The Features of Advertising English.doc

the features of advertising englishabstract: as the rapidly development of commercial economy, advertisement has increasingly impact on our daily life. we live in a fast paced society that is ruled by mass media. every day we are bombarded by images of, perfect bodies, beautiful hair, flawless skin and ageless faces that flash at us like a slide show. these ideas and images are imbedded in our minds throughout our lives. advertisements select audience openly and subliminally, and target them with their product. they allude to the fact that in order to be like the people in this advertisement you must use their product. this is not a new approach, nor is it unique to this generation, but never has it been as widely used as it is today. advertising english, as the most important parts of language in advertising, is rising apparently from the system of english. the copywriters and the linguists are attracted deeply by its unique style, great impellent and excellent illustration. advertising english possesses some lexical, grammatical and rhetorical characteristics. in this paper, a brief introduction is given to its major features in order to know advertising english more deeply. key words: morphology syntax rhetorical features lexical features of advertising english advertising english boasts a rich and colorful vocabulary. as a means of transmitting information, brief, vivid and lively are his most brilliant traits.1. new words or phrases created by means of imitationin some advertisement, some words or phrases we are familiar with are misspelled or added to prefix and suffix in order to attract our attention and transmit information of goods.1.1 coinagee.g. (a) the orangemostest drink in the worldthis is from an advertisement for soft drink. “orangemostest”= orange +most +est. “most” and “est” in here show that the drink is high quality and high purity. (b) give a timex to all, to all a good timethis is the title of advertisement for “timex” watch. timex = time +time +excellent. so the ads stresses on its accuracy.in advertising english, “super” and “ex” are added to the beginning or end of some words in order to emphasis the quality of goods. such as supercalendered, supercolossal, supereminent, superfine, superlight, supernatural and rolex, pleytex, kleenex.1.2 misspellinge.g.(a) drinka pinta milka day this is an advertisement for milk. the three words should be “drink pint milk” and the standard sentence should be “drink a pint of milk a day”. the ads not only draws our attention and inspire our interests, but also has a beautiful rhythm of poetry. (b)we know eggsactly how to tell eggs. “eggsactly” is the transformation of exactly and correspond with “egg” in pattern. this is the wisdom in humor.2 draw in loan words or phrases many commodities in britain and america are imported from other foreign countries, or produced in native country, but it has exotic favor. so we can often see some loan words in advertising, which show the different traits and high quality the goods own. the following is an advertisement of soft drink:order it in bottles or in cannesperrier with added je ne sais quoi. “je ne sais quoi”is french, which means “i do not know what”. the simple french not only draws our curiosity to this soft drink, but also show its authentic french flavor. as we all know, french is famous for its grape wine, delicious foods, cosmetics and fashion costume. so added some french words into these, the goods become more attractive and valuable.3 a large number of verbs, monosyllable verbs in particular and adjectives are appropriately employed in advertising english.3.1 verbs in order to make the ads brief, vivid, visual, advertising english often use some monosyllable words, such as get, buy, use ect. look at the following examples:(1) getting places in the business world is easier if your banker is there to meet you. -security pacific asian bank(2) making life a little sweeter. - mars milky way(3) kone gives you more in materials handling. -kone(4) we can give you a better view of investment opportunities from both sides of the pacific. _citybank(5) we love to fly and it shows. _delta airlinesalthough these verbs have different meanings, they are used to show the relationship between advertiser or commodity advertised and consumers. for example, “have, get, give, buy, keep” is mainly showed consumer own the goods, and “take, use, have” showed the process of one uses some goods.these verbs are necessary in our daily life. in order to let ads and commercial read, heard and remembered easily and naturally, copywriters make good use of them. 3.2 adjectivesenglish adjectives and the comparative and superlative forms of some adjectives are more often than not applied in advertisements, because they describe the special qualities of the advertised products. the most frequently used adjectives are new, good, better, best, nice, fresh, rich, real, great, extra, delicious ect. such as,(1) this claims its good for arthritis pain.this guarantees, its better.two medipren relieve minor arthritis pain better than two regular aspirin. we guarantee it _ or you money back. -an ad for medipren pain reliever(2) maybe you should for this:new le menu light style entrees.healthy and delicious. -an ad for lasagna(3) this is babys happy is lux-safe. safe with the safety that you get pure soap. -an ad for lux soap(4) youre sure of personal freshness-lastibng day and night freshness_ and sure of a lovely, lingering perfume. this winter- is sure. use double sure body mist the perfumed deodorant._-an ad for deodoranfrom the examples above, we can see that “good”, “new”, “great”, “fine” are often used to modify any aspect of goods. however, other adjectives are connected with certain goods. for example, “clean”, “soft” are used for soap and detergent. “delicious”, “fresh” are often connected with foods. 