A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements Acknowledgement For the completion of this study, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to M.A Tran Ba Tien, my supervisor, for his excellent suggestions, valuable materials, unflagging encouragement, and detailed correction that help me to fulfill this study I am also grateful to my teachers in the department of foreign languages for their helpful suggestions and encouragement which help me overcome difficulties in the process of my study My warmest thanks go to my loved family and my good friends who are willing to help me and always by my side, encourage me to complete my work Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements Table of content Page Acknowledgement…………………………………………………i Table of content……………………………………………………ii Introduction………………………………………………………….1 Rationale of the study…………………………………………………….1 Aims of the study……………………………………………………… Scope of the study……………………………………………………… Research Methods……………………………………………………… Design of the study……………………………………………………….3 Development……………………………………………………………4 Chapter I: Theoretical background……………………………4 1.1 Discourse and discourse analysis………………………………… 1.1.1 Definition of discourse…………………………………………… 1.1.2 Spoken discourse and written discourse……………………………4 1.1.3 Discourse analysis………………………………………………….5 1.1.4 Discourse context………………………………………………… 1.1.4.1 Context of situation……………………………………………… 1.1.4.2 Context versus Co-text…………………………………………… 1.1.5 Thematisation………………………………………………………8 1.1.5.1 Theme and rheme………………………………………………… 1.1.5.2 Types of theme…………………………………………………… 1.1.6 Cohesion………………………………………………………… 1.1.6.1 Definition of cohesion…………………………………………… 1.1.6.2 Types of cohesion……………………………………………… 10 1.1.6.2.1 Reference ……………………………………………………… 10 1.1.6.2.2 Substitution……………………………………………………….13 Bïi ThÞ V©n - 44B1 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements 1.1.6.2.3 Ellipsis………………………………………………………… 14 1.1.6.2.4 Conjunction………………………………………………………15 1.2 The discourse of advertising…………………………………… 17 1.2.1 Definition of advertising…………………………………………17 1.2.2 Classification of advertising…………………………………… 18 1.2.2.1 Non-commercial advertising…………………………………… 19 1.2.2.2 Commercial advertising………………………………………… 20 1.2.3 Objectives of advertising…………………………………………20 1.2.4 Role of language in advertising………………………………… 21 Chapter II: An analysis of English commercial Advertisements………………………………… 22 2.1 The structure of an commercial advertisement…………………… 22 2.1.1 Headline……………………………………………………………23 2.1.2 Body……………………………………………………………… 24 2.1.3 Signature……………………………………………………………25 2.2 Cohesion……………………………………………………………26 2.2.1 Cohesive devices………………………………………………… 27 2.2.1.1 Reference………………………………………………………….27 2.2.2 Substitution……………………………………………………… 32 2.2.3 Ellipsis………………………………………………………… 33 2.2.4 Conjunction…………………………………………………………35 2.3 Thematisation……………………………………………………… 38 2.3.1 Unmarked theme…………………………………………………….39 2.3.2 Marked theme……………………………………………………… 39 Conclusion……………………………………………………………41 Review of major findings…………………………………………… 41 Implication for advertisement writers42 References Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements Appendix introduction Rationale of the study Since the appearance of advertising, it has become one of the most effective strategies of business in increasing their out-put The out-put of a product partly depends on the strategy of advertising This is proved in reality by thousands of products which are well advertised Although few people admit to being greatly influenced by advertising, surveys and sale figures show that a well-designed advertising campaign has dramatic effects Therefore, a lot of money is spent on advertising For example, in 1997, in the U.S alone, over $175 billion USD was spent on it Advertising can be seen as necessary for economic growth Developing an advertising strategy to achieve the objectives of a campaign requires that consideration be given in both the message which will be communicated and the media through which it will be sent However, apart from the used media, the message plays an important role in achieving the objectives In order to this, the language that is used to write advertising message must be positive, attractive, beautiful, etc Thus, research on the language of advertising is very necessary Moreover, Vietnam has been official member of the World Trade Organization which is considered as the opportunity for businesses in Vietnam to introduce their own products to the world If they want to introduce or sell their products, firstly, they have to advertise them to the customers in the world It is no exaggeration to say that advertising can lead to the success or failure of a product The fact is that many Vietnamese companies have not paid attention to how to advertise well or how to write an effective advertising message Specially, almost advertisements for foreigners are written in English For all reasons above, I Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements decide to choose “A discourse Analysis of English Commercial advertisements” to be the theme of my thesis Aims of the study Originating from the reasons above, the aims of the study are: - To emphasize the important role of language in a advertising campaign to businesses - To clarify some special features of the language used in advertisements - To analyze the structure of an advertisement in magazine in terms of discourse analysis - To suggest some implications for advertisement writers in creating an effective advertising message Scope of the study Due to time and resource limitation, this study only focuses on the