a comparative analysis on the discourse of american and vietnamese movie trailers = so sánh đối chiếu đặc điểm diễn ngôn quảng cáo phim mỹ và phim việt

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES








NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HÀ






A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON THE DISCOURSE
OF AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE MOVIE
TRAILERS

SO SÁNH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐẶC ĐIỂM DIỄN NGÔN QUẢNG CÁO
PHIM MỸ VÀ PHIM VIỆT

M.A. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS




FIELD: LINGUISTICS
CODE: 60 22 15



HANOI – 2011





VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES








NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HÀ

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON THE DISCOURSE
OF AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE MOVIE
TRAILERS

SO SÁNH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐẶC ĐIỂM DIỄN NGÔN QUẢNG CÁO
PHIM MỸ VÀ PHIM VIỆT


M.A. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS



FIELD: LINGUISTICS
CODE: 60 22 15
SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN HÒA


HANOI – 2011




TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
Certificate of originality ………………………………………………………………

Abstract
Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………
Table of contents ………………………………………………………………………
PART A: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………
1. Rationale ……………………………………………………………………….
2. The aims and scope of the study ……………………………………………….
3. The research questions …………………………………………………………
4. Methodology……………………………………………………………………
5. Significance of the study ………………………………………………………
6. Design of the study ……………………………………………………………
PART B: DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………………………….
Chapter I: Theoretical background ……………………………………………………
1. Theories of discourse …………………………………………………………
1.1. The concept of discourse ……………………………………………………
1.2. Discourse analysis ………………………………………………………….
1.3. The functions of language ……………………………………………………
1.4. Register and genre in discourse analysis ……………………………………
1.4.1. Register ……………………………………………………………………
1.4.2. Genre ……………………………………………………………………….
1.4.3. Register and genre in discourse analysis …………………………………
1.4.4. Advertisements as “style”, “register” and “genre” …………………………
1.5. The language of advertising ………………………………………………….
1.5.1. Definition of advertising …………………………………………………
1.5.2. Functions of advertising ……………………………………………………
1.5.3. A model of advertising process …………………………………………….
1.5.4. General features of advertising language …………………………………
1.6. Movie trailer ………………………………………………………………….
1.6.1. What is a movie trailer? ……………………………………………………
1.6.2. History of movie trailers …………………………………………………
1.6.3. Media used to advertise movie trailers …………………………………….

Chapter II: Features of American movie trailers ……………………………………
2.1. Structure of American movie trailers…………………………………………
2.1.1. Defining discourse mode of movie trailers ………………………………
2.1.2. Structure of American movie trailers ……………………………………
2.2. Features of language used in American movie trailers……………………….
2.2.1. Grammatical features ………………………………………………………
2.2.2. Lexical features …………………………………………………………….
2.2.3. Rhetorical features …………………………………………………………
2.3. Explanation of the relationship between discourse processes
and socio-psychological processes in movie trailers ……………………………
2.4. Concluding remarks ………………………………………………………….


i
ii
iii
iv
1
1
2
2
3
7
7
8
8
8
8
8
9

11
11
12
12
13
15
15
17
18
19
20
20
22
23
25
25
25
26
33
33
38
42

42
50



Chapter 3: Features of Vietnamese movie trailers and a comparison between
American and Vietnamese movie trailers ……………………………………………

3.1. Structure of Vietnamese movie trailers and a comparison between American
and Vietnamese movie trailers‟ structure ………………………………………
3.2. Linguistic features of Vietnamese movie trailers and a comparison between
American and Vietnamese movie trailers‟ linguistic features ……………………
3.2.1. Grammatical features ………………………………………………………
3.2.2. Lexical features ……………………………………………………………
3.2.3. Rhetorical features …………………………………………………………
3.3. Concluding remarks ………………………………………………………….
PART C: CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………….
1. Summary of the study ………………………………………………………….
2. Summary of the main findings …………………………………………………
2.1. Similarities …………………………………………………………………
2.2. Differences …………………………………………………………………
3. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………
4. Implications for English language teaching and learning ……………………
5. Suggestions for further study ……………………………………………
REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………
APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………………………



51

51

53
53
57
60
65

67
67
67
67
68
69
69
70
71
I









1

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
The primary goal of any industry is sales – producers spare no efforts to sell as many of their
products as possible. The same trend can be seen in movie industry in which the product is
of a very special kind: it is “an experience of an entire show that eventually would feature
one special film that would run only for a certain period of time and be replaced by a similar
– but different – movie”. (Cinema Journal, Vol. 29, No. 3, Spring 1990)
Adapting the notion that merely supplying the movie is insufficient in new age of film
development, film producers, distributors and exhibitors accept the prevailing idea that

demand for a movie can be stimulated, directed and controlled by industrially produced
representations. To achieve the stimulation, direction and control over the demand, a very
effective advertising tool – movie trailers - is used to persuade audiences to “buy” the
experience of a show.
In movie trailers, language is used as an effective means of conveying advertising
messages. It is obvious that language used in movie trailers is different from that used in
other fields such as tourism, technology or law; it has its own characteristics and serves its
own functions; and the task of linguists and interested people is to discover and understand
these characteristics and functions for broadening human knowledge and exploiting them
to the full in human life.
A number of studies have been done on advertising such as commercials or technology
advertisements; however, research on movie trailers is still a new area. Hence, I realize that
filling this gap of knowledge is absolutely a necessity. The study of movie trailers can be
approached in different directions, each of which provides different aspects of knowledge
on the subject. As a Vietnamese student studying English, I am determined to make a
comparative analysis of Vietnamese and American movie trailers which is hoped to
provide some helpful knowledge for such people who are concerned as advertisers, EFL
(English as a Foreign Language) teachers and students.


2

In short, it is clear that studying this issue is beneficial for English teaching and learning.
Therefore, I decided to carry out the study:
“A comparative analysis on the discourse of American and Vietnamese movie trailers.”
2. The aims and scope of the study
2.1. The aims
The principal purpose of this study is to contribute a richer and more systematic
conceptual understanding of advertising language used in movie trailers. Specifically,
this study focuses on finding out the structure and linguistic features of advertising

language of American and Vietnamese movie trailers. It identifies, studies, and
compares the similarities and differences in terms of structure and linguistic features
between English and Vietnamese movies trailers. Besides, it helps teachers, learners,
advertisers and translators to have better understanding and interpretation of movie
trailers.
2.2. The scope
This study focuses on describing and presenting only the structural and linguistic features
in movie trailers and analyzing those characteristics of the two languages in American and
Vietnamese movie trailers. Within a limited time and knowledge, it is not my ambition to
mention all issues of movie trailers such as music, sound, ect; but only discourse structure
and linguistic features of movie trailers.
3. The research questions
This study seeks the answers to three research questions:
1. What structure characterizes American and Vietnamese movie trailers?
2. What are the most effective linguistic features characterizing American and
Vietnamese movie trailers?
3. What are the similarities and differences between American and Vietnamese
movie trailers in terms of structure and linguistic features?


3

4. Methodology
4.1. Methods
The descriptive method and comparative analysis have been applied to this study.
+ The descriptive method
The study follows the descriptive approach as it “involves a collection of techniques used
to specify, delineate or describe naturally occurring phenomena without experimental
manipulation” (Seliger & Shohamy, 1989:124). Therefore, the collection of data will be
conducted via non-intrusive and non-manipulative processes. The descriptive approach

provides an investigation into the frequency of the occurrence of some linguistic features
in American and Vietnamese movie trailers. The aim of this type of study is to find out
more about the phenomena and capture it with detailed information.
+ A comparative analysis:
According to Carl (1980:18), a comparative analysis is viewed as an
interlinguistic, bidirectional phenomenon which is concerned with both the form
and function of language. As such, comparative analysis must view language
psycho-linguistically and socio-linguistically as a system to be both described and
acquired.
The comparative analysis is suitable for the study because it is concerned with the
comparison of two subjects: Vietnamese and American movie trailers. Furthermore,
both the form of the language and its functions in real life are considered. The
analysis of movie trailers is in close relation with psychological and social basis
because the language of movie trailers is only meaningful when not being separated
from these bases.
4.2. Data collection and processing
50 movie trailers are collected randomly, 25 American and 25 Vietnamese trailers mainly
on the internet or some established television channels.


4

Data analysis
After collection, each movie trailer is analyzed in terms of discourse structure and
linguistic features. Descriptive method is applied in this stage.
Then American and Vietnamese movie trailers‟ features are compared and contrasted in
terms of discourse structure and linguistic features. The method of comparative analysis is
exploited in this stage.
4.3. Analytical framework
4.3.1. In terms of discourse structure:

The analysis of discourse structure follows Labov‟s model of narrative
structure. According to Labov (1972), at a high level of structural analysis, a full-
form narrative includes five main parts. It begins with an orientation, proceeds to the
complicating action, is suspended at the focus of evaluation before the resolution,
concludes with the resolution and returns the listener to the present time with the
coda (see the table below)

Abstract

Orientation
Complicating
action
Climax
Evaluation

Resolution


Coda

Table 1: Labov‟s model of narrative structure
4.3.2. In terms of linguistic features
Linguistic features including grammatical, lexical and rhetorical features have been taken
into consideration.


5

4.3.2.1. Grammatical features
It is obvious that English and Vietnamese have different grammatical systems because

Vietnamese is an analytic language while English is a morphologic-analytic one. However,
the writer has made an effort to find a shared coding system between language used in
American movie trailers and that in Vietnamese ones and the analysis of grammatical
features is based on English traditional grammar.
Time reference
- In English: According to Bernard Comrie (1976:6), the semantic concept of time
reference is grammaticalised in English , i.e. it may have a grammatical category that
expresses time reference, in which case we say that English has tenses. As Fabricius-
Hansen (2006) states in "Tense", in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, tense is
usually indicated by a verb or modal verb. In English, there are basically two tenses:
present and past tense. What is commonly called the future tense in English is not a true
tense, but a modal construction that does not always appear (it is optional in subordinate
constructions such as I hope you (will) go tomorrow, and is prohibited with other modals
as in I can go tomorrow).
- In Vietnamese: Bernard Comrie (1976) also states that many languages (including
Vietnamese) lack tense, i.e. do not have grammatical time reference. However, Vietnamese
can lexicalise time reference, i.e. have temporal adverbials that locate situations in time.
Present time reference: is expressed by “đang”, “bây giờ ”, “hôm nay”, “hiệ n thờ i”…
Past time reference: “đã ”, “vừ a mớ i”, “xong”, “rồ i”…
Future time reference: “sẽ ”, “sắ p”…
Voice reference
- In English, there are two voices: active and passive. The passive voice, which provides
information about the roles of different participants in an event, is formed with the
auxiliary "be" and the "-ed" participle form of the lexical verb.


6

- In Vietnamese, like tense voice is not a recognized grammatical category and Vietnamese
can lexicalize voice reference. Passive reference is expressed by “b” or “đượ c”.

However, not all sentences including “bị ” or “đượ c” are passive one. Another criterion
must be based on meaning: if the recipient of the action is the subject of the sentence, it
expresses passive.
Mood reference
- In English, a verb phrase can also express mood, which refers to the "factual or non-
factual status of events.” There are three moods: indicative, subjunctive and imperative.
Indicative mood: expresses an assertion, denial, or question.
Imperative mood: expresses command, prohibition, entreaty, or advice.
Subjunctive mood: expresses doubt or something contrary to fact.
- In Vietnamese, mood is not a grammatical category, too. Mood reference is expressed by
lexical elements.
Indicative reference: expresses in statements, questions…
Subjunctive reference: expresses non-factual statements through “gi như, nế u, gi s…”
Imperative reference: expresses command, advice…through “hy, cứ , đừ ng…”
Lexical and rhetorical phenomena are not culture-oriented, which means that these
phenomena appear in any language whether it is an analytic or morphologic one.
4.3.2.2. Lexical features:
First, the use of word layers including: academic words, slangs or dialects, colloquial
words is investigated. Then there is an analysis of the use of particular kinds of words
(descriptive adjectives and adverbs, first and second person addressee and negatives)
4.3.2.3. Rhetorical features:
The following rhetorical devices are taken into consideration: hyperbole, metaphor,
metonymy, parallelism, contradiction.


7

5. Significance of the study
“A comparative analysis on the discourse of American and Vietnamese movie trailers” is
expected to have some contributions, both linguistically and pedagogically:

Together with some previous studies on discourse analysis of advertising, the research
examines another type of advertising – movie trailers. It can contribute some findings to
fill in gap-of-the-knowledge in the field of advertising language.
In the time when Vietnam‟s economy is on its way to merge with other countries world
wide and English is widely-used, this thesis can be useful not only to the field of
advertising movie trailers but also to ESP teaching and learning in the area of marketing at
tertiary level. Besides, it may be beneficial to TESOL teaching and learning because movie
trailers (with careful selection) is a very interesting and abundant source of authentic
materials.
It can be foundation or inspiration for further study on discourse analysis of advertising
language.
6. Design of the study
Within the required scope, the thesis is organized as follows:
Part A: INTRODUCTION, introduces the rationale, aims, methods, scope, significance
and design of the study.
Part B: DEVELOPMENT, is the focus of the study and consists of three chapters:
Chapter 1: Theoretical background, deals with the literature review relevant to
the topic.
Chapter 2: Features of American movie trailers.
Chapter 3: Features of Vietnamese movie trailers and a comparison between
American and Vietnamese movie trailers.
Part C: CONCLUSION, summarizes the contents of the study, especially its findings and
put forward some implications for ESP teaching and learning at tertiary level.


8

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1. Theories of discourse

1.1. The concepts of discourse
Linguistic theories define the term “discourse” in a number of different ways, but in
general, they have something in common. According to Crystal, discourse is considered to
be “a continuous stretch of (specially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often
constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative” (Crystal,
1992: quoted in David Nunan, 1993:5). Cook (1989:156) has a similar notion of discourse,
he sees it as “stretches of language perceived to be meaningful, unified, purposive”. In
David Nunan‟s view, discourse is understood as “communicative event involving language
in context” (1993:118).
According to Halliday (1985:290), discourse is seen as a “process” and text as a
“product”. He states:
“Cohesion is, of course, a process, because discourse it self is a process. Text is
something that happens, in the form of talking and writing, listening and reading.
When we analyse it, we analyse the product of this process; and the term text is
usually taken as referring to the product, especially the product in its written form,
since this is most clearly perceptible as an object.”
1.2. Discourse analysis
It is widely recognized that discourse analysis is not a method for teaching language, but it
is a way of describing and understanding how language is used as Mc Cathy (1991:5)
observes “discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between
language and the contexts in which it is used”.


9

It can be seen that discourse analysis is the study of how sentences in spoken and written
language form larger meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations, interviews.
In summary, discourse analysis concerns the description of language above the sentence
and an interest in the contexts and cultural influences which affect language in use.
Discourse analysis examines how stretches of language, considered in the full textual,

social and psychological context, become meaningful and unified for their users. The
ultimate aim of text analysis and discourse analysis is to show how the linguistic elements
enable language users to communicate in context.
1.3. The functions of language
According to Halliday (1985), language has three main functions, and the structures of
language can be explained in terms of these functions: ideational, interpersonal and textual.
The ideational function expresses our experience of the real world and of our inner world.
One aspect of this function at the level of clause is the system of transitivity. It is a choice
between the three main processes that can be represented in a sentence:
(a) a physical or “material” processes as in Fred cut the lawn
(b) a “mental” process as in David saw Mary.
(c) a “relational” process as in This view is magnificent.
Related to this choice of process is:
(a) The choice of participant: A participant is someone or something involved in
the process, e.g. in the above example, Fred and the lawn, David and Mary, and
(b) the choice of circumstances, e.g. “David saw Mary yesterday / in the garden /
by accident ”
The interpersonal function is the means whereby we achieve communication by taking on
speech roles – the roles adopted and those imposed on the addressee by the speaker, and
his associated attitudes. This function is reflected in the system of mood. For instance, we
can assume the role of questioner, or informer, or commander and so on.


10

Also included in the interpersonal function is the use of language to express an attitude
towards what we are saying, for instance, our expression of the degree of probability or
necessity associated with this context. This function is reflected in the system of modality.
Language also provides means (devices) for making links with itself and the situational
context in which it is used. Halliday calls this the textual function, since it is the function

of creating texts or connected pieces of discourse that cohere internally or which are
situationaly relevant as opposed to a random set of sentences. This function is reflected in
the system of theme.
In conclusion, these meta-functions can be summarized as follows:
(i) The ideational function is to organize the speaker‟s or writer‟s experience of the
real or imaginary world, that is language refers to real or imaged persons,
things, actions, events, states and so on.
(ii) The interpersonal function is to indicate, establish, or maintain social
relationship between people. It includes forms of address, speech function,
modality and so on.
(iii)The textual function is to create written or spoken texts which cohere within
themselves and which fit the particular situation in which they are used.

