An Anlalysis of the language of advertsing
By: Paul Popescu
Fac: Ecologie anul II
Written language often eses espects of soken language trying to achieve special effects. For instance, deictic are refference trems such as: this; these; that; those; here; there; it; wich indicate items mentioned in the immediate previous context. They are used because advertisers try to make thei text sound familiar to everyone
Ellypsis: it is considered that, when the context of 353h79d is well known to the target audience, there is no need to be that explicit about meanings.
EG: exclamations: Stupid! means: "the situation/person i'm refering to right now is stupid".
this kind of explamations hold good for almoust all exclamations.
Lexis: It is considered that there are both differences and similarities between a real,spoken dialogue and a literary text. But, because some prosodic features cannot be mantained in the written text theyhave to be replaced by other types of features, psodic features of spoken language are intonation and stres. They can be replced, at peast partially by specials characters used in writing, special dimensions ar even colours.
Topic changes: In a normal literary text, interactions tend to remain on one topic for a considerable lenght of time; in real speech, there may occur a fast peace of turn-taking. In advertising texts can't afford such a rapid pace of turn-taking because the real purpose of the advertising text is to catch and to maintain our atention on one topic as long as possible.
Varieties of speech and writing. It is considered that there is no simple binary relationship of speech vs. writing and in fact, in reality there is a so called "continuum of forms" where varieties of speech and writing are more or less controlled and more or less planned:
more planned writing academic essays and legal forms
less planned writing personal letters and e-mail
less planned speech informal conversation
more planned speech political speeches
Presuppositions used in advertising
Some specialists say that presuppositions are a sort of encoded meanings because there is or there should be a sense of shared meaning at the emotional level with all human beings.
Advertising texts need to rely on presuppositions:
"Got a light?"- anybody would understand
"Have you got a light, please?"-in such instance it is considered that the short question contains a lot of presuppositions such as: light may mean, initially a mach, or any incendiary device which is in working order and available. Specialists say that an over explicit use of language shows a non-human character and a "logical" mind which is in contrast to the "intuitive" shared meanings communicated usually by human things:
o Star Trek language is over explicit.
The "culture-specific" nature of human language studies these types of communications logical and intuitive.
In spoken language people are by for more tolerant of new coinages in the form either brand new words or adaptations of existing ones.
Stereotyping -an important aspect of spoken language which advertises can exploit is the way languages vary across social groups, because age, gender, social class, region and ethnicity may affect language use. The process of stereotyping is made up of the strategies that human beings have and use all the information that is around us.
Since there is too much information in the environment nowadays, our natural response is to process it by singling out some of the details which we consider noteworthy and then to use these details in order to form categories.
After constituting a system of categories we can use it because it helps us fit our experiences into patterns that we can understand. Analysed in this way stereotyping is a positive coping strategy. But it also has a negative side, namely: it is based on categories which are rigid structures that cannot contain all the aspects of reality and for this very reason these structures and patterns can lead to us closing our minds to the subtle complexities existing in reality; stereotypes do not allow for individual variations.
They are generalised descriptions which may often result in negative depictions sins they are commonly by used by more powerful groups on less powerful groups. The worst aspect of stereotyping is that it can lead to the situation where the stereotype holders actually ignore date/information that doesn't fit their preconceived structures. Language has an important role within the stereotyping process, because it is a quick way for all of us to generate and to express a set of ideas about who some people are and what they are like. Consequently smart advertisers can make texts that show use out own stereotypes, as a deliberated strategy. Written language can still suggest the nature of the speakers and can construct stereotypes both of the people being represented in the text and of the people being addressed by it.
Intertextuality is the process according to which a certain text can point to or base itself on another text(considered to be well-known by the target audience)
Eg: the advertising text "nautical but nice" is in fact a variation of an older advertising text: "naughty but nice"
Intertextuality can be an important component of an adverts meaning because the original text had already established a message, which the second text can take advantage of. Specialists say that the second text can take for granted the original text has left a trace in our minds.
In case of constructing adverts based on our Intertextuality there are two possibilities:
Some people remember the original text, in this case in their minds the second text wile enhance that trace and will strengthen the message.
Some other people don't remember the original text, in this case the new advent will sound to them enigmatic which is a very useful thing from the advertisers point of view because people will be forced to talk about the advert trying to understand it and keeping them, talked about is the main purpose of the advertisers.
Intertextuality has no boundaries; it is widely used in film texts, TV adverts, logos and so on.
|
