A contrastive analysis of english and vietnamese real estate adertising slogans in printed advertisements

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ THU THẢO

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE REAL ESTATE ADVERTISING SLOGANS
IN PRINTED ADVERTISEMENTS
Phân tích đối chiếu khẩu hiệu quảng cáo bất động sản tiếng Anh và
tiếng Việt trên ấn phẩm quảng cáo
M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field
Code

Hanoi, November 2015


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ THU THẢO

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE REAL ESTATE ADVERTISING SLOGANS
IN PRINTED ADVERTISEMENTS
Phân tích đối chiếu khẩu hiệu quảng cáo bất động sản tiếng Anh và
tiếng Việt trên ấn phẩm quảng cáo
M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field
Code

Supervisor: TRẦN THỊ THU HIỀN, Ph.D.

Hanoi, November 2015


DECLARATION
I hereby, certify the thesis entitled “A Contrastive Analysis of English and
Vietnamese Real Estate Slogans in Printed Advertisements” is the result of my own
research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and
International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The thesis has not been
submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions. I agree that the
origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of
study and research.
October, 2015

Nguyễn Thị Thu Thảo

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This MA thesis was successfully completed with the supports of many
people to whom I want to express my gratitude.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere thank to my supervisor, Dr.
Tran Thi Thu Hien, for her valuable instruction, support and encouragement
throughout my research process. Without her devoting guidance, I could not have
finished this thesis.

Secondly, my thanks also go to all the lecturers, professors and doctors
teaching at the post graduate faculty of ULIS for their lectures and supports during
my course.
Last but not least, I would like to give thanks to my beloved family and friends,
who have encouraged and supported for my study process to finish this MA thesis.

ii


ABSTRACT
Due to the high demand of current market, every product needs effective
strategies to introduce its image to the potential customers, and a successful slogan
seems to be an impressive way. Among various types of products, real estate is
gradually paid much attention for its significance in people‟s living condition.
However, there exist differences in terms of linguistic features between English and
Vietnamese real estate slogans that need to be investigated. Therefore, the study “A
Contrastive Analysis of English and Vietnamese Real Estate Advertising Slogans in
Printed Advertisements” is conducted to figure out some distinctive phonological,
lexical and syntactic features among English and Vietnamese real estate slogans.
The total of 90 advertising slogans are collected from well-known English and
Vietnamese real estate newspapers and magazines, and analyzed to support the aim
of the study. The finding of the research emphasizes the similarities and differences
in terms of phonological, lexical and syntactic features between English and
Vietnamese real estate advertising slogans. The thesis was carried with the hope to
implement some suggestions for teaching and learning business English, and some
advice for advertisers.

iii

TABLE OF CONT
DECLARATION ......................................................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .......................................................................................
SUMMARY .............................................................................................................
PART 1: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................
1.

Rationale ...........................................................................................

2.

Aims and objectives of the study ...............................................................

2.1.

Aims.................................

2.2.

Objectives ..........................................................................................

3.

Research question and approaches ...........................................................

4.

Scope of the study ......................................................................................

5.

Significance of the study ...........................................................................

6.

Design of the study ....................................................................................

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT .....................................................................................
CHAPTER 1 ..............................................................................................................
LITERATURE REVIEW .........................................................................................
1.1.

Review of previous studies ............................................................

1.2.

Discourse .........................................................................................

1.3.

Discourse analysis ..........................................................................

1.3.1.Context ..................

1.3.2. Role of context in discourse analysis .................................

1.3.3.Components of con
1.4.

Advertising as a form of communication .....................................

1.4.1.Definition of adver

1.4.2.Functions of adver

1.4.3.Types of advertising

1.4.4.Structure of adverti
1.5.

Advertising slogan as a part of an advertisement ......................
iv


1.5.1. Definition of a slogan ...........................................................

1.5.5. Criteria of a good advertising slogan ....................................
1.6.

Features of advertising language .................................................

1.6.1. Phonological features ............................................................

1.6.2. Lexical features ......................................................................

1.6.3. Syntactic features ..................................................................
CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................
METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................
2.1.

Research approaches and methods ..............................................

2.2.

Research question ...........................................................................

2.3.

Data collection instruments ..........................................................

2.4.

Research procedure .......................................................................

2.5. Chapter summary ............................................................................................
CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................................................
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................
3.1. Phonological features .......................................................................................
3.1.1.

Use of rhy

3.1.2. Use of alliteration and anaphora ......................................
3.2.

Lexical features ...............................................................................

3.2.1. Use of field words ..............................................................

3.2.2. Use of geographical names and brand names .................

3.3.

Syntactic features ..........................................................................

3.3.1. Use of short simple sentences ...........................................

3.3.2. Use of imperative sentences ..............................................
3.3.3.

Use of que

3.3.4.

Use of ph

3.3.5.

Use of pa

3.3.6.

Use of com

3.3.7.

Use of per
v


3.4. Chapter summary .............................................................................................

PART 3: CONCLUSION .......................................................................................
1.

Recapitulations ...................................................................................................

2.

Implications .........................................................................................................

2.1.

For teaching and learning business English and linguistics......

2.2.

For advertisers ...............................................................................

3.

Suggestions for further studies ..........................................................................

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................
APPENDIX ................................................................................................................

vi


LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Name of fi

Figure 1.1

A model of

Figure 1.2

A taxonomy

Table 2.1

Different te

Table 3.1

Slogan lang

Table 3.2

Slogan lang

Table 3.3

Slogan lang

Table 3.4

Slogan lang

Table 3.5

Slogan lang

Table 3.6

Slogan lang

Table 3.7

Slogan lang

Table 3.8

Slogan lang

Table 3.9

Slogan lang

Table 3.10

Slogan lang

vii


PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Together with the development of the world, thousands of new products and
services are introduced everyday, which are in need to find an effective way to reach
customers. Most of products including food, beverages, medicines, airlines services,

are presented to the public via mass media namely television, newspapers,
magazines, the Internet, radio, etc. Consequently, manufacturers take advertisements
into consideration as a key tool to spread their goods worldwide. Advertisements
play a crucial role in economic, sociological and psychological viewpoints. Using
advertisements is considered the solution of seeking a channel for organizations or
companies to reach out the world with their messages. Slogans are taken as the heart
of advertisements and cover the most focusing points sent to customers by the
advertisers. However, the question to create a good and successful slogan to bring in
customers‟ mind the image of the product and encourage them to buy is not always
at ease. Therefore, with advertisers, the art of using some valuable words in slogans
requires a deep understanding of phonology, lexicology, syntax and other elements.
As concerning much about advertisements which appear in high frequency on
newspapers and magazines, the researcher realizes that real estate advertisements
seem to take much room among other kinds of advertisements. Due to theirs
stereotype, real estate advertisements focus on the facility of living and they employ
language as a presenting tool to emphasize that. However, in Vietnamese, the real
estate advertisers seem not to pay much attention to their slogans as there is no
focusing point for customers to memorize about the product or service. In this field,
the numbers of slogans which can carve an unforgettable impression on customers‟
mind are rare. Whereas in English, real estate advertisers try their best to create a
sharp and smart slogan to attract their potential customers and there exist many
outstanding slogans worldwide. Thus, the situation is to put advertisers to questions
about what is a good slogan, and which linguistic features should be included in the
slogan to make it a successful one. Therefore, “A Contrastive Analysis of English
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and Vietnamese Real Estate Advertising Slogans in Printed Advertisements” is
intentionally carried out to provide some useful knowledge of language used in real
estate advertisements for English teachers and learners as well as Vietnamese

advertisers.
2.

Aims and objectives of

the study 2.1. Aims
The aim of this study is to analyze and figure out the similarities and
differences in the linguistic features of real estate advertising slogans in English and
Vietnamese language.
2.2. Objectives
Due to the aim stated above, the study will focus on some features of real
estate advertising slogans of English and Vietnamese in terms of phonology,
lexicology, syntax, as well as draw out some hints for Vietnamese advertisers,
especially in real estate services which may help to improve their effectiveness and
professionality.
Phonological features play a vital part in creating the sounds of the slogan when
reading aloud so that customers can be impressed and remember the product better.