Function
Meaning
Realisation
Ideational
expression of
content
e.g. transitivity
Interpersonal
speech roles,
speaker‟s attitudes
e.g. mood
modality
Textual
speaker‟s
organization of
message
e.g. theme

information
cohesion
Table 2: The function of language


11

1.4. Register and genre in discourse analysis
1.4.1. Register
There are different concepts of register. According to Halliday (1985), “Register may be
defined as the variety of a language used in a particular situational context”. Another
linguist, McCathay (1991) defines that, “Register reflects the degree of technical
specification” in the language of economics, banking and finance, international business,
advertising, medicine, information technology and so forth. He also states that, “Discourse
register reflects the degree of formality of particular text by using a characteristic set of
lexical and grammatical features”.
Besides, Galperin (1977) suggests that, “A functional style of language is a system of
interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication”. However,
Gregory and Caroll (1987) cited in Swales (1990) defines that register, or functional
language variation, is “a contextual category correlating groups of linguistic features with
recurrent situational features”. This category has typically been analyzed in terms of three
variables labeled Field, Mode, Tenor. Field indicates the type of activity, in which
discourse operates, its content, ideas and “institutional focus” (Benson and Greaves, 1981,
cited in Swales, 1990). It is the kind of language use which reflects social function of the
text. Mode refers to the medium of language activity or the channel of communication
(prototypically speech or writing) while tenor deals with the relationships between the
product announcer and the product information perceiver. Thus, field, mode, and tenor are
closely tied and work together as determinants of the text through their specification of the
register and are systematically associated with linguistic system through the functional
components of the semantics.

Different definitions of register have been given as presented above, but we could balance
that register of functional styles are linguistic variations linked to specific occupations,
professions, topics and so on to serve a specific aim in communication through the
operations of field, mode and tenor.



12

1.4.2. Genre
Since 1974, genre has been taken into consideration as one of the central components of
communication within a culture and many concepts of genre have been given. “By genre”,
Hymes (1974:61) wrote, “are meant categories such as poem, myth, tale, proverb, riddle,
curse, prayer, oration, lecture, commercial, form letter, editorial,…The notion of genre
implies the possibility of identifying formal characteristics traditionally recognized”. In
“Webster‟s Third New International Dictionary”, genre has been defined as “a distinctive
type of category of literary composition”, while the New Yorker has expanded the context
of literary to include colonial promotional tracts and theological world. But today genre is
referred to as “a distinctive category of discourse of any type, spoken or written, with or
without literary aspirations”. Recently, genre has been regarded as “a formulaic way of
constructing particular texts and hence is inimical to the enlightened and enlightening
concept that language is ultimately a matter of choice” (Swales, 1990:3). Swales also sees
genre as a socio-cultural value such as literary, linguistics, rhetorical, art and so on.
Linguistically, genre is seen to have a close relation with speech events (Hymes, 1974:61)
or communication events (Saville-Troike, 1982). It is, moreover, known as the staged
purposeful process in which culture is realized in a language. (Martin and Rothery
(1986:143 cited in Swales, 1990:41)
Through the above observations about genre, we could affirm that, “genre is recognizable
and mutually understood by the number of professional or academic community in which it
regularly occurs.” (Bhatia, 1993)

Yet, it is clearly seen that genre is a paramount factor recognizable in any language and
discourse of any type (spoken or written), in which there is the language of advertising
with specific communicative purposes containing socio-cultural values identified and
understood by groups of professional or academic community.
1.4.3. Register and genre in discourse analysis
The concepts of register and genre have been presented above, but there is no clear cut on
the relationship between genre and the longer established register. They are two


13

interrelated concepts relating to linguistic variation in a particular situational context and a
formulaic way of constructing particular texts and it can not be easy to separate one from
the other. As Frow (1980:78) cited in Swales (1990) says, “Genre has become
disentangled from register and refers to discourse genre or register”. But Martin (1985)
cited an Swales (1990) offers a three-way distinction: genres are realized through
language. He states as follows:
“Genre are how things get done, when language is used to accomplish them.
They range from literary to far from literary forms: poems, narratives,
expositions, lectures, seminars, recipes, manuals, appointment making, service
encounters, news broadcast and so on. The term “genre” is used here to
embrace each of the linguistically realized activity types which comprise so
much of our culture.”
(Martin, 1985:250 cited in Swales, 1990:40)
Accordingly, it is obvious that genre and register are the two related determinants of
linguistic system which serve a specific aim in communication and in which register and
genre are vital and of deep considerations in discourse analysis. In particular, the language
of advertising in movie trailers is also regarded as a language variable to function a
specific aim in communication.
1.4.4. Advertisements as “style”, “register” and “genre”

