VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES _ DƢƠNG BÍCH THUẬN LEXICAL REITERATION IN THE LANGUAGE OF ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (LẶP TỪ VỰNG TRONG NGÔN NGỮ QUẢNG CÁO SẢN PHẨM CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN VÀ TRUYỀN THÔNG: NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH ANH-VIỆT) M.A Minor thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Hanoi-2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES _ DƢƠNG BÍCH THUẬN LEXICAL REITERATION IN THE LANGUAGE OF ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (LẶP TỪ VỰNG TRONG NGÔN NGỮ QẢNG CÁO SẢN PHẨM CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN VÀ TRUYỀN THÔNG: NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH ANH-VIỆT) M.A Minor thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Dr Kiều Thi Thu Hƣơng ̣ Hanoi-2012 TABLE OF CONTENT CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALTY i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF FIGURES iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS v TABLE OF CONTENT vi PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 RATIONALE AIMS OF THE STUDY RESEARCH QUESTIONS METHODS OF THE STUDY SCOPE OF THE STUDY DESIGN OF THE STUDY PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES 1.2 OVERVIEW OF ADVERTISEMENTS AND ADVERTISING LANGUAGE…6 1.2.1 Advertisement 1.2.1.1 Definition 1.2.1.2 Functions 1.2.1.3 Categories of advertisements 1.2.2 Features of advertising language 10 1.2.2.1 Lexical features 10 vi 1.2.2.2 Syntactical features 12 1.2.2.3 Rhetorical figures 12 1.3 OVERVIEW OF ICT AND ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS 14 1.4 LEXICAL REITERATION 15 1.4.1 Definition 15 1.4.2 Classification 17 1.4.2.1 Repetition 17 1.4.2.2 Synonym or near synonym 17 1.4.2.3 Superordinate 18 1.4.2.4 General word 18 CHAPTER 2: LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 20 2.1 LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH 20 2.1.1 Repetition 20 2.1.2 Synonym or near synonym 21 2.1.3 Superordinate 22 2.1.4 General word 23 2.2 LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENT IN VIETNAMESE 23 2.2.1 Repetition 23 2.2.2 Synonym or near synonym 27 2.2.3 Superordinate 27 2.2.4 General word 28 CHAPTER 3: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 29 vii 3.1 SIMILARITIES 29 3.1.1 Popularity ………………………………………………………………… 29 3.1.2 Flexibility 31 3.1.3 Kind of reiterated items 33 3.1.4 Combination with other rhetorical figures 34 3.2 DIFFERENCES 34 3.2.1 Coinage in ICT product advertisements in English 34 3.2.2 Loanwords in ICT product advertisements in Vietnamese 34 PART III: CONCLUSION 36 RECAPITULATIONS 36 1.1 Popularity 36 1.2 Flexible use 36 1.3 High reiterating frequency of brand names and striking features of ICT products 36 1.4 Diverse combination with other rhetorical figures 36 1.5 Different choices in making creative advertisements of ICT products 37 IMPLICATIONS 37 LIMITATIONS 37 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 38 REFERENCES I APPENDIXES VI APPENDIX VI APPENDIX X viii PART I: INTRODUCTION This session carries the goal of providing the readers an overview of the study, consisting of the reason why the author chose this thesis, the aims of the study, the research questions, the method, the scope and the design of the study RATIONALE The term “global village” first appeared in “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man”, a work by McLuhan (1964:106) to describe closer contact between different parts of the world, with increasing possibilities of personal exchange, mutual understanding and friendship between “world citizens,” as well as creation of a global civilization Indeed, information and communication technology (ICT) is breaking through geographical barriers and distance, integrating the entire world into a village We now have access to information about global events and news as and when they occur In the 14th minute of the EURO 2012 Final, Andrés Iniesta got the ball and passed it to Cesc Fàbregas Cecs beat Giorgio Chiellini to the end line and then passed the ball to Silva This player headed it into the upper left corner, giving Spain a 1-0 lead We definitely saw all of these simultaneously with all spectators at the Olympic stadium thanks to a TV, an Internet-connected personal computer or a smart phone of any kind Distance has obviously become a thing of the past Everything not only comes closer but also rolls faster Something modern today may get out of date right the next day Generations of personal computers, from desktop and then laptop to tablet PCs or versions of iPhone developed one by one are examples of this fast-changing world No one wants to be lag behind We, therefore, should keep pace with the development of the ICT world Luckily, information about these products is nowhere but right around us, in advertisements of all kinds Right from morning till night we come across a number of advertisements in newspapers, in magazines, on the roads, in shops, on the radio, TV and the Internet In fact, no mater where we are, at home, at work or away on holiday, we can not refuse to encounter them However, because of their massive popularity, we often take them for granted and rarely thoughts of advertising origin or language pop into our mind though they deserve some recognition Thus, this paper seeks to make some investigation into the language of advertisements of ICT products or lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese, specifically As such, the use of lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in the two languages will be compared to facilitate our catching up the message of an advertisement in this field AIMS OF THE STUDY This study is targeted at: 2.1 Investigating how many subtypes of lexical reiteration are used in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese 2.2 Pointing out some similarities and differences between lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese RESEARCH QUESTIONS When conducting