Language Characters in English Advertisements.doc

广告英语的语言特色L anguage Characters in English AdvertisementContentsAbstract1Key words 11. Introduction2 1.1 Definition 21.2 Functions 21.3 Basic knowledge32. Lexical characters52.1 Classification of advertising and its audience52.2 Similarities at the lexical level62.2.1 Few words are used. 62.2.2 Use of emotive words72.2.3 The unique usage of words72.3 Differences at the Lexical Level 82.3.1 Gender identity in advertisements 82.3.2 Choice of Adjectives 92.3.3 Compound words 113. Grammatical Characters.12 3.1 Similarities123.2 Differences . 123.2.1 Headline.123.2.2 Comparison of headlines of different types of advertisements.144Discourse characters 144.1 The Structure of English Advertising144.2 Differences in Body Copy 155. Conclusion 15References17Language Characters in English Advertisements摘 要: 广告语言和其他语言有很大的不同，已经成为一种独特的语言现象。 作为一种应用在商业中的语言，广告英语具有一些显著的语言特色。如创新的词汇，简单的句式，生动的描写等等，这些语言特征与英语教科书中的语言特征有着很大的区别 。 本文旨在通过对书面英语广告的语言分析总结出广告英语在词汇句法篇章上的语言特点。 为了使研究从数据出发得出科学结论，本文作者对各类广告进行了详细的分析和对比。 包括日用品广告科技设备广告服务业广告的深入细致的定量和定性分析，总结出广告英语在此三类广告中的相同点与不同点，并且根据语言的意义，风格及功能解释广告英语的共性以及广告英语在不同类型广告中的特殊性，分别展开广告英语在词汇句法篇章三个层面的分析。 整个研究从数据出发，由此进行语言学上的分析与概括。 将通过对广告英语与教科书中语言特征进行对比分析，并提出几点对英语专业和相关广告专业学生在学习策略上的调整的建议。关键词: 广告英语；词汇；句法；对比分析；相同点；不同点；语言特色Abstract: Advertisements language is quite different from other languages and it hasbecome a kind of special language phenomenon. As a language used in the business world, advertising English has some noticeable characteristics such as innovative words, simple sentences and vivid descriptions. These characteristics make advertising English very different from the English appears in the textbooks commonly used in English classes. This paper presents an analytical study of the language characters of English advertisements at lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. It is hoped that through the detailed survey of three types of advertisements: namely, daily consumer goods ads, technical equipment ads, serviceads,similarities and differences in advertising language characters can be summarized and possible reasons will be given in the light of the meaning, and function of language.Keywords: English Advertisements； Lexical；Syntactic；Comparative analysis； Similarities；Differences； Linguistic characteristics Language Characters in English Advertisements1 Introduction 1.1 Definition According to the Definition Committee of American Marketing Association(AMA), advertising is defined as follows:Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. Today, with the development of the technology and the diversity of the mass media, advertising has influenced us pervasively in our daily life. However, whatever the promotive strategies advertising takes, language is the main carrier of message all along, as The Language of Advertising, by Vestergaard & Schroder, says, “Advertising takes many forms, but in most of them language is of crucial importance.” Advertising language is a style of immediate impact and rapid persuasion. The point of an advertisement is to persuade you of the merits of a particular product or service, in order that you will take out some of your money.1.2 Functions What kind of advertisement is successful? And what features a successful advertisement should possess? American Marketing Managers Handbook points out that an advertisement should have four functions: AIDA, which represent four wordsAttention, Interest, Desire, Action. Attentiona good advertisement should attract the consumer to direct their attention to the product of it. Interestthe introduction and publicity of an advertisement should arouse consumers great interest. Desirethe publicity of advertising should stimulate consumers desire to buy the product, and make them realize that this product is just what they want. Actionthe advertising makes consumer to response to the advertising information and evoke them to take the action of purchasing.Advertising is a device to arouse consumers' attention to a commodity and induce them to use it. In the increasingly keen competition of the market economy, advertising is an important means of scrambling for markets. The advertising English is a functional variant of modern English. As a special practical style, it has its own features in the creative design or in the use of words. In order to enhance the appeal of an advertisement, advertising writers pay much attention not only to such expressive devices as plates, color and the layout of a printed page, but also to the choice of words or phrases, to make an advertisement beautiful and attractive. In the practice of the advertising English, people pay more and more attention to the use of figures of speech to make every effort to make the advertising English succinct, accurate and vivid and to provide rich imagination and plentiful associations for readers so as to stimulate their desire. Today with the development of the technology and the diversity of mass media, advertising has influenced us pervasively in our daily life. However, whatever the promotive strategies advertising takes, language is the main carrier of message all along. As the Language of advertising, by Schroder, says, “Advertising takes many forms, but in most of them language is of crucial importance.” Advertising language is a style of immediate impact and rapid persuasion. The point of an advertisement is to persuade you of the merits of a particular product or service, in order that you will take out some of your money.Advertising is a means to promote the sales of goods or services. A successful advertisement should rely on consumers attention and use various means to enhance the artistic appeal and pleasantness of language. Advertising English uses lots of figures of speech to make the language clear, distinctive and memorable. However, the most widely used are ellipsis and repetition. They seem contradictory but, in fact, the purpose of using them is the same. It is to make advertising more persuasive and to encourage the public to buy.1.3 Basic KnowledgeAdvertisement consists of five parts: headline and subheadline, body copy, slogan, illustration and trade mark among which headline, body copy and slogan are the main parts. Headline plays a role in catching attention from readers; slogan can be used as a device to create a corporate image and a common practice to conclude advertisement.In order to enhance the appeal of an advertisement, advertising writers pay much attention not only to such expressive devices as plates, color and the layout of a printed page, but also to the choice of words or phrases, to make an advertisement beautiful and attractive. In the practice of the advertising English, people pay more and more attention to the use of figures of speech to make every effort to make the advertising English succinct, accurate and vivid and to provide rich imagination and plentiful associations for readers so as to stimulate their desire. The topic of this paper is English language and culture - Language Characters in English