Syntactic analysis of advertising language
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This document discusses syntactic features commonly used in advertising language, including ellipsis, parallelism, deixis, and paralanguage. It defines ellipsis as the omission of items that can be understood from the context. Parallelism uses regular repetition for effect, while deixis relies on contextual information. Paralanguage refers to tone, expression and body language used to convey attitude. The document examines types of ellipsis like subject and verb omission. It suggests advertisers use these techniques to attract attention, create intimacy with readers, and mimic speech.
Syntactic analysis of advertising language
- 1. The Language of Advertising Syntactic Analysis – Lesson 3d Lingua Inglese, Module B A.A. 2009/10
- 3. Ellipsis (1) • Besides using the regularity of parallelism, an advertiser can throw in an unexpected irregularity: ELLIPSIS • It entails syntactic reduction, a form of inexplicitness consisting in the unspoken, the unexpressed, but understood. • It entails the omission or deletion of some items of the surface text, which are recoverable in terms of relation with the text itself. • It is a major cohesive device, contributing to the device efficiency and compactness of a text (Beaugrande- Dressler, 1981; Halliday-Hasan, 1976).
- 4. Ellipsis (2) • We can find ellipsis both in written and spoken language, but especially in face-to-face conversation, we often do not bother to encode information that can be understood from the linguistic or situational context. • It is mainly a feature of orality, used to avoid orality repetition and redundancy. • The use of ellipsis in advertising: – Create ambiguity in order to attract the reader’s attention Interpretation: visual or verbal text, referents outside the text (exophoric) – Reproduce speech, informal register, in order to create a confidential relationship with the reader.
- 5. Types of Ellipsis (1) It Starts perfect… It Stays perfect... (Maxfactor) •Ellipsis of the Subject It entails the omission of the pronoun or noun functioning as Subject within the Nominal group. Are yourMates coming around? • Verbal Ellipsis: Operator (Heineken) Ellipsis It involves the omission of the operator, so that the lexical verb is operator always explicit. Are you Feeling fruity? Generally, the Subject is also (Del Monte) omitted from the clause
- 6. Types of Ellipsis (2) “I keep my hands clean! Why can’t he?” (Lava soap) “I keep my hands clean! Why can’t he (keep his hands clean)?” • Verbal Ellipsis: Lexical Ellipsis It involves the omission of the lexical verb, so that the verbal group consists only of the operator – expressing modality (can, will, would, may, might) or tense (be, have, do).
- 7. The key to your dream car is in your home (Halifax Insurance) Summertime’s here (Häagen-Dazs) This is what a Honda feels like (Honda)
- 8. Deixis • A word or phrase whose meaning requires contextual information (e.g. in ads, the image on the page). • A feature of orality, common in face-to-face orality conversation (→ shared situational context). • Types of deictics: deictics – personal pronouns (I, you, we) or Adjs (your) – Advs of time (now, then) and place (here, there) – Demonstrative Adj/Pronouns (this, that) • Use of the pronoun ‘you’ in ads is ambiguous as it is doubly exophoric. exophoric • It refers to: Discourse The situation – participants – i.e. the i.e. the character in the receivers of picture the advert.
- 9. Paralanguage • It is distinctive of oral communication and is used to express attitude and emotion. • = voice tone, facial expression, gesture, body posture, physical proximity. • In advertising, it is realised via speech, images, graphology and layout. • Communicative importance of the way writing is displayed (Cook 1992).
- 10. Reproducing speech Do us a favour, will you? Write to you your MP about that Climate Change Bill. (Christian Aid)
- 11. Exercise Up to 15-hour wear. Light as air. New. Double Wear Light. Long-wear makeup is now lightweight makeup. Fresh, natural, comfortable. Goes on sheer, leaves skin free to breathe all day. Controls oil, resists smudging and won’t "melt" off through heat and humidity. For a look that stays vibrant and fresh whether it’s a workday, a workout or a weekend. It’s makeup that keeps up. Oil-free. Photo-friendly. Fragrance-free. Non-acnegenic. Dermatologist- tested. • Extensive use of punctuation, especially full-stops > fragmentation punctuation • Minor clauses > Fresh, natural, comfortable. • Extensive use of Adjectives (Compound Adj) > Oil-free. Photo-friendly. Fragrance-free. Non-acnegenic. Dermatologist-tested. • Ellipsis > Goes on sheer, leaves skin free, controls oil, resists smudging and won’t "melt" off ...
- 12. To sum up... Linguistic features of ads (mainly on the syntactic level): – Imperatives – Exclamations and interrogatives – Disjunctive grammar, fragmentation, NPs – Extensive use of adjectives – Parallelism – Ellipsis – Deixis – Paralanguage
- 13. To sum up... Linguistic features of ads (mainly on the syntactic level): – Imperatives – Exclamations and interrogatives – Disjunctive grammar, fragmentation, NPs fragmentation – Extensive use of adjectives – Parallelism – Ellipsis Typical features of – Deixis orality – Paralanguage