a study on difficulties and strategies in english-vietnamese translation of advertising slogans = nghiên cứu các khó khăn và chiến lược cho việc dịch anh-việt khẩu hiệu quảng cáo

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
POST GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTMENT



PHAN THỊ VÂN ANH


A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES IN
ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF ADVERTISING
SLOGANS
(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC KHÓ KHĂN VÀ CHIẾN LƯỢC CHO VIỆC
DỊCH ANH-VIỆT KHẨU HIỆU QUẢNG CÁO)

M.A. THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15




HA NOI, 2011


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
POST GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTMENT

PHAN THỊ VÂN ANH


A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES IN
ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF ADVERTISING
SLOGANS
(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC KHÓ KHĂN VÀ CHIẾN LƯỢC CHO VIỆC
DỊCH ANH-VIỆT KHẨU HIỆU QUẢNG CÁO)

M.A. THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lê Hùng Tiến



HA NOI, 2011

iv
LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS
FIGURES
Figure 1 Nida‟s three-stage system of translation
Figure 2 Different terms refer to slogans

CHARTS
Chart 1 Lexical and structure modification in translating ad slogans from English into

Vietnamese
Chart 2 Types and number of occurrences of wordplay
Chart 3 Number of translatable and untranslatable cases in five kinds of puns


























v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii
ABSTRACTS iii
LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Objectives of the study 2
3. Research questions 2
4. Scope of the study 2
5. Methods of the study 2
6. Structure of the study 3
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5
1. TRANSLATION THEORY 5
1.1. Translation definition 5
1.2. Translation methods 8
1.3. Translation equivalence 11
1.3.1. Translation equivalence 11
1.3.2. Types of translation equivalence 11
1.4. Translation process 12
1.5. Translation procedure 13
2. ADVERTISING AND ADVERTISING SLOGANS 14
2.1. Advertising 14
2.1.1. Types of advertising 16
2.1.2. Language in advertisement 18
2.1.3. Structure of an advertisement 20
2.2. Advertising Slogans 22

2.2.1. Definition of advertising slogan 22
2.2.2. Characteristics of advertising slogans 25

vi
CHAPTER 2: STUDY OF DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE
TRANSLATION OF AD SLOGANS 33
1. STUDY OF MODIFICATION IN LEXICAL AND STRUCTURE IN TRANSLATION
OF ADVERTISING SLOGANS 34
1.1. Lexical addition 35
1.2. Lexical omission 36
1.3. Lexical adaptation 37
1.4. Structural addition 38
1.5. Structural omission 38
1.6. Structural adaptation 39
2. STUDY OF TRANSLATING PUNS IN AD SLOGANS 42
2.1. The phenomenon of puns in ad slogans 42
2.2. Translating puns into Vietnamese equivalent 44
3. PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES IN AD SLOGAN TRANSLATION FROM
ENGLISH TO VIETNAMESE 45
3.1. Unability to preserve nuance meaning 46
3.2. Pun as case of untranslatability 47
3.3. Neologism as a case of untranslatability 48
3.4. Cultural barrier 49
4. STRATEGIES FOR TRANSLATING AD SLOGANS 51
4.1 Recognizing the technique used 51
4.2. Understanding background information of ad slogans 54
4.3. Dealing with unstranslable factors 57
4.4. Preserving and reproducing typical qualities of ads slogan 59
4.5. Applying the original slogan: 63
5. SUMMARY 64

PART 3: CONCLUSION 66
1. Recapitulations 66
2. Suggested activities…………………………………………………………………… 69
3. Limitations and suggestion for further study 6971
REFERENCES 73
APPENDIX 1 76
APPENDIX 2: 80

1
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
The work of translating advertising slogans, in other words as brand taglines,
trademark, has gotten a lot of enthusiastic consultation. There have been numerous studies
and arguments around this absorbing and challenging matter. Mr Bert Esselink, a
globalization consultant for translation company Lionbridge Technologies gave comment on
the translation work that “the phrase „translating advertising slogans‟ is not really
appropriate,” but “It‟s usually a very creative process that consists of finding an equivalent
expression in the target language that conveys a similar message to the original.” John
Freivalds, with a lot experience in the international communications with the firm JFA
Marketing in Lexington, Virginia, refers to this creative process as transcreation. He argues
that the localization of advertising slogans requires unique skills that may not be found in
traditional advertising agencies. Hence, how to do well this creative process is still a question.
Personally, in the process of teaching and studying I am really attracted by ad slogans
which might contain history or culture of a company as well as some curious story of
language. I also found out a wide scope of interesting situations of mistranslating or
ineffective translation or failure in reality. Besides, my students face to the same problems
when they work with commercials and especially with these brand tradelines. As the matter of
fact, advertising slogans are considered brief, meaningful and full of nuances. Thus,
translating them from English into Vietnamese language is really sophisticated and
challenging work. It is not easy to be transferred these special ones without changing or