Advertisements. With the fast development of whole society, more and more people realize the important role of the Advertisements in our daily life. In a word, we live in a world full of advertisement. Advertisement is also a means to communicate between different persons, groups, or nations. Advertisement is one part of culture. People can communicate in many ways. When we speak, write a letter or make a telephone call, our words carries a message. People communicate with words. Advertisement also can transmit this kind of message very well.An artist can use his drawings to tell about beautiful mountains, the blue sea and many things; books are written to tell you about all the wonderful things in the world and what other people are thinking about. People can communicate in many ways. So advertisement is also a means to communicate between different persons, groups, and nations. In other words, advertisement is one part of culture. An advertisement also can send this kind message to his consumers, but the desire of AD is pervade people to buy goods or services. During this process, the suitable language is the key to success of advertisement.As potential consumers, we are endlessly bombarded with all kinds of productions or service information from various media including newspapers, magazines, television, radio, posters, pops(point of purchase) transportation signs, window displays, telephone directories and Internet, etc. Advertising provides a valuable service to society and its members, because it defines for consumers the meaning and the role of products, services, and institutions. One of the several facts is that most adults read a daily newspaper and many of them specifically check the advertisement for information about products, services or special sales. It indicates the difference that exists between brands of products and alternative services, as well as the distinguishing characteristics of companies and institutions. Advertising also tells the consumer what a specific product, brand or service should do when it is used and thus helps him or her to understand and evaluate experience with the products and services that he or she uses. On the other hand, by making people aware of products, service and ideas, advertising promotes sales and profits. Finally, advertising is one of the major forces that are helping improve the standard of living around the world. Combined with all these communicational, marketing and social functions, advertising becomes indispensable in the modern world. Just like a bridge between consumers and producer or service-offer. Naturally, advertisements in English have become an important means of communicating ideas, demonstrating a variety of linguistic characters of its own. The present study attempts to examine these characters at the lexical, syntactic and discourse levels, in the hope of bringing them to light and, thereby, offering help to advertisement writers and language learners.Usually, advertising communicates information in three types: audio, visual, and language. It is a more common case that an advertisement is a mixture of the three. In radio advertisements, music is always accompanied by language; on TV and motion pictures, music and language illustration are mixed with each other. In magazines and newspapers, advertisements are a combination of pictures and language of written information. Although music and pictures can provide some hints, or create a kind of atmosphere, the information about the product is limited. Even worse, it may lead to misunderstanding. Thus, we may say that language in a way provides more exact, detailed and dependable information whereas music and pictures only act as a supplementary means in advertising. Advertising language, playing a role of communication and persuasion, has developed its own characters.The wide use of advertising has created a special style of Englishadvertising English. Its unique features, simple language and immense attraction separate it from other kind of language. In the development of advertising English, this kind of language has formed its own features in several aspects. A successful advertising is always a product written and designed carefully by a copywriter, besides the careful use words and sentences. The use of various language devices is popular in advertising to produce a new, vivid language effect and lead consumers to a products world. English Advertisement is one part of advertisement world, to a developing China ,it is an important culture mean to communicate with out. Themorerapidly the commercialexchangedevelops, the moreimportant role theadvertisingplayinmodern society. And themore syntactic and discourse characters frequently appear in theadvertisement. This paper will focus on the language characters of English advertisements at lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. It is hoped, by a contrastive study of advertisements on three types of products (daily consumer goods, technical equipment and service), similarities and differences of the three types of advertisements will be summarized and possible reasons will be given in the light of the meaning, and function of language.2Lexical Characters2.1 Classification of Advertising and its Audience Actually, sellers wishes to capture the attention of the members of a mass audience and by means of impressive words to persuade them to buy a product in a particular way, such as going to Hawaii for all their holiday needs. Both linguistic and cultural aspects are taken into consideration in the choice of words. Sharing the same purpose of advertisingin the hope of increasing sales. So classification of advertising is necessary. Advertisements can be divided into two types: public relation ads and commercial ads in common. The former tries to advocate reputation for a social group, whose purpose is to leave a favorable impression upon the potential audience. we neednt put much effort in attracting its readers, its words are more practical; service advertising has the similar feature as consumer advertising in the use of words. On the contrary, The latter leads to the act of purchasing the products or using the recommended service. Commercial ads are much more presented through mass media for the reason that manufacturers and companies are willing to spend a large sum of money to make a certain product known or to boost the image of a certain brand. In some cases, competitors, like Coca-cola and Perpsi, even spare no expense to launch advertising campaigns to win over the market share. The aim of the advertiser is quite specific. consumer advertising uses the widest range of forms and devices, whose main task is to attract readers and urge them to buy the product; business advertising. The former describes more about its product in some imaginable way; public interest advertising is a nonprofit action, which however still needs to attract readers attention, tries to strike the reader in emotional way and urges them to take action immediately.In china mob