analysis of English commercial advertisements Thematisation and grammatical cohesion provided by Halliday and Hasan (1976) are used as the framework for data analysis Other types of lexical cohesion are out of the scope of the thesis The data analyzed in the thesis are advertisements in a magazine named “Chatelaine”, which is chosen by many advertisers in order to advertise their product because of the large number of readers who are mainly women Research Methods To achieve the mentioned aims, the following methods were employed: The first is reviewing the theories related to the study in order to shape up a framework for the analysis Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements The next is collecting some advertisements in “Chatelaine” magazine to analyze their structure as well as their cohesion Finally, based on the data shown from these advertisements, some conclusions and recommendations will be made Design of the study This study consists of three parts: Part one: Introduction In this part, the rationale, aims, scopes, methods and design of the thesis are introduced Part two: Development There are two chapters in this part: Chapter Theoretical background Chapter An analysis of English commercial advertisements Part three: Conclusion In this part, major findings are reviewed and then some applications as well as suggestions for further researches are provided Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements development chapter 1: theoretical background 1.1 Discourse and discourse analysis 1.1.1 Definition of discourse Since the appearance of new subject- Discourse analysis, linguists have new orientational point of view on the language They consider and study the language in the relation to the context in which it is used This viewpoint is different from traditional linguists’ one that only concentrate on phonological, lexical, and syntactical features However, the term “discourse” is defined in different ways The term discourse refers to the interpretation of the communicative event in the context A discourse, according to Crystal (1992:25) is “a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit, such as a sermon, argument, joke or narrative.” The notion “discourse” is defined by Cook (1989:156) as “stretches of language perceived to be meaningful, unified and purposive” that is the best to apply in this study 1.1.2 Spoken discourse and written discourse There are two forms of language: spoken and written discourse However, spoken language emerged before written one According to Halliday (1985:6), cultural changes which created new communicative needs resulted in the emergence of a new form of language-writing Brown and Yule (1983:13) suggest that spoken and written discourse share some common functions The first is to establish and maintain human relationships (interactional use) and the second is to transfer information (transactional use) Also, David Nunan (1995) believes that they both perform an equivalent range of Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements broad functions, that is, it is used to get things done, to provide information and entertain However, there are some different points between written and spoken discourse The major difference between them is taken from the fact that spoken discourse is changeable and written discourse is permanent Written discourse is often edited and structured while spoken discourse is considered to be less planned and orderly, more open to intervention by the receivers (Cited in To Viet Thu 2001MA thesis) According to Raphael Sakies (1993), the contexts for using written language are very different from those in which spoken language is used For example, in the case of information, written discourse is used to communicate with others who are removed in time and space, for those occasions on which a permanent or semipermanent record is required To summarize, spoken and written discourse share some common points in their functions, however, they are different in term of communicative need, the way of production, and context and these differences are not absolute because the characteristics that we tend to associate with written language can sometimes occur in spoken language and vice versa This study uses the term Discourse for any written record of a communicative event in context Thus, the analysis of English commercial advertisement means the analysis of print advertisements in magazine 1.1.3 Discourse analysis All traditional linguists-from the phonetician, through the grammarian, to the discourse analyst-are concerned with identifying regularities and patterns in Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements language However, in different situation the same grammatical form can have different functions The different situations will have different roles of relationships, different purposes and different settings that are the main factors deciding the function of a grammatical form Discourse analysis is interested in all these factors and tries to account for them in a rigorous fashion In other words, discourse analysis is interested in written/spoken discourses, but fully contextualized both in terms of the surrounding text and of the key features of the situation (context) It is in this respect that discourse analysis adds something extra to traditional linguistics Guy Cook (1989: 3) also claims that “discourse analysis examines how stretches of language, considered in their full textual, social, and psychological context, become meaningful and unified for their users” The ultimate aim of this analytical work is both to show and to interpret the relationship between these regularities and the meaning and purposes expressed through discourse Therefore, discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between language and the context in which it is used, that is, it involves the study of language in use: written texts of all kinds, and spoken data from conversations to highly formal forms of speech This study analyzes the language of commercial advertising in the magazine “Chatelaine” in the relation to the context of advertising 1.1.4 Discourse context 1.1.4.1 The context of situation In discourse analysis, context of situation, or context is an important factor that can not be dissociated when interpreting the discourse “A context can support a range of meaning” (Hymes, quoted in Brown and Yule, 1983) According to Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements David Nunan (1983:7), “context refers to the situation giving rise to the discourse and within which the discourse is embedded” He also divides context into types: linguistic and non-linguistic The linguistic context is the language that surrounds or accompanies the piece of discourse under analysis The nonlinguistic context includes the type of communicative event, the topic, the purpose of the event, the setting, the participants and the relationships between them and the background knowledge and assumptions underlying the communicative event This viewpoint of Nunan is much similar to that of Halliday and Hasan (1976) who claim that when responding to a spoken or a written passage (discourse or text), the receiver employs not only linguistic clues, but also situational ones Linguistically, he responds to specific features which bind the passage together, the pattern of connection, independence of structure, that we are referring to as cohesion; situationally, he takes into account all he knows of the environment: What is going on, what part of language is playing, and who are involved.(cited in Dang Huu Phuoc 2006:7- Graduation Thesis) It is undeniable that the contexts, both linguistic and non-linguistic contexts are important to discourse interpretation as ‘there are good arguments for limiting the field of study to make it manageable, but it is also true to say that the answer to the question of what gives discourse its unity may be impossible to give without considering the world at large: the context’ (Cook, 1989:10) As mentioned above, both linguistic and non-linguistic contexts appear to be relevant to the analysis of English commercial advertising 1.1.4.2 Context versus co-text It is obvious that context is different from co-text David Nunan (1995) holds that co-text is considered the linguistic element and context the non-linguistic one Taking about context, Brown and Yule (1983) state that “any sentence other than Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 10 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements Headline Cooking, baking or beverages Lacteeze for all the pleasure and comfort milk is meat to bring to your life Body Try lactose reduced Lacteeze and you’ll wonder why you ever thought that developing lactose intolerance would mean giving up the great taste of milk Whether used in cooking, baking or beverages, Lacteeze products provide an excellent source of dietary calcium, taste great and can be enjoyed by all the family- so, there’s no need to buy two kinds of milk! Partly skimmed 2%, 1% or skim milk, and five varieties of yogurt, are from Canada’s own Lacteezze, the originator of lactose reduced milk Signature LACTEEZE For the current Lacteeze recipe collection, visit www.gaylea.com or write: Lacteeze Recipes, P.O Box 192, Malton, ON l4T 3B6 (Chatelaine, February 2000) And any copywriting of an advertisement is usually structure around three principles: Revive or create a need The advertisers try to make people believe that there is a problem using vocabulary which shows wants and needs like ‘ Do you want, need…? Have you ever felt…? Satisfy that need It means that producers tell their consumers: ‘Do not worry about the problem we are your friends and here to help solve it.’ They of course highlight the benefits and features, give some facts and figures Call for action by using imperatives like: phone today, come and test drive it before it’s late (in a sense putting people under pressure to take action) Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 26 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements 2.1.1 Headline The headline is a brief introduction about the message It also aims at attracting readers’ attention and decides whether the readers continue to read or not When having a glance at the headline, readers can get the main idea of the message and if it is of their interest, they may decide to read the rest of the text It is more important to an advertisement which needs the number of readers as much as possible Therefore, the headline of an advertisement is often about the outstanding characteristics of the product and briefly written, only containing content words Some headlines are written in normal style (full form- SVO) like in (1), (2) but almost of them aren’t like in (3), (4) (5) (1)Kids will anything to get their hands on them (2)We’ve been on a roll for 67 years Now we’ve popped yap with another big idea (3) 20 years of Flare (4) Cruise control (5) Strength and shine, united Daily clarifying shampoo and strengthening complex In our survey, about 70,5 % of the headline contains the name of the product It is vital strategy to advertise its image and give impression to readers To producers, how to remind the name of the product in consumers’ mind is the most important thing Thus, a lot of advertisements begin with its name like in the following examples (1) NIVEA care for yourself (2) AQUA RELAX Body Care with Essential Oils Replenish your body, relax your mind Bïi ThÞ V©n - 44B1 27 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements In addition, the headline is always written in the bigger size compared to other parts in an advertisement It is considered as an effective way to attract the reader; therefore, almost advertisements in Chatelaine use this 2.1.2 Body Body is the largest part of an advertisement which details the necessary information for the reader This part is only casually devoted to the topic called out in the headline After having a glance at the headline, the readers desire to know more details about the product so that the advertisers want to give them as much as possible However, readers only spend a little time to read an advertisement and due to the high cost of advertising, the producers only give the most necessary information for the readers such as the superior features of product, its positive benefits, and the address where the consumers can buy the product, etc The advertisements in Chatelaine show this feature; their bodies are very short, often including one paragraph Some bodies only conclude two sentences like in the following example: Made with 100% real fruit, Fruit To Go is the easiest way to give your kids a healthy treat And with flavors to choose from, even the pickiest eaters will be satisfied (Chatelaine, 2000) The table below shows the average length of a body in all advertisements taken into analysis, as far as the number of paragraphs and sentences are concerned: Total of bodies Paragraphs Total Per body Sentences Total 62 69 1,1 304 Table 2.1: Statistics of body of material selected Bïi Thị Vân - 44B1 Per body Per paragraph 4,9 4,4 28 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements Although this part is shortly written, the advertisers try to persuade the consumers to buy their products They may give out a problem which the consumers have, then only solution for them Here is an example: Although you may not know it, you may be at risk for heart disease and stroke The No.1 cause of death for Canadian women, heart disease and stroke are deceptive killers often undiagnosed, and there fore untreated Your best offence is a good defense Reducing risk factors is key to your protection Here, the Heart and Stroke foundation help three women get hearthealthy The body of this text consists of paragraphs with sentences, each part dealing with different additional details These parts are structured closely, the problemheart disease and stroke is given firstly and then the solution-heart and stroke foundation And the cohesive devices are used to create cohesion for the whole text This is common way which is often used in advertising As the consumers see that this product or service is the best one for them, they will buy it Therefore, advertisers always try to create a believable emotion for consumers Many other bodies only detail the superior characteristics of this product like in the following examples: (1) Experience the beneficial powers of essential oils right at home with a new line of body care Breathe in pure, soothing essences Relax in a gentle bath of softness Feel the sensuous, smooth textures Rediscover your skin’s sensuality and well-being (2) The best fashion in the world is available right here in Canada and Flare is your inside source on where to get it International and Canadian Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 29 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements fashion, cosmetics, place to go- all you have to is open a copy of Flare to find out what’s new and fabulous They give the readers an emotion that these products can satisfy all their demands and are the best ones in the world To have this emotion, the text must be cohesive, all sentences in the text focus on one topic and cohesive devices are used to link them cohesively 2.1.3 Signature It is also an important part of an advertisement It is very short, only contain the name or symbol of the product and its address It seems that this part is not important as the other parts In fact, it adds the memoritablity of the product and the effectiveness of the advertisements 2.2 Cohesion Cohesion is a term from the work on textual structure by Halliday and Hasan, given to the logical linkage between textual units, as indicated by formal markers of the relations between texts Each piece of text must be cohesive with the adjacent ones for a successful communication However, readers are very creative interpreters, and formal properties of cohesion are typically not marked overtly Advertising language tends not to use clear markers of cohesion, but is interpreted as being coherent as the notion of coherence extends to the relation between text and image 2.2.1 Cohesive devices Cohesive devices are considered common in different discourses The difference between discourses is the frequency of using Some discourses use this device frequently but the others use the other devices that depend on the impressive purpose of the writer However, all devices are used with the aim of making the Bïi Thị Vân - 44B1 30 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements discourse cohesive In this part, we only discuss the grammatical cohesion which often appears in this type of discourse 2.2.1.1 Reference References are words whose meaning can only be discovered by referring to other words or to elements of the context which are clear to both sender and receiver According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), it is divided into three types, including personal, demonstrative and comparative Reference is one of the most common devices used in advertisements of “Chatelaine” It is rather understandable for the fact that it is an effective device to make an advertisement more attractive and cohesive This is illustrated in the example below: It doesn’t come any clearer than this It is a headline of Echo Spring premium bottled water advertisement When the readers read this headline, the referent of the demonstrative “this” doesn’t appear It gives the reader a curiosity to continue reading The question “what is this?” appear in their mind They want to read the detail in order to know more about this It is a way for the advertisers to attract the reader to read their advertisements Our survey shows that three types of reference are found in advertisements of “Chatelaine” Here is example for illustration: Hung up trying to get odors out of Fabric? The solution is here Don’t wait until you get to the end of your rope Febreze safely cleans a way odors from so many of your favorite fabrics For good And it doesn’t just cover one smell with another Febreze actually cleans the odors away No wonder you can find it in the laundry aisle Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 31 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements Cleans bad smells out of fabrics For good We can find all types of reference here; however, the most preferably used is personal reference This fact can be summed up in the table below Total of reference 416 Personal 364 Demonstrative 28 Comparative 24 100% 87,5% 6,7% 5,8% Table 2.2: The statistic of reference in “Chatelaine” magazine’s advertisements In 62 advertisements, personal references appear frequently with three categories: first person, second person and third person The table below shows the statistic of three types of reference Personal reference First person Second person Third person 364 54 184 126 100% 14,83% 50,55% 34.62% Table 2.3: The statistic of three types of personal reference The first personal references, like “we, our” appeared 54 times, accounting for 14,83% and the second ones, like “you, your, yourself” appear 184 times, accounting for 50,55% And the pronoun “you” was the most common word in these advertisements This suggests that these advertisements are more personalized towards the viewer (as opposed to the speaker) Halliday and Hasan(1976) claim that within the speech roles, the English person system recognizes only speaker I and addressee you, making no distinction according to the number of addressee and speaker In advertising, the advertisers Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 32 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements want to communicate directly with the readers who will be potential source of consumers The words “we”, “our” address the advertiser or the producers and “you”, “your”, “yourself” address the readers or the consumers The readers of the magazine “Chatelaine” are mainly woman; therefore, advertisements advertise the products which need for them such as lipstick and powder, soap, cream, etc When advertisers identify their own consumers, the consumers desire to read their advertisements The first and second personal references used in these advertisements not refer to the antecedent referents which are mentioned in the text but the real referents who are the advertisers and the readers Halliday and Hasan also suggest that “First and second forms not normally refer to the text at all; their referents are defined by the speech roles of speaker and hearer, and hence they are normally interpreted exophorically, by reference to situation”(1976:48) A written text as a whole has its outer context of situation, in which the writer may refer exophorically either to himself, as I or we, or to his reader, as you It seems that “exophoric reference make no contribution to the cohesion of a text But it is worth noting, perhaps, that this ‘institutionalized’ exophora makes no demands either on verbal context or on the context of situation”( Halliday and Hasan, 1976:53) The hearer or the reader does not feel obliged to ask “Who are?”, and they sense that the message is complete Almost advertisements in Chatelaine use this type of reference Here are some examples for illustrating: (1) It doesn’t come any clearer than this Our promise is clear Try us for 30 days, if you are not 100% satisfied with the pure, clear taste of Echo spring premium bottled water or our service, you can cancel and we will refund your money Pure and simple, no body delivers like Echo springs which is why Echo Springs has captured the international Bottled Water Associations coveted Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 33 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements ‘Excellence in Manufacturing Award’ three years running And why Echo Springs continues to be the clear winner in more homes and offices throughout Canada Call today for our free home or office bottled water delivery, cooler rentals or for information on any of our products and services (Chatelaine, 2000) (2) The Biore’ self- Heating Mask heat cleans your face in just 60 seconds The best deep pore cleansing ever happen to your face Only the Biore’ mask heats up instantly to liquefy oily residue, lifting it from your face for the deepest clean possible After just 60 seconds, the Biore’ mask rinses easily away, leaving you with nothing but softer, more radiant skin Heat – cleans in one minute (Chatelaine, 2000) These advertisements which advertise bottled water and cream are personalized toward viewers The pronoun “you”, “your”, “we”, and “our” are used in many times The advertisers desire to make personal connection to their readers, examine the advertisement featuring The readers of this magazine are mainly woman so that these advertisements tend to challenge the reader to become healthier, stronger and more beautiful The producers try to create an emotion that these products are the most suitable and the best for the readers when they read it Therefore, the use of the first and second personal reference creates direct connection between reader and advertiser and it appeals to the reader’s emotions Another type of reference frequently used in advertising should be mentioned here is third person forms The use the pronouns “it, its, itself, their, them refer back Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 34 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements to the mentioned product is very often This is a preferable way in advertising as the reference is used to refer a lexical item without repetition, wordiness As mentioned earlier, the chief purpose of commercial advertising is to introduce the product so the whole text focuses on one topic- the product The anaphoric type of reference is the most natural and easiest way to carry out this Halliday and Hasan (1976) pointed out that “it is only anaphoric type of reference that is relevant to cohesion, since it provides a link with a preceding portion of the text” Our data shows that, this type of reference is used frequently This can be illustrated in the following example: Now there’s a way to stay even drier Want a better way to stay dry? Only Kotex Ultra Thins with Wings have a Comfort- Dry top sheet Its double-sided design makes it three times drier than the leading brand There’s even a unique safety Zone design that helps prevent leaks Because when it comes to comfortable protection, drier is definitely better Presenting Kotex Ultra You’ve got it together with Kotex Thins with Wings One occurrence of the product named “Kotex Ultra Thins with Wings” at the beginning of the text is followed by an indefinitely large number of occurrences of “its, it”, all to be interpreted by reference to the original “Kotex Ultra Thins with Wings” This phenomenon contributes very markedly to the internal cohesion of a text, since it creates a kind of network of lines of reference, each occurrence being linked to all its processors up to and including the initial reference The number and density of such networks is one of the factors which gives to any text its particular flavor or texture Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 35 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements Other types of reference conclude demonstrative and comparative which are also used here but with far less frequency, only accounting for 6,7%, 5.8% respectively The pronouns “this, that, these, those” are demonstrative as post modifier of noun phrase and the word “another” is a common word of comparative reference They can be illustrated in the following example: What is your sign? Everyone has a mood or feel that they’re going for when they begin a decorating project Color your world has just gone that extra step and made getting it really, really easy by introducing the language of color decorating system Basically it works like this Everything we sell (wall paper, carpet, paint, accessories, whatever) is broken down into for basic mood groups: vibrant, fresh, warm and calm Each of these have their own sign and the items within that mood group all share characteristics which make them complementary to one another All you have to is choose the mood, or sign, that best fits the decorating style You want and choose the items accordingly That way you get a fantastic looking project every time To find out more and other helpful decorating tips, pick up the new color magazine in our stores Hey, it beats the heck out of Astrology 2.2.1.2 Substitution The term substitution can be defined as the replacement of one item by another There are some special words in English which contribute to cohesion by substituting for words that already were used The most important of these special words are one, (or one of the other forms of do, namely does, did, done and doing) and so Substitution concludes three types: nominal substitution, verbal substitution and clausal substitution Bïi ThÞ V©n - 44B1 36 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements In advertising, substitution is not popular cohesive devices even rarely seen as the advertisers aim to create the clarity and sufficiency of product However, substitution is used here and there in advertisements of the magazine “Chatelaine” Here is an example: A light, undetectable, long-wearing foundation that becomes one with your skin In the above example, the word “one” is used to substitute the phrase noun “A light, undetectable, long-wearing foundation” used before 2.2.1.3 Ellipsis Another cohesive device should be taken into consideration in adverting is ellipsis In certain contexts it is possible to leave out a word or phrase rather then repeating it This device is called ellipsis which is subdivided into three types: nominal ellipsis, verbal ellipsis and clausal ellipsis All these subtypes occur in studied advertisements The following examples provide excellent illustrations of this kind: E.g.: (1) Everyone has a mood or feel that they’re going for when they Nominal ellipsis begin a decorating project (2) Each of these have their own sign and the items within that Clausal ellipsis mood group all share characteristics which make them complimentary to one another (3) Call today for our free home or office bottled water delivery, cooler rentals or for information on any of our products and services Verbal ellipsis Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 37 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements In these example we have marked the place where words are left out with the symbol It is not hard to say which words have been omitted: everyone in (1), each of these have in (2), call today in (3) Our analysis has shown a rather high number of ellipsis exhibited in advertisements of the magazine “Chatelaine” The number of instances of each subtypes of ellipsis is indicated in table 2.4 Total of ellipsis Nominal Verbal Clausal 60 34 22 100% 56,7% 6,67% 36,67% Table 2.4: The statistic of ellipsis in “Chatelaine” magazine’s Advertisements The most interesting feature of ellipsis in “Chatelaine” advertisements is the strikingly high number of nominal ellipsis that accounts for 56,7% The nominal group left out in the text of advertising is often the title of the product or something related to the product It is understandable that the omitted words add the memory for the readers as they try to find these words when reading this advertisement This way reminds the readers of the name of product, creates the sense that this product has uncountable positive features This can also explain why verbal ellipsis is rarely used here Therefore, this device makes not only the text cohesive but also advertising more effective Here are some examples: (1) Q10 occurs naturally in the skin and helps you look younger (2) Our brush-like comb lifts, curls and detangles your lashes (3) For sensational shine, crystal clear clarifying shampoo cleans up build-up, Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 38 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements leaves hair fresh, free, dazing 2.2.1.4 Conjunction Conjunctive relation is a way of setting up the logical relations between elements which may be up to the size of paragraphs “Conjunction is a specification of the way in which what is to follow is systematically connected to what has gone before” (Halliday and Hasan, 1976:227) In this thesis, we will adopt the scheme of four categories: additive, adversative, causal, and temporal In our investigation, the cohesive device “conjunction” is frequently used in advertising The percentage of each types of conjunction is indicated in the table below Total of conjunction Additive Causal Adversative Temporal 136 102 22 2,94% “Chatelaine” 5,88% magazine’s 100% Table2.5: The advertisements 75% 16,2% statistic of conjunction in Our data show that the highest number of instances of conjunction lies with Additive which accounts for 75% And the word “and” seems to be the most common to express Additive in these advertisements This word may simply add more information to what has already been said or introduce new information In addition, “when the ‘and’ relation operates conjunctively, between sentences, to give cohesion to a text- or rather to create text, by cohering one sentence to another- it is restricted to just a pair of sentences” (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 234) They can explain why this word is preferably used in advertisement We can see this in the following: (1) It doesn’t come any clearer than this Bïi ThÞ V©n - 44B1 39 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements Our promise is clear Try us for 30 days, if you are not 100% satisfied with the pure, clear taste of Echo spring premium bottled water or our service, you can cancel and we will refund your money Pure and simple, no body delivers like Echo springs which is why Echo Springs has captured the international Bottled Water Association’s coveted ‘Excellence in Manufacturing Award’ three years running And why Echo Springs continues to be the clear winner in more homes and offices throughout Canada Call today for our free home or office bottled water delivery, cooler rentals or for information on any of our products and services (Chatelaine,1999) The additive conjunction is also expressed by other words like “or”, “in fact” After these conjuncts, new information will be given that is very important to advertising In this way, advertisers give new product features, price reductions or other important product information in order to satisfy the consumers’ demand It can be clearly illustrated in the following examples: (1) Fat free muffins that taste good Pinch your self, while you still have something to pinch Not your typical muffin Added Touch Fat Free Muffins They’re the first, and only, fat free muffin But don’t worry, they don’t taste fat free In fact, they taste like Banana, Apple Cinnamon, Lemon popyseed, Carrot and Oatmeal (Chatelaine, 1998) (2) Allergy tested and perfume free, Multi- Defense is a daily moistureizer that never blocks pores or feels greasy Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 40 ... the analysis of English commercial advertisements Thematisation and grammatical cohesion provided by Halliday and Hasan (1976) are used as the framework for data analysis Other types of lexical... analysis of English commercial advertisement means the analysis of print advertisements in magazine 1.1.3 Discourse analysis All traditional linguists-from the phonetician, through the grammarian,... shape up a framework for the analysis Bùi Thị Vân - 44B1 A discourse analysis of English Commercial Advertisements The next is collecting some advertisements in “Chatelaine” magazine to analyze