fading out the shade of meaning. The question raised is that whether there are any techniques
or which methods are useful for handle the difficulties.
Furthermore, some earlier investigations only focus on interpreting the meaning and
characteristics of ad slogans in borrowed words. However, there has not been sufficient and
satisfied study to decode the difficulties and figure out strategies for translating advertising
slogans. Even though it is never easy task, it is new and contributive to give a deep insight of
the area.
These wondering and interests promisingly provide me with many interesting facts,
ideas and directions to implement this study. “A study on difficulties and strategies in
English-Vietnamese Translation of Advertising Slogans”

2
2. Objectives of the study
In brief, the study aims specifically at:
- To provide translators with vital understanding and significant characteristics of the
language in advertising slogans
- To compare and contrast English advertising slogans and its Vietnamese equivalent
to find out the typical translating tendencies and difficulties that translators may deal with.
- To suggest some solutions as well as strategies for translators to handle difficulties in
translating ad slogans and to improve translating work
3. Research questions
To achieve the aims within the scope, the research questions below are addressed:
- What are major translating tendencies and typical characteristics in English-
Vietnamese transcreation of ad slogans?
- What difficulties or problems translators might deal with in translating English ad
slogans into Vietnamese?
- What are particular techniques or methods can be applied for translating ad slogans
from English into Vietnamese?
4. Scope of the study
In terms of studied subject, the thesis involves wide range of English ad slogans and

their Vietnamese equivalents, which sources from television, newspapers, magazines and the
Internet. In general, I intent to choose well-known advertising slogans which draw attention
from the public and meet the purposes and direction of study. In particular, the selected
advertising slogans in the thesis are the ones connecting to famous products or services; or the
ones which have been successful or fail in reality; or the ones which reveal some interesting
specialties in its message or in organization of words; etc.
In regards to targeted readers, all learners, teachers and translators are considered our
audience. Furthermore, the exercises designed in the study are aimed to business students for
translation course.
5. Methods of the study
In order to fulfill the aims of the study, the following methods have been used:
- Comparative and contrastive methods
- Quantitative and qualitative methods

3
- Review of published related theories
- Analysis and synthesis of selected data
In the research, a number of original ad slogans in English and its equivalent in
Vietnamese are collected and treated under various activities of observation, description,
analysis, interpretation, synthesis, generalization and compare and contrast. This research is
the typical case of studying a matter in bilingual view with a combination of many methods,
mentioned above, under a lot of dimensions and directions.
6. Structure of the study
The thesis will be presented in length of approximately 80 pages and follow the
formality of a typical post-graduated thesis. It means that it consists of three main parts:
Introduction, Development and Conclusion.
Part 1- INTRODUCTION introduces Rationale, Objectives of the study, Scope of the
study, Methods of the study and Structure of the study
Part 2 - DEVELOPMENT, costs the most energy and space, I intentionally divide it
into three sections.

Chapter 1 reviews Theoretical background of the study. The concepts of translations
theory such as Translation definition, Translation methods, Translation equivalence,
Translation process and Translation procedures will be defined. After that, I will provide a
full understanding about Advertising, in which the definition, typical characteristics about
types, language and structure are analyzed thoroughly. Then, Ad slogans, as the focus concept
in the study will be clarified in terms of definition and typical characteristics.
Chapter 2, namely Study of difficulties and strategies in English-Vietnamese
translation of advertising slogan, goes insight of the matter with many aspects of the process
of transposing advertising slogan from source language into a target one. At the beginning,
some tendencies in translating ad slogans in reality will be presented. Next part is
Modification in lexical and structure in translation of ad slogans by which I will observe
slogans in bilingual pairs in terms of meaning, lexical and structure. Then, Study of
translating puns in ad slogans shows an interesting and popular case of translating rhetorical
device in ad slogans. After that, the part Problems and Difficulties in English-to-Vietnamese
translating of ad slogans will be illustrated through a lot of famous experience and stories of
the translation work. Finally, the part Strategies for translating ad slogans exhibits in details

4
the steps of how to trancreate a slogan into target language and offers some rules and
techniques for making the best choice and best way of translation.
Chapter 3 is the last but not least important part, namely the Application with various
exercises designed for students in translation course and in business subject.
Part 3, namely CONCLUSION, will present the Recapitulation as well as Limitations
and suggestions for further researches
The final part provides References and Appendix with a list of 100 advertising slogans
both English and Vietnamese, and some advertisements mentioned in the study.

