...LANGUAGE FEATURES IN ENGLISH ADVERTISEMENTS Abstract This paper presents an analytical study of the language features of English advertisements at lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. In order to conduct a data-driven study, the author builds a corpus of 60 English advertisements. It is hoped that through the detailed survey of three types of advertisements: namely, daily consumer goods ads, technical equipment ads, service ads, similarities and differences in advertising language features can be summarized and possible reasons will be given in the light of the meaning, and function of language. This paper will be presented in five parts. The first part is the introduction and the last conclusion. The focus of the paper is laid on the three middle parts which respectively analyze language features at lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. The conclusion of this paper is drawn from the data analysis. In the analysis, examples from the corpus will be given; figures, tables and graphs will also be offered to make the paper understandable and persuasive. It is hoped that the study can shed light on the language features of advertisements and also provide help to copy writers and advertising English learners. KEYWORDS: English Advertisements, Lexical, Syntactic, Discourse,Similarities, Differences Acknowledgement Sincere thanks go to Dr. Wei Naixing for his insightful guidance and earnest help all through the searching, analysis and paper-writing...
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...Close-reading Exercise #2 Identify and analyze the style of narration; if you detect parody here, identify at least three substantial details the suggest or emphasize this. This passage occurs in the first half of the novel Ulysses by James Joyce and provides the reader with third person narrative and free indirect discourse. The style of writing in this passage mimics the writing present in romance fiction or women’s periodicals such as Gerty’s beloved Princess Novelettes. Joyce sarcastically mocks romance fiction by using an excess of descriptive, sentimental and metaphorical language. Phrases such as “spiritual in its ivory purity”, “delicate as the faintest rosebloom”, and “her rosebud mouth was a genuine Cupid’s bow” all over-emphasize...
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...Melissa Butler Dr. Mark Howell English 112 2/28/2016 Young Love vs Chanel No. 5 In today’s world we see advertisements such as billboards, benches or commercials on TV and almost everywhere else we go. Our society is constantly influenced by advertising. While enthusiastic people work hard to create their masterpiece of a commercial, most people try to avoid them due to the inconvenience of them interrupting their favorite TV show. Today they have become a part of our life and the competition to produce an effective commercial is always booming. A reason for the widening of advertising is certainly the stressful expectation to produce a unique representation of a product that stands out in the market, as well as selling the product itself. TV commercials are used to attract the audience and the producers spend a lot of money and time to obtain the attention of the viewer. The most glamorous commercials I feel are certainly those of perfumes. That is why I chose to do this paper on two perfume TV commercials and examine the features that are used to produce an effective advertisement. One will be a TV commercial of 1962 that deals with the perfume “Young Love” while the other represents the “Chanel No.5 “production of 2006. These are chosen to point out the difference with regard to the use of visuals and text that are important for the development of a commercial. A TV commercial usually consists of text, visuals and sometimes incorporates music. All these features seem...
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...IMAGES IN ADVERTISING: THE NEED FOR A THEORY OF VISUAL RHETORIC In this article, we are dealing with a meaning and representative reality of pictures. In todays world there are many pictures, shown and done in many different ways. We have various kinds of pictures in rich colours and textures. The objective of this article is to reorient the study of advertising images by advocating the development of a theory of visual rhetoric. When we are taking about rhetorical theory, we say that it is an interpretative theory that frames a message as an interested party’s attempt to influence an audience. The sender’s message must be send as obvious one. It is also important how the message is sent – style of delivery. It is important that audience understand the message, therefore he uses shared knowledge of various vocabularies and conventions. Receiver/s use this same body of cultural knowledge to read the message, infer it, evaluate the argument and formulate a response. If we want to explain advertising images as a rhetoric one, we need to understand that visuals must have certain capabilities and characteristics. Visual elements are for representing concepts, abstractions, actions, etc. There must be an ability to guide the order of argumentation and visual elements need to carry meaningful variation in manner of delivery. To explain a visual communication complex we would need a symbol theory of pictures: one in which visuals signify by convention and not by resemblance to...
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...Birmingham University (Chandler 2001). Encoding/Decoding is a theoretical framework devised to critically examine how society or the hegemonic institutions in society, disseminate messages implanted or ‘encoded’ (Hall 2001, p.167) with meaning ‘through the operation of codes within the syntagmatic chain of a discourse’ (Hall 2001, p.166). Hall’s model examines the processes in which television texts are constructed with dominant codes or ‘preferred readings’ (Hall 2011, p.172), whilst signifying theoretical strategies from which audiences can deconstruct and consume such readings existing within texts in correspondence to cultural and social conditions. Hall’s model laid the foundations for much ethnographic research; it is upon this premise and its comprehensive influence, that in this essay the advantages and limitations of his model will be evaluated with focus on how effectively it functions within the indicated parameters of specific texts and discourses. Hall’s model which is fundamentally a mode of communication and audience reception theory, stems from early models of which proposed to analyse how audiences interpreted texts through the visual and aural discourse of television. Hall utilised and developed upon preceding and often problematic models such as the Effects and the Uses and Gratification models. Conversely from a structuralist standpoint, ‘it took, from the effect theorists, the notion that mass communication is a structured activity, in which the institutions...
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...Katharine Steele GEOG 3443 Midterm October 19, 2014 OERB: A Goal Towards Energy Independence Fueled by Oil and Gas Alone The OERB or Oklahoma Energy Resource Board is a group that provides information about the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma, but that is also funded by the producers and stakeholders themselves. The discourse provided per their website implies that the oil and gas industry is safe, responsible, and necessary for economic progress in our state. The narrative of the OERB's discourse is a triumphant story of the oil and natural gas industry in Oklahoma. It also seems to be a slightly overdone or obvious PR program. First, the website tells the reader that "our future started in 1897," when our "first commercially profitable well christened our state for greatness." The idea of oil and gas as the future is important for them. Many argue that these practices may endanger our future (by polluting the environment, etc.), so it is critical for them to highlight what oil and gas can bring to the table of the future -- money and jobs. This also shows the building of a particular worldview in Oklahoma, where the states value or importance comes from what it can give us economically instead of perhaps the state's intrinsic value in the natural beauty of the environment or the services of healthy ecosystems. This page shows the view of nature as a commodity to be bought and sold as well. Also in this narrative we see the OERB saying that the reason for past "slumps"...
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...shapes how people think and behave. It is a product of culture which also shapes culture. Stuart Hall, a cultural theorist and Noam Chomsky, an American linguist, both have communication models regarding the discourse of mass media. Discussed by Steven Luke, author of the book, Power: A Radical View, there are three dimensions of power applicable for a given group or individual, where each level is distinguished by certain criteria and its effectiveness. The One Dimensional View solely focuses on behavior in decision-making, specifically on key issues, and is often called the pluralist view of power. It is, “the capacity of one actor (A) to do something affecting another actor (B), which changes the probable pattern of specified future events” (Dahl, pp. 3-4). More importantly, the power of the influencer (A) only becomes measurable when he is using his capacity. This concept is where Hall and Chomsky take similar stances, due to the irrelevance of this dimension. Although the media provides a “free flow” of information, Chomsky recognizes five elements that impact what news becomes. These elements are “the ownership, size and profit orientation of mainstream media; advertising as the principle source of revenue for mainstream media and the corresponding influence of advertising values on news production processes; mainstream...
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...or choose not to participate. Other than activist groups, the public at large rarely demands alternative programming and advertisements. “Ralph, Fred, Archie, Homer and the King of Queens: Why television keeps re-creating the white male working-class buffoon”, Butsch, describes the differences between Hollywood’s portrayals of buffoon heads of household in shows such as I Love Lucy and The Brady Brunch and the irresponsible heads of household in The Flintstones and The Simpsons. In addition, “Advertising and the Construction of Violet White Masculinity: From Eminem to Clinique for Men”, Katz, explains Hollywood’s utilization of violet behavior by action adventure actors such as Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis. Consequently, “The White Man’s Burden: Gonzo Pornography and the Construction of Black Masculinity”, Dines, explains how other media outlets sexualize inequality between men and women in pornographic images. “Eminem in Mainstream Public Discourse: Whiteness and the Appropriation of Black Masculinity”, Martin and Yep, describes black masculinity as inherently angry and provides and example of how rap artists capitalize on this behavior to gain credibility. The articles’ reoccurring...
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...Library on July 5, 2011 Volume 8(4): 339–366 Copyright © 2008 SAGE www.sagepublications.com DOI: 10.1177/1470593108096540 articles Marketing the hegemony of development: of pulp fictions and green deserts1 Steffen Böhm University of Essex, UK Vinícius Brei Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brazil Abstract. In this paper we analyze the role of marketing in the construction of what can be called the hegemony of development. Through an investigation of the marketing practices of the pulp and paper industry in South America and the resistances that are articulated by a range of civil society actors against the expansion of this industry, we problematize marketing as a political and contested discourse and practice. By using Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985, 2001) theoretical framework, which is centered on the concept of ‘hegemony’, we highlight the crucial role marketing plays in the social and cultural legitimation of the highly controversial development of the pulp and paper industry – regarded as one of the most polluting industries in the world – in South America. We build on...
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...lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. In order to conduct a data-driven study, the author builds a corpus of 60 English advertisements. It is hoped that through the detailed survey of three types of advertisements: namely, daily consumer goods ads, technical equipment ads, service ads, similarities and differences in advertising language features can be summarized and possible reasons will be given in the light of the meaning, and function of language. This paper will be presented in five parts. The first part is the introduction and the last conclusion. The focus of the paper is laid on the three middle parts which respectively analyze language features at lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. The conclusion of this paper is drawn from the data analysis. In the analysis, examples from the corpus will be given; figures, tables and graphs will also be offered to make the paper understandable and persuasive. It is hoped that the study can shed light on the language features of advertisements and also provide help to copy writers and advertising English learners. KEYWORDS: English Advertisements, Lexical, Syntactic, Discourse, Similarities, Differences Contents |1. |Introduction ……………………………………………………………… |1 | |1.1 |Rationale of the study ……………………………………………………... |1 | |1.2 |Definition of advertising …………………………………………………...
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...LANGUAGES. 2006. NO. 9 The Language of Advertising: Analysis of English and Lithuanian Advertising Texts Jurgita Vaičenonienė Annotation. The spread of globalization and marketing during the last century triggered the proliferation of advertising genres. The goal of advertisements is to persuade consumers to act or think in a textually determined way in order to boost sales of particular commodities and services. In order to capture attention, convey the message and persuade the consumer, advertising texts use a range of manipulative language devices. Moreover, different cultures may have different expectations with regard to stylistic choices, language use and other preferences in the same genre. Hence the aim of the article is to analyze the language of advertising in English and Lithuanian in order to estimate the specificities of the advertising genre in the two different cultural and linguistic systems. The approach employed in the study draws on the ideas of the functionalist interpretation of text typology and source text analysis as proposed by Nord (1997) and Reiss (2000). The functionalist approach provides an in-depth understanding of the source and target text conventions and functions which are prerequisites for successful intercultural communication and translation. The means to accomplish the task of the present article is the analysis of a comparable corpus of data consisting of 100 English and 100 Lithuanian advertising texts. For the analysis, only the...
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...Final Project Proposal This paper aims to explore how humor, a site of construction of gender identity and power relation, is employed by both males and females to negotiate their power relations and either subvert or confirm their gender roles. I believe this topic is of particular interest because though a number of studies have been conducted to examine the relation between gender practice and occupational practice, and ways of constructing gender roles via humor. Concentration is rarely deployed on humor use by males and females at workplace. This review is important because there is a growing number of female practitioners participating in different sectors and industries. They are frequently confronted with paradoxical situations of their gender role of feminity and their professional competence and leadership, usually tagged with masculinity. This paper will offer some insights to professional females about how they can resolve such paradoxes at their workplace through the employment of humor. Besides, this topic is of particular interest because it can be seen through the review of the body of literature, that the meaning and effect of humor, as a linguistic means can never be captured nicely. It can have different functions in different context, which is in accordance with the “ambiguity” and “polysemy”put forward by Tannen (1993), so this paper will probes into the fluidity and ambivalency of this linguistic means. Moreover, one big context in this review...
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...'You Just Get Blocked'. Teenage Drinkers: Reckless Rebellion or Responsible Reproduction? Authors: Johnson, Peter1 p.johnson@qub.ac.uk Source: Children & Society. Sep2011, Vol. 25 Issue 5, p394-405. 12p. Document Type: Article Subject Terms: *ALCOHOLISM -- Psychological aspects *ALCOHOLISM -- Risk factors *ATTITUDE (Psychology) *CULTURE *FOCUS groups *SOCIOLOGY *STEREOTYPES (Social psychology) *AFFINITY groups *NARRATIVES *ADOLESCENCE Geographic Terms: GREAT Britain Author-Supplied Keywords: adolescence alcohol childhood children's culture youth Abstract: The purpose of this study is to challenge the discourse that underage drinking is inevitably 'deviant'. Rather than imposing an adults lens, the article draws upon focus-group interviews with 14-15 year olds. The meaningful role of drinking is explored, along with the capability of peer cultures to manage some alcohol-related 'risks'. The data suggest that the prioritization of adults constructs over teenage subject experiences appears somewhat misplaced since teenage norms are not complete subversions of the adult world. Apparent transgression is better understood as alternative socialization, since teenage peer groups creatively reproduce the wider culture. Copyright of Children & Society is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print...
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...argue it also advertises lifestyles and social identities (Dyer, 1982). Semiotic analysis is the study of “signs” to understand the underlying rules of messages we receive, and looks at the sign itself, the codes which organise it and the cultural context in which the code and sign make sense (Fiske, 1990). Discursive analysis on the other hand focuses more on the “discourses” that give meaning to representations such as advertisements, and how representations produce social knowledge (Hall 1997). Both approaches have significant differences, yet when combined can help achieve a thorough analysis of advertisements in relation to the influence it has on social identity and society. Ferdinand de Saussure contributed greatly to semiotic study. He prophesised a study of “signs within a society” and labelled it “semiology” (Hall 1997). Saussure took a structural look at how signs constructed meaning by presenting a signifier which signifies certain ideas within a cultural context. These signifiers are understood through various codes which are embedded within specific cultures (Fiske, 1990). In the context of advertising, this model allows us to decipher the signifiers and what they signify, and in essence understand the “true” but relative meaning of the particular advert. Fig 1. In Givenchy’s “Gentlemen Only” advertisement the signifiers could be the body language, clothing, the celebrity, and the words. The idea of a man giving up his umbrella in such conditions signifies self-sacrifice...
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...Truthfulness as a Factor in the Language of Advertising There is a possible relationship between truthfulness and the language of advertisement is difficult and hard fact for most advertisers to believe in the world of communication. This has to do with freedom of expression associated with the use of figures of speech such as simile, metaphor, hyperbole, and euphemism (Crystal 1997). To those who hold this belief, there is no relationship we between ethics (from where we conceived the virtue of truthfulness) and the language of advertisement. Some do ask: what does truthfulness have to do with advertisement since it is persuasive? And, that what has truthfulness need to do with persuasion because persuasion often involves cajoling, coaxing, convincing, enticing and inducing. All these as a matter of fact involve exaggeration, falsehood, puffing, and embellishment and over estimation.These raise the question of morality in business. In the field of advertisement, we ask the question of professional ethics, and ethical codes of conduct in relation to advertisement practices. In the field of language, the society also seeks for truthfulness, because language be it of advertising or otherwise, is an instrument for action used to promote our purpose in dealings with others, and in communicating ideas that are divorced from emotion. Truthfulness simply refers to the act of giving true information or facts (in exact manner) about something. Therefore, true statement is based...
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