Advanced Advertising Language and Linguistic Features and Linguistic Analysis
Lesson Objectives and Required Reading
Conception of Advertising: Develop a broad understanding of advertisements in general.
Linguistic Analysis: Acquire the ability to analyze advertisements based on various linguistic features:
Phonological aspects.
Lexical aspects.
Grammatical aspects.
Semantic aspects.
Application: Apply advertising language at a basic level.
Creative Focus: Gain familiarity with the process of creating advertisements with a specific focus on linguistic choices.
The Nature of Advertising Language
The Question of Normality: A fundamental inquiry in advertising linguistics is whether advertising language is "normal" and whether it frequently breaks standard linguistic rules.
Defining "Normal Language": From an analytic perspective, "normal language" is understood to encompass the variety of styles that mature speakers and readers control. This includes the many functional styles evolved in the English language to correspond with different situations.
Perception of Rule-Breaking: Literature and web sources often claim that advertising breaks the rules of normal language. However, professional linguists find few of these claims to be supportable.
Linguistic Knowledge:
Average speakers possess unconscious knowledge of language that is much greater than their conscious knowledge.
The facts accessible to the average person cover only a portion of how language is actually used.
Linguistics of Creativity: Pullum and Scholz (2001) argue that language possesses a level of creativity at every level, allowing it to be ever-expanding and ever-changing.
The idea of a fixed "stock of words" is effectively untenable because new words and names are constantly invented.
Strategy: "Here is my new invention; I call it 'X'" is an everyday strategy that advertisers exploit (e.g., "Introducing the all-new 'Y'").
Rhetorical Figures and Creative Word Formation
Concept of "Outdent": This term, appearing in programs like Dreamweaver® following the command "Indent," illustrates how context makes novel words instantly understandable even if they are not found in standard dictionaries.
Rhetorical Figure Definition: McQuarrie and Mick (1996), citing Corbett (1990), define a rhetorical figure as an "artful deviation."
Formal Criteria for a Rhetorical Figure:
The expression deviates from expectation.
The expression is not rejected as nonsensical or faulty.
The deviation occurs at the level of form rather than content.
The deviation conforms to an invariant template across contexts.
Examples of Artful Deviations:
VW Advertisement (2002): "Heck, it's been re-everything-ed." This utilizes the English feature of transforming nouns into verbs (conversions), specifically adding-prefix ("re-") and suffixing ("-ed").
Pop Culture Influence: The phrase "Hella good" (from the No Doubt song) is identified as "pop music English" rather than standard English, yet it remains perfectly functional and understandable.
Blends: A combination of two words into one (e.g., "Be Cointreauversial" from Cointreau + Controversial).
General Features and Persuasive Techniques
Hyperbole: The use of exaggeration, typically through adjectives and adverbs (e.g., "So sharp that it will cut through your board").
Adjectives and Adverbs: Advertisers use a limited range of evaluative adjectives to create positive associations. Examples include: new, clean, white, real, fresh, right, natural, big, great, slim, soft, wholesome, improved.
Neologisms: Coining new words for novelty impact. Examples: "Beanz Meanz Heinz," "Cookability," "Schweppervescence," "Tangoed," "Wonderfuel."
Noun Phrases: Frequent use of long noun phrases with pre- and post-modifiers for detailed description.
Short Sentences: Used for high impact, especially in headlines or slogans in bold type to capture attention.
Ambiguity: Common in advertising to make phrases memorable. It can be:
Syntactic: Based on grammatical structure.
Semantic: Based on multiple meanings or puns.
Weasel Words: Words that suggest meaning without being specific.
Open Comparative: "Brown's Boots Are Better" (Better than what?).
Bogus Superlative: "Brown's Boots are Best" (Compared to what?).
Common Weasel Words: helps, like, virtually, enriched, worth, fresh, tested, guaranteed, scientific, traditional, home-made, organic.
Imperatives: Direct commands used to urge action (e.g., "Buy Brown's Boots Now!").
Euphemisms: Avoiding unpleasantness by using milder terms. Example: "Clean Round the Bend" for toilet cleaner or "B.O." for body odor.
Avoidance of Negatives: Emphasizing the positive side, though some brands like Marmite or Benetton use unconventional "all-publicity-is-good" approaches.
Colloquial and Familiar Language:
Simple language targets ordinary people (e.g., "It ain't half good").
Use of the second person ("you") to build a friendly rapport.
Tense and Vocabulary: The present tense is most common. Vocabulary is usually simple but may include complex technical terms for scientific emphasis (e.g., "the new four wheel servo-assisted disc brakes").
Linguistic Aspects of Advertisements: Phonology and Graphics
Phonological Mnemonic Devices: Used to guarantee the receiver can recall the text at the right moment.
Rhyme: Identity of sound between words from the last accented vowel. Example: "Eukanuba gives their teeth the strength they need."
Rhythm: Prosodic features (intonation, lexical stress) create a catchy, neat text. Example: "Coke really rocks!"
Alliteration: Successive words beginning with the same consonant. Hard consonants () stand out most. Example: "Performance. Prestige. Passion for Innovation."
Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds.
Graphic Aspect:
Unpredictable Spelling: "Beanz Meanz Heinz," "4ever," "Bar B Q," "süper."
Low-Frequency Letters: Frequent use of "X" () for outstanding sounds.
Acronyms/Initialisms: Graphics where the first letters of words create the abbreviation, emphasized by color and size (e.g., "XTROVERT. XPLOSIVE. COLOR XXL").