4 the use of compoundscompounds are seen almost everywhere in english ads. as we all know, english compounds are easy to form and their forms are varied. sometimes a compound consisting of a number of single words is full of unusual meanings and many arouse the readers rich associations. look at some examples as following:better-than-leather-miracle-coveringgive that the oh-so-good-to-be alive feelinglook at the oh-so-comfortable size using these kinds of compounds, first, we feel very kind because of its colloquialism; second, we are attracted by its novelty and peculiar structure; third, we relax in its humor. grammatical features of advertising english 1 use simple sentence more and complex sentence lesssimple sentences are used quite often. in order to make english advertising easy to read, hear and understand, english copywriters usually take great care to employ simple sentence. many splendid advertisements are famous for their brevity. such as marlboro, coca cola.look at an advertisement for “honda” car. it comes with a consciencehonda has always made good cars. people love them. but with and loved one, things can sometimes get emotional.honda understands. and on our own we have set up a third-party arbitration programe with the better business bureau to give you an extra voice, if you need it.but please talk with your dealer first. and follow the problem-solving procedure described in your owners manual. our new program will help to resolve product-related questions about your honda. this program is free. just ask at any honda dealer for a booklet.or call 8005211613. you see, honda wants you and your honda to have a long and happy relationship. its only right. this ad has many words, but sentences are simple to understand, easy to read and apt to be accepted. 2 the use of interrogative sentence and imperative sentence 2.1 interrogative sentences interrogative sentences are popular in advertising english, because they need us to reflect their questions and also have many different patterns. for example,(1) are you going gray too early?(2) have you talked to rah co lately? (3) you will buy this special gift to your darling, dont you?(4) you have motts apple sauce, dont you?(5) what will you do with the money you save using a faster, more efficient computer? 2.2 imperative sentencesone of the functions of advertising is that of persuasion, imperative sentence are frequently employed in english advertising precisely because they are very persuasive and appeal to the hearts of consumers. such as:(1) stop in at any ford or lincoln-mercury dealer. -ford(2) put it all behind you. -honda civic wagon(3) buy one pair. get one free. -pearle vision center(4) end a dry spell. -dove beautiful bar (5) look for top shelf on your grocers shelf in the new microwave entre section, and go places with it. -hormel food 3 the use of elliptical sentenceto save space and reduce costs, to render advertised products more tempting and to stimulate consumers to take action, copywriters tend to properly employ elliptical sentence. look at some examples as following:(1) a mild way.make it a mild smoke.smooth, rich, rewarding. -an ad for “mild” cigarette(2) into this glass, washing powder. into this one, soap flakes.now into this- new label improved rubbly stergene. -an ad for “rubbly stergene” detergent(3) more than a timepiece. an acquisition. -an ad for watch(4) champion golf shoes styled by damon hunter 3 times.open champion. -an ad for golf shoes(5) love in your heart - peace in your mind-lifeguard in your home-the disinfectant you trust completely. -an ad for disinfetant rhetorical devices in advertising english as is known to all, rhetorical devices are aptly employed in english advertising, creating charming images, and fascinating scenes, and thus helping push the sale of products. on the whole, such rhetorical devices as personification, analogy, pun, and repetition. 1 personification by personification we mean that something without life is represented or thought of as a human being or as having human qualities. it tends to start something new, bringing about very good results. take some examples as following: (1) the first bra to understand the facts of life. -an ad for bra (2) flowers by interflora speak from the heart. -an ad for flower shop(3) we are proud of the birthplaces of our children, the grapes of almaden.on our classic varietal wines, you will find the birthplaces of our children.-an ad for “almaden” grape wine 2 anology anology is a figure that is often used in english advertising, including simile, metaphor, metonymy ect, which are conductive to create clear and vivid images. they are considered to be the most important poetic figure, and also the most common and the most beautiful. look at some examples as following:(1) go for the gold.goldstar the brightest star in electronics. this is an ad for electrical device. “gold” and “star” stand for the status and high technology of this company in electronics.(2) pick an ace from toshiba.this is the title of advertisement for computer made by toshiba. ace is the the king of puke card, which indicate the high quality of toshiba products.(3) wash the big city out of hair.this is an ad for shampoo. “the big city” means “the dirt of the hair”, which is called metonymy. proper use gives us deeply impression.(4) you can go to work on an egg.this is an ad for eggs. in fact, “an egg” is “the meal of an egg”. 3 punpun is also called play on words, it means an amusing use of a word or phrase that clearly has two meanings or of words having the same sound but different meanings. a pun is often implict, and so gives one much food for thought, and causes plenty of associations.(1) the lable of achievement.black lable commands more respect.this is an ad for wiskey. lable is not only the meaning of sign, but also the name of wine-black lable. by pun, it stresses on both the image of wine, and the memory of brand what consumers have. (2) spoil yourself and not your figurethis is the title of ad for “weight-watcher”,