Ministry of Education of Ukraine

Kyiv Taras Shevchenko University

Faculty of Foreign Philology

Diploma Thesisp

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Chapter 1.  

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1.1. Definition of Advertising 7
1.2. Communication and Advertising 8
1.3. Functions of Advertising 12
1.4. Image Advertising 14
1.5. Advertising Text and Slogan 15
1.6. Conclusion 16
Chapter 2. ×  pp 
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2.1. General Characteristics of the Ad-slogan
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2.2. Lexis 19
2.3. Grammar 20
2.4. Style 23
2.5. Comparative Advertising 31
2.6.Conclusion 33
Chapter 3. i
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3.1. Pragmatics and Advertising 34
3.2. Concept of Appeal 37
3.3. Relational Aspects of Advertising 39
3.4. Speech Acts in Advertising 41
3.5. Conclusion 44
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The subject of this research is the analysis of the language of advertising and
its relation to social environment. The impact of advertising on the modern world is
increasing and thus became a major area of study from a broad multidisciplinary
approach. Sociology and psychology attempt to find possible ways of its influence on
society, mentality, mind, and human behavior. Linguistics emphasizes the literary
norms of the language used in advertising and the stylistic features of written and
spoken types of same. The objective of sociolinguistic study is to discover the
mechanism of the impact of advertising upon language as a variable entity and actual
linguistic process, which is demonstrated on the levels of style formation and word
formation of the language. New words to mean new ideas and new facts of mass
media society are the most broad and active field of new lexical developments in
modern languages.
Stylistic peculiarities of media texts (including advertising) tend to be
contrasted to other written and spoken styles to discover language variability as
paradigmatically and syntagmatically concerned process influenced by extralinguistic
factors. Internal and external factors of language variability are discussed as
possessing varying degrees of influence on text-formation and text-interpretation
components of mass media language.
This work is an attempt to examine how advertising differs from other types of
communication and what its functions and contents are. We should look at advertising
not only as an economic and social factor, but also as a form of communication with
specific goals and mechanisms of reaching it. Being a combination of both verbal and
non-verbal means, advertising makes a good object for linguistic and sociolinguistic
study.
This research deals with the verbal means used in advertising and analyzes
other aspects only as relevant to the verbal means. It is an attempt to analyze the
communicative and pragmatic aspects of the language of advertising, which is
regarded as a specific linguistic variety with a definite structure and communicative
goal.
 4

The choice of the subject of this study and its importance are conditioned by
the following reasons:
1/ Social significance of advertising, which has become an important social and ethnic
element of public life, as well as one of the most important forms of mass
communication. Nowadays, it is one of the objects closely inspected both by
linguistics and other sciences, such as psychology, sociology and philosophy.
2/ Prospective significance of the linguistic analysis of different genres and texts of
mass communication, which make up a source of important language transformations
resulting in the creation of a new literary norm.
3/ Growing interest of modern linguistics towards pragmatic factors of the
functioning and specific structural, semantic, communicative and pragmatic
organization of mass communication texts.
The scientific novelty of the work is based on the following facts:
1/ Specific features of the functioning of the language in advertising have not been
sufficiently studied;
2/ The advertising discourse is taking place under constantly changing conditions, and
therefore new phenomena and events, which need to be investigated, arise.
The object of this research is the language of advertising as represented in
advertising slogans (or ad-slogans), which are the most expressive means of the
advertising message. The use of this material is accounted for by the fact that the
language of ad-slogans displays high pragmatic intensity.
The research is based on the consecutive selection of 400 advertising slogans
from English language publications issued in the United States and the United
Kingdom.
The terminology used in the work includes the following terms, which are
regarded as distinctive categories of the advertising discourse:
- ad-slogan - a striking and easily remembered utterance, consisting of one or a
few brief, loud, emotionally loaded phrases, which are frequently used by the
company in order to create a positive attitude of the consumer towards the object of
advertising, as well as to secure its distinctiveness;
- ad-text - the body copy of advertising, giving details and additional
information about the object of advertising; an ad-slogan can be both a part of the ad-
 5

text, used to draw the consumer¶s attention to an advertisement, and an independent

mini-text, and in that case it can be referred to as an ad-text as well;
- Adspeak - the system of linguistic means used in the advertising discourse;
the socially determined language functioning in both ad-texts and ad-slogans, having a
definite pragmatic intention.
The principal objectives of the research are:
1/ to determine specific features of verbal and non-verbal means in ad-slogans (being
both a part of an advertising text and an independent mini-text);
2/ to evaluate the importance of the addresser¶s intention as a constructive element of
the composition, stylistic structure, as well as communicative and pragmatic direction
of the ad-slogan;
3/ to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the advertising slogan within the
framework of the advertising discourse.
The objectives are accomplished by making the following steps:
1/ establishing the leading extralinguistic factors, which determine the communication
process in advertising;
2/ reviewing the share of advertising text and ad-slogan in advertising and
communicative activities;
3/ analyzing structural, semantic, and functional peculiarities of an ad-slogan;
4/ defining the pragmatic aspects of advertising texts and ad-slogans;
5/ revealing certain communicative and pragmatic parameters of the ad-slogan.
Theoretical importance of the research subject is due to the following factors:
First, the influence of communicative and pragmatic factors on the
particularity of selection and functioning of linguistic means in advertising contributes
to the general linguistic theory, and the theory of functional styles in particular.
Second, the study of the role of intentional mechanisms in speech planning and their
implementation in the advertising seems a prospective approach within the speech
intention theory.
The practical value of the subject is its prospective application in teaching
practice of the English language and stylistics, while some of the outcome can be of
interest to advertising practitioners. The principles of speech and communicative
composition of advertising text slogans can be utilized when texts of advertising are
 6

compiled in the sphere of practical promotion, which has acquired new stimuli for
development in recent years.
Being a linguistic and semiotic unit, an advertising slogan can be analyzed
from the standpoint of several aspects: structural, semantic, stylistic, communicative
and pragmatic. This work consists of three chapters, and each of the chapters is
dedicated to the analysis of a certain aspect or aspects. However, analyses of different
aspects of an ad-slogan often overlap, and therefore, it does not seem reasonable to
carry out separate analyses of each aspect, which can be done more efficiently by
simultaneous approach.
The work consists of introduction, three chapters, conclusion, bibliography and
appendix.
The Introduction gives explanation of the choice of the subject and the terms
used in the work, describes the objectives and means of their attaining, as well as the
basic concepts investigated, justifies the importance, scientific novelty, theoretical and
practical value of the work.
Chapter 1 (Concept of advertising as an act of communication) describes the
general concepts of the advertising discourse and communication system, and gives an
outline of extralinguistic factors involved.
Chapter 2 (Language of advertising) analyzes general properties of the
advertising slogan, as well as its lexical, grammatical, and stylistic peculiarities.
Chapter 3 (Pragmatic aspects of advertising) is dedicated to the analysis of
pragmatic factors and relational aspects in advertising.
The Conclusion summarizes results of the research undertaken.
The Bibliography lists the theoretical literature and illustrative material used.
The Appendix contains the list of the slogans analyzed, with the indications of
the speech acts and appeals utilized.
 7

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Advertising is the most obvious way in which cultural production services the
wider system of material production and consumer society. The existence of
advertising media and their audiences constructed through the cultural practices of
newspapers, magazines, and broadcasting have been essential to the development of
modern consumer capitalism. Since the circulation of symbolic values becomes
integral to the circulation of commodities, advertising is growing in importance.
Advertising is a form of mass communication that puts business in touch with
consumers through paid, controlled, identifiable messages that try to persuade the
recipient to make a certain decision - usually the decision to buy a product. [DeFleur,
p.292] Advertising is quite a general notion, which implies various aspects and
methods of product promotion. We can distinguish advertising for individual goods
and brands (Sony CD-players, Ferrari cars, Rank-Xerox copier), branch and corporate
advertising (for sugar, bananas, canned fish, coffee, etc.), sponsored by a whole
industrial branch rather than an individual company. There is advertising for the
company's activity, or image advertising. It is used by manufacturers to promote the
enterprise, its potential, its role in the country's and the world's economy, its social
achievements. [Dayan, ×e marketing, p.63]
Advertisements are complex texts, images, words, framing devices, and
structures, which attempt to influence individuals into accepting certain values and
role models and into adopting certain lifestyles. Obviously, in order to be effective an
advertisement must have an appeal to its audience; it must reflect shared values.
It is not easy to draw a clear conceptual boundary around the variety of
advertising. The style of advertising slogans overlaps with other similar varieties, such
as the style of newspapers, political speeches, sermons, and several other uses of
language, which can be said to be ³selling something´. Newspaper headlines tend to
be short, concise, and expressive, and the same can be said about advertising slogans.
Commercial advertising is the largest and most visible form of advertising; but by no
means the only one. There is an overlap with such categories as auctions, automobiles,
bargains, careers, entertainment, health and safety, house sales, investments, lost and
 8

found, personal, prestige, situations wanted, and other announcements contained in the
classified columns of a newspaper. However, commercial advertising stands out
stylistically on several counts.
The semiotic analysis of advertising, that is, analysis of the meaning
transmitted by various elements of an advertising message, helps to understand the
latter based on previous experience, but does not allow to find absolute rules of
advertising creating. Those who produce advertising are sometimes surprised
themselves by hints and additional meanings which can be extracted out of advertising
messages created by them. However, there are standard procedures, which gradually
lead to the appearance of an advertising message. Their application is possible due to
the simple fact that any advertising owes its existence to the advertiser with his
product, his competitors, potential customers and their needs, his goals and
limitations, all of which has to be considered in advertising. [Dayan, ×a publicite,
p.62]

  


 

Communication is a vital element of our life and the life of the whole world.
Mass communication is one of the types of communication, the other ones being
interpersonal and impersonal, public and private communication, etc. Mass
communication is effected through the mass media, such as TV, radio, all kinds of
press and all other kinds of media reaching a wide audience, such as billboards,
booklets, public announcements, etc. Advertising should definitely be regarded as a
form of mass communication.
Advertising is an inseparable part of the mass media. In fact, advertising and
mass media are mutually dependent cultural and economic phenomena. Mass media
need advertising, because it helps to support their ideological independence, and
advertising uses mass media to cover the largest possible audience. Mass media make
an important channel for advertising, enabling the latter to be an integral component
of mass communication.
It is not a long time ago that mass communication, and advertising in
particular, became the object of linguistic and sociolinguistic research. The specific
style of advertising is studied in its normative, functional, stylistic, and pragmatic
aspects. Stylistic peculiarity of the advertising texts is revealed when these are
 9

compared to other forms of spoken and written speech. In that respect, sociolinguistic
measurement as a method of correlational analysis acquires growing importance. The
theoretical concept of the language variety as a reflection of internal and external
linguistic factors is the basic foundation when reviewing the issue of sociolinguistic
dimension and setting stages and parameters for the measurement of oral and written
texts.
Looking at advertising as a type of and an element within the communication
system, we can trace qualities pertinent to all types of communication. Therefore, it
seems reasonable to analyze the communication procedure in general, which will give
us a clear picture applicable to the subject under review.
In general terms, communication procedure can be described as follows. The
object of a communicative act is a message. The parties involved are the one which is
sending the message (that is, the addresser, or the sender) and the one which is
supposed to receive it (that is, the addressee, or the recipient). Besides, there is a
certain channel of communication and a code which is used by the addresser to shape
the message, subsequently decoded by the addressee. In most cases, there is a conflict
between the addresser and the addressee, since the latter is not always willing to
accept the message and to act according to the intention of the former. However, a
message that has been coded in the right and sufficiently cautious way is likely to
arouse the desired recipient's response.
Visually, the scheme can be represented as follows:

response
message
addresser addressee
code
resistance

In the case of advertising, there are four main groups of addressers involved:
(1) Advertisers: these are mainly public and private companies and central and local
government in most countries. Companies usually advertise their products or the
services they offer, their final goal being to sell same.
 10

(2) Advertising agencies: their main role is to plan and carry out advertising
campaigns on behalf of their clients, and in case of success to keep the client¶s
account.
(3) Media owners: they include the Press, independent television and radio, outdoor
advertising, cinema, direct mail, etc. and they have to attract advertising revenue from
other companies and agencies.
(4) Ancillary services: In order to produce effective advertisements, the services of
specialists such as typesetters, design consultants, photographers, film producers and
copywriters are required. [Riccioli; Grant, p.117]
All of the above agents are interested in successful completion of the
procedure and contribute to it in different ways.
The addressee, or the recipient, is ultimately the prospective customer of the
product advertised, be it a merchandise, service, event, or anything else. Customers, or
recipients of the advertising message, can be divided into an infinite number of
specific groups, and advertising of every product has to consider specific features of a
certain given group which is supposed to consume the product. Criteria for this
classification take into account a large number of factors. To mention just a few,
these are age, gender, occupation, social and academic background, social position,
income level, hobbies, etc. All of these factors, and a lot of others, influence the way
an individual perceives an advertisement, and therefore they are of vital importance.
Thus, while the addressee of specific professional advertising is a differentiated
corporate group of experts in a certain domain of social and cultural communication,
general advertising targets a wider and less differentiated audience. The advertising
text is compiled with the consideration of communicative competence of the
addressee, meaning situational, social and linguistic knowledge. These factors shape
the choice of composition and linguistic tools for the adequate construction of a
speech context.
While studying advertising, we also have to consider socially different
approach of the authors of ad-slogans to the pragmatic purpose of their contents. Thus,
advertising for a hair conditioner (2top tearing your hair out) is targeted at wide strata
of the population, while advertising for a high quality wine (×ife is worth Baccarat)
has another orientation, which is meant to appeal to those who value quality and
 11

prestige and underestimate simple things. Some examples of prestige advertising are:
³150 Years of History and Romance´ (for Cartier watch), because it is prestigious to
have things of traditional quality; ³Begin Your Own Tradition´ (for Pateck Phillipe
jewelry), because it is prestigious to have one¶s own tradition of jewelry succession;
or ³Decorative tea service, circa 1760. Made in silver. Made in England. Maid in
torment´ for Asprey silverware, showing a girl polishing it. The last one refers to all
the components of prestige, saying that the product has been manufactured for a long
time, in a prestigious country, of a prestigious material, and someone is always
working at it. The opposite feeling is stressed in the slogan: ³If you¶re paying more
than ȳ2,99 for your suntan lotion, it¶s daylight snobbery´. It appeals to the rational
consumer who cares about the price as well as about quality, and probably will buy a
cheaper product.
This particular research is based on advertising slogans selected from
newspapers and magazines of two types: those targeted at general public (Vogue, Elle,
Life) and at a specific section of the readers, namely business executives (Time, The
Economist, Financial Times). Naturally, it depends on the type of publication what
advertising it contains. Business press is not likely to contain ads about body lotions,
jeans or women¶s pantiliners, while popular magazines do not have much promotion
material of oil refineries or world information systems. Basically, it is the advertisers
who choose where to place their materials, and usually the choice relies substantially
on the type of readership of a certain publication, which has been established long
before.
As a rule, the addressee does not take any initiative to obtain the advertising
message. So, the channel of advertising has to be designed in such a way as to ensure
reception in spite of total passivity of the addressee. Before World War I, advertising
was conducted by word of mouth and through print. Many years later, the introduction
of radio, cinema and television provided the advertiser with improved possibilities and
additional outlets. Apart from the major media outlets (daily or weekly press, radio
and TV commercials), advertising also employs a vast range of devices and locations
to get its messages across: they include billboards, book jackets, bookmarks, carrier
bags, catalogues, circulars, flyers, handbills, inserts, labels, leaflets, special
merchandise (cups, pens, T-shirts), notices, placards, posters, price tags, programs,
 12

samples, sportswear, showcards, signs, tickets, tourism brochures, skywriting,

subliminal advertising, shows, exhibitions and fairs, display of goods, media trailers,
vehicle sides, wrapping paper, and classified pages in telephone books. [Riccioli;
Grant, p.118] The variety of possible codes is still more impressive.
In terms of codes influence, we can distinguish rational and emotional
advertising. Rational (objective) advertising informs, it calls upon the potential
recipient's mind, submits arguments, giving them the form of words, using pictures
and drawings to enhance and secure the impression produced by words. Emotional
(associated) advertising excites recollections and arouses implications, it calls upon
feelings, emotions, the sub-conscious; it acts through association, trying to recreate a
situation; its favorite tool is drawing, rather than sound. There are advertising
messages which are purely rational or emotional, but most are various combinations
of the two types described. The language is one of the instruments used to create the
code for the transmission of information in advertising. [Dayan, ×e marketing, p.63]

 

 

Advertising aims at informing the general public of the availability of goods
and of the provision of services, their prices, qualities, etc. However, while
performing that informative function, in order to obtain excellent results advertising
has to be persuasive. For that purpose, it strives to find a way to attract, and then to
"seduce" and to conquer the potential customer. In advertising, we are dealing with
legitimate puffery, that is, nobody minds the manufacturer¶s right to proclaim his or
her goods the best.
To accomplish their ends, advertisers must make a persuasive appeal.
Sometimes that appeal is simple and descriptive; sometimes it is subtle and
sophisticated. Advertising is persuasive - and thus acts as a form of social control - by
providing information. However, apart from that advertising has another purpose - to
persuade the consumer to buy a product.
Therefore, little advertising is purely informative. Indeed, some advertising
content is direct and makes rational appeals, mentioning characteristics of the product,
relative advantages, and price. A @irestone tire commercial, for example, talks about
the durability of the tire and its worth compared to competitors¶ tires. [DeFleur, p.273]
There are informative ads in the classified sections of newspapers, but most ads are
 13

mainly image based, creating associations between products and desired conditions,
such as happiness and success. Advertising is persuasive, relying on emotional
appeals, dramatic and comic images, and manipulation of basic fears and desires.
Advertising often attempts to manipulate the consumer by indirect appeals. Thus,
advertising may try to get you to buy a product not because of its advantages and not
because of your existing needs, but because of a need or desire that the advertisement
itself tries to create (lEven The Best Can Get Betterl). The goal of modern advertising
is to serve the consumer society by offering it not simply goods and services, but
rather their images. In modern advertising, a reference is often made not to the product
itself, but to its social image and prestige. That has to do with the system of values -
the value of a person depends on his or her social status or social connections.
[Voinov, p.43] The effect of modern advertising lies in making the addressee to
perceive the material world as a world of advertising stereotypes and to feel a constant
desire to purchase the goods or services promoted. In order to make the recipient use
the product, advertising presents his own image to him, which meets his wishes and
expectations. The latter are conditioned by the social and cultural environment, and
advertising considers them in the first place. [Dayan, p.7] Therefore, advertising is
rather a user than an initiator: it does not create anything, but enhances already
existing phenomena. Each advertising message touches upon the recipient's position in
the society - in other words, it can give him additional satisfaction or make him lose
his directions and orientations.
The extent to which the influence of advertising will be successful is
preconditioned by the extent to which qualities and peculiarities of the promoted
product, reflected in the ad-texts, are close to the potential customer¶s needs. The
reaction of advertising to consumers¶ individual requirements is rather flexible. Thus,
lately advertisements changed their orientation because of social discontent with far
too individualized manifestations in business and began to stress readiness of the latter
to compromise, to meet social requirements regarding the increased responsibility of
corporations. [Voinov, p.42] (l ealth that took a lifetime to build should be treated
with the proper respectl) The frequent use in advertising of such positive lexical units
as involved, responsible, care has a certain pragmatic goal: to remove the accusation
of exclusively commercial direction of business activity. The implications of
 14

advertising slogans like ³Better for your eyes than a big, fat carrot´(for sunglasses),
³Yes, you can switch down to even lower tar and still get satisfying taste´ are that the
manufacturers care about the customer¶s health rather than about their own profits.
Product advertisements are generally careful not to make deceptive claims
concerning facts. Claims concerning judgment and opinion (Improved!; New!; Best!
and so on), those made by association (people having a good time with the product),
or by imaging (famous spokesperson), however, are on a much looser standard. The
advertisement for a sugared, artificially flavored, and colored cereal that shows
children having fun with a cheerful cartoon character sets the nutrition activist¶s teeth
on edge. [Anderson, p.98] The argument is made that this commercial, and others like
it, practice deception in claiming positive consequences from a product full of
nutritional defects. In a similar way, slogans like ³It¶s a woman thing´ for Virginia
2lims suggest that these cigarettes are good for a woman, while in fact they are as
harmful as any other cigarettes.
 3 
 

One of the most important advertising techniques is image-creating. In
advertising, the link between denotative understanding of the object and the pragmatic
range of meaning of a certain nomination increases perlocutionary meaning of a
message which includes linguistic signs concerned with the ³image´ of the
manufacturer. The linguistic equivalent of the social and psychological notion image
is a merge of a denotative element, denoting a certain corporation or company, and a
motivating one, reflected by the symbol of the corporation or a company, associated
with certain social values. In image advertising, the image slogan is the principal
object, while on product advertising it is usually placed next to the company¶s
logotype at the edge of the advertisement. Image slogans are usually short and
expressive. They display such qualities as independence, invariability, generality, and
social character. (lPure Matel for Absolut vodka; lThe Brand That @itsl for Lee; l e
are changing tomorrow todayl for Telecom). While the text of product advertising
usually refers to the properties of the products which are advertised, image advertising
is likely to contain data about the manufacturing company, its experience, capacities,
and previous success. (lMary Kay is the best-selling brand of facial skin care and
color cosmetics in the U.2l.) Image slogans, attached to the logotype, usually appear
 15

on the ads for different products of the same company with different product slogans.
Therefore, the frequency of image slogans is much higher than that of slogans for the
product.
Image advertising is inseparably associated with brand names and trademarks.
These are vital components of an advertising text. If the name of the product is not
clearly stated, there is a real risk that we will fail to recall it when the time comes to
make our choice in the marketplace. Rare indeed are the ads which are so established
that the name can be omitted or hinted at (e.g. using [] instead of 2chweppes).
Usually, the brand name is presented to us in more than one form. In the press, it is
likely to be in main text of the ad (the body copy), in the bottom-line summary (the
signature line), and in the product illustration (if there is one). On television it is also
likely to be vocalized. Radio uses sound effects, song, and accents to provide a varied
brand-name profile. The volume effect is attained through multiple transmission of the
message.
 
 



Despite the impact of the glossy format, the memorable image, and the famous
personality, it is the language which can make or break the ad. Compiling a text is one
of the crucial components of advertising. The text of advertising is a text of mass
communication, which solves a certain communicative and pragmatic problem. Its
goal is to provide safe, stable, and efficient communication. The text of advertising
differs from other text types not only because of its communicative and pragmatic
parameters, but because of its specific structure as well.
The text of advertising is usually introduced by a slogan, which is the most
expressive verbal element of an advertisement. In advertising, a slogan can function in
two forms: as a constituent of an advertising text and as an independent mini-text. In
the first case, it is placed beyond the limits of the main advertising text. Usually, it is
printed in a different font and placed into the corresponding environment: the sign
(logotype), legal references, the advertiser¶s signature.
As an independent mini-text, the ad-slogan can be used in various types of
advertising: in the shop, on transport, in the press, on the package, on TV, etc. In these
cases the ad-slogan is also accompanied by the logotype, which is placed either in the
 16

preposition or in the post-position. If this rule is broken, the logotype is mentioned in

the text itself or on the illustration, which serves as identification of the product.
The sphere of usage of an ad-slogan is very wide. When being a constituent of
an advertising text, the slogan carries the principal idea of advertising, that is serves as
the central axis, and the whole text is built around it. When the ad-slogan realizes its
striving for autonomy and becomes an independent mini-text, it serves as an
indispensable component of poster advertising. The universality and overall presence
of the latter provides for pure and full realization of the ad-slogan.
 
 

Based on the facts described above, we can make the following conclusions
regarding the concept of advertising:
Advertising is an act of mass communication, following the general principles
of a communication procedure, which means:
- the principal components of advertising as a communicative act are the source of
information (the advertiser), the content of communication (the message) and the
audience (the consumer);
- the message is coded by means of verbal and non-verbal tools in order to produce the
desired effect;
- the language serves as a channel of transmission of the information.
Advertising is a specific type of communication, which is distinguished for the
following features:
- advertising is trying to convince the recipient to accept certain values, role models,
and to adopt certain lifestyles, which eventually serves the main goal - to make the
consumer purchase the product;
- the form of communication in advertising is shaped by the peculiar forms of media
used, such as TV, radio, newspapers and magazines, booklets, posters, etc., and
perception by various social and demographic types of the audience, depending on
such factors as age, gender, social and academic background, economic standing, etc.
Advertising executes two functions: provision of information and persuasion,
the latter being the most important one.
 17

Brand names and trademarks are vital elements of advertising, and therefore
creators of the latter always make sure that the name of the product is distinctively
presented.
The most expressive element of an advertising text is the slogan, which can
function both as a part of a larger text, or as an independent mini-text.
 18

 p×  pp 
 


!
      "

As a text type, advertising slogans are characterized by briefness, implicity and
explicity, expressivity, high stylistic coloring, subjectivity, and distinctive
addressiveness. These parameters are established on the basis of the following criteria:
-    is provided by the length of 1 to 10 words, while lengthiness is assigned to
slogans having from 11 words up;
- 

 

 factors are accounted for by the ways in which the persuasive,
convincing factor is originated. Implicity includes information transmitted by means
of presupposition and implication, as well as camouflaging, using manipulative words,
subjective comparisons, etc.;
- 
  
 refers to the use of interjections, exclamative sentences, lexis denoting
feelings, emotions, psychological state and reactions, that is, all means aimed at
calling up emotions;
- ! 
 
 involves the use of modality, indications of the addresser¶s concern,
subjective evaluation; ! 
 
 implies truthfulness of statements and objective
evaluation;
- advertising is aimed at satisfying everyday requirements of various types and
targeted at the most general readership, that is, it is characterized by wide
  . The term addressiveness refers to utterances bearing indications of
direct address to the recipient: directives, questives, forms of address, second person
pronouns, speech styling with consideration of the addressee factor. Wide
addressiveness of advertising provides for a high degree of its exactness and
emotional coloring at the same time, since the object advertised is presented both in
the form of objective logical characteristics and in the form of subjectively evaluated
descriptions. [Goodrum; Dalrymle, p.27]
p It is a general rule that an advertising slogan must be short (the optimal size is
thought to be 7 words) and easy to remember. The words must be simple, easy to
understand, preferably short as well.
× 
 19

Lexically, advertising tends to use words which are vivid (new, bright),
concrete (soft, washable), positive (safe, extra), and unreserved (best, perfect).
Another common feature is the use of a restricted range of vocabulary,
including idiom, jargon, and other lexical features. The lexical items from the
(following) ads identify their genres, but there is nothing else in the grammar,
graphology, or discourse structure to show the difference between them:
Yp immaculate, views, spacious, landscaped, near shops;
Yp original owner, mint condition, warranty;
Yp hot action, wild with desire, pure pleasure, hungry, relief;
Yp hilarious, for the entire family, blockbuster, near you. [Crystal, p.388]p
Advertising tends to employ simple lexical units, since it must be easily
understood by the maximum number of people regardless of their intellect and
academic background. Besides, there are words which are very frequent in ad-slogans,
since they carry the positive connotation, which is of vital importance for this
language variety. High frequency is characteristic of such words as µcare¶(8 slogans -
2% of the total investigated), µhelp¶(9 slogans - 2,27%), µprotect¶ (9 slogans - 2,27%),
µbeautiful¶ (12 slogans - 3%), µdifferent (not like the others)¶(11 slogans - 2,77%).
Another group of words is used to assess the product and the manufacturer and to
provide distinctive identification for them, to set them aside from other similar
participants of the advertising discourse. These are: µthe best¶ (14 slogans - 3,53%),
µthe first (No.1)¶(7 slogans - 1,76%), and adjectives in comparative and superlative
forms. These words fit perfectly into the framework of legitimate puffery. Besides,
since ad-texts tend to be personally addressed to the recipient, the pronouns µyou¶ and
µyour¶ make up a substantial part of the lexis used (124 slogans - 31,23%).
It is worth noting that a very productive word in advertising is µlife¶ or
µlifetime¶, which appears in 15 slogans (3,78%) in various contexts, invariably bearing
positive meaning. We can explain it by the optimistic, µpro-life¶, so to speak, position
of advertising in general, and it looks like the word µlife¶ is thought to call forth
positive associations, which it certainly does.
!  
In terms of structure, the language of advertising uses a specific grammar
system. It can employ any grammatical form, but the frequency of those forms will be
 20

somewhat different from the literary style, which is habitually regarded as the ³right´
language. In ad-slogans, one can see different grammatical structures. It is probably
one of the most unpredictable varieties of the language. In fact, it contains a lot of
colloquial features along with those of the literary style, but also it borrows certain
elements of any style (scientific, publicist, etc.) The language of advertising is
typically conversational and elliptical - and often, as a result, vague (A better deal
[than what?]). Incomplete and elliptical sentences are very common in the Adspeak. In
47% of advertising slogans at least one sentence is incomplete.
Usually, an advertising slogan contains form one up to several sentences. (For
example: lHE×P so her dad doesn¶t have to spend so much time out of town on
business. Help so she doesn¶t have to spend 2 hours on an icy bus for an accelerated
math class. Help so one day she has a phone of her own. (Her mom says no, but she¶s
working on her dad.)l /GTE phones/) A sentence can consist of one or two words
(lDaily Protectionl /Oil of Ulay/) or be a complete sentence with a subject, predicate,
and all secondary sentence members (l hen it comes to managing risks, we have the
tools to manage like others can¶tl /Chase Asset Management/). A slogan consisting
of one word can serve its purpose if its contains all the necessary positive connotations
when its reaches the recipient (³×OOK´ in a ×evi¶s image advertisement, used to
attract the reader¶s attention; ³OB2E22ION´ for Kalvin Klein fragrance, meaning a
name and a feeling at the same time).
Negative sentences are not frequently used in the language of advertising, and
when they are, they serve a very specific communicative purpose, which is to create a
positive impression. Of the material investigated, 17 sentences (4,28%) are either
negative sentences or contain negation in one of the clauses. Basically, they can be
classified into three groups:
p "# (7 slogans -1,76%) Slogans which use the opposition of a quality
unfavorable for the advertiser, which is negated, and something positive which is
mentioned right after (or before) the negation. For example, lMade to stay on her
face, not her wardrobel /Maxfactor foundation/; lCooking may not be your forte now,
but wait another 10 minutesl /a sauce/.
"# (5 slogans - 1,26%) Slogans saying that the only one who can do
something is the advertiser - and, naturally, nobody else. E.g. lNo other desktop or
 21

portable gives you more datal /The Economist diaries/; lNoone understands your skin
betterl /Clarins skincare-image/
"#p(5 slogans - 1,26%) This group comprises slogans of wider meanings, but
they always mean that the product is good because something is not there. E.g.
lMoments after making his acquaintance, she sensed this would be no ordinary affairl
/Waterma-writing instruments/; l hat does it take to make tap water taste like this?
Not much. Brital /a filter/.
It is not often that copywriters use compound sentences, since most of them
complicate the slogan. The selection under review contains 26 compound sentences,
of which 10 have conditional sub-clauses, introduced by the conjunction ³if´. Usually,
they are used in emotive language in order to make the recipient imagine a situation
which would make the object of advertising useful and desired (lIf you are itching to
own a new car, scratch herel). Advertising makes use of simple declarative,
imperative, interrogative and exclamative ones, and compound sentences which
include all of the above, the most productive subordinate clause being the conditional.
The peculiar use of tenses in ad-slogans is accounted for by a number of
extralinguistic factors. Most ad-slogans use the i
 3

 tense of a verb,
since generally advertising refers to the present, and the indefinite tense denotes
universal time relations, which means that the action is not limited in time and there is
neither starting nor final point. Whenever you read the message, it is the right time to
take an action. It is today and now that the advertisers are producing and selling the
product, it is now that you should go and buy it. For example, lCompu2erve gives you
the Internetl (right now, go and use it); lNIVEA sun children¶s cares like you dol (It
already cares about someone else¶s children. Buy it, and your children will enjoy the
care as well); lOur soap leaves pores clear. Ordinary soaps leave soapl (It is already
a fact, and you can choose what you use based on the existing situation). However,
other tenses can also be successfully used in advertising when their meaning
contributes to a better expressivityp i
 i# lIt should look beautiful. Our
engineers have spent the last 28 years polishing itl (Please note that by the moment
we are addressing to you we have done certain things to deserve your attention. In this
case, the result is assessed as the most important information.); lHave YOU ever
treated a vaginal yeast infection without messing up your day? You can with oral
 22

Diflucanl (In this case, the advertiser wants to stress that you have never been able to
do it, but now you can. No other tense would provide the semantics of a distinctive
point in time, which changes the situation dramatically.) i


#$Your
new recruits are being trained herel (The process is very important. The client needs
to know that while he/she is reading the ad, there is a place where new employees are
being trained for him/her. The process is continuous, it started a long time ago and is
not going to start, which ultimately implies high quality of the training.); l e are
changing tomorrow todayl (We are doing it right now. It is a continuous process
which never stops; the use of the Present Continuous Tense provides for a very
positive connotation.) i 3

#p$Obviously, @ord Ranger was designed around
your busy dayl; lAt ×exus, we scrutinized 24 different types of wood for the interior
before we found one that made the cutl (In both cases, as well as in other similar ones,
the emphasis is placed on the fact that certain events happened which resulted in the
creation of the product, but neither the continuity nor the end of the process are
emphasized; the events are reviewed in the general narrative manner, the idea of
universal time is retained.) i  

# lCompanies were forever selling me
hope-in-a-bottle... @inally, a tube of truthl. (The emphasis is placed on the continuity
of a process in the past, which has ceased by now.) 3

# l e¶ll get you
there on timel. Future tenses are not very common for the language of advertising,
since the usual implication of an ad is that the goods and services do exist now, it¶s
not that they are somewhere in the future. However, Future Tenses can be used in
advertising, usually when the advertiser wants to make a definite statement, a promise,
as in the case above, or with various modal meanings, like: lA child is a curly,
dimpled scalawag. You¶ll want to savor every momentl (meaning, in fact, ³you must
want it´). Theoretically, one can design a situation when the 

 or
the i Tense should be used, but in practice they are very rare, since they
complicate the structure and provide connotations which are in short demand.
A very common feature of the advertising grammar is the use of the ing-form
in sentences like: @reeing the forces of nature; Helping the world communicate;
Creating energy solutions worldwide; ×eading the way in energy management; etc.
As a rule, such constructions are used in image advertising, and they are invariably
placed next to the company¶s logotype. The ing-form in these cases denotes a
 23

continuous action, and makes sure that the given action is associated with the given
company. Needless to say, the semantic contents of such slogans are extremely
positive.
%
Despite the many variations in content and location, advertising is a
remarkably homogeneous variety. Like literature, it can employ other varieties of
language in its service: any fragment of a human condition (and a fair amount of non-
human) can be found in an ad. The functional and stylistic organization and lexical
variety of an advertising text depends on the contents and the addressee of the
advertisement, therefore the style of the latter has many layers. It contains elements of
various styles: day-to-day and scientific, fiction, official and business, newspaper and
publicist, etc. Such a combination of certain features of different styles stems from the
variety of types and genres of advertising and its very nature, its basic functions - that
of information and that of influence. The latter takes the leading role and makes the
speech of advertising closer to the publicist and the belle-lettre styles.
Generally, advertising is targeted at the individual consumer. Although that
does not imply a specific personality, but the average consumer type, this sphere of
speech communication has a pronounced personal character, which accounts for the
tendency to be colloquial and expressive manifested by advertising texts. The
modeling of direct personal communication in advertising gives the recipient an
impression that the text has been written for him, that the product or service is offered
him specifically. That determines the style of narration in advertising: intimate,
friendly, often with a taint of humor.
Most advertising slogans gain their effect by manipulating the linguistic norms
of everyday language. Random examples include deviant rhymes and rhythms
(Drinka pinta milka day), spellings (EZ×ern driving school), figures of speech
(Kellogg¶s. That¶s how you can eat sunshine), and grammar (the distinctive time
adverbial in lOnly two Alka 2eltzers ago, you were feeling downhearted and lowl;
figurative modifier of place in lYou¶re 6 hours away from more beautiful eyesl). It
uses highly figurative expressions (lCompanies were forever selling me hope-in-a-
bottle... @inally, a tube of truthl), deviant graphology (lBeanz Meanz Heinzl), and
strong sound effects, such as rhythm, alliteration, and rhyme, especially in slogans
 24

(lDare to comparel). Besides, it can make effective use of word-play (lOur Back
2eats Don¶t Take A Back 2eat To Anybodyl; lBe 2un2mart!l) and various deviations.
It is probably the world of advertising - both press and television - which provides the
best-recognized class of examples of manipulative and deviant usage of linguistic
norms..
As mentioned above, advertising makes use of a large number of stylistic
devices. We shall try to describe the most common ones, which fall into five principal
categories: phonetic, graphetic, lexical, syntactical devices, and special stylistic
devices.
Phonetic 2tylistic Devices
It is obviously the case that speech sounds have acoustic properties which
remind people of noises they encounter in the world; less obviously, they seem to
have properties which people often interpret in terms of non-acoustic experiences,
such as contrasts of size, movement, or brightness. All aspects of pronunciation are
effected, including vowels, consonants, syllables, and prosodic patterns (through such
features as intonation, stress, and rhythm).
With phonology, we are not so much listening to the acoustic properties of
speech sounds as sensing how these sounds are distributed within words and
sentences. A distinctive phonological pattern always carries a semantic implication. If
we write ³What further thought of fresh desire/Could rouse the deadened mind´, the
grammar of the text says only that the mind is dead; but the link formed by the
alliteration hints that desire may be dead also. In short, the similarity of sound prompts
a similarity of sense. [Crystal, p.414] The phonetic properties of the English sounds
are an important source of special effects, which allow to use    
 and

  .
In commercial advertising, the sound a product makes, and the emotion it is
claimed to generate in the user, are often given onomatopoetic expression: a particular
make of car can go Vr-o-o-m; a smell of perfume or gravity might evoke M-m-m-m-m.
[Crystal, p.252] Brand names commonly use sound (or letter) symbolism, as the world
of breakfast cereals crisply demonstrates, with its crunches, puffs, pops, and smacks.
And slogans often rely on it too. (lPolo, the mint with the hole; This allergy season,
go far ahhhfield. Ahhh! Allegra!l )
 25

Reading the example: lCall 2print today (and start making @ridays work
harder for your small businessl) (for a phone company Friday discounts), we can feel
the % of that intensifying Fridays work in the sound of it. In the slogan: l2leep
peacefully with Tampax tampons, overnightl, the [s]-sound in the first part suggests
quietude, while the [t]-sound in the second part contributes to acoustic identification
of the product.
The use of % in advertising is very efficient, since it provides for good
memorability of the text (lDare to comparel; l×ong, strong, healthy looking nailsl).
However, it is not frequently used for the obvious reason: it is very hard to make up a
felicitous rhymed slogan which would retain all the other needed features
(expressivity, argumentation, association, consideration of consumers¶ needs and
desires). As a rule, apt rhymed slogans ensure success of the advertisement and
contribute greatly to success of the product. Rhythm is not as infrequent as rhyme,
since it is easier to create a rhythmic combination of sounds than a rhymed
combination of words. Some of the rhythmic examples of ad-slogans are: lProtection
you can count onl (Clarins skincare); lThe relentless pursuit of perfectionl /Lexus/;
l2peed: 0,6 mph. Heart rate: 99 per min. Time: 1011 hrs. Preciselyl (Tudor watch).
In the latter case the effect is attained also by means of semantic rhythm.
Graphetic 2tylistic Devices
Stylistic effects in advertising are often attained by means of graphetic devices.
The symbols of a typeface (e.g. Times) may be combined into larger units of texts,
such as words (which have a spoken language equivalent) and lines (which do not),
paragraphs (which have a partial spoken equivalent) and pages (which do not). The
visual effect of these larger blocks of text, moreover, is not readily predictable from
the graphetic properties of individual letters. The complex interaction of typeface,
type size, letter and line spacing, color, and other such variables combine to produce
the dominant visual quality of the typeset text.
Advertisements often go out of their ways to break standard typographic
conventions. In fact, graphetic deviance as any other deviance is very likely to catch
the reader¶s attention, which is exactly what the advertiser needs. In advertising,
various combinations of bold, italic, underlined letters and words, upper and
lowercase, various fonts and lots of other means are used.
 26

A noticeable present-day trend is the use of deviant spelling as a part of a trade

name or an advertising campaign. The motivation for the distinctive spelling is to
provide an unambiguous, identifiable product name which will not be confused with
an ordinary word in the language. In the case of slogans, the spelling often aids
memorability, as in such famous cases as Beanz Meanz Heinz; Kwik 2ave or the
Kentucky Fried Chicken line They¶re finger-lickin¶ good. It remains an open question
whether such forms cause serious problems for children when they are learning to
spell. [Crystal, p.275]
×exical 2tylistic Devices 
Another stylistic device used in advertising is figurative language. The kinds
of semantic contrast involved are of much greater relevance than the study of the
language alone. They relate to much wider stretches of language than the individual
word or phrase and involve extralinguistic factors as well. The minimal case of
figurative language is local, restricted effect in which special meaning is extracted
from the linking of two unlike words. The following are some of the chief ways in
which this can be done.
Yp With metaphor, the linkage is implicit: idle hill; a perfume from Paradise.
Yp With simile the linkage is explicit: drumming like a noise in dreams.
Yp With paradox, there is the need to resolve a contradiction: ignorance is strength.
Yp With metonymy, the attribute replaces the whole: the crown of @rance.
Yp With oxymoron, incompatible notions are brought together: living death.
Yp With personification, a link is made between the inanimate and the human: nature
spoke.
Yp With hyperbole, certain qualities are exaggerated: 2uperking.
Yp With epithet, people and goods are called names, both positive and negative:
snobbish person.
In most cases, however, these effects extend beyond an initial pairing of
notions. One effect leads to another, and chains of figurativeness arise. [Crystal,
p.421] For instance: There are kings. And there are 2uperkings /cigarettes/; If you¶re
paying more than ȳ2,99 for your suntan lotion, it¶s daylight snobbery; @rom an
ancient star, a new constellation is born /EDP group-electricity/.p i
   
is
 27

frequently used to inanimate the object of advertising (the product). Thus, an

impression is created that once you buy it, it will take the initiative and do the rest for
you (NIVEA sun children¶s cares like you do; Our satellite can see to it that the road
he is on leads to prosperity./Space imaging/; That¶s a very smart bag /Tumi/)
p Another productive device in advertising is   
, which is used to create
an emphasis, necessary to fix the attention of the recipient on the key word, or words,
of the utterance. For example, Most multi-function machines are nothing more than
souped-up fax machines. Ours is: a souped-up fax machine, a souped-up scanner, a
souped-up printer, and a souped-up copier. /Mita scanprintcopy machine/; Easy to
wear. Easy to love. /fragrance/; Get perfect curl after curl, A@TER CUR×, A@TER
CUR× /Revlon heat curling iron/. The repetition strongly enforces the idea expressed
by lexical means and brings in additional nuances of meaning.
p   are not frequently used in advertising, since it targets originality rather
than conventionality. However, in some cases slogans do make use of cliches, (Even
the best can get better. /Estee Lauder skincare/; Twice a day /Clinique skincare/) The
above refers to the cliches which already function in the language and which have not
been produced in the world of advertising. On the other hand, ad-slogans and other
lexical units of advertising often become cliches. They enter everyday speech and start
to be used outside the context of advertising. That is particularly pertinent to brand
names which become common nouns. Products like vacuum cleaners, tissues and
photo copiers are known worldwide as Hoovers, Kleenex and Xeroxes. [McCrum;
Cran; MacNeil, p.33]
p 
 
  &  
, orp  
, provides good memorability and an
expressive stylistic instrument (2eparated at birth {a tale of two sweaters} /detergent/
- an analog of ³A tale of two cities´, Ch. Dickens). The effect is attained because the
whole expression is already contained in the recipient¶s memory, though in slightly
different form, and the part of it which is altered will strike the memory and stay in it.
2yntactical 2tylistic Devices
Since advertising often tries to create associations and connections at the sub-
conscious level of the recipient (Central/Eastern Europe Network. Proficiency in New
Markets; It¶s a rush... a feeling... it¶s... it¶s Macy¶s /clothing/, it makes a frequent use
of    '( )"
""
 
* and    (Petroleum: our goal;
 28

Exceptional character. Piaget. /watch/; Architects of value; 150 years of history and
romance; on¶t smudge off! /Revlon mascara/; A woman¶s self esteem should be
strong. Her perfume subtle./fragrance/; As solid as a rock, with the heart of a lion
/IPBank/).
R   
is particularly favored by ad-slogans, since it is very successful
in creating associations (@eel like yourself again. Ask your doctor about new Zyratec;
×ight... Gently... Plays on my skin... illuminating colors. New tinted moisturizing
creme from NIVEA visage; PIZZA. ith a dash from Bordeaux; 2he¶s discovered the
secret of perfect nails. Nailoid results speak for themselves; Monkey on your back
#41: How to choose the hardware when you¶ve already chosen indows NT; You can
contour your body. Hanes becomes you./hosiery/; He asked you for the time. He was
wearing a watch. /Lee jeans/)
A similar role is played by 
 (Now the fast way to treat vaginal thrush
isn¶t through the vagina /Diflucan/; Hire a Mercedes for the price of a standard car;
The world¶s most dramatic events happen in an instant. And the world trusts CNN to
be there.) and    (The new, longer, wider Peugeot 106; A new kind of film for a
new kind of camera with sure, simple loading and a choice of three picture sizes so
the pictures you get can be the best you¶ve ever taken /Kodak/), though they create
anticipation and curiosity rather than ready-made associations.
p Stylistic

 
fixes the recipient¶s attention on the most important part of
the sentence, even if the standard grammar rules dictate a different word order. For
instance, in the slogan To help maintain strong bones you need more than just calcium
/nutrient containing tablets/, the most important part is that saying for what exactly
you need calcium, which is eventually meant to provoke fear for quite specific parts of
one's body.
p i   
 
 are very productive, since they provide for easy
memorability and good sound of a slogan (Difficult to define. Impossible to resist.
/fragrance/; Added protection-extra fun /sun protection lotion/)
i%%


can be used to stress repetition of an action or number of
objects or qualities. It can make a slogan very long, but the effect is attained
nevertheless (It¶s like having a friend in the music business, and the publishing
 29

business, and the travel business, and the flower business, and the eyewear business,
and the restaurant business. /AT&T card/)
p 
   '
 * is usually applied when two opposite or seemingly
opposite qualities of a product need to be emphasized (The New Bose Acoustic ave
Music 2ystem Is Quite Advanced. Yet 2o Easy To Grasp; Mini Reuters. Maximum
data. /pager/) p
p   + 
   is utilized when someone's opinion needs to be
quoted. Since advertising often makes use of personal opinion of celebrities or
someone who claims to have used and enjoyed the product, who is likely to be
followed by the recipient, indirect and especially direct speech is habitual. (³I find the
best thing for a hangover is to drink a lot´. 2andrine Caron, Actress /Mineral water/;
³People used to think of jeans as a weekend uniform - comfortable but not interesting.
I don¶t think style and durability are mutually exclusive´- Calvin Klein)
Œ   & 
 display a clear intention of appealing to the addressee
and of making the addressee think about the possible answer, which is a good way to
establish a contact. The questive form is a stylistic device possessing the force of
psychological influence. Asking the addressee a question is meant to arouse interest
towards the content of information, to involve the reader into the conversation
touching upon his or her interests, which enables to influence the addressee¶s mind
and sub-conscious sphere by means of establishing a psychological contact with
him/her. Therefore, rhetorical questions are very frequent in ad slogans. (Has it
changed your life yet?; ould speaking your customer¶s language have made a
difference?; ho says tangles have to be part of growing up?) Addressing a question
to the potential recipient creates a stylistic atmosphere of intimacy and confidence.
2pecial 2tylistic Devices
This group comprises stylistic devices which use an overlapping system of
lexis, syntax, sound, and extralinguistic factors to produce the needed effect. The most
productive example in this group is è  %, a tool acquiring a very large number of
forms. ( hen the going gets tough, the tough get comfortable; Don¶t get mad. Get
Malibu; Our strength is your security; hat we do with natural cocoa butter does
wonders for your skin.)
 30

i
is a very frequent tool in advertising, since it allows a large array of

possibilities, like word play. For instance: The non-alcoholic drink to wrap up any
occasion. /AME/; Phone our 2 driving courses and we¶ll get you on the road to
success. The double meaning of one word contributes to the expres siveness and
memorability. The same is true for ( 

, as in @lonase: Nasal allergy
Checklist: stuffy, sneezy, itchy, runny. If you checked these... check this, or Enjoy
×ife® to the fullest /Life magazine/, which makes use of a cliche and the title of the
magazine promoted, happening to be the same word.
A very expressive tool, though quite infrequent for the reason of uneasiness to
find an apt one, is 

, that is, a merge of two words which makes up a third one -
anew-born lexical unit. Coining is used both in slogans (Kissable color just became
indelibly divine) and in brand names, such as 2watch (Swiss watch), ispa (to
whisper + ending).    
is often used in ad-slogans to create deviant
constructions which would attract the recipient¶s attention. (Putta Valfrutta Onto Your
Menu; Drinka Pinta Milka Day).
Ad-slogans make quite an extensive use of conventional 

 
, changing
the word class of a word in an unexpected manner: Tap into great taste /Brita water
filter/. Frequently, names of the product and the manufacturing company undergo
conversion: Have you been colorprinted? /for the service known as Colorprinting, that
is, finding colors for makeup/
p i" %
   are usually employed in slogans where the addresser
wants to name the product or the main idea first, which is vague, and arouses curiosity
at the same time. Immediately after that, he gives explanation, which is certain to keep
the recipient's attention for quite a while. (×iposome Hair Energizer, Vita-Hair
2upplement: 2 products for the health and beauty of your hair)
p  , that is, archaic words and spellings, are utilized in order to retain
the aura of the past. For instance, in the slogan YE O×DE DRE22 CODE: Never
reveal the figure in the presence of the opposite sex. Never wear wool next to bare
skin. OO×: The rules no longer apply. /Woolmark/, the contrast between the past
and the present is stressed by means of archaic spelling in the first part, which creates
the atmosphere shattered by the second part.
   

 

 31

Comparative advertising is advertising which compares the product promoted

with competing products or the company (in image advertising) with its competitors.
Of course, the comparison always works in favor of the object of advertising. The use
of comparative advertising is a controversial issue in the world nowadays, therefore it
seems interesting to look into it at greater length. The instrument of comparative
advertising is   
. In most cases, it makes use of the   
 and
 
 degrees of an adjective (The science and style of thicker fuller hair
/shampoo/; 2ally Hansen. The most trusted name in nails; Probably the best beer in
the world. /Carlsberg/; The largest European Internet Provider; Portsmouth. Britain¶s
best connected ferry port; 2imply the best call-back provider; The best car in America
just got better... A lot better./Toyota/), but sometimes it does without it (Our soap
leaves pores clear. Ordinary soaps leave soap. /Neutrogena/; hen it comes to
managing risks, we have the tools to manage like others can¶t ). Some of the
nominations acquire the form of faulty comparatives or superlatives (e.g. America¶s
best; the better quality cigarettes; ×onger than king size and noticeably smoother).
The semantics of such expressions is vague, and therefore they enter the vocabulary as
positive notions, being in fact negative, since the products they denote are harmful for
the health. [Voinov, p. 37]
Comparative advertising is widely and legally used in the United States of
America, Canada, Australia; it can be used with certain legal limitations in Denmark,
Sweden and the UK; it faces serious limitations in Netherlands and Germany; virtually
illegal is its use in France, Italy, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The opponents of
comparative advertising use the following arguments:
- when insidious and dishonest, comparative advertising can bring about consequences
so serious for the competitors that legal sanctions will be unable to compensate the
commercial loss incurred;
- comparative advertising is a well of conflicts and court suits between advertisers
(which is actually the case in the US);
- comparing "objective" indicators, like prices, can play a destabilizing role in itself:
commercial representatives and retail sellers will change prices unceasingly as an
instant reaction to such "information";
 32

- as far as "subjective" aspects are involved, such as taste, aesthetic properties,

comparison can not be but controversial;
- such advertising tends to stress secondary elements and leave aside really important
ones (such as correlation between price and quality, post-sale servicing, etc.);
The supporters of comparative advertising offer a number of arguments in its
defense:
- comparative advertising provides more complete information for the public;
- it encourages competition, since it makes it easier for small companies to compare
their products with those of large corporations leading in the branch;
- personal advertising used by sellers in shops and among their clients often uses
comparisons, so why discriminate mass advertising? [Dayan, ×a publicite, p.70]
Common sense suggests that thoughtless comparative advertising may be a
constant source of conflicts, and still such advertising is useful for the consumer. If it
uses humor and reason, it can make a good impact on the advertising campaign.
Stylistic means used in advertising, and particularly in slogans, make a source
of tremendous variance. That provides a basis for manipulative usage of linguistic
means. Sometimes, unspecified use of a word with a general sense leads to a twist of
its meaning to such an extent, that it loses its original meaning and acquires a totally
different one, retaining its graphology (or sound).
The tendency to create words with positive connotation is mostly pertinent to
the use of language in the domains of advertising and ideology. With the aid of
positively loaded words in combination with the camouflaging qualities of the
language a copywriter can create positive meanings and assign them to any object.
What we are talking about depends to a large extent upon the way we use the
language, and it may be shaped through our individual usage of the language. As the
above examples make clear, the name and the linguistic sign may determine and
condition our understanding of the object of communication and our attitude towards
it.
 
 

Ad-slogans are characterized by briefness, implicity, expressivity, subjectivity,
distinctive addressiveness, and the use of a typical restricted vocabulary.
Grammatically, it tends to employ simple structures, present tenses and positive
 33

constructions. High frequency is characteristic of the ing-form of verbs. The

prevailing subordinate clause in compound sentences is conditional, which confirms
the dominance of causal consecutive relations in advertising.
Advertising slogans often gain their effect by manipulating the norms of the
language. They make use of phonetic, graphetic, lexical and syntactical stylistic
devices, as well as their combinations. A particular role is played by various forms of
comparison, which makes the basis of comparative advertising. The latter is a source
of great controversy, because its effects can reach far beyond the linguistic limits,
causing serious material and moral damage to those against whom it is targeted.
 34

 pi
p

pp 
 p

i   

 

The pragmatics of advertising texts is concerned with their use in the acts of
speech. The approach is based on the fact that an utterance is a linguistic unit, which
performs a very important non-structural function - to serve as a unit of speech
communication. Nowadays, the linguistic study of mass communication, and
advertising in particular, is concerned with pragmatic aspects of communication along
with traditional structural and semantic aspects. The object of pragmatics, which is in
our case regarded in its narrow sense, is the system of active language means, aimed
at the mentality and will of the addressee. The final goal of pragmatics is to reveal the
optimal system of linguistic determination of both social and individual human
behavior. Therefore, the pragmatic function is that of influence, which includes the
effect of speech, interaction, verbal management of human behavior, shaping social
and individual human behavior via language. That function is very important for
advertising, since its main goal is to create an impact on social and individual
behavior.
The theory of pragmatics sets the rules of pragmatic interpretation, that is, the
rules assigning a specific illocutionary power and a status of a certain speech act to
every utterance on the basis of its pragmatic structure.
The pragmatic understanding is a number of procedures, in the course of
which the participants of communication assign specific conventional properties to the
utterances (or slogans in our case). These properties make up the illocutionary power
of a message, which is decoded by the addressee in the context of the following
factors:
- grammatical and structural features of the utterance;
- paralinguistic characteristics, that is, the settings of the slogan (pictures, fonts,
placement on the page, etc.)
- perception of the communicative situation (what is the situation around the addressee
at the moment of perception);
- previously received information (knowledge and opinion) about the object and the
addresser of communication;
 35

- general knowledge (mostly conventional) about the rules of pragmatic interaction in

the given context;
- other knowledge about various life situations and aspects. [van Deik, p.15]
Approximately, we can single out at least four levels of the information
process: creation and preparation of the message; expansion of the social information;
involvement of the audience into the action of the communication system;
assimilation and perception of the information. Each of these levels can be interpreted,
on one hand, as an activity aimed at creation of the messages and their transmission
through communication channels, and on the other hand, as an activity of the audience
receiving and considering the information. [Treskova, p.137]
The influence of advertising is effected at the time when the message is
brought into the consciousness of the addressee, which results in forming new beliefs,
desires, and eventually - leads to a certain conscious action. For the addresser, this
process is an array of consequently solved psychological and communicative
problems. At the first level that means to establish a contact. At the second level - to
persuade the recipient (addressee) of the significance of the ideas contained in the
message.
Any specific activity of a person is operated by motivation, which is a result of
a need. Desires, aspirations, intentions, interests, etc. make up the language which is
³used´ by human needs in order to communicate their contents to the person having
them. [Demyankova, ɪ. 230] So, the task of an advertisement which, in fact, reflects
the addresser¶s intention, is to get the addressee have these feelings and try to make
them so intense that the addressee should be sufficiently motivated to act according to
the addresser¶s intention.
We have to keep in mind that intention is a system of partially reflected
psychic images of reality linked with the sphere of needs and motivations of a person.
Intention of the addresser correlates with the pragmatic function. Therefore, the
notions ³pragmatic´ and ³intentional´ are often regarded as close, or even
synonymous ones. The addresser¶s intention is a crucial point in communication, since
is lies at the core of the speech planning strategy.
Should the message successfully pass the addressee¶s resistance to the
unwanted or at least unexpected message, we have the following output of the
 36

³influence-perception´ process: knowledge, convictions, and actions. A conviction is

knowledge which became a motivation for action. If the motivation is strong enough
to get the addressee to take the actual action, the influence is successful. This result is
stimulated if the recipient¶s needs and desires are considered when the text is being
compiled. [Treskova, p.93]
Schematically, we can represent it in the following way:

pppp
ppp p
pppp
addresser advertising information (message) ppp3p addressee
pppp
ppp
p
pppp
ppp p
pppp pp$ %  p
ppp p
pp 
 p
pppp
response pp
 p

The main and only goal of advertising is to make the addressee buy the
product or use the service advertised, and therefore an ad has to be very argumentative
and even aggressive, although subtle at the same time. That necessity conditions
advertising and makes it a very distinctive linguistic and pragmatic type.
As shown in the previous chapters, the advertising text is a finalized act of
speech with a defined formal (composition) and semantic (content) structure,
including two principal aspects - informative and persuasive (voluntative). It serves as
a communicative message, which has the pragmatic purpose of transmitting the
information concerning the object of advertising, adequate to the author¶s intention,
which aims eventually at encouraging the recipient to take an action - to buy the
product. The formal structure of an ad-text includes elements reflecting informative
and persuasive features of advertising. We need to stress that linguistic and stylistic
devices, expressing information and appeal, are organized in such a way that except
the explicit persuasive element, the whole text, including its informative aspect, is
permeated with implicit voluntative semantics and pragmatic orientation, which
motivates the addressee. It should be added that the advertising text functions within
 37

the sphere of mass communication, it combines linguistic and extralinguistic means

and has the basic qualities of a text, with positive pragmatic orientation as the leading
quality.
As mentioned above, the functional and pragmatic aspects of general
advertising are determined by a combination of information and motivation
(persuasion). The specific character of advertising lies in the fact that the motivating
(recruiting) function is closely linked with the informative one with a clear tendency
for dominance of motivating elements in the communicative structure of the text.
 
 
The principal feature characteristic of the advertising language is ultimate
persuasiveness. To make a certain action the addressee of the advertising message
must be sufficiently motivated, and therefore, the message should contain an
irresistible appeal. Consequently, the appeal is the crucial element of advertising, the
key position which conditions subsequent actions of the target recipient.
The main success factor in ad-slogan creation is strict conformity with the
experience accumulated by generations of copywriters. The development of an idea
for a slogan relies on the analysis of principal addressee's motivations and the extent
of their satisfaction. As a result of speech planning, the addresser makes a complex
speech product in the form of advertising concepts and appeals.
Almost every appeal imaginable has been used in advertising. Some ads have
traded on prestige; others have used fear. Some have promised glamour and good life.
Some have embraced fantasy, and others have been firmly fixed in reality. To make
these appeals, advertisers associate their product, verbally and visually, with other
images, symbols, and values that are likely to attract consumers. [DeFleur, p.273] For
example, advertising for the auto rental firm Avis appealed to love of the underdog
when it promised ³ e try harder´. Another advertising which informs that staying at
Hilton one can earn free airline miles with certain air companies, uses one¶s inmost
desires when it says: ³This 2ummer Hilton Is Giving Away 13,000,000 Airline Miles.
That¶s Kind Of ×ike Having Your Own Private Jet´.
An appeal that is very frequently used in advertising is the purchasing passion
of the consumer society: lIf you¶re itching to own a new car, scratch herel /Toyota/.
In fact, purchasing passion is relied upon in most ads, in a combination with other
 38

appeals. In the consumer society, when consumption becomes the basic value and
people are judged on the basis of their purchasing power, consumers (recipients of the
advertising message) are always prepared to make a purchase, should it be presented
in an attractive form. That is why advertisers try to do their best to override each other
in the extent of influence upon the purchasing passion of their potential consumers,
trying to create an atmosphere which would stimulate that passion
Results of the research undertaken have revealed that the most typical appeals
are based on the following factors: 1) desire to use quality things: The new Bose
acoustic ave music system is quite advanced. Yet so easy to grasp; 2) desire for
reliability: United ×eeds teaching hospitals asked us to conduct a major operation.
/AHCemstar/; 3) desire to know things (to be in tune with time): Open your eyes to
new horizons, see the world through Newsweek; 4) love/fondness and sex: @resh and
tenderly seductive /Tendre Poison/; 5) desire for perfection: Hemisphere is near
PER@ECT; 6) desire to resemble one¶s idol, to worship heroes and celebrities: Cindy
Crawford¶s choice. ³Trust your judgment, trust Omega´ - Cindy Crawford /watch/;
7) happy family life: You¶ve waited five whole days for the weekend. hy ruin it by
going out? /bed clothing/; 8) desire for pleasure/comfort Your can contour your body.
Hanes becomes you. /hosiery/; 9) desire to look good: 2ee how GREAT your HAIR
can be; 10) appeal to senses: ×ight... Gently... Plays on my skin... illuminating colors.
New tinted moisturizing creme from NIVEA visage; 11) health: The complete
treatment in one capsule /Diflucan/; 12) fear: Identify the threat... Use environmental
systems... Avoid the threat... /computer systems to locate environmental risks/; 13)
curiosity: Discover the delightful new spirit in fragrance; 14) desire to save: Ł30 off
music at our price. It's enough to make your oofer throb; 15) egotism: Noone
understands your skin better /Clarins skincare/; 16) prestige: Gaz de @rance. An image
built on performance. Besides, advertising makes use of such appeals as safety, pride,
desire to be in tune with time, leadership abilities, personal taste, efficiency, ambition,
as well as reluctance to be criticized, risk of unsuccessful purchase, fear of physical
pain, bad reputation, trouble, money loss and lots of others (ref. Appendix). If there is
no real necessity or feeling which can be addressed by the advertising slogan,
advertisers try to make up an idea about the product or service which would put it on
the same row with things that the recipient already needs or wants. [Edwards, p. 268]
 39

Π 


 

The system of appeals in advertising is based on the causal consecutive
relations, meaning that the information contained in the message either indicates
directly or implies a certain consequence of the message. As a rule, these relations can
be described in terms of the relational formula: "If A, then B". (For instance: lIf it¶s
got to be clean, it¶s got to be Tidel /Tide bleach/, which can be paraphrased as "If A
(you want to have clean things), then B (you have to use Tide)"; or another, less
explicit example: lThe first and only international Chinese newsweeklyl /Yazhou
Zhoukan/, which in fact means: "If A (you want to know anything about China), then
B (you have to read our edition)".) The dominance of causal consecutive relations
provides for high frequency of conditional utterances of various forms, meanings and
functions. In advertising, conditional utterances express not only logical and
grammatical causal consecutive relations, but also secondary subjective modal
evaluated implications, characteristic of the functional properties of the Adspeak.
Since causal consecutive relations presuppose a certain consequential action of
the addressee, we can conclude that the speech acts used in advertising are
distinguished for imperative modality, which can be explicit or implicit, expressed by
any motivating element or structure. The motivating function is expressed through
direct imperative mode, that is, direct persuasion, appealing to the recipient¶s mind,
which is expressed through direct explicit logical motivation (lAsk your doctor for a
trial of once-a-day C×ARITIN. Experience 24-hour relief from seasonal nasal allergy
symptoms: itchy, watery eyes; itchy palate; runny nose; and sneezing.l/allergy relief/).
Logical influence is effected in a synthesis with the appealing and emotive functions,
therefore persuasion, motivation are expressed by means of oblique explicit influence
(lHere are a few benefits you won't find in our catalogue: a dramatic drop in
overtime; an addiction to fresh air; periodic lapses from reality; improved outlook on
life; decreased fear of hights...l).
Imperative aspects of the Adspeak show mostly through activation of emotive
factor and appeal. The addressee¶s will undergoes the most implicit influence. This is
accounted for by a number of factors: 1) implicitly transmitted information can not be
exposed to a truthfulness check, and the addresser is not liable for it in the court of
law; 2) indirect methods of information transmission can be more efficient, since in
 40

that case the addressee does not feel the pressure on behalf of the addresser, which
makes the object of advertising more attractive for them; 3) memorability of
advertising is increased in that way, which is explained by the extent of the
addressee¶s involvement into information processing - implication is a subjective
product of the recipient¶s cognitive activity.
Both in the cases of direct persuasion and oblique influence imperative
modality is closely linked with conditional modality. When persuasion is direct, the
imperative is combined with the modal meaning of proposition, possibility. When
there is oblique influence, the imperative is united with such subjective modal
meanings as assumption, advice, warning, etc.
Imperativity may be expressed by a combination of explicit and implicit forms
of speech influence, as in the following example: lDiscover 2pa, and you¶ll jump at
our Ł99 2 for 1 offerl /mineral water/. Imperativity in the synthesis with information
is expressed by two constructions, imperative and declarative, and the modality of
persuasion is transmitted explicitly. The relation between the cause and consequence
is a variety of the relational formula ³If A (you discover Spa), then B (you¶ll jump at
our offer)´.
Subjective and modal meanings, their contextual realization provide for
displacement of logical stresses, change in the theme and rheme of a text. For
example: l ant to buy a home? ×et us point you in the right directionl /Fannie Mae
Foundation/. The text includes two segments: a question to the addressee, expressing
supposition (you probably want to buy a home, don¶t you?) and intimate advice (come
to us, we¶ll get you there). These segments form a logical structure which fits into the
implicit formula: ³If A (you want to buy a home), then B (tell us, we¶ll do it for you)´.
Thus, the communicative nucleus of the text under review is a conditional utterance,
organized in separate segments - questive and constative. The modality of the theme
and rheme expresses the principal objective of advertising - to attract the consumer,
shaping the message in a way which would accentuate the addressee¶s interests, that
is, interests of the potential client. As far as persuasive modality is concerned, it is
softened by the shades of interest in the addressee¶s needs, sympathetic attitude
towards him or her, friendly advice.
 

 

 41

In advertising texts, where the informative and persuasive functions are closely
bound, compilers have worked out a specific form of implicit influence upon the
addressee, which imitates a conversation between a seller and a customer. This
conversation involves a number of intentional categories assigned to the advertiser
(the addresser), which can be described in terms of the theory of speech acts.
The use of speech acts in advertising fits into the general concepts of the
theory of speech acts, which states that pronouncing an utterance we can not only
transmit information, but make a lot of other actions at the same time. nowadays, it is
widely recognized that communication involves a much larger range of actions than
simple sentence-creating. Verbal means can serve to express a request, a question, an
order, a warning, as well as advice, gratitude, and lots of other meanings. That ability
of utterances is widely exploited in advertising, since implicit nominations play a
dominant role in it.
In advertising, we can find various types of speech acts, depending on the
communicative and pragmatic goal of the addressee. The most productive pragmatic
types in ad-slogans are constatives (e.g. lEvery day, we help thousands of people like
Zoe fight cancerl /Imperial Cancer Research Fund/) and directives (e.g. lBe our
partner in energy savingl /Eaga-energy efficiency systems/), making up 75,31% and
21,16% accordingly. The next one on the list is the questive speech act (e.g. l here is
your mustache?l /Milk/), making up 7,30% of the total. The other speech acts can be
found as well. For instance, the performative speech act can be used in a sentence like:
lYou're invited to discover the power of Ceramides, the future of anti-aging skincarel
/Elizabeth Arden skincare/; or promissive: l e'll get you there on timel /Saudi
Arabian Airlines/. However, the frequency of their usage is much lower. Therefore,
we shall analyze the three most common types of speech acts: constative, directive,
and questive.
We can say that the texts of advertising are represented by two varieties:
monologue advertising, which does not contain structures presupposing a response
from the addressee, as in the slogan: lChoosy moms choose Jifl /peanut butter/; and
dialogue advertising, which either implies a response from the addressee, or the
response is provided in the text itself, for instance: l hat does it take to make tap
water taste like this? /picture of a waterfall/ Not much. Brital /picture of a water
 42

filter/. The use of these two varieties shapes the use of speech acts in advertising,
which also falls under the influence of a great number of communicative factors.
In monologue advertising, the mostly wide-spread speech act is constative,
since it is used as a rule to transmit information without any concern about the
consequence of the act. Certainly, in advertising the consequences are of vital
importance and of great concern at any time, but the use of indifferent tone and
absolute, seemingly unquestionable constructions, creates a certain persuasive effect
which is likely to serve the goal of advertising - to convince the recipient. The
absolute certainty of the addresser is passed on to the addressee. For example, the
slogan lCar insurance just for girlsl makes us think that there must be something
about it that is really just for girls, although, if we think about it logically, the idea
does not seem plausible. In the same manner, we have little doubt that lNo other
camcorder can do all thisl /for Panasonic camera/ when we read the slogan, though it
is probably not true and not so absolute, in any event.
Constative speech acts are used as well in dialogue advertising. Besides, it
makes extensive use of questives and directives, as well as various combinations of
those, as described below.
Ad-slogans often make use of a combination of the constative and questive
speech acts. These can be used for different semantic purposes. For instance, in the
following text: lBorn in mystery or mastery? Is emotion revealed or concealed? An
elegant timepiece... or timeless piece of jewelry? There is only one certainty. The
beauty of 2hantal /EBEL jewelry/, questive acts are used to create the atmosphere of
uncertainty, which is then contrasted with the certainty of Shanta beauty. In the next
example: lYou can get softness and body under one condition. 2oftness and body?
That takes @inessel /conditioner/, the question serves to express surprise, supposedly
felt by the recipient. This slogan fits into formula of causal consecutive relations: ³If
A (you want to get softness and body), then B (use Finesse)´. In the next example, the
question is used to make a stunning impression, to stress the contrast, to shock the
reader: lThe princess dream. The pony dream. The pretty bride dream. Ready for the
kick butt dream?l /Levi¶s jeans for women/). The questive speech act finalizes the
general structure and emphasizes the climax.
 43

Another productive combination is that of the questive and directive speech

acts. Semantic implication of such utterances usually denotes, that if you haven¶t done
or had something until now, you should go and do it or obtain it now. These are
usually constructed along the lines of ³If A, Then B´, the A part being questive, and
the B part - directive. For example, in the slogan lClient dinner? Be sure to use the
good silverl, the recipient is supposed to give an answer to the question in his/her
mind, which may be ³Yes´, and in that case, which is certainly a crucial one for a
business person, there is a ready-made solution which enables to facilitate the event.
the slogan can be paraphrased in the following way: ³If you are having a client dinner,
then use the good silver´. Similar intention can be traced in the slogan lMeeting
someone special after work? Dress... ×ike you mean business!l. The target recipient is
supposed to be concerned with what he/she should wear to a date and answer ³Yes´ to
the question, and immediately they are told what they can do in order to be successful.
One could say: ³If you are meeting someone special after work, then dress like you
mean business´.
The directive speech act is frequently used without ³softeners´ like µplease¶,
etc. The question is, whether we should regard such acts as injunctive or requestive,
and the most probable answer is that it is a merge of those, since the Imperative Mood
in ad-slogans pretends to suggest to the recipient what he or she should do, but in most
cases that suggestion is rather firm, and sometimes even rough. For instance: lTake
precise aim. Target the bestl /for advertising space in @inancial Times/. The slogan
basically tells the recipient that if he or she wants to target the best aim precisely the
only choice they have is to place an advertisement in @inancial Times, which is
certