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A PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO ADVERTISING ENGLISH
by
Zhen Guichun
A Thesis
Submitted to the Graduate School and College English
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of Master 'Of Arts
Under the Supervision of Professor He Zhaoxiong
Shanghai International Studies University
May 2005
Acknowledgements
My special gratitude goes to Professor He Zhaoxiong for his consent to be my
supervisor, which is a great encouragement to me, for his insightful advice and above all
careful scrutiny of both the outline and the draft in materializing the present thesis.
Furthermore, Professor He's scrupulous attitude in doing research and teaching and his
kindness to students impress me deeply, which will benefit me for my whole life.
I also wish to express my gratitude to Professor Lv Guangdan, Professor Meideming,
Professor Li Ji'an and Professor Shudingfang, whose lectures enhanced my interest in
linguistics as well as widened my academic view.
lowe a particular debt of gratitude to my family members who support me all the time
with their love. Especially I wish this small progress in my life could be seen by my dear
beloved mother in heaven and could make her happy and proud.
I am also indebted to my dear colleagues, who have carried on subsequent discussions
with me and sparked me to my thesis.
Only with the help of so many people can this thesis have been made possible. Surely
the remaining faults in this thesis are entirely mine.
Abstract
Whatever we do and wherever we go, we are certain to encounter advertising.
Commercials will reach you when you tum on the radio or TV; advertisements will greet
you when you pick up a magazine or a newspaper; logos banners will flash before your
eyes when you surf on the Internet. Few things in our daily lives are as pervasive and
influential as advertising. Eventually, advertising has become a common target of many
subjects, linguistics being one, in which advertising language has been considered a special
variety of language. So far the study on advertising language has been approached from
five main perspectives: stylistic, semiotic, discoursal, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic.
Enlightened by all these methods, I will study the advertising language (mainly consumer
press advertising English) from the pragmatic perspective.
As a special communication between advertisers and consumers, the aim of
advertising is to persuade, that is, to ask people to purchase the products. But advertisers
can't say this directly because this may offend consumers and therefore advertisers like to
employ conversational implicature in advertising. Grice's theory on conversational
implicature, the Cooperative Principle and the four maxims of Quantity, Quality, Relation
and Manner are the major theoretical support for this study. The flouting of the CP Maxims
in advertising is explored in great detail. Then a whole chapter is devoted to the reasons
why advertisers apply conversational implicatures in their ads. Several reasons have been
spotted, such as to be economical, to make advertising language interesting, to increase the
force of advertising message, to be polite etc. Moreover it is pointed out that politeness is
the main reason, because advertisers try to show their concern, commendation, agreement,
sympathy to consumers and try to be modest sometimes. This thesis also analyzes the
influence of pragmatic principles on word choice in advertising, which hasn't been done
before.
Key Words: Advertising English, Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle
中文摘要
广告无时无刻不包围着人们，充斥着人们生活的每一个角落。由于它的性质，广
告尤其是商业广告的最终目的是劝说人们购买产品，为实现这一最终目的，广告商〈说
话人)千方百计地吸引人们的注意力，鼓动、劝服、诱导消费者(听话人〉花钱购买
其商品，其中之一计就是充分利用语言。由于广告的普遍性，广告语言己经引起了很
多语言学者的关注，以至于被认为是一种语言变体。前人对其进行了符号学分析，文
体学分析，话语分析法分析以及语用学分析。本文在现有研究的启发下，从语用学角
度对广告语言主要是印刷商业广告英语进行分析研究。
在广告这种单向隐含的言语交际方式中，消费者对广告商往往持有不信任的态
度，双方对信息的知情权也是不平等的，因此广告语言往往是间接的，会话含义经常
被广告商作为一个策略来使用。所以在广告例子中，广告语对会话准则的‘违反'将
会被详细探讨。广告商采用会话含义的原因有多种，作者提出了-些新的原因，如节
约、使语言有趣、礼貌等，而礼貌原则是广告商采用会话含义的主要原因，因为广告
商试图用惠、赞扬、赞同、同情、谦虚等手段来打动消费者并试图去维护消费者的面
子。同时广告作为一种文体，用词有独特的特点，语用学原则在广告中的运用也可以
解释广告选词用词的动机。
关键词 z广告英语合作原则礼貌原则
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abstract in English
Abstract in Chinese
Chapter 1 Introduction..........................................................
Chapter 2 Review of Literature on Advertising and Advertising English
1
2.1 Review of Literature on Advertising
3
2.1.1 Definition of Advertising
3
2.1.2 Classification of Advertising
4
2.1.3 Function of Advertising............................................................... 5
6
,7
2.1.4 Aim of Advertising
2.1.5 Nature of Advertising
2.2.1 Stylistic Approach
8
8
2.2.2 Semiotic Approach.......
9
2.2.3 Discoursal Analysis
10
2.2 Review of Literature on Advertising English
2.2.4 Sociolinguistic Approach
2.2.5 Pragmatic Approach..................................
2.3 Summary.
' 11
.
12
13
Chapter 3 Conversational Implicature and Advertising English
3.1 Conversational Implicature
14
3.2 Cooperative Principle and the Four Maxims
15
3.3 Conversational Implicature in Advertising
17
3.3.1 Flouting of the Maxim of Quantity in Advertising
19
3.3.2 Flouting of the Maxim of Quality in Advertising
24
3.3.3 Flouting of the Maxim of Relation in Advertising
29
3.3.4 Flouting of the Maxim of Manner in Advertising
,31
3.4 Data Analysis
34
3.5 Summary
36
Chapter 4 Motives for the Application of Conversational Implicature in Advertising
4.1 To Be Economical.
37
4.2 To Give Themselves a Way out
37
4.3 To Make Advertising Language More Interesting
38
4.4 To Increase the Force of Advertising Message
39
4.5 To Be Polite
39
4.5.1 The Regard for Consumers' Face and other Advertisers' Face
39
4.5.2 Maxim-based Politeness Principle in Advertising
41
4.5.3 Tug-of-war of CP and PP in Advertising...........................................
45
4.6 Summary.
.
47
Chapter 5 Word Choice and Conversational Implicature in Advertising
5.1 Use of SimpleVerbs.........................
5.2 Use of Compound Words..................................................................
5.3 Use of Evaluative adjectives................................................................
5.4 Use of I..oanwords............................................................................
5.5 Use of Misspelling and Coinage
5.6 Summary.......
.
Chapter 6 Conclusion.
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
Bibliography, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
A Pragmatic Approach to Advertising English
Chapter 1 Introduction
Some say advertising is purely an economic activity with one purpose: to sell. Others
state advertising is the mirror and maker of culture and its words and images reflect the
present and the past. Whatever it is, we can't neglect one fact, that is, advertising is
ubiquitous and an inescapable part of our life-on radio and television, in newspapers and
magazines, on computer screens and mobile phones and even on city streets and buses. We
are exposed to advertisements every day and are confronted with advertisements
everywhere. Since advertising is ubiquitous, the language used in advertising has aroused
great interest of many experts in many disciplines, especially in linguistics because
advertising language aims at brevity, preciseness and clarity of information besides the
attempt to inform, attract and persuade people towards certain actions. So the way
language is used remains an important influencing factor, which demands a systematic
study.
The main purpose of this study is to make an adequate analysis of the language used
in advertising, mainly advertising English, within the framework of pragmatics. The key
theories employed in this thesis are Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle.
Firstly, I will .talk about how language is used in advertising. I shall not attempt to
provide a survey of the types of linguistic devices that are used in advertising, which was
first done by Leech in 1966, because there is of little point in doing so. Instead, I shall
concentrate on the linguistic strategies employed by advertisers from a pragmatic
perspective. In advertising, advertisers can't ask consumers to buy their products directly
because this will offend the consumers. So some strategies are employed, implicature
being one, which is generated by the flouting of the CP maxims.
Secondly, the reasons for using conversational implicature in advertising will be
studied. The main reason for using conversational implicatures is politeness. Advertisers
would like to maintain consumers' and other advertisers' face so the face theory is often
applied in advertising. What's more, in order to persuade consumers, advertisers behave
indirectly and politely by promising benefit for consumers if they try their products.
Consumers like to get benefit, like to be praised and like to be approved of while the use of
Politeness Principle in advertising can make the advertising meet the consumers' needs.
1
A Pragmatic Approach to Advertising English
Politeness Principle is the development of Cooperative Principle but this doesn't mean that
Cooperative Principle should always be subordinate to PP. If PP is paid too much attention
to in advertising, untruthfulness and deception will occur. So there is a tug-of-war between
CPandPP.
Thirdly, word choice in advertising is careful so as not to offend consumers. The
application of pragmatic principles in advertising will influence the advertisers' word
choice.
In this paper, the main subject of study is the commercial consumer press
advertisements. Most of the data I shall be working with is collected in a random way from
magazines: Reader's Digest, Time, Newsweek, BIle, People and Forbes (issues of
2000-2004). They are analyzed both quantitively and qualitatively. The reason why these
magazines are chosen is that these magazines have a huge circulation, covering all kinds of
audience. The rest of the data is from some popular books about advertising English
published in China.
As a rule, Chapter 1 serves as the introduction part, which involves the purpose, scope
and organization of the thesis.
Chapter 2 is a survey of literature on advertising and advertising language. It gives a
description of the definition, function, aim, classification and nature of advertising for the
sake of the further study. At the same time, several approaches to advertising language are
assessed, including their contributions and limitations.
Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 make up the body of the thesis. In Chapter 3, the issue
concerning the strategy adopted by advertisers in advertising language is discussed in
detail in the light of Cooperative Principle. Chapter 4 focuses on the reasons for using
conversational implicatures.
In Chapter 5, the influence of pragmatic principles on word choice in advertising will
be explored.
Chapter 6 winds up the whole thesis with a summary, limitations of the study and
directions for future study.
2
A Pragmatic Approach to Advertising English
Chapter 2
Review of Literature on Advertising
and Advertising English
Up to now, there has been accumulated an extensive literature on advertising, in the
form of books, monographs, reports, journal articles and speeches. So before we analyze
advertising language in great detail, it is necessary for us to present a brief picture of
advertising.
2.1 Review of Literature on Advertising
2.1.1 Definition ofAdvertising
The word of "advertise" can be traced back to the Latin word "Advertere", meaning
"tum toward" from ad- "toward" + vertere "to tum". Based on this word, in the 15th century,
the word "advertir" appeared in French with the meaning of "warn" or "to attract other's
attention". It is obvious that English borrowed the word from French and the modem,
commercial meaning was fully developed by the 18th Century',
Definitions of advertising are numerous and they vary on the basis of different angles
and purposes. Albert Lasker, the father of modem advertising, said that advertising was
"salesmanship in print". Though this definition was given long before the advent of radio
and television, and the nature and the scope of the contemporary advertising were
considerably different from what they are today, this repeatedly-quoted definition indicates
that the ultimate purpose of advertising is to sell with skills.
Another definition is provided by the Encyclopedia Britannica defines
Advertising: The techniques and practices used to bring products, .services, opinions or causes to
public notice for the purpose of persuading the public to respond in a certain way toward what's
advertised.
Contrasted with this general definition, the next definition put forward by American
Marketing Association is more specific in meaning:
Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or
services by an identified sponsor.
1
http://www.etymonline.com
3
A Pragmatic Approach to Advertising English
Although this more specific definition clarifies what advertising is, and meanwhile,
offers insights into what advertising is not, it still has its shortcomings, for it makes no
mention of the advertising media. A widely-accepted definition of advertising was
developed by Bovee, C. L. & Arens, W. F in 1989:
Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information, usually paid for and usually
persuasive in nature, about products, services, or ideas by identical sponsors through various media.
(Boveeinrens, 1989:5)
If we take this definition apart and analyze its components, it can be seen that
advertising contains several elements: a) it is nonpersonal, which means advertising is not
directed to individuals but groups of people; b) it is paid for by some sponsors; c) it is
persuasive, which is intended to gain people's converts to a product, a service, or an idea; d)
sponsors can be identified; e) various media are used, like newspapers, radio and television
etc. Only when all the elements are existent can an advertisement be called an
advertisement.
In this paper, the term of advertising is interpreted more narrowly and therefore it is
vital for us to have a look at the classification of advertising.
2.1.2 Classification ofAdvertising
Advertising can be classified by four main criteria: target audience, geographic area,
medium, and purpose and each of these criteria includes several categories.
Based on target audience, advertising can fall into two categories: business
advertising which directs to people who buy or specify goods and services for business use
and tends to appear in specialized business publications or professional journals, in
direct-mail pieces or in trade shows, and consumer advertising which is typically directed
to ordinary consumers and reaches them by appearing in the mass media-s-Tv, radio,
newspaper and magazines.
On the basis of geographic area, advertising falls into four types: local, regional,
national and international.
Advertising can be transmitted by many channels or media, such as radio, television,
newspapers and directories. As a matter of fact, three categories can be summarized: print
advertising or press advertising, electronic advertising, out-of-home advertising and
directories.
4
A Pragmatic Approach to Advertising English
Advertising can also be classified according to the sponsor's objectives. Some ads
promote a product or service; others promote ideas. Some advertisements are meant to help
make profits for the advertisers; some are sponsored by nonprofit groups. Some ads try to
spur the target audience to immediate action, others to create awareness or understanding
of the advertiser's offering. Three pairs can be sorted: product versus non-product
advertising; commercial versus noncommercial advertising; action versus awareness
advertising.
The classification of advertising is clearly shown in the following table:
By Target Audience
By
Geographic
By Medium
By Purpose
Print (newspaper, magazine)
Product
Area
Consumer
International
&
Non-product
National
Business
Industrial
Regional
&
Electronic (Radio, Television,
Commercial
Internet)
Non-commercial
Out-of-home
Outdoor(posters,
Primary demand
bulletins)
&
Trade
Selective
Transit(buses,
Professional
demand
trains, stations)
Agricultural
Local
Directories
Direct action &
Indirect Action
Despite the popularity of TV adverts, the focus of this paper is 'commercial consumer
press advertising'. The reason is that it is easier to be stored, to be reproduced and to be
studied than TV adverts as TV commercials extend in time and make use of the combined
effect of sound and picture (Vestergaard and Schroder, 1985: 10). I shall adhere to the
convenient usage of 'advertising' meaning 'commercial consumer press advertising' in the
following chapters unless there is something special to be said about the other types.
2.1.3 Function ofAdvertising
According to William F. Arens, advertising has the following functions:
o To identify products and differentiate them from others.
oTo communicate information about the product, its features, and its location of sale.
o To induce consumers to try new products and to suggest reuse.
o To stimulate the distribution ofa product.
5
A Pragmatic Approach to Advertising English
o To increase product use.
OTo build value, brand preference, and loyalty.
o To lower the overall cost ofsales.
(Arens, 1996: 24)
As a matter of fact, all these functions are summarized by advertising researchers
from the economic point of view. However when we discuss functions of advertising, we
are mainly concerned with its functions to influence the advertisers. As far as commercial
consumer advertising is concerned, it always urges people to consume more by making
them feel dissatisfied or inadequate. So Crystal and Davy (1983:222) state that there are
two main functions of advertising: informing and persuading. To inform means providing
consumers with the news of new products or prices or new uses for products and to
persuade means inducing consumers to purchase products. But advertising must be more
than informational to be successful and it must be persuasive to move people to action.
However, with consumers in the picture, the functions become complicated because
different groups of consumers have different needs and they interpret the same advert in
different ways. In general functions of advertising to consumers are to amuse, to inform, to
misinform, to warn and of course to persuade.
In this paper, the function of persuading will be the focus.
2.1.4 Aim ofAdvertising
Advertising is not an end but a means to an end and a tool that advertisers can use to
reach their goals. Its goal is to persuade or influence some specific groups or people to buy
a particular product to satisfy their own needs. However, the fact is that people read
newspapers or magazines for their content, not for advertisements. So Cook (2001:222)
stated ads often exist on the periphery of receiver attention.
So the first task for advertisers is to gain consumers' attention. That is to say, the first
and perhaps the most important requirement of an advertisement is that it should attract the
audience's attention (Dyer 1982:139) and advertisers should give consumers a reason to
prefer a certain brand to others.
Once the consumers' attention has been caught, the advert should also hold their
attention and it should convince them that the product in advert is in their interest so that
their interest can be aroused.
In order to hold their attention, the advertisers must convince consumers that the
6
A Pragmatic Approach to Advertising English
particular brand has some qualities which will make it superior to other similar brands and
make sure their products will satisfy a new need or a need which already exists in
consumers or potential consumers, so that their desire to purchase is stimulated. At last
they will take action to buy the products.
In short, the aims of advertising can be summarized to the AIDA formula: Attract
Attention, Arouse Interest, Stimulate Desire and Get Action, which was proposed by E. St.
Elmo Lewis in 1898 2 and is still a useful guide to the examination and evaluation
advertisements.
2.1.5 Nature ofAdvertising
In order to achieve their goals, some messages about products must be communicated
and therefore advertising is the communication of information, which has been mentioned
in the above definition given by Bovee, C. L. & Arens, W. F. So advertising is a
communication process.
Advertising can take many forms, audio, visual, verbal etc. The gestures, postures and
motions which are non-verbal are certainly often employed in pictures in newspapers or
magazines, but it can't be denied that language is indispensable and significant to
advertising. In advertising, advertisers communicate with a large number of consumers or
potential consumers who are anonymous, which is characteristic of public communication.
In this kind of public communication, consumers can only get messages and can't take
turns to talk back. So advertising is verbal/non-verbal, public and one-way communication
(Vestergaard and Schroder, 1985:14).
As advertising is a form of communication, participant, message, code and channel
should be involved. In this paper, the participant refers to 'consumer' which is a term for a
vast number of readers maybe running into millions, and 'advertiser' which doesn't refer to
a single person, but an abstract assemblage of people, like advertisers, manufacturers and
copywriters; the message transmitted is about the product; the code in press ads is language
and some sort of visual elements; the channels are newspapers and magazines.
As discussed in the last part, the objective of advertisers is to make profits from
consumers so that consumers are apt to distrust them. Their relationship is that advertisers
2
http://www.intares.net/webstatistik/webstatistik_aida_modell.html
7
A Pragmatic Approach to Advertising English
are not trustworthy and the consumers are not trusting (Tanaka K. 1994:40). Consequently
as a participant, the advertiser always shuns the use of less pleasant overtones of being a
strong persuader and try to make his intentions covert, so some strategies have to be
adopted.
In a word advertising is covert communication with strong persuasion.
2.2 Review of Literature on Advertising Language
Language is the soul of advertising and so far advertising language has received far
more attention from the linguists. It is essential to summarize the research work about
advertising language, which has been done with the enlightenment of some linguistic
theories.
2.2.1 Stylistic approach
Leech's English in Advertising: a Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain
(1966), can be regarded as a classic and pioneer research work, in which he gives a
comprehensive description of the linguistic features employed in advertising language after
examining the motives behind advertising language and the advertising backgrounds. He
analyzes quantitatively the lexical, syntactical and rhetorical features of advertising
language from the perspective of stylistics. He has effectively related these aspects with the
advertising aim factors such as attention value, listenability/readability, memorability and
selling power. Illustration, display typography, wrong spelling, grammatical solecism,
metaphor and paradox are some of the devices linked with attention value. Simple and
colloquial style and familiar vocabulary are connected with readability. Phonological
regularities such as alliteration, rhythm, rhyme and jingle are related to memorability.
Frequent use of imperatives and superlatives are connected with selling power. The
distinctive property of advertising language has been closely identified with the use of
clauses, phrases and words as minor sentences, which constitute a different kind of
grammar called disjunctive grammar.
His theoretical insights and quantitative method guide and stimulate other linguists
to further study. Especially his work has a pervasive influence in China and many books
and a large number of articles about linguistic features of advertising language have
emerged, for example, those by Oi Yunfang, Zhaojing and Cuigang.
8
A Pragmatic Approach to Advertising English
However, Leech confines his study to the sentence level and explores the level of
"what" and "how" with a description of language structures which are superficial. If we
want to understand "why" in the real situation, we should probe into the motivation
beneath the surface with a different theory.
2.2.2 Semiotic Approach
The semiotic approach inclines to concentrate on the messages in advertising
communication. Two distinguished scholars in this field are Roland Barthes and Judith
Williamson who contribute one work respectively: The Rhetoric of Image (1964) and
Decoding Advertisements (1983). They believe in the assumption that communication is
achieved by the simple process of encoding and decoding a message.
"The Rhetoric of the Image" (1964), provides a conceptual framework for studying
word-and-image relations. Barthes poses that there are three kinds of messages in
illustrated advertisements: the linguistic message, which consists of the product name and
the linguistic commentary, the non-coded iconic message, in which the photograph image
similarly denotes the "real" object and has literal message, and the coded iconic or
symbolic message, which refers to the picture that forms connotations of the 'image' of the
product. It is valuable that Barthes recognizes the double system of codes: the linguistic
text and the picture, which work simultaneously and produce connotations in different
processes. The main contribution of his research lies in his suggestion that the number of
readings of the same lexical unit or the same image varies according to individuals, that is
to say, readers can derive different pieces of information from a single advertisement. But
his research method is somewhat problematic because the decoding of the connotations
relies on the cultural knowledge of the readers and it is likely to yield different
interpretations in view of the reader's different cultural backgrounds. Therefore either the
linguistic message or the iconic message can't avoid ambiguity and subjectivity as a result
of over-emphasis on the connotation of advertising.
Judith Williamson proposes the phrase 'decoding Ads' for the first time and she
analyzes magazine ads, discussing the signs and symbols in use, and explaining how they
work. She doesn't focus on the whole system of advertising for she was only interested in
uncovering the mechanisms by which meaning is created in ads. She contends that the
9