Lexical features are necessary elements to understand the purpose of the
advertiser toward his target customers, the strategies he employs to shorten the
distance between the producer and the customers in the indirect communication.
Syntactic features use types of sentences, phrases, word order to express the
purpose of the advertiser in the form of language. Without these syntactic features,
slogans cannot be created and therefore, the purpose of the communication between
the advertiser and customers is not achieved.
3. Research question and approaches
Due to the aims and objectives, the study is conducted to answer the following
question:
What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese
Real Estate Advertising Slogans in Printed Advertisements in terms of

phonological, lexical and syntactic features?

2


This study employs descriptive, contrastive and statistic approaches since
they mainly involve collecting data and describing the features without any
experiments. These approaches help to investigate the frequency of some linguistic
features of real estate slogans in English and Vietnamese.
4.


Scope of the study

All the slogans investigated in this study are taken from the printed

advertisements of popular real estate companies and groups in English and
Vietnamese language.


In this study, phonological, lexical and syntactic features of real estate

slogans in English and Vietnamese are extensively discussed.
5.

Significance of the study

Both theoretical and practical aspects are considered the values of the study. In
theory, the research helps to find out typical linguistic features used in real estate
slogans in English speaking countries and Vietnam. In practice, it helps English

learners to be aware of those linguistic features in learning and practicing daily
English and to promote Vietnamese advertisers to create new and emphasizing
slogans for Vietnamese real estate market.
6. Design of the study
The

study

consists

of

three

parts,

entitled

“INTRODUCTION”,

“DEVELOPMENT”, and “CONCLUSION”.
Part one Introduction states the identification of the problems, the research
question, objectives, scope, significance and the design of the whole study.
Part two Development composes of three chapters, namely Literature review,
Methodology, Findings and Discussion, respectively.
Part three is the Conclusion which summarizes typical findings of the study,
involves contributions of the research and suggests further research.
The study ends with the References and Appendices.

3

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1
LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Review of previous studies
There are many researches worldwide which have been carried out in every
aspect of the matter related to advertisements in English and covered the features of
advertising language. Some famous titles generally mentioned the language of
advertising such as “Words in Advertisements” by Myers (1994), “The language of
advertising” by Goddard (1998), or “Advertising as communication” by Lars
(1999). In Vietnam, some outstanding researches on the language of advertising
include the one written by Phung with “Vấn đề quảng cáo” (1992), “Về đặc điểm
của ngôn ngữ quảng cáo” (1993) by Tran and Nguyen , “Một vài nhận xét bước đầu
về ngôn ngữ quảng cáo” by Nguyen (1993), Mai with “Các đặc điểm của ngôn ngữ
quảng cáo dưới ánh sáng của lý thuyết giao tiếp” (2001). These works mainly
discuss the functions, structure and wording used in advertisements.
There are also some other studies focus on some certain features of advertising
language. Some typical examples are “The discourse of Advertising” by Cook
(1992), “The use of metaphors on online advertising” by Anderson (1998),
“Advertising language: A pragmatic approach to advertisements in Britain and
Japan” by Tanaka (1999), and one written by Ton with “A discourse analysis of
travel advertisements in English and Vietnamese” (2005).
The aspects of advertisement has also been studied in many M.A theses carried
out at institutional level in ULIS with some aspects of advertising language, such as
one in English language used in airline service slogans by Bui (2010) and another
one “Presupposition and implicature in English and Vietnamese Advertising
slogans” by Tran (2007).
All these works have covered typical features of advertising language in
general and slogans in particular in terms of semantics, discourse and pragmatics. In

the spirit of inheriting and upholding the previous studies, however, the contrastive
4


