English Morphology in Advertising.doc

English Morphology in Advertising Advertisements appear everywhere in modern society. For example, when you walk along the streets, you can see large advertisement boards with pretty girls smiling at you. In newspapers, for another example, you often see half of the pages covered with advertisements. As still another example, when you turn on the TV set, you see advertisements again. Whether you like them or not, they are pouring into your life. In order to attract more consumers, the designers try their best to use various expressions on language. For this reason, I am going to analyze the language features in English advertisements. 1. Use of monosyllabic verbsMonosyllabic verbs conform to the charactertics of English advertising, such as concise, simple and easy. This kind of verbs is the most fundamental verbs which people usually use. For example, make, come, get, go, give, know, have, keep, look, see, need, buy, love, use, take, feel, like, start, taste, choose and so on. The meanings of these words are different. Some show the relationship between commodities and customers, some indicate the owner of certain commodities, and some others express peoples feeling and fondness on products. Please look the following advertisement contained verbs: A. I choose Bell because they still make them like they used to.B. Get your own Franco-American Bowl and Nutrition Patrol Set.C. Why buy just a boat, when you could buy a Chris-Craft.D. It always tastes better when it comes from your own backyard.E. Keep a beautiful record of your World Travels.Kone gives you more in materials handling.2. Use of simple wordsSome words are colloquialism. For example:A. Just do it. (Nike)B. Ask for more. (best)C. We lead. Others copy. (Copy Machine)D. The taste is great. (Nestle Coffee)3. Use of abbreviationAbbreviation was used in many advertisements. Today advertisement is extremely a big expense. Use of abbreviation could bring down advertisement costs and save spaces. For example:A. Take it to the net! (net=Internet)B. We foundem we gotem. (em=them)C. Tis the season for giving. (Tis=This)D. Nicen Easy. (n=and)These words are spoken language and abbreviation. They not only make language vividly but also save the cost.4. CoinageFrom psychological point of view, what attracts people to advertisement was novelty of the language and beyond their expectation. Consequently, this arise peoples interesting. Coining new words will allow consumers to have a natural association to the original invent invention of products. According to the rule of English words formation, coining a unique and understandable word can greatly enhance freshness and attraction of advertisements, such as the following example: DRINKA PINTA MILK A DAY.This advertisement arise peoples curiosity and quite few people could understand immediately. It turned out that this advertisement is spelt in accordance with the pronunciation. It means “Drink a pint of milk a day”. The originality of designers make a strong impression on people.5. Frequent use of adjective and adjective comparative degree or superlativeAdvertisings role is to promote products and describe the character and quality of products. Therefore, the use of adjective in English advertising plays a decisive role. Please look the following adjectives which were frequently used in English advertising:new, good/better/ best, fine, crisp, free, big, fresh, great, delicious, real, full, sure, easy, bright, clean, extra, safe, special, rich, etc.New is one used the most in advertising. It has a great modified ability. It may be used for modify products size, shape, appearance, color, form, etc. It can correlate not only with abstract nouns such as contest, competition and ideas, but also with concrete nouns such as booklet, bottle, car, shampoo, soap, toothbrush and TV. Good/better/best almost can be used for modify any products. In English advertising, use of compound words is a wide variety. Please look the following 2 groups of examples include adjective good and new:The first group:A. Good to the last drop. (Maxwell Coffee)B. Wheat ThinsTastes good. Feels Good. (Oatmeal)C. Crest SpinBrushA better spin on clean. (Crest Toothpaste)The second group:A. The new digital Era. (Sony VCD Player)B. The choice of a new generation. (Pepsi Cola)C. A new, uniquely shaped bag.A new Dryel cloth.Discover new, improved Dryel, and keep your clothes fresh and clean with steam. (Dryel Washing Bag)D. Feel the new space. (Samsung Electron)6. Use of compound words in quantityThe compound word was a noun, an adjective or a verb made of two or more words or parts of words, written as one or more words, or joined by a hyphen. These words are quite flexible. They were not limited by the arrangement of word order and have exuberant vitality. For example:A. the any-time cerealB. fifteen happy-family menusC. color freshnessD. egg pitsE. jelly addictF. time-saving ovenG. G.rain-and-stain-resistingH. creamy-mild Lux Soap7. Use of informal words, slang even vulgar glossary In many advertising, use of slang and informal words make advertising vividly and give people deep impression. Such as in a piece of the outer clothing advertisement, in order to emphasize its charactertic and the particular design of its pocket which has a function of theft presentation. It said: pity the pickpocket. The word pickpocket is colloquialism. It means “三只手”or “扒手” in Chinese. Suppose changing it into thief, the effect is far less vividly and interesting that of pickpocket. A. Each transfers weight advantage and power into real, all around performance at prices we know wont freak you out. In this advertising, freak out is one informal phrase. It means become very excited, upset or angry. Here it means frighten or scare. B. Whats more, in our new Appliance sale weve knocked up to 50% off top name brands. Here knock means defeat, but it is more vivid than defeat. C. Keep the frog out your throat. This the last sentence of a piece of throat lozenge advertising. The advertisement composition intentionally uses this kind of unofficial phrase to get an attempt on humor.8. Use of onomatopoeiaThe use of onomatopoeia in advertising could not be ignored. The words contain sounds similar to the noises they describe. They can vividly show the charactertic of products in sound. Meanwhile, it also can enhance dynamism of advertising. All these impress people. The following were commonly used:boom, burst, buzz, crash, clatter, clang, fizz, gristle, growl, hiss, luminous, melt, muck, poof, pop, power, rock, rumble, scratch, shriek, smack, smash, tingling, tinkle, rat-a-tat, spurt, splash, zipper, etc.English Syntax in Advertising As for the common purpose of advertising, all the sentence patterns have something in common. In a word, they mainly have several characteristics:1. Widely use of simple sentencesIn order to cut down advertisement expend, the designer need to minimize the length as far as possible. It requires that the advertising could convey the most important information through the less space on layout and concise language. The use of simple sentence and colloquialism is the most important characteristic in English advertising.For example:A. Lets make things better. (Philips)B. Impossible made possible. (Canon)C. Take Toshiba, take the World. (Toshiba)D. Its your life. Its your store. (Acme)E. Its all inside. (JC Penny)F. Got milk?All these sentences are short and brief. Moreover, some phrases which are concise always contain the meaning of warning and saying. For example:A. Coke Adds Life. (Coca Cola)B. To me, the past is black and white, but the future is always colorful. 2. Use of coordinate clauses, less use of principal-subordinate structure Advertisement English is ask for concise and easy to understand, so it is tend to use coordinate clauses more often and use principal-subordinate structure less. This is another important characteristic in English Syntax in Advertising. Look the following examples of advertising:A. Easy to shoot. Easy to share. Share moments. Share life.B. To laugh. To love. To understand each other. C. Todays AARPYour Choice. Your Voice. Your attitude.D. I click. I shop. I find the clothes I love. Sometimes coordinate clauses give deep impression on people.3. Use of active structurePeople often use active form in oral English. Therefore, in English advertising, active structure was used frequently while the passive structure which is one of characteristics in written English was seldom used. A case such as following:Were passionate about every engine we build. Its just that some make our heart beats a little faster. Honda engineers and machines. It is a romance that began more than 50 years ago. One that has fueled our dreams and our product designs ever sine. We now build more than 11 million Honda engines every year. Yet each engine shares the heritage, dedication and passion of our unrivaled racing program.But its not only our technology that finds its way from the racetrack to the Hondas and Acuras on the streets. Its also our engineers. Our racing program serves as their classroom. From there, they apply what they learn about engines and innovation to other Honda products. So it should come as no surprise: Every time we start a Honda, it sends our hearts racing. Honda The power of dreamsIn this Honda Motor advertisement, we can see that all of the sentences are active structures.The active word is more direct and powerful.4. Less use of negative sentencesAdvertising has the function of spreading information. It is used for introduce some kind of commodities advantages which could arouse consumers desire to buy them. Therefore, it should starts from affirmative one. Consequently, negative structure was not much used in English advertising. Whats more, it is used for emphasize the special advantage of the product if negative structure was adopted.A. No business too small, no problem too big. (IBM) B. Nothing can prepare your senses for France.C. Heineken represses the parts other beers cannot reach.5. Use of imperative sentencesThe main purpose of advertising is to put its leading function into effect. And imperative structure could achieve the goal. Thus, imperative structure often appears in English advertisement. Stop in a store near you. Take a look. Go ahead, compare. See for yourself. So step in and take a look. Visit an authorized IBM Personal Computer dealer. These advertisements are very successful ones because of imperative sentences. Use of imperative sentences could encourage and lead consumers to take actions.6. Use of abbreviated sentencesIts necessary for advertising to reaching propagate effect within limited time, space and cost. From this, commodity propagated will win in the competition with the same kind of commodity. Use of abbreviated sentences will make the advertising short and clear. This is not only save the space of advertising, but also conveys a large amount of information.In abbreviated sentences, subject and predicate can be omitted. Other constitutive could be also.For example:A. Make it a mild smokeMild SevenSmooth, rich, rewadingMild SevenB. So come into McDonalds and enjoy a Big Mac Sandwish.MacDonaldsC. Italy, perhaps the most beautiful country in Europe. The towering Alps, The Floretime hills. And the ancient ruins of Pompeii. The great cities In fact, when you fly Alitalia, the Italian experience starts the moment you take offAlitaliaD. More than a timepiece. An acquisition.PIAGITE A building for your future, anchored in the rich past of the Champs-Elysees, the world famous Avenue.Imperative sentences were used in these advertising. As a result, they get the effect of distinct, outstanding, compact and eye-striking.7. Use of disjunctive sentenceThe use of disjunctive sentences is a unique phenomenon in English advertising. It separates a long, complex sentence into several simple sentences by using stop, dash, semi-colon, hyphen, etc. Those sentences are independent in form, but are related in the content. The use of disjunctive clause could add more information and save more space and money. The separated parts are usually the features of the product, so that they could emphasize the good points of the products. A. an automatic applicator gently smoothes on soft crme or high-shine color for a smooth silky finish that lasts. And lasts. The original structure should be “ for smooth silky finish that lasts and lasts”, but here the designer use the period to divide the “and last” and the former sentence. So it forms two key points of information and emphasizes the advantage of product. Please look the following 2 examples: B. Amtrak has created a new nationwide passenger rail system. Literally from the ground up. A system that represented a viable alternative for people who fly. For business or pleasure. This is one items of advertisement of USA Railroad Company, which has successfully used the disjunctive clauses. C. And travel in B747-400 comfort from the major cities in the Far East and the South Pacific to the Gateway to Europe. With increased non-stop services. Most days of the week. This airways advertisement also uses the disjunctive clauses. It emphasizes its own characteristics. 8. Use of interrogative sentencesUse of interrogative clauses could arouse peoples interest and response quickly and effectively. For example:A. Why not let the world largest estate sales organization help you?B. How the wrong system can affect perfectly good portable telephone?C. Are you still feeding your six-month-old an infant formula?D. Dinner? Done. (Dominos Pizza)9. More use of present tenseIn order to express the reality and eternity of the commodity, the designer often use the present tense. The present tense and present perfect tense were used in the following examplesHow the wrong system Can affect a perfectly Good portable telephone. No matter how good a portable telephone is ultimately its the system that makes it work. Make sure you choose the right one. Otherwise, you may be faced with garbled or noisy communication, cut-off in the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, or other knotty problems. So make sure your telephone works on the system from Hong Kongs proven leader. Hutchison Telephone. Why? The Hutchison Telephone System has been operating for over 2 years. Its been proven to provide crisp and clear conversation anywhere in Hong Kong. Including inside buildings, and now exclusively in