Schematic Analysis of Linguistic Features of Advertisements

hwsy@overseaen.comISSN 1009- -5039htp://ww.overcaen.comOverseas English海外英语Tel:+86- -551-65690811 65690812Schematic Analysis of Linguistic Features of AdvertisementsLIUji-xin(China West Normal University, Nanchong 637002,China)Abstract: Advertising constitutes an indispensable part of moderm life, promoting sales and channeling consumption. Further-more, the daily conversation is also strongly influenced by advertising language. In this research, schema theory is employed toanalyze the graphological, phonological, lexical, grammatical and discoursal features of the advertising language and the cogni-tive change they bring about among the audience, aiming at helping the consumers have a better understanding of advertise-ments and helping the designers produce better works.Key words: advertising; graphological features; phonological features; lexical features ; grammatical features; discourse fea-tures ;cognitive change中图分类号:H31文献标识码:A 文 章编号: 1009- -5039(2015)22- -0229-031 Introductionmata as they are (Cook, 1995)”, meanwhile maintaining the worldschemata intact, because the existing ones in the audience are soWith the development of socialist market economy, advertise-strong that it is unnecessary to change. In advertising, only canments have penetrated into every stratum of society, becoming anthose well- known and widely accepted services and products haveindispensable part of everyday life. According to Fang Wei (1997),the privilege to use the intact advertisements (limited in the areasadvertising is usually a paid form of non- personal presentation ofof slogans and brands, etc.). The preservation of these schematainformation and persuasive in nature about ideas, producets or ser- can activate them and bring them alive easily.vices through various media. It defines for consumers the meaningand role of products and services and the distinguishing character-(2)GouBuLi (狗不理)istics of companies and institutions. Moreover, it tells the consum-The above two examples are brands of products. Example 1) isers the e>ences of using these pproducts and services. Therefore, the brand of a kind of popular soft drinks. It can remind people ofit plays an extremely important role in promoting sales and channel-the good taste of the drink where the brand is present. Example (2)ing consumption in modern society.is originally the name of a kind of stuffed steamed bun in Tianjin inThere are a lot of aricles pertaining to the linguistic features China. It has evolved into a fast food chain store. The literal mean-of English advrtisements or Chinese advertisements or contrastiveing of“GouBuLi" is that the stuffed steamed bun in which evenstudy between the two. Yet they are only addressed as autonomousdog has no interest. Although the originalobjects- -isolated texts without the audience (usually refer to thestuffed steamed bun businessman Gouzi (the nickname means pup-consumers) being considered. It is undoubtedly that their work ispy) is too busy to cater for all the customers with some being ne-very helpful in arousing the awareness of the particular features ofglected. Since then, people start to address him“GouBuLi" (Gouziadvertisements among the audience. However, advertising is per-ignores the customers’ orders). Any change or replacement 0suasive and significant only when it is related to a specific group ofthese two brands will cause a loss of the commercial influence andaudience.cultural meaning in them. This will be ultimately beyond the cus-Cook (1995) proposes that primary function of certain distomers recognition.courses is to effect a change in the schemata of their readers. Jacob-son (1960, cited in Cook, 1995) also advocates that one function of3 Schemata Reinforcinglanguage is the conative function that is to seek to affect the behav-By schemata reinforcing is meant that“leaving existing sche-ior of the addressee. Advertisement is such kind of discourse thatmata stronger than before (Cook, 1995)’ . (In connectionist terms,its main function is to disrupt the language and text schemata ofincreasing the‘strength” of a schema may mean increasing thespeific group of audience, while preserving, reinforing or refresh- weightings in neural connections, and the result of this will be thating the world schemata. Among the three, schemata refreshment isthe schema is activated more readily, and departures from it accept-proved to be most influential and persuasive. Thus, how the linguis-ess easily.) In advertising, the products and services which aretic features afeet schemata of the audience and what kind of cogni-already known to the audience sometimes apply the abridged andtive change they bring about among the audience will be analyzedsimplified advertisements to reinforce the brand image among thein details in this paper.audience. Besides this, the proliferation of new products and servic-2 Schemata Preservinges urge the application of the deviation of linguistic and textual for-As to schemata preserving, it refers to“leaving existing sche-mation to achieve the purpose of schemata reinforcing and schema-中国煤化工收稿日期:2015-09-25修回日期:2015-10-12THCNMHG基金项目:西华师范大学青年教师科研资助项目“大学英语听说课堂上教师模糊限制语之功能研究"(编号:13D027)作者简介:刘吉欣(1980- -),男,四川广元人,西华师范大学讲师,硕士,主要研究方向为应用语言学。本栏目责任编辑:谢嫒嫒Overseas English海外英语2015年11月ta refreshment as well, which will be explained in detail in next sec- tion equipments) the company provides. Example (6) is an adver-tisement for Finance Management W eekly. The rearrangement of4 Schemata Refreshingthe same series of syllables creates a sense of humor and prosodicfeeling. It also reveals the function of this kind of magazine clearly.Due to the fierce competition, human being' s capacity to The function is to help you to manage your finance. The one whoadapt to new situation and their psychic desires for new experienc- does not buy this kind of magazine will lose the opportunity toes, advertising mostly employs linguistic and textual deviation to reach fortune.activate the established schemata, add new information to reinforce4.1.3 Lexical deviationthem and utimately effect a ognitive change (schema refreshment)among the audience. In this way, the audience will be strongly in-Lexical deviation exploits lexical ambiguity, polysemy, andfluenced and persuaded to buy the products and services.homonymy both at the relatively fixed semantic level of denotation,and at the discoursal level of meaning in context. This type of devi-4.1 Language deviationation will cause unnecessary reflective meaning, prolonging the pro-The deviant language structures are the most frequent meth- cess of interpretation. It will also arouse a strong curiosity and inter-ods used to achieve the schema refreshment. The deviant language est in the advertisement. However, the excessive use of this devicestructures usually exploit graphological, phonological, lexical, will also cause hostility among some audience because of the un-grammatical deviation for the realization of this effect.pleasant reflective meaning the advertisement arouses.4.1.1 Graphological deviation(7)默默无“蚊”的奉献(8)人类没有联想,世界将会怎样?The advertising makes use of graphological devices which is .(9)She wants to put her tongue in your mouth.occasionally though sporadically used in poetry (Van Peer, 1993,(10)Should women be interested in bigger balls?cited in Cook, 1995). These graphological devices include choiceExample 7) is an advertisement for Jingling mosquito- repel-of type- size, color, punctuation, capitalization, spacing, and so onlent incenses.' Momowuwen” is a Chinese idiom means that some-in a text. This deviation of normal writing system is different fromone devotes him/her to his or her business without being known tothe audience' S language schemata on the counterpart, prolongingthe public. Here the use of the homophone “wen" which meansprocess ofperception and interpretation and increasing the aes-mosquito reveals two features of the products:①the mosquito- re-thetice values. This deviation will definitely produce greater influ- pellent incenses is very eficacious in the elimination of the mosqui-ence upon the audience.toes with lttle disturbing smog being produced due to the applica-(3) Be touchedtion of quality charcoal powder instead of the traditional powderyby the fragrancebarks and wood;②the products are famous for its the mosquitothat toucheskilling efficacy rather than its advertisement, which reiterating thethe woman.truth the advertisement conveys. Example 8) is the advertisement(4) PLEASEfor Lenovo computer. The use of the word“Lianxian”creates ambi-GIVEguity. The literal meaning of“Lianxian”is imagination. The adver-BL CODtisement may be interpreted as“what if human being lost the abili-ty to imagine?" or “ what shall human being do without the LenovoIF YoU ARE OVER 18 AND HEALTHY,computer?" The implied meaning is that Lenovo computer is impor-WE NEED YOUR HELPtant to human beings as imagination does. These two examples areCOME AND GIVE BLOOD AT: .very persuasive and interesting because of the reflective meaningEDINBURGH UNIVERSITY CHAPLAINCY CENTERthey activate.BRISTO STREETMost people will misinterpret example (9) as the advertise-Example (3) is an advertisement for a kind of perfume Eliza-ment for dating service or call- girl service with the misleadingbeth Tailor' s Passion. On the graphic level, the varying lengths ofwords and a picture of a beautiful girl as its background. Actually,the four lines allow the text to reproduce iconically the hexagonalit is the advertisement for the Hong Kong learming Language Cen-shape of the perfume bottle, reminding the audience of the perfumeter. The advertisement successfully employs the polysemantic wordvividly by application of graphology. Example (4) is an advertise-“tongue”which can both mean an organ in the body used for speak-ment for blood donation. The substitution of“00”for symbols ofing and language to create ambiguity of meaning, and which pro-hearts tells vividly the donation of blood manifests the good virtuelongs the process of interpretation and builds new schema easily.and warm- heartedness, which are more persuasive than the use ofExample (10) is the advertisement for female roll-on Odor Elimina-only words. .tor which is called Sure. This advertisement is for women audience.4.1.2 Phonological deviation‘Ball’usually can activate the connection with the audience' sAdvertising tends to use the patterming of stressed and un-schemata of the rolling balls in this product and the testicles ofstressed syllables to create rhythms, and of phonemes to createman. Although examples (9) (10) successfully arouse the interestrhyme, alliteration, consonance, assonance, and the other sound ef-and curiosity among the audience, some audience also criticize thefects. This kind of deviation from the normality focuses more onunpleasant reflective meaning it activate.form rather than meaning to increase aesthetic value of sound, en-4.1.4 Grammatical deviationable the audience to establish new schemata and activate the sche-Advertsing usually employs ungrammatical expressions tomata more easily.create ambiguity and novelty, achieving the purpose of catching the(5) We integrate, you communicate.audience' seye中国煤化工ma easily.(6)你不理财,财不理你。(11)威力,Example (5) is an advertisement for Mitsubishi Elctric. Th(12)把美味YHCNMHGrhyme makes it easier to reveal and remember the main productsand services (the research, invention and production of communica-chine.“Weili" means powerful. However, to use them separately230 /研究7本栏目责任编辑:谢媛嫒2015年11月.Overseas English海外英语as an adjective does not conform to the norm of grammar. Example self makes the advertisement sound more authoritative and reliable.(12) is the advertisement for egg roll. The verb“juan” (wrap) does”5 Conclusionnot collocate with the abstract nouns“meiwei" (relish) and“ying-ang”(nutrition). These deviations of code undoubtedly arouse theIn this research, schema theory was used to analyze the graph-interest and novelty among the audience. But some people also crit- ological, phonological, lexical, grammatical and discoursal featuresicize these deviations will corupt the correct use of language.of the advertising language and the cognitive change they bring4.2 Textual deviationabout among the audience. Yet schemata comprise‘ world schema-ta”，“text schemata” and “language schemata ”. The process ofAdvertising usually employs deviant text structure to achieveschema refreshment involves not only the interaction between the :the schema refreshment efect. These deviant structures compriseacademic, poetic texts and texts in a story and news form etc.ence' s schemata but also the interaction between the world knowl-(13)edge created by the language and textual structures and the worldschemata of the audience. Therefore, the acceptability of the cultur-al and psychological deviation, which constitutes the main parts ofthe world knowledge, must be taken into consideration. Further-more, the interaction between schemata, text, and language andworld knowledge is multidimensional. The deviation of the lan-令酒禁guage and textual structures will exert a change on the world sche-此重曰禁生頭查mata and also language and text schemata themselves. That is whythe language and text deviations of the advertisements have a个饰罚之各啤等生strong influence upon our language use in various respects.九国十具經焉大啤The proces of schema refreshing is not static, but dynamic.Schemata are in constant flux: schemata are used in processing but萬克銷確事之also changed by processing. The end of one round of schema re-freshment commences the onset of another. That is why the audi-人生商保新新ence is bored with cliched advertisements. Thus, the greatest task民啤销酒上鮮。for the advertising is to maintain the schema refreshing on and on.幣違售民市乃References:者超利之我[1] Angela Goddard. The Language of Advertising[M]. London嚴過益具洒and New York: Routledge, 2005.[2] Cook G. The Discourse of Advertising[M]. London: Rout-懲,七嚴克民[3] Cook G. Discourse and Literature[M]. Shanghai: Shanghai For-eign Language Education Press, 1995.(14)经过50年的演变中国女排出现-颗巨星[4] Jacobson R. Closing statement: linguistics and poetics[C]// Se-身为职业运动员,必须保持最佳状态。我深深了解到在每beok T A. Style in Language. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press,次练习或比赛后,如未能及时补充体液，身体便会出现“体渴”1960: 350-77.现象,大大影响我的表现。在美国及意大利进修期间,我发现[5] Van Peer. Typographic foregrounding [J]. Language and litera-了一种彻底解除体渴的饮品一佳得乐。佳得乐令 我时刻保持巅峰状态。作为女排国家队教练,为[6]程立,程建华.英汉文化比较词典[M].长沙:湖南教育出版了令球员表现突出,我选佳得乐为女排的指定饮料。社, 2000.Example (13) is an advertisement for Beck ' s beer. The adver-[7]方薇.现代英语广告教程[M].南京:南京大学出版社, 1997.tisement is presented in a form of formal official notice in feudal so-[8]黄国文.语篇分析的理论与实践- -广 告语篇研究[M].上海:ciety in China. The diction and way of writing all take on the char-上海外语教育出版社, 2004.acteristics of the archaic code. Example (14) is an advertisement [9] 李力.图式:分类与运用.姜治文编外语教学与研究论文集for a kind of soft drink. It is presented in the form of a story. The ti-[C]重庆:西南师范大学出版社, 1994.tle on the other hand is in the form ofa piece of news. The story [10] 肖贤彬.语言的“陌生化”与广告词创作[]. 深圳大学学which is experienced by the famous volleyball player Langping her-报, 1994(3).中国煤化工MYHCNMHG本栏目责任编辑:谢媛嫒Y 逼奚逐魂 231