analysis of advertisement between the two languages, especially in some specific
fields such as real estate, is not commonly covered. Therefore, what is done
hereafter is to figure out some similarities and differences in other certain linguistic
features between collected English and Vietnamese real estate advertising slogans.
1.2. Discourse
Discourse has been identified as a major focus of research in diverse
intersecting disciplines. Due to its widely applied in many different aspects of the
multidisciplinary area, the term discourse is researched under various viewpoints.
Cook (1989:7) considers discourse as a composition of “one or more well-formed
grammatical sentences”; this term, however, was previously explored by Halliday
and Hasan (1985:3) and regarded as functional language. Crystal (1992:25) defines
that discourse is “a continuous stretch of language larger than a sentence, often
constituting a coherent unit”, such as argument, joke or narrative.
Basing on these definitions above, advertisements and advertising slogans are
unquestionably discourses because they serve as a means of communication and
they are found coherent by their customers. They themselves convey the messages
from manufacturers or service providers to their customers and slogans are
considered the concise ways to cover those messages.
According to Fairclough (2003), “any actual instance of language in use” is a
text. In other words, text can be “written or printed” articles, or even “transcripts of
(spoken) conversations and interviews, as well as television programs or webpages”. However, Mey (1993:184) defined that text is “not a particularly helpful or
interesting concept in understanding human speech behavior” as it may not support
the understanding of a particular speech without mentioning other elements such as
speaker, listener, the relationship between them, spatial element. Fairclough also
claimed that there exists a close relationship between text and discourse, as “any
analysis of texts which aims to be significant in social scientific terms has to

connect with theoretical questions about discourse”, and conversely, “no real
understanding of the social effects of the discourse is possible without looking
5


closely at what happens when people talk or write”. Therefore, text is an essential
part of discourse but discourse analysis is not “merely the linguistic analysis of
texts” (Fairclough, 2003).
From these viewpoints, it is concluded that advertisement, the main target of
this study, is discourse as it reflects the relationship between advertisers and
customers in the act of buying and selling and the effect of advertisement to
customers on the process of purchasing.
1.3.

Discourse analysis
1.3.1. Context
In Nunan (1993:10) context is considered as “the situation giving rise to the

discourse and within which discourse is embedded”. While Cook (1989) claims that
context is “knowledge of the world outside language” which helps to understand
and interpret the messages in both spoken and written form. Thus, it can be
concluded that context and discourse are inseparable.
1.3.2. Role of context in discourse analysis
According to Hymes (1962) context is seen as a limit of the range of possible
interpretations, and on the other hand, a supporter of the intended interpretation as
context can “support a range of meanings”. Context, as well as other components
namely social phenomena, social relationships and cultural factors, has influence on
the language phenomena, whilst the language phenomenon is also a target to study
of discourse analysis.
1.3.3. Components of context

Hymes mentioned the features of context which is relevant to reading and
interpretation of discourse, including Adresser and Adressee, Audience, Topic,
Setting, Channel, Code, Message-form, Event, Key, Purpose.
1.4.

Advertising as a form of communication
1.4.1. Definition of advertising
According to Jeremy Bullmore, director of Wire and Plastic Products (WPP)

advertising is “any paid-for communication overtly intended to inform and/or
6


influence one or more people”. In the light of American Marketing Association
(AMA), advertising is defined as “the placement of announcements and persuasive
messages in time or space purchased in any of the mass media by business firms,
nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and individuals who seek to inform
and/ or persuade members of a particular target market or audience about their
products, services, organizations, or ideas”.
It is clear that both the two definitions emphasize advertising as non-personal
communication. In other words, advertising is not aimed at any individual, but at a
group of people, generally the public. Because of this feature, advertising, along
with essential components namely information, media and other components of
advertising, should be limited by the law of a country, the moral standards and
people‟s psychology. In addition, it is the fact that advertising is money-spinning
for its value given from its well-chosen and relevant language with great impact and
persuasion.
Advertisement is defined by AMA 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”. In other words, advertisement is the act or

process of advertising.
The model below shows the process of transferring advertising information or
messages between advertisers and customers in which the context may affect the
use of language.