Homophones: Words that sound the same but are spelled differently. Used for puns in print. Example: "Sainsbury's have discovered that the finest whisky is kept under loch and quay" (playing on "lock and key").
Lexical Features: Verb Phrases, Noun Phrases, and Adjectives
Verb Phrase Patterns:
Predominantly simple present forms (timelessness/universality).
Simple imperatives (commands).
Auxiliary "will" (evokes a promise).
Modal "can" (suggests "ability" when referring to the customer or "possibilities" when referring to the product).
Passive voice and phrasal verbs are used sporadically.
Noun Phrase Complexity: Usually more complex than verb phrases due to pre-modification.
Clusters: Multiple adjectives used together (e.g., "Gingery Fudgy Nutty Creamy Mischievous Mouthfuls").
Genitives: High frequency in manufacturer names or town names (e.g., "Bigham's gourmet canapés").
Adjectives:
Gradable Adjectives: Describe measurable qualities (tall, small). These are highly frequent in comparative/superlative forms.
Non-gradable Adjectives: Describe absolute qualities (black/white, right/wrong) and are less common in comparison.
Numerals: Used to define characteristics exactly, such as percentages, years of tradition, or number of customers.
Foreign Words: Used to emphasize origin or exclusiveness. Example: "La crème de la crème of lipcolour" (evoking French cosmetics class).
Advanced Lexical and Semantic Strategies
Intertextuality: The way one text refers to another (e.g., "To be in Florida in winter…" referencing Hamlet).
Forms of Intertextuality: Fixed phrases, Biblical sentences (e.g., Toyota's "Do unto you…"), historical quotations (e.g., "iThink, Therefore iMac"), proverbs, films, or songs.
Idiomatic Constructions: Creative changes to idioms create puns (e.g., "get yourself a bigger slice of the cake" with a literal picture of a cake).
Collocations: Familiar word combinations. Advertisements may deviate from these (e.g., "love at first touch" instead of "love at first sight").
Puns (Play on Words): Increase humor and make meaning dense. Example: "Coke refreshes you like no other can" (can as a noun or auxiliary verb).
Grammatical Structures and Sentence Types
Functional Sentence Types:
Declarative: Statements.
Interrogative: Questions (often rhetorical or suggesting personal communication).
Imperative: Directives/Commands.
Exclamative: Emphatic statements, often with liberal use of exclamation marks.
Presupposition: Expressing content as an underlying assumption rather than a direct assertion to make it harder to deny. Example: "Why do leading beauty experts… use Perfectil?" presupposes that they do use it.
Schematic Patterning:
Parallelism: Repetition of formal patterns (e.g., "Drink less caffeine. Take warm baths.").
Anaphora: Repetition at the start of sentences (e.g., "Explore the hills. Explore the rivers.").
Epiphora: Repetition at the end of sentences (e.g., "See new. Hear new. Feel new.").
Ellipsis: Omission of structural parts for economy, informality, or avoiding unwanted features. Example: "Expecting guests?" instead of "Are you expecting guests?"
Incomplete Sentences: Punctuated phrases without main verbs (e.g., "Revolutionary lift. Revolutionary results.").
Rhetorical and Semantic Devices
Personification: Giving living attributes to products. Example: "They will stay on the job longer than most employees" (referring to Volvo/Ford cars).
Simile: Direct comparison using "like" or "as." Example: "Ibuleve gel as fast & effective as pills?"
Hyperbole: Deliberate overstatement (e.g., "The best just got bigger!").
Metaphor: Imaginative description showing shared qualities. Example: Revlon powder equated to "freedom."
Metonymy: Using a single characteristic to represent a larger entity (e.g., "Wall Street" for the financial industry or "Volvo" for Volvo cars).
Antithesis: Using opposite ideas in similar structures for contrast. Example: "Talks inside. Shouts outside."
Polysemy and Homonymy:
Homonym: Same spelling/sound, different unrelated meanings.
Polyseme: Word with multiple related meanings (e.g., "seal" as a piece of wax and "to seal" as closing an envelope).
Case Study: Chivas Regal Advertisement Analysis
Context: Chivas Regal ad from a Sunday Colour Supplement Magazine.
Structure: Dialogue between father and son set as "BUY Chivas Regal BECAUSE…"
Grammatical Choice: Repetition of subordinate clauses starting with "Because," which relies on the picture to act as the main clause.
Parallelism: Found in the repeated structure, mimicking the heightened style of poetry or political speeches.
Tone: Conversational via contractions (I've, there's). Chronological development is shown through a list of life milestones (bicycle, books, rugby, scholarship, grandfather).
Audience Shift: The final line "Because if YOU don't deserve Chivas Regal, who does?" shifts the address from the father in the narrative to the actual reader.
Best Practices for Creative Copywriting
Do:
Say a great deal in a few words.
Use language the reader understands.
Use plain English and the active voice.
Vary sentence length.
Write as if you know and like the reader.
Don't:
Use terms you do not understand.
Use tautology or repeat yourself pointlessly.
Use long, complicated headlines or user-unfriendly words.
Use clichés or empty hype.
Avoid the unusual if it serves a purpose.
Key Insight (Vance Packard, 1960): "The cosmetic manufacturers are not selling lanolin, they are selling hope… we no longer buy oranges, we buy vitality. We do not just buy an auto, we buy prestige."