The language of advertising is “loaded”, so it is not difficult to justify why one should
study the discourse of advertisements. Most people with an interest in advertising would
argue that the language of advertising is often contrastive in style and grammar with
conversational discursive usage. However, it is important to stress that although the
language used in advertisements displays an individual style in much the same way as
other forms of minimal texts. (Wallace, 1987:29), which may be called “environment
print” (ibid:24), for instance, street signs or notices on public transport – it should not be
view as an aberrant form of other varieties of the language (Leech, 1981:257). It is true
that the dependence of advertisements on the use of “disjunctive grammar”, for example,


14

as in newspaper headline (ibid:256), is one of the distinguishing features of advertising
style, but we would agree with Leech (ibid:257) that “since the characteristics of a style
are only meaningful by reference to the language to which it belongs, the act of isolation
should be accompanied by an act of synthesis.”
In order to consider advertising as a genre, we should consider its socio-cultural aspects.
Wallace (1987:30) assesses genre as “social events”. She concludes that the term “genre”
has more recently been extended to incorporate “the whole range of culturally
recognizable type of language activity”, which includes advertisements. Swales (1990)
describes genres as “communicative events which are socio-culturally recognizable”. This
view reflects more recent emphasis in genre analysis on social purpose, which sets genre
apart from the notion of “register”. One may correctly talk of advertising as a register, but
according to many this categorization fails to acknowledge to vital socio-cultural
components, of which one of the most prominent is “culturally recognizable language”
(Wallace, 1987:32), that is, language from which one can immediately identify a given text
as an advertisement.
1.5. The language of advertising
1.5.1. Definition of advertising

The word “advertise” originates from the Latin advertere, which means “to turn toward” or
“to take note of”. Certainly, the visual and verbal commercial messages that are a part of
advertising are intended to attract attention and produce some response by the viewer.
Advertising is pervasive and virtually impossible to escape. Newspapers and magazines
often have a lot of advertisements; radio and television provide entertainment but are also
laden with advertisements; advertisements pop up on Internet sites; and the mail brings a
variety of advertisements. Advertising also exists on billboards along the freeway, in
subway and train stations, on benches at bus stops, and on the frames around car license
plates. In shopping malls, there are prominent logos on designer clothes, moviegoers
regularly view advertisements for local cinemas, restaurants, hair salons, and so on, and
live sporting and cultural events often include signage, logos, products, and related


15

information about the event sponsors. The pervasiveness of advertising and its creative
elements are designed to cause viewers to take note.
There are various ways to define advertisings, each of which looks at advertising at
different perspectives. Dibb et al. (1991:400f) defines advertising as “a paid form of non-
personal communication about an organization and its products that is transmitted to a
target audience through a mass medium such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines,
direct mails, public transport, outdoor displays, or catalogues.”
Unlike personal communication in which speakers and hearers have opportunities to
interact with each other, advertising is a kind of non-personal communication which is not
aimed at any individual but aimed at the public or certain groups of people.
It is a form of persuasive communication that offers information about products, ideas, and
services that serves the objectives determined by the advertiser. Advertising may influence
consumers in many different ways, but the primary goal of advertising is to increase the
probability that consumers exposed to an advertisement will behave or believe as the
advertiser wishes. Thus, the ultimate objective of advertising is to sell things persuasively

and creatively. Advertising is used by commercial firms trying to sell products and
services; by politicians and political interest groups to sell ideas or persuade voters; by not-
for-profit organizations to raise funds, solicit volunteers, or influence the actions of
viewers; and by governments seeking to encourage or discourage particular activities, such
a wearing seatbelts, participating in the census, or ceasing to smoke. The forms that
advertising takes and the media in which advertisements appear are as varied as the
advertisers themselves and the messages that they wish to deliver.
Because of the non-personal features of advertising, the dissemination and operation of it
must be restricted by laws, policies and rules, the moral standards and people‟s
psychology.
Secondly, because advertisers have to pay much money for the messages about the product
transferred to the consumers in only limited time, the advertisement must be brief, concise,
well-chosen and meaningful. It can be said that advertising language is also a kind of art


16

like others; it is a style of immediate impact and rapid persuasion. This can be achieved
through the process of brainstorming, writing, rewriting, testing, modifying and so forth.
According to Churchill, Jr and Peter (1982:142),
“Advertising is noted as any announcement or persuasive message placed in
the mass media in paid or donated time or space by an identified individual,
company, or organization to serve a number of audience about products and
persuade or remind them of buying, to convey information about the
organization itself or issues important to the organization in order to create or
enhance perception of the quality or reliability of a product, thus encouraging
customer loyalty and repeat purchases.”
Therefore, advertising is a type of communication between advertisers and consumers. The
process of getting advertising messages transmitted is diagramed in the model that follows.