7


Figure 1.1. A model of communication
(Hoang, T. & Nguyen, V. T. 2000)

As discussed, when analyzing the context of a particular discourse, the first
components to be mentioned are the addresser and addressee of the underlying
message. In the communication of advertisements, the two main participants are the
company and the customers. It has been already clear that the purpose of any
advertisements is to emphasize the quality of a product and to impress the targeted
customers so that the trading choice can be made, thus, the language used to direct
the readers of these advertisement should be manipulated exotically. The selected
channel in the current study is printed media. In this channel, the whole intended
message is encoded in the form of linguistic text only, which determines that
linguistic features play the essential role in creating the impression of the targeted
buyers. As each piece of advertisement only promotes the sales of one particular
range of products, thus, a vocabulary focus on the field of those products is also
necessary. By this, the content expressing what customers can benefit from the
products will be impressively directed. Besides, since the form of an advertising
slogan must always be brief and informative, the use of the linguistic devices should
be carefully considered.
8

1.4.2. Functions of advertising
Since its introduction of the American advertising and sales pioneer Lewis
(1898), and generally attributed in the marketing and advertising literature by
Strong (1925), functions of advertising have been known with the term AIDA
(Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action). Although the primary objective of
advertising is to persuade the receiver, it may reach this objective in different ways
with its functions.
(1) Attention: this is the first step to achieve persuasion. All advertising
slogans try to reach customers‟ attention in some special ways, even silly or weird
due to the fact that unusual things often remain longer in customers‟ minds than any
other normal ones.
(2) Interest: the advertisement should attract customers‟ interest in its product.
This is built up by eye-catching images, entertaining advertising plots, amusing
music melodies, or remarkable slogans. After the interest is roused, the customers
will learn more about it and the purpose of the product is reached.
(3)

Desire: depending on customers‟ need, advertisements emphasize the

necessity of the product and gain its merits. This strategy boosts customers‟ want on

the product and encourages customers to purchase one.
(4)

Action: after concerning costumers‟ desire, it is likely that purchasing is

aroused and the purpose of the advertisers is successfully achieved.
1.4.3. Types of advertising
It is required that different target customers or product types concern different
advertising methods. According to Bovée & Arens (1989), the advertisements can

be classified into four groups by factors as geographic area, medium, and target
audience.
(1)
Geographic areas: local, regional, national and
international
advertisements.
(2)

Advertising medium: print and electronic advertisements.

(3)

Target audience: consumer and business advertising
9


Consumer Advertising
Most advertisements on television, radio, magazines, and newspapers are
called Consumer Advertisements, for their covering of daily consumed products
including foods, drinks, transports, electric appliance and so forth. Although people
are unpleasant with ads spreading in printed papers and other media, they still need
a source of information to guide their purchases. Therefore, it is absolutely
necessary for advertisers to draw customers‟ attention.
Business Advertising
For those who are not involved in business, they may rarely see business
advertisements. Consequently, while most consumer advertisements are shown on mass
consumer media, business ads tend to appear in specialized business periodicals,
business emails, or sometimes in trade shows with specific business areas.

1.4.4. Structure of advertisement

According to Fletcher (2010) and Hoxie (2011), a standard structure of an
advertisement consists of these following components:
(1)

Headline: words that will be read first are positioned to get the most

attention. A good headline will introduce the product to customers or at least attract
customers‟ curiosity about the product.
(2)
Sub-headline: it is needed when the headline cannot
cover the
advertiser‟s idea. It is used to explain, clarify or emphasize the outstanding
characteristics of the product.
(3)

Slogan: this is a phrase or a short simple sentence focusing on the

important features or advantages of the product, the ones that advertisers
intentionally send to audience. Therefore, it should always be short and memorable
to draw customers‟ attention.
(4)

Body: it is the logical continuation of headlines and sub-headlines. The

body should act as a campaign and must explain how the advertised product
satisfies customers‟ need.