this paper, I would like to address two following research questions: 3.1 How many subtypes of lexical reiteration are employed in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese? 3.2 What are the similarities and differences in lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese? METHODS OF THE STUDY The study is a descriptive investigation because it “involves a collection of techniques used to specify, delineate, or describe naturally occurring phenomena without experimental manipulation” (Seliger & Shohamy, 1989:124) This research type aims to “find out more about a phenomenon”, here lexical reiteration in the language of advertisements of ICT products in English and Vietnamese and “capture it with detailed information” (Wisker, 2001: 118) First, the study explores which subtypes of lexical reiteration appear in advertisements of ICT products in English in Vietnamese and sees what is often reiterated in such ads Second, it examines measures of frequency, here, of the occurrence of the subtypes of lexical reiteration in English and Vietnamese advertisements of ICT products Thus, this study uses a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods to answer its two research questions Moreover, comparative and contrastive methods are utilized to point out the similarities and differences in the use of lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese As for data collection, 30 English advertisements of ICT products and 30 others in Vietnamese are picked at random from magazines like “Maximum PC”, “PC World Việt Nam - Thế Giới Vi Tính”, “Thế Giới Số” and “Tin Học Đời Sống” issued from 2008 up to now and on the Internet, mostly homepages of ICT products, accessed at the same period of time, are taken into consideration Next, advertisements which make use of lexical reiteration in each language are gathered into different groups, namely repetition, synonym or near synonym, superordinate and general word (i.e four subtypes of lexical reiteration as classified by Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 278) and taken into consideration in separate sessions To find out the popularity and frequency of lexical reiteration subtypes used in English and Vietnamese advertisements of ICT products, advertisements with this means of lexical cohesion will be enumerated and classified into its groups Necessary measurement will be conducted to find out the proportion of each group in each language The steps of the study are in the order as follows:  Collect 30 ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese respectively from magazines or the Internet  Pick out ICT product advertisements with lexical reiteration in each language  Classify them into different groups on the basis of lexical reiteration subtypes they fall into  Work out the similarities of reiterated items in these advertisements  Point out their differences SCOPE OF THE STUDY Within the scope of this study, just lexical reiteration classified by M.A.K Halliday and Hasan (1976:278) is taken into consideration The study makes no efforts to cover advertisements of all kinds in English and Vietnamese but ICT product advertisements in the magazines and on the Internet in these two languages only DESIGN OF THE STUDY Part I: Introduction represents the rationales, the aims, the research questions, the methods, the scope, and the design of the study Part II: Development Chapter presents the theoretical background of the study Chapter explores lexical reiteration in Vietnamese and English advertisements of ICT products Chapter points out several similarities and differences between lexical reiteration used in Vietnamese and English advertisements of ICT products Part III: Conclusion sums up the study outcomes, points out the implications and limitations of the study as well as suggests ideas for further research PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This first chapter presents an overview of advertisements, advertising language, ICT and lexical reiteration Understanding this background knowledge will prepare us in the investigation presented in the latter chapter where lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese is explored 1 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES Together with the pervasion of advertisements, more and more studies have been conducted to explore advertising language in general and that of ICT product advertisements in particular Leech (1966) examines standard advertising language in his research “English in Advertising: A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain” According to Leech, disjunctive grammar, the low frequency of function words, complexity of nominal groups and simplicity of verbal groups are some of the most distinctive properties of advertising language Dyer (1982) investigates advertising as a kind of communication in modern societies, which involves both cultural and economic context for discussion Cook (1992) investigates the discourse of advertising He offers a comprehensive introduction to advertising discourse by examining the language of complementary advertisements Vietnamese scholars also work on advertising language and its features from different perspectives Mai (2000) carries out his doctoral dissertation in advertising language, laying the foundation for a number of studies worked on later In this dissertation, he studies major features of advertising language in light of communicative theory (semanticsapplied linguistics of advertisements discourses) ... differences in the use of lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese As for data collection, 30 English advertisements of ICT products and 30 others in Vietnamese. .. this paper seeks to make some investigation into the language of advertisements of ICT products or lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese, ... 3.2 What are the similarities and differences in lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese? METHODS OF THE STUDY The study is a descriptive investigation