Figure 1: The process of getting the advertising
messages transmitted















(Hoang, T. & Nguyen,V.T, 2000)
Satisfy
the
receive

r’s
needs
Intend
ed
messag
e
Decode
d
messag
e
Medi
a
Selecti
ve
feeling
s

Selecti
ve
awarene
ss


Selecti
ve
memoriz
ation
Satisf
ied
Noise

17

It is clearly seen from the model that in advertising, the intended message is transferred to
the receiver in an indirect way. In the process of advertising, the message is always
decoded, which makes the message sound implicit. This can be traced in two reasons.
Firstly, advertisers have to spend a lot of on advertising information so their messages
must be decoded to convey as much as possible to customers with the minimum number of
words. Secondly, it is strongly believed by copywriters that human beings are born with an
ability of inferring. According to Geis (1982:46), human beings are “inferencing”
creatures, trained to read into what is said as much as is consistent wit the literal meaning
of what is said and the context of what is said.
1.5.2. Functions of advertising
In Encyclopedia of Communication and Information, Schement (2002) has described three
fundamental functions of advertising. Although the primary objective of advertising is to
persuade, it may achieve this objective in many different ways. An important function of
advertising is the identification function, that is, to identify a product and differentiate it
from others; this creates an awareness of the product and provides a basis for consumers to
choose the advertised product over other products. Another function of advertising is to
communicate information about the product, its attributes, and its location of sale; this is
the information function. The third function of advertising is to induce consumers to try
new products and to suggest reuse of the product as well as new uses; this is the persuasion
function.
The identification function of advertising includes the ability of advertising to differentiate
a product so that it has its own unique identity or personality. One famous example of this
is found in the long-running advertising for Ivory Soap. In the late 1800s, a soap maker at
Procter and Gamble left his machine running during his lunch period and returned to find a
whipped soap that, when made into bars, floated. The company decided to capitalize on
this mistake by advertising Ivory Soap with the phrase “It Floats.” This characteristic of

Ivory Soap served to uniquely identify it and differentiate it from other bars of soap.


18

The information function of advertising can also be found in advertising for Ivory Soap.
For more than one hundred years, advertisements for Ivory Soap have focused on such
product characteristics as purity of ingredients, child care, and soft skin. These
characteristics, in turn, were often related to key benefits that could be obtained from using
Ivory Soap. Thus, various advertisements emphasized “That Ivory Look,” which focused
on the relationships between product characteristics and the benefits of obtaining a fresh
and healthy appearance.
The third and most important function of advertising - persuasion, is also evident in the
long-running Ivory Soap advertising campaigns. The advertiser, Procter and Gamble, has
linked Ivory Soap with obtaining benefits that are important to customers: a fresh and
healthy appearance for women, a mild, nonirritating method for bathing babies, and a
novelty for children in the tub (since it floats). The benefits of the product suggest reasons
to buy and use Ivory Soap and thus provide a basis for persuading consumers. Different
benefits are important to different customers. Thus, to realize its full potential as a
persuasive tool, advertising must often be tailored to emphasize those benefits that are
important and meaningful for a particular type of customer or a particular use of the
product.
1.5.3. A model of advertising process
As previously stated, advertising is actually a form of communication. Like other forms of
communication, advertising has many different effects and these effects are often related to
one another. Jones, J. P. (1998) mentions the best known framework for understanding
these multiple effects and their interrelationships - the hierarchy of effects model called
DAGMAR (Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results), implying a
rational consumer being moved by advertising through a sequence of steps to purchase of
the product . The hierarchy of effects model identifies different stages in the

communication process as follows: Awareness – Comprehension - Conviction – Action.
Jones quotes from Russell Colley, who was incidentally one of the invited speakers at the
1976 ESOMAR seminar:


19

All commercial communications that aim at the ultimate objective of a sale must
carry a prospect through four levels of understanding: from unawareness to
Awareness – The prospect must first be aware of the existence of a brand or
company; Comprehension – He must have a comprehension of what the product
is and what it will do for him; Conviction – He must arrive at a mental
disposition or conviction to buy the product; Action – Finally, he must stir
himself to action.
DAGMAR has the great merit of proposing that there could be quantifiable objectives for
advertising (in terms of awareness level, brand ratings and so on) over and above sales
objectives.
1.5.4. General features of advertising language
As seen, language is used to transmit information, in both verbal and non-verbal
communication, form the addresser to addressee. Also in different aspects, there are
various languages used to serve their own purposes. Language, therefore, according to
Thompson (2003), is used in a very broad metaphorical sense to refer to any system of
communication. As many people refer, language can be used for different purposes such as
the language of mathematics, computer science, law, politics, art and advertising and so
on.
As far as language of advertising is concerned, it is used as a means of communication and
providing information to the audience. It is a linguistic system, verbal and non-verbal,
which consist of words, sounds, images and even empty spaces, as Goddard (1998) argues.
They are all in combination to express certain meanings to the audiences. Specifically,
language of advertising has been seen as a special language, the so-called paralanguage

with the use of yawns, grunts, loudness, tempo and specific words in a persuasive message
to convey information to capture attention upon the audience about not only the product
itself but also an image of the company or organization. Through the study of the language
of advertising, it is notable that it is very simple. It may sometimes be the use of separate
words, just adjective or phrases without any grammatical structures or sentences, but it is,


20

indeed, charming, seductive and persuasive with the conveyance of information to the
intended customers.
It is, however, not easy all the time to comprehend fully of this kind of language as
Goddard (1998:10) has said, “the idea of advertisements as simple texts which operate on
a single level has been challenged: instead, advertising texts are seen as potentially
involved in complex notions of audience, where readers have to work hard to decode
messages and understand different address relationships”.
1.6. Movie trailer
1.6.1. What is a movie trailer?
Movie trailers have now become popular on the Internet. Of some 10-billion videos
watched online annually, movie trailers rank the third, after news and user-created video.

A trailer or preview is an advertisement for a feature film that will be exhibited in the
future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown. The term "trailer" comes from their
having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not
last long, because patrons tended to leave the theater after the films ended, but the name
has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film begins.
Movie trailers provide consumers with the ability to judge whether they would like to see a
movie by sampling part of the complete experience. According to Katz (1980, p.1145), a
movie trailer is “… a short publicity film, shown as part of a regular program at a theater,
advertising the merits of a forthcoming motion picture….the trailer consists of highlight

scenes appropriately cut to create an impression of excitement…”
Trailers consist of a series of selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the
purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn
from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated
form. For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in
the film. A trailer has to achieve that in less than two and a half minutes, the maximum
length allowed by the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America). Each studio or


21

distributor is allowed to exceed this time limit once a year if they feel it is necessary for a
particular film.
Some trailers use "special shoot" footage, which is material that has been created
specifically for advertising purposes and does not appear in the actual film (the trailer
featured elaborate special effects scenes that were never intended to be in the film itself).
Some trailers that incorporate material not in the movie are particularly coveted by
collectors, especially trailers for classic films.
Movie trailers can serve as a trial of the movie experience (Cooper-Martin, 1992; Faber
and O‟Guinn, 1984). Thus, they function like a product trial that gives good guidance as to
the experiential qualities of something new. Consumers‟ evaluation of the movie trailer
experience and subsequent decision making remained to be explored.
It is reasonable to predict that movie trailers influence audience size. Ultimately a large
audience is necessary for box-office revenue to cover the increasing production and
marketing expenditure involved in movie production and release (Motion Picture
Association, 2004). Furthermore, the transient lifecycle of new movies usually launched on
thousands of screens simultaneously (Ainslie and Dréze, 2002) increases the value in
understanding the effects of movie trailers on consumers‟ movie-going intentions.
Movies provide the benefit of enjoyment. The value from a movie is derived from its
ability to engage the consumer – to arouse feelings or emotional reactions and to provide a

consumption experience (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). When evaluating a movie,
consumers are likely to take into account their own preferences for types of experiences.
Genre provides a consumer with the rules regarding movie content, structure, without
having to watch the whole movie in advance (Hennig-Thurau, Walsh and Wruck, 2001).
Examples of genre labels for movies are „comedy‟ or „action‟. Genre provides a broad
theme for construction of a framework regarding interpretation of movie trailers.
Consumers are likely to predict the movie experience by matching content in the movie
trailer with expectations evoked by their cognitive schema about a genre. Secondly,
categorisation of the movie, interpreted from the movie trailer is likely to convey the