10

(5)

Visualization: the advertisement can be more memorable and attractive to

customers when visual image is attached to it. Visual effect can work as a transmitting

device to support advertiser‟s idea and avoid misunderstanding caused by wording.
(6)

Trademark: this is the distinctive name helps to differentiate similar

types of products. It is vital since it is used to avoid customers‟ confusion while
purchasing.
(7)

Layout: this is the setting of an advertisement to show the position and

size of the image, headline, sub-headline or body used in the advertisement. It can
appear in film scenes, posters, brochures.
1.5. Advertising slogan as a part of an advertisement
1.5.1. Definition of a slogan
According to Oxford Dictionary, a slogan is “a word or phrase that is easy to
remember, used for example by a political party or in advertising to attract people’s
attention or to suggest an idea quickly”. It means that, generally, a slogan is a
memorable saying used in political, commercial, and some other contexts to express
an idea or purpose. In particular, advertising slogan is a verbal logo appearing just
under or beside the brand name of the product. It is also the short message of the
whole advertisement which advertisers want their customers to memorize most, and
it is reminded by customers first when they think about the product.
Interestingly, slogans are often referred to with various terms in different countries.

Countries
The UK
The USA
Germany
Belgium
France
The Netherlands and Italy
Some others
Table 1.1. Different terms of slogan worldwide
11


1.5.2. Criteria of a good advertising slogan
In this thesis, real estate advertising slogans are the ones belong to the field of
real estate, which are created by real estate advertisers in order to attract customers‟
attention and persuade them to buy the product. Therefore, slogan is often one of the
first elements that can impress customers and present outstanding characteristics of
the product. According to Simister (2013), a good advertising slogan should include
the following criteria:
1. It’s memorable
2. It recalls the brand name
3. It includes a key benefit
4. It differentiates the brand
5. It reflects the brand personality
6. It’s believable
7. It’s strategic
8. It’s competitive
9. It’s original
10. It’s not in current use by others

1.6. Features of advertising language
According to McQuarrie and Mick (1996), a rhetorical figure can be defined
as “an artful deviation in the form taken by a statement”. The topic of rhetorical
figures, or also known as figures of speech, is necessarily addressed in any kinds of
advertising research with the three following reasons.
(1)

Newly available content analyses have demonstrated the

pervasiveness of figuration in the language of advertising (Leigh 1994).
(2)

The continued, inadvertent use of rhetorical figures in experimental

protocols without the appreciation of their history and distinctiveness.
(3)

The paradigmatic ferment associated with the advent of postmodern

(Sherry 1999), semiotic (Mick 1986), and text-based perspectives (Hirschman and
Holbrook 1992) is conducive to a focus on rhetorical phenomena in advertising.
(cited in McQuarrie and Mick 1996)

12


The framework that integrates a wide range of figures appearing in
advertisements, therefore, should be covered in consumer research. It takes the form
of a tree diagram with three levels corresponding to figuration to two different
modes of figuration, and to four fundamental, generative operations.

Figure 1.2. A taxonomy of rhetorical figures in advertising
(McQuarrie and Mick 1996)
The figure shows the classical distinction between scheme and trope. In the
third level, four rhetorical operations, namely repetition, reversal, substitution,
destabilization, are presented that distinguish different application in each.
This study will adapt the framework proposed by McQuarrie and Mick in
analyzing English and Vietnamese real estate advertising slogans in collected
advertisements in order to find out similarities and differences of real estate
advertisements in the two languages. Based on the stock of real estate slogans
collected, some outstanding features will be covered and presented. Although there
are many elements to create a meaningful and memorable slogan, such as
phonology and lexicology (belong to the first rhetorical operation named repetition),
syntax and semantics (belong to the second rhetorical operation called reversal), and
so on; however, this paper will look at English and Vietnamese real estate

13


advertisements in 3 aspects: phonological features, lexical features, and syntactic
features.
1.6.1. Phonological features
1.6.1.1.

Use of rhyme

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, rhyme is “correspondence in
terminal sounds of units of composition or utterance”. In other words, rhyme is the
repetition of the last stressed vowel sound and all the sounds that follow it in two or
more words.

Don’t just book it. Thomas Cook it! – Thomas Cook
1.6.1.2. Use of alliteration
Alliteration is a very useful poetic technique in which the initial consonant
sounds of words are repeated in close succession. By applying alliteration, the
slogans can achieve the strong beating rhythm to create a repeatable sentence, and
to reach readers‟ memory.
Functional….Fashionable…Formidable… - Fila
1.6.1.3.

Use of anaphora

Anaphora is the repetition of words at the beginning of phrases. The presence
of anaphora in slogans makes them stay focus on the benefits brought by the
product.
Early treatment. Early cure - Gyne Lotrimin medicine
1.6.2. Lexical features
1.6.2.1.

Use of lexical verbs
a) Use of finite and non-finite verbs

Verbs which have the past or the present form are called finite verbs, while
verbs in any other form (infinitive, -ing, or -ed) are called nonfinite verbs. This
means that verbs with tense are finite, and verbs without tense are nonfinite.
Going beyond expectations – Malaysia Airlines
British Airways. To fly. To serve - British Airways
b) Use of modal verbs
14

The use of modals in general in advertisements aims to suggest the benefits of
the products rather than to make categorical product claims. This is characteristic of
a softer, less aggressive sales approach.
Betcha can’t eat just one - Lay‟s
chocolate c) Use of tense of verbs
It refers to the correspondence between the form of the verb and the concept of
time. In advertising language, the common-used verb tense is the simple present.
Thus the predominant tone of the advertisements is one of certainty, of the
presentation of facts, complemented by the appellative function of the imperative.
Ultra softness is all you need – Kleenex Ultra
Catch the Spirit! – Spirit Airlines
d) Use of voice
As usual in advertising, more active than passive verb constructions were
found, attributing an active role to both the potential customer and the
advertiser/product.
No one knows the land like a Navajo – Mazda
1.6.2.2. Adjectives
The use of adjectives in advertisements is considered factual. An additional
point concerning the use of adjectives in advertisements is the relative scarcity of
comparative and superlative forms. The key to this lies in the use of numbers.
THAI - Smooth as Silk – Thai Airways International
The closest thing to paradise - Raintree apartments
1.6.2.3.

Geographical names and brand names

Geographic feature is a crucial element that helps locate the origin of target
object since it is essential for audience to identify and distinguish the different
source of information or objects. In the field of real estate, for example, brand
names, and especially geographical names will act as good indicators of the place

they are from, which helps customers a lot in choosing their product.
Ultra softness is all you need – Kleenex Ultra
THAI - Smooth as Silk – Thai Airways International
1.6.2.4. Use of negation
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Negation is used as the stretch of language over which the negative meaning
operates.
Nobody does it like you – Hover Vacuum Cleaner
1.6.3. Syntactic features
1.6.3.1.

Sentential level

There are many sentence types that are borrowed to construct a piece of
writing; however, due to the requirement of a short and condensed slogan, it is the
short simple sentence, imperative sentence and question that meet that demand.
Hawaii starts here – Hawaii Airlines
In the sentential level, one element that needs to be covered is the use of
personal addressees. In English, the use of personal addressees is very common due
to its benefit of establishing the relationship between speakers and audience.
According to Hymes (1964) and Cook (1992), addressers and addressees are crucial
elements in communication. It seems that the second addressees are used to shorten
the distance between the speaker and audience, create face-to-face communication,
and make promises or guarantee about things.
Nobody does it like you – Hover Vacuum Cleaner
We’ll take more care of you – British Airways
1.6.3.2.

Phrasal level

According to Merriam Webster, phrase is known as “a group of two or more
words that express a single idea but do not usually form a complete sentence”.
Various types of phrases are employed such as noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective
phrases, etc. They are so concise and straight that they are beyond our power to do
any addition or subtraction.
Lower fares, fewer restrictions – American West Airlines
1.6.3.3. Repetition of structures
Parallelism is the similarity in structure of two clauses or sentences to serve
the need of special effect in layout or sounding of language. It is vital that parallel
structure must follow strict regulations in terms of parallel language, number of
words, parallel words, the harmony in rhyme and sounding.
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