5
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This section involves two parts, in which the first one reviews issues relating to
translation theories, such as concept of translations, equivalence, methods, and translation
procedure; whereas the second one presents general understanding on concepts of advertising
and advertising slogans.
1. TRANSLATION THEORY
1.1. Translation definition
The concept of translation has been discussed and presented by many scholars for
many historical periods and from different perspectives. The following citations taken from
different sources provide an overview of numerous opinions on the notion. These definitions

will be presented in chronological order so that it will be easier to comprehend the evolution
of this concept translation.
In 1965, translation is plainly defined as the replacement of textual material in source
language by closet natural equivalent in target language (Catford 1965).
Hartmann & Stock (1972) also share the same idea of the concept that “translation is
the replace of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of another
equivalence text in a second language”
Nida & Taber (1974) call it as a reproducing process with the emphasis of meaning
and style. Similarly, Dubois (1973) makes the great consideration on the semantic and
stylistic preservation in the equivalencies.
Later on, Wilss (1982) enhances the understanding of translation as the procedure
which requires the syntactic, semantic, stylistic and text pragmatic comprehension.
The reference in linguistic nature, social context and communicative purposes are
continuously remarked in the modern theorists‟ view of translation:
“Translation, as the process of conveying messages across linguistic and cultural
barriers, is an eminently communicative activity, one whose use could well be
considered in a wider range of teaching situations than may currently be the case.”
(Tudor, cited in Duff 1989)

6
“Translating is the transformation of a text originally in one language into an
equivalent text in a different language retaining, as far as possible, the content of the
message and formal features and the roles of the original text.” (Bell 1991)
As can be seen, there has been an evolution of this concept. There has been more and
more incisive and comprehensive development in interpreting the concept of translation.
Nearly all definitions of translation, where formal or informal, appeal to some notion of this:
translation means the replacement, or substitution, of an utterance in one language by
formally or semantically or pragmatically equivalent utterance in another language. However,
Whatever are the definitions and terminologies of the scholars working in the meaning and
scope of the term “Translation”, most of them share the same idea that translation is not only

understood as a linguistic phenomenon or a process of transcoding between first language and
second language, but also a relationship of equivalence between two language while taking
into account various constrains. In this process, the language from which translation is done is
called “Source Language” (SL) and the language into which translation is done is called
“Target Language” (TL).
Nowadays, in the world of dramatic development and modernization in all fields of
human lives, the concept of translation is no longer considered the work of transferring the
content from original language into another language. It is not advisory for modern scholars
for priority language form over content. The concept of translation has to not only respect to
culture, but more sophisticatedly, it is addressee-conscious. Translating work has to aim to
culture of target language and to addressees of target language. It allows the translators a
favour of creatively translating to ensure the purpose of using translation as long as meet the
requirement of effectiveness of original text. Ideally, a translated product is accepted when it
become natural and smooth even the addressees themselves don‟t know it is a translated
version. There is no standard regulation for translating; and translating is creating but in a
satisfactory respect to original text.
Translating a language into another language, in natural sense, is a shift of focus from
form to meaning without losing on the essence of the content and highest quality. By this line,
it is crucial to talk about two dimensions of translation that are formal and meaningful
characteristics of language. Sharing the same concerns, Nida, in the book “The Theory and
Practice of translation” talks about the former that language has its special feature such as
word-building capacities, unique patterns of phrase, techniques for linking clauses, makers of
discourse, etc. The translator should be aware of these features which make languages

7
distinctive. Discussing the role of meaning as more important than structure and form, Nida
points out that in order to preserve the meaning, the form must be changed if necessary. For
example, in SL a meaning which is expressed by a single word may require a phrase or even a
clause to be expressed in TL.
To discuss the complexity of the concept, Savory, in his book “The Art of Translation”

figures out six sets of different opinion of the translation theoreticians, which are considered
to be blending to each other, as follows:
1. A translation must give the words of the original.
A translation must give the ideas of original.
2. A translation should read like an original work.
A translation should read like a translation.
3. A translation should reflect the style of the original.
A translation should possess the style of the translator.
4. A translation should read as a contemporary of the original.
A translation may never read as a contemporary of the translator.
5. A translation may add or omit from the original.
A translation may never add to or omit from the original.
6. A translation of verse should be in prose.
A translation of verse should be in verse.
(Savory 1957)
It is obvious that translation theoreticians acknowledge the work of translating
diversified and even contradictory. But which principle can be applicable in which cases, it is
impossible to provide a certain answer that which principles of translation is the most
sufficient. Actually, the nature of translation should be interpreted thoroughly and
comprehensively. The matter of this complexity or contradiction is caused because of
using translations for different purposes, by different methods, and with the help of different
tools.
A lot of studies on the area have look at translation from different perspectives. The
concept of translation appears to be complicated process. However, in general view,
translation involving the following features (Hoang, V. Van 2006):
1. Context and co-text are important factor in determining not only the meaning of the
source language text but also the structural arrangement of target language text.
2. Meaning is the key issue in translation.

8

3. Depending on the type of text, the ultimate goal of translation can be
communicative or idiomatic (semantic)
4. Grammatical analysis of the source language text is important.
5. The intention of the text writer is an important factor that should be taken into
consideration in the translating process.
6. Equivalence is the key concept in translation.
7. Translation shifts (the term postulated by Catford) are possible in all kinds of
translation.
8. Target readership should be an important factor for determining the legitimacy of
translated text.
9. Translation is both an art and a science. It is an art in the sense that it is performed
by human beings and human beings are creative. It is science in the sense that it is a
process going through different stages: analysis, transfer and restructuring as
suggested by Nida and Hatim & Mason, and Wilss.
These issues have been drawn on from modern linguistics, psychology, pragmatics,
textlinguistics and communication theory. It is necessary to bring all the theories together to
establish a kind of starting point and a theoretical framework for the following study of
English and Vietnamese translating advertising slogans.
1.2. Translation methods
Translation methods are applied by translators when they formulate equivalence for
the purpose of transferring meaning elements from the SL to the TL. More than one method
can be seen in one translation, and some translations may result from a cluster of methods that
is difficult to discern.
The aim of this paper is to review the different methods of translation as interpreted by
some of the most innovative theorists in this field such as Newmark, Nida, House, and
Larson. These theorists have studied and divided translating methods into two main groups:
semantic translation and communicative translation. In the first, they are methods of
communicative translations, which are in favour of convenience of TL, aiming to make
readers most friendly and understandable to percept the translated text. While the second
methods, namely semantic translation, prioritize more for SL in sense of respecting style of

SL and making TL one be as original as possible.

9
Later, the terms are developed by Newmark with graduation of following eight
popular methods of translation which is classified into two main groups, as in the following
V-shaped chart:
SL emphasis TL emphasis
Word-for word translation Adaptation
Literal translation Free translation
Faithful translation Idiomatic translation
Semantic translation Communicative translation
This chart reflects the relationship between the methods with SL and TL. On the left
side, being closest with the SL is the method of word-for-word translation downwards to
semantic translation which is furthest and closer with the emphasis of TL. Similarly, on the
right, the adaptation method is the one concerns the TL most and the communicative
translation is the method nearest to SL but furthest to TL. All in all, the relationship and the
respect with SL and TL can be interpreted by basing on the position and the nearness of each
in the chart. Moreover, the position also figures out which linguistic characters, SL or TL, are
more respected in translated text. This will be reflected more in below explanation:
 Word-for-word translation:
This method focuses on SL word order in which words are transferred single and
preserved by their most common meanings, out of context. Therefore, the results of this
method are the translation like original text. The TL text is so closed with the SL in terms
of structure and form but may difficult to understand for reader in TL.
 Literal translation:
This is also called borrowing translation. The SL text, concretely its grammatical
constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents, but the lexical words are again
translated singly, out of context.
 Faithful translation:
It attempts to produce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the

constraints of the TL grammatical structures. Here, cultural words are not translated.
Thus, it can cause the difficulties for reader in TL.
 Semantic translation:
This method differs from 'faithful translation' only in as far as it must take more
account of the aesthetic value of the SL text. As a result, the translation is more flexible

10
and less dogmatic than the application of other methods in the group. Some modification
or creation by translated can be acceptable.
 Communicative translation:
This method attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a
way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the
readership. The advantages of method is able to transfer the exact message and contextual
meaning of author with the constraints of the TL grammatical structures; and Translator
try to produce the same effect on TL readers as the original does on SL reader.
 Idiomatic translation:
It reproduces the 'message' of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by
preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original. The result of
this method is lively, natural and friendly translated version for readers.
 Free translation:
It produces the matter without the manner, or the content without the form of the
original. Usually, it is a paraphrase much longer than the original, a so-called “intralingual
translation”, often prolix and pretentious, and nor translation at all. In other words, the
method offers translator free transference of the meaning without caring much of the style,
form, or content of the original.
 Adaptation:
This is the freest form of translation. It is used mainly for plays (comedies) and poetry;
the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture is converted to the TL
culture and the text is rewritten. The deplorable practice of having a play or poem literally
translated and then rewritten by an established dramatist or poet has produced many poor

adaptations have “rescued” period plays.
As can be seen, each method exposes its own features and advantages although many
people, in fact, have considered some methods more advanced or qualified than others. The
matter is that different methods can be applicable for diversified purposes and in various
situations. Some of them focus much on convenience, some on style, some on meaning, and
some on communication. In addition, the formers seem to be more primitive methods than the
later; and some of them are the base or previous state to turn to others. Translators have to
make the choice between form-based translation and meaning-based translation, in which the
first strives to retain as much of the purely formal aspects of the source text, and the second
aims at getting the message of the source text across, even if it takes drastic changes in the

11
formal aspects of the text. The choice of a method or combination of more than one is really
flexible and dependable. In translating practice, translator flexibly transfers among translation
methods; he can and should change if the circumstances demand as long as the goal of an
accurate, clear, and complete translation is the result.
1.3. Translation equivalence
1.3.1. Translation equivalence
When translators solve matters relevant to relationships between SL and TL text in
terms of professional terminology, this means equivalence to be clarified (Newmark, 1989).
Moreover, when a target term is expected to be faithful reproduction of the source text, the
equivalence is identity (of meaning and of form), and created in a sense of equal value or
correspondence (Christina, 1998)
Translation, as defined previously, is the result of a text-reprocessing activity, by
means of which a source-language text is transposed into a target-language text. The principle
is that a translation should have an equivalence relation with the source language text; but an
exact equivalence or effect is difficult to achieve. Thus, the matter is not whether two texts are
equivalent, but what type and degree of translation equivalence they reveal.
1.3.2. Types of translation equivalence
Because the target text can never be equivalent to the source text at all levels,

researchers have distinguished different types of equivalence. This classification is based on
different criteria and approach.
 Quantitative approach:
Munday (2001) is favour in numeracy and describes these five different types of
equivalence as follows:
- One-to-one equivalence: A single expression in TL is equivalent to a single expression
in SL
- One-to-many equivalence: More than one TL expressions are equivalent to a single SL
expression.
- Many-to-one equivalence: There is more than one expression in the SL but there is a
single expression in TL which is equivalence to them.
- One-to-part-of-one equivalence: A TL expression covers part of a concept designated by
a single SL expression.

12
- Nil equivalence: No TL expression is equivalent to a single SL expression. Thus, loaned
or borrowed equivalents should be used.
 Meaning-based equivalence:
Koller (1997) is the typical representative for this orientation with the description of
five following types:
- Denotative equivalence: The SL and the TL words refer same thing in the real world
- Connotative equivalence is related to the lexical choices, especially between near-
synonyms.
- Text-normative equivalence is related to text types, SL and TL words are used in the
same or similar context in their respective language
- Pragmatic equivalence, or 'communicative equivalence', is oriented towards the receiver
of the text or message. Both SL and TL words have the same effect on their respective
reader.
- Formal-aesthetic equivalence is related to the form and aesthetics of the text, includes
word plays and the individual stylistic features of the source text.

 Function-based equivalence:
Nida (1964) proposes two orientations that are formal and dynamic equivalence:
- Formal equivalence focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content. It
requires that the message in the target language should match as closely as possible the
different elements in the source language.
- Dynamic equivalence is based on the principle of equivalent effect, where the
relationship between the receptor and message should be substantially the same as that
which existed between the original receptors and the message.
1.4. Translation process
According to Darwish (1989), translation is a process involving a host of activities
drawing upon other disciplines in writing, linguistics and culture. Furthermore, many
activities have to be involved in the process such as perception and interpretation of semantic,
syntactic and stylistic elements; grammatical check and correction; consideration of co-text,
context, culture and other features. Thus, translators need to have wide and deep knowledge
of SL and TL to decode and encode the message and nuances of original text. In this part, the
most typical and standard theories of translation process, as suggested by Nida as follows:

13
Translating process, as depicted by Nida (1964) are the process involving three main
stages: Analysis, Transfer, and Restructuring. According to him, the first stage, namely
Analysis, is the perceptive work that translators analyze the structure and its semantic
elements to catch the idea of SL. Then, the message is transferred in the simple and clear form
and structure. In Restructuring, with regards to the semantic and syntactic and stylistic points,
the translator gives the final message in TL, in a way that is understandable for the audience.

