relation: Be relevant. Manner: Avoid obscurity and ambiguity. Be brief and orderly. Grice argued that communicators tend to assume that CP is operating. Any violations or flouts of CP lead to the search for another level of interpretation, which gives rise to the generation of conversational implicature. By not adhering to CP and exploiting conversational implicature, advertising agents make more striking, memorable, and efficacious impacts on consumers despite the fact that they express the ideas more indirectly.. 2.5.4.1 Violation of CP Lakoff states that the reason leading to violation of CP is to draw consumers’ attention and increase the impact of the message. In addition, because the linguistic novelty violates Cooperative Principle, it will take its audience more time to figure out what a certain advertisement actually means and thus its viewers will be more involved and active in decoding the message presented. In this way, it is more likely for the recipients to be persuaded during this process.. 2.5.4.2 Linguistic innovations Lakoff proposed six types of linguistic innovation in the language of television advertising, which can be summarized as the following: The first feature is lexical novelty, the example of which can be observed in the newly-coined words such as “devilicious” or “stroft”. The second feature deals with morphological novelty, in which a word is shifted in terms of its syntactic category (Lakoff, 1982: 36).. 29.

(38) (22) Gentles the smoke and makes it mild Travels the mike further The soup that eats like a meal Peanuttiest Categorical shift is exemplified in words like gentles and travels, which respectively switch adjective and intransitive verb to transitive verb. Furthermore, the word Peanuttiest shifts from the original noun peanut to a superlative with the suffix –est. The above two types of neologism include violation of Manner. The third type is syntactic innovation, some of which can be seen as violation of Maxim of Quantity in that not enough information is offered. There are two types of syntactic innovation. The first one is the absence of subjects and the second one is odd use of the definite article. The absence of subjects can be illustrated in sentences such as “Tastes good”, in which the subject is clear enough for its audience to understand and the deletion of it makes the whole slogan more concise and easier to remember. The unusual use of definite articles can be observed in sentences such as "Next time I will buy the Tylenol." The fourth characteristic in advertising language is semantic anomaly. Claims displaying semantic anomaly are less informative than is required, thus violating Maxim of Quantity. Consider the following two examples mentioned by Lakoff (1982: 37). (23) Cleans better than another leading oven cleaner. Works better than a leading detergent. Thinking critically, we can find that the above two claims are actually not informative at all since what is used is the indefinite article a but not the. What can be proved is that the promoted product is suggested to be a better option on the market, but what is the best is left unknown. 30.

(39) The fifth feature is pragmatic novelty. Lakoff made examples of this type of novelty with mini-dramas in which unusual segmentations of a dialogue can be observed. (24) A1: You still use Good Seasons Italian? B1: Not any more! A2: No? B2: I use new improved Good Seasons Italian! (Lakoff, 1982: 38) According to B’s response in B1, it should be assumed that B does not use that product anymore. Contrary to our expectation, B is still using that product. What leads to his reply as not is because he is using the “improved” version of that product. The contradiction between these two turns creates a sense of humor and gives rise to commercial effects. Although this kinds of humorous language is not included as a linguistic strategy in the present study, how advertisers manipulate other pragmatic strategies which eventually make ad more long-lasting for viewers will be the focus of this study.. 2.5.5 Vestergaard and Schrøder (1985) Vestergaard and Schrøder (1985) not only introduced the basic concepts about advertising but also some popular devices adopted in daily advertisements. We only focus our discussion on the linguistic devices, which will be presented as follows.. 2.5.5.1 Presupposition and expectation Not all information is explicitly conveyed through advertisements. Instead, some can be implicitly expressed and then legitimately deduced from what is actually said. 31.

(40) These linguistic devices include entailment, presupposition, and expectation (Vestergaard and Schrøder 1985: 24). Presupposition is a proposition which should be true to make the other proposition meaningful. One example commonly taken in the literature is the sentence “When did you stop beating your wife”, which presupposes that “there was a time when you were in the habit of beating your wife”. This kind of linguistic strategy is also common in ads. Consider the following two examples, in which (a) presupposes (b). (25a) Which of these continental quilt patterns will suit your bedroom best? (Reader’s Digest, September 1977) (25b) One of these continental quilt pattern will suit your bedroom. (26a) Why more and more men are turning to Flora? (Reader’s Digest, April 1977) (26b) More and more men are turning to Flora. The other linguistic strategy conveying information implicitly is expectations, which is supported by the fact that addressees believe that there must be a reason for advertisers to say something. One type of examples for expectations is negative comparative sentences as follows. (27) Beauty wise, value wise, you can’t buy better than Rimmel. (She, October 1977) This sentence expects the following one: (28) Rimmel is the best you can buy. However, what is expected may not be the real case. The above sentence actually only asserts that “Rimmel is as good as anything else you can buy”. There are still many cases of expectations in which the advertisers claim that their products are free of some negative characteristics. In such cases, the expectation that other competing 32.

(41) products must have these unpleasant features is easily built up by consumers. One example is illustrated below. (29) [X] is the light moisturizing cream. It’s not greasy or sticky. (Cosmopolitan, July 1977) Since there must be some reasons for the advertisers to lay emphasis on the characteristics of not being greasy or sticky, the viewers will have inclination to make an inference that it is common for other moisturizing cream to be greasy or sticky. Such expectations may be cancelled by careful logical reasoning.. 2.5.5.2 Metaphor and metonymy Although the relationship between the linguistic form and its corresponding meaning is said to be arbitrary, in rhetoric both metaphor and metonymy do have iconic relationship with their references to a certain extent. In cases of metaphor, which is extremely common in advertising language, a word is replaced by another word which is similar to it semantically. An example illustrated in Vestergaard and Schrøder’s book is Esso’s campaign, which includes “put a tiger in your tank”. The word tiger here metaphorically refers to strength, one of the desirable characteristics of Esso petrol. Metonymy is another linguistic device in which the form bears relationship to what it actually means. In British ads, Whitehall is used to connote “British government” since there is a part-whole relationship between them.. 2.5.5.3 Connotation and denotation Vestergaard and Schrøder (1985: 43) defined denotation as the information which can be read out without taking into consideration cultural conventions or other factors. Connotation, on the other hand, is what one can perceive from a message 33.

(42) depending on his or her cultural background or personal experiences. Thus, the connotations evoked by a text may vary among individuals. Leech (1966: 154) found that the most frequent word for the process of gaining a product is “get” but not “buy” since the latter has negative connotations such as losing money, which is not connoted by “get”.. 2.5.5.4 Synonym The ultimate goal of ads is to persuade customers to take the action of purchasing. Imperative sentences are found to be the most direct pattern to advise the costumers buy something. However, it is also crucial for advertisers not to be too imposing or aggressive while promoting their products. Therefore, a number of patterns which are more indirect and less imposing are also employed to persuade consumers into taking actions. Vestergaard and Schrøder’s (1985) definition of synonyms is broader than the traditional one: In addition to different words, all linguistic patterns used to denote the same meaning can be called “synonyms”. They pointed out that there are several obvious synonyms for “buy”, including “try”, “ask for”, “take”, “get”, etc.. Other patterns, when inserted into the contexts, appear to be similar to “buy”, such as “make X your toothpaste”, “introduce X to your family”, “let X solve your problems”, and so on. Still others are indirect ways of calling into actions. Examples are sentences in which imperative sentences are replaced by other constructions like declarative or interrogative ones. The strongest pattern among these alternative constructions, is negated interrogative sentence such as “Isn’t it time you came back to X?”. Another alternative pattern which is a little weaker is “why not question” such as “why not change to X?” An even softer synonym for imperatives is declarative sentences in which the addressee “you” is left unexpressed. Only the worthiness and advantages of the products are mentioned in the ads. In the following example, a declarative 34.

(43) sentence is read as a piece of advice. (30) For those who agree that additives are best left out, there’s JOHNSON’s Baby Shampoo. (Cosmopolitan, July 1977) By only mentioning the positive features of the products instead of advising consumers buy it, the above ad is not as obtrusive and direct as imperative sentences. Other synonyms for imperative sentences include the use of modal verbs like can and will, as shown below. Notice that the modal should is avoid to make the claim softer and both of them are equivalent to direct speech act of “buy something”. (31) You can use it at the table as well as in your cooking. (She, August 1977) (32) You’ll find [X] on all good cosmetic counters. (Cosmopolitan, July 1977). 2.6 Summary Different from other ways of communication, it is suggested that advertisements should be viewed as a unique discourse type on the basis of their intentional persuasive function and special linguistic characteristics. To be more precise, Aristotle suggested that ambiguity and coined words, which add strangeness to persuasion, should be avoided. However, oddness has been proposed by later scholars as the most outstanding feature of ad language. In other words, the deviation between what has been included in Aristotle’s persuasion and ad language make advertising language a special discourse. A considerable number of studies are conducted from various aspects to investigate how advertising agents exploit the linguistic resources to attract consumers’ attention and motivate them to take actions, and some of them especially concentrate on the linguistic features of ads. Generally speaking, the linguistic feature 35.