Figure 1: Nida‟s three-stage system of translation
1.5. Translation procedure
In other study, Nida also proposes two different translation procedures, namely
Technical procedure and Organizational procedure. In brief, they are:
Technical procedures:
- Analysis of the source and target languages;
- A thorough study of the source language text before making attempts to translate it;
- Making judgments of the semantic and syntactic approximations.
Organizational procedures:
- Constant reevaluation of the attempt made;
- Contrasting it with the existing available translations of the same text done by other
translators,
- Checking the text's communicative effectiveness by asking the target language readers
to evaluate its accuracy and effectiveness and studying their reactions.
Actually, both procedures are chronological ones. Actually, the stage of analysis is
involved in technical procedure. In which the technical procedure mentions the strategies that
required translators have right and exact the message, language and nuances of original text
before transferring into another language; while the second procedure includes the stages
which happen after the translating works as evaluating and checking the effectiveness of
SL TL


(analysis) (restructuring)



X (transfer) Y

14

translated text in reality. By the second procedures, namely organizational procedure,
translators can be suggested a way to evaluate and make references before restructuring the
text.
2. ADVERTISING AND ADVERTISING SLOGANS
2.1. Advertising
Advertising was born as a consequence of the occurrence and development of trading
economics. Advertising has been considered communicative activities or a bridge between
people selling goods or services and others who have needs of buying and using those
commodities. There is wide range of its definitions in which the following are some of typical
interpretations of what is advertising:
According to the books for intensively studying of Marketing and Commercials
“Advertising is a form of communication intended to promote the sale of a product or service,
to influence public opinion, to gain political support, to advance a particular cause, or to
elicit some other response desired by the advertiser” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1980).
Bovee (1992) defines that: "Advertising is the non-personal communication of
information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or
ideas by identified sponsors through the various media”
Churchill, Jr. and Peter (1998) confirm the above concept with their definition:
“Advertising is noted as any announcement or persuasive message placed in 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”.
Similarly, Colly (1997) states that “an advertising goal is a specific communicative
task and achievement level to be accomplished with a specific audience in a specific period of
time”
From a linguistic point of view, advertising is defined as “an activity of verbal
communication not only to present information but also to win mind and heart of
advertisement receivers, the potential customers” (Huong, N.T, 2001). In the book “The

language of Advertising”, Goddard (1998) suggests: advertising is not just about the
commercial promotion of branded but can also encompass the idea of texts whose intention is

15
to enhance the image of an individual, group of organization. Goddard (1998) also writes “it
is undoubted true that advert are texts that do their best to get our attention, to make us turn
towards them”
These definitions about advertising, which have been expressed by different words,
reveal some common features in interpreting the concept:
Firstly, “advertising is non-personal communication” in comparison with
interpersonal communication in which both speakers and hearers are there to interact with
each other. Advertising is not aimed at any individual, or by any individual. It is a non-
personal transmission of information aiming at the public or a certain group of people.
Because of non-personal features of advertising, the dissemination and operation of it should
be restricted by the law of a country, the moral standards and people‟s psychology. The
information, methods, media, and other components of advertising should follow the
advertising laws, policies and rules, and should be under the supervision of the public. All of
these components are mutual features and essential elements of every advertisement.
Secondly, advertisement is a “kind of information which is usually paid”.
Advertisement is distinguished from other forms of communication in the sense that the
advertiser pays the medium to deliver the message. For this payment the advertiser receives
the opportunity to control the message. Also, it is because of the money advertisers have to
pay for their messages the language used in advertisement is always well-chosen and really
meaningful. It can be said that advertising language is a style of immediate impact and rapid
persuasion. This must be the result of many processes of writing, rewriting, testing, modifying
and so forth.
Thirdly, discussing its purposes “advertising as a tool to promote desire for
purchasing goods and services”, advertising is attempting to influence the buying behavior of
customers or clients by providing a persuasive selling message about products and services. It
is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to

purchase or take some action upon products, ideas, or services. It includes the name of a
product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade a
target market to purchase or to consume that particular brand. Advertising can also serve to
communicate an idea to a large number of people in an attempt to convince them to take a
certain action.

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2.1.1. Types of advertising
The features of different kinds of advertisements should be taken into account if
advertisers want their message to be effectively transferred to customers. Based on various
criteria such as Function, Region, Target Market, Company demand, Desired response and
Media, there can be several branches of advertising. Mentioned below are the various
categories or types of advertising suggested by Wikieducator in “wikieducator.org”:
 Classification based on function
Advertising performs some functions: (A) Informative advertising: It can inform the
customers about a product, service, or idea. (B) Persuasive advertising: It can persuade or
motivate the consumers to buy products, services, and ideas. (C) Reminder advertising: It can
remove cognitive dissonance from the minds of the customers to reinforce the feeling that
they have bought the best product, service, or idea and their decision is right. (D) Reminder
advertising: It can remind existing customers about the presence of the product, service, or
idea in the market till now. (E) Negative advertising: It can dissuade the public at large from
buying certain products or services that are harmful for them. For examples: Advertisements
of various civic authorities against alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics.
 Classification based on region
We can also classify advertising according to the region: (A) Global advertising: It is
executed by a firm in its global market niches. Reputed global magazines like Time, Far
Eastern Economic Review, Span, Fortune, Futurist, and Popular Science. Cable TV channels
are also used to advertise the products through out world. Supermodels and cinema stars are
used to promote high-end products. (B) National advertising: It is executed by a firm at the
national level. It is done to increase the demand of its products and services throughout the

country. (C) Regional advertising: If the manufacturer confines his advertising to a single
region of the country, its promotional exercise is called Regional Advertising. This can be
done by the manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer of the firm. (D) Local advertising: When
advertising is done only for one area or city, it is called Local Advertising. Some
professionals also call it Retail Advertising. It is sometime done by the retailer to persuade the
customer to come to his store regularly and not for any particular brand.
 Classification based on targeted markets:
Depending upon the types of people who would receive the messages of
advertisements, we can classify advertising into four subcategories: (A) Consumer product
advertising: This is done to impress the ultimate consumer. An ultimate consumer is a person

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who buys the product or service for his personal use. This type of advertising is done by the
manufacturer or dealer of the product or service. (B) Industrial product advertising: This is
also called Business-to-Business Advertising. This is done by the industrial manufacturer or
his distributor and is so designed that it increases the demand of industrial product or services
manufactured by the manufacturer. It is directed towards the industrial customer. (C) Trade
advertising: This is done by the manufacturer to persuade wholesalers and retailers to sell his
goods. Different media are chosen by each manufacturer according to his product type, nature
of distribution channel, and resources at his command. Hence, it is designed for those
wholesalers and retailers who can promote and sell the product. (D) Professional advertising:
This is executed by manufacturers and distributors to influence the professionals of a
particular trade or business stream. These professionals recommend or prescribe the products
of these manufacturers to the ultimate buyer. Manufacturers of these products try to reach
these professionals under well-prepared programs. Doctors, engineers, teachers, purchase
professionals, civil contractors architects are the prime targets of such manufacturers. (E)
Financial advertising: Banks, financial institutions, and corporate firms issue advertisements
to collect funds from markets. They publish prospectuses and application forms and place
them at those points where the prospective investors can easily spot them.
 Classification based on company demand:

There are two types of demand, as follows:
A) Market Demand: Advertising is the total volume that would be bought by a defined
customer group, in a defined geographical area, in a defined time period, in a defined
marketing environment under a defined marketing program. (B) Company Demand: It is the
share of the company in the market demand. Accordingly, there are two types of advertising,
it can be:
Primary demand advertising It is also called Generic Advertising. This category of
advertising is designed to increase the primary demand. This is done by trade associations or
groups in the industry. Primary advertising is done by many companies at the same time, but
there is no competition. The idea is to generate a continual demand for the product. Or
Selective demand advertising: this is done by a company or dealer to increase the company
demand. The company would advertise its own brand only. The retailer can also advertise a
particular brand.
 Classification based on desired responses:

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An advertisement can either elicit an immediate response from the target customer, or
create a favourable image in the mind of that customer. The objectives, in both cases, are
different. Thus, we have two types of advertising under this classification. (A) Direct action
advertising: This is done to get immediate responses from customers. Examples: Season's
sale, purchase coupons in a magazine. (B) Indirect action advertising: This type of
advertising exercise is carried out to make a positive effect on the mind of the reader or
viewer. After getting the advertisement he does not rush to buy the product but he develops a
favourable image of the brand in his mind. (C) Surrogate advertising: This is a new category
of advertising. In this type of promotional effort, the marketer promotes a different product.
 Classification based on the media used:
The broad classification based on media is as follows: (A) Audio advertising: It is
done through radio, P A systems, auto-rickshaw promotions, and four-wheeler promotions
etc. (B) Visual advertising: It is done through PoP displays, without text catalogues, leaflets,
cloth banners, brochures, electronic hoardings, simple hoardings, running hoardings etc. (C)

Audio-visual: It is done through cinema slides, movies, video clips, TV advertisements, cable
TV advertisements etc. (D) Written advertising: It is done through letters, fax messages,
leaflets with text, brochures, articles and documents, space marketing features in newspapers
etc. (E) Internet advertising: The world wide web is used extensively to promote products and
services of all genres. (F) Verbal advertising: Verbal tools are used to advertise thoughts,
products, and services during conferences, seminars, and group discussion sessions. Kinesics
also plays an important role in this context.
2.1.2. Language in advertisement
Language has powerful influence on human beings and their behaviour. This is
specifically true in advertising fields. The selection of language to send out a message to
promote or to influence public opinion is the virtual and primary goal. Crystal and Davy
(1983) provide two main functions of advertising language that are informing and persuading,
the latter of these Corke (1986) calls as influencing. The advertisers do not offer information
for the sake of improving knowledge of the world but to persuade customer to buy products or
promote the sale of a product or service, to influence public opinion, to gain political support,
to advance a particular cause, or to elicit some other response desired by the advertiser. It is
imperative that they be clearly and flexibly rendered if it is intended for addressees.
It is universally believed that advertising language, whatever types or forms, is
characterized mainly and significantly by following aspects:

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Persuasive: advertising is the art of persuading to familiarize or remind consumers of
the benefits of particular products in the hope of increasing sales. It is on pursuance basing on
the consumer‟s psychology that all seek for goods or services of best quality, reasonable
price, attractive appearance, diversified choices, etc. All of these bring about the persuasive
effects.
Attractive and impressive: Not all people may have spare time to watch advertisement
and in fact nearly half of number of viewers pays attention to advertising information.
Because of these, smart advertisers try to make commercials and their products unique,
impressive, creative and aesthetic. These features of advertisement are laid down in the

combination of verbal language and language of images, sounds, and colour. The combination
can give audience the feeling of interest and trust. More attractive and effective the
advertisement is, more the sales are. Hence, to achieve the function of drawing the attention,
building the interest and stimulating the desire to buy the products among buyers, the
language should be impressive, credible and stimulated.
Cultural: advertising is not only an economic and social phenomenon but also a
cultural and mental symbol of nations. This is revealed in the sense that some foreign
commercials may not be appropriate or even violent with the culture of some countries. Thus,
the respect of custom, thought and culture must be required in advertising language and ideas
to be acceptable and accessible to customers.
Concise and selective: In order to make the information accessible to audience
effectively, the choice of words in advertising is very cautious and skillful. The aim of the
advertiser is quite specific. Advertisers wish to absorb much attention from the members of a
mass audience and by means of impressive words to persuade them to buy a product or
behave in a particular way. Both linguistic and psychological aspects are taken into
consideration in the choice of words. Language in advertising should be brief and concise. Put
in another way, it means "hit the nail on the head" with as fewer words as possible.
According to Huy, X. Mai (2005), language use of advertisement is considered via
two perspectives as follows:
From qualitative view, advertisement is monologue of highly self-estimation and self-
praise. In fact, this kind of monologue is just in form but dialogue in content and
communication. The communication in advertising activities, on surface, is indirect and one-
sided without the direct response from addressee (reader, listener, or viewer). However, this
discourse functions as communicative tool and has many features of dialogue in the sense that

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the advertisers have to orient and aim to addressees by attempt to choose the most effective
language use, formality and content to be acceptable by their addressees. The second personal
addressee like you, we, us are used significantly in slogans are one of good illustration for the
issue:

I love what you do for me Toyota - Toyota
It‟s everywhere you want to be – Visa
You can do it. We can help – Home Depot
We deliver it for you – US Portal Service
From quantitative view, one of the major and striking features of most advertisement
is the exaggerative language. The emerging power of this language is that it entices and
seduces the target customers. It arouses people‟s curiosity, appeals their desires and makes
them convinced that everything is said in the ad about the advertised product is true. The
advertisements for cosmetic products named L‟Oreal Paris and Clarins Paris as in
advertisements are taken as example as, “…velvety soft, like Cashmere…incredible
finish…perfect up to 12 hours” or “…Radiance…remain flawless in any light”. These are the
words with exaggerated meaning making the audiences themselves involved and able to
perceive the concept of how perfect the advertised products would bring about. At the same
time, the language use, to some extent, could solve the psychological problems or satisfy the
customers‟ wishes for their beauty.
2.1.3. Structure of an advertisement
In regards to the structure of message in advertisement, most advertising messages are
organized from the common and typical components. An advertisement begins with The
Appeal – This refers to the underlying idea that captures the attention of a message receiver.
Appeals can fall into such categories as emotional, fearful, humorous, and sexual. It is later
followed by Value Proposition – The advertising message often contains a reason for
customers to be interested in the product, which often means the ad will emphasize the
benefits obtained from using the product. Normally appearing at the end of every
advertisement, a Slogan serves to represent the central message that the producers want to
convey. It is to help to position the product in customers‟ mind and distinguish it from
competitors‟ offerings. Advertisements will contain a word or phrase that is repeated across
several different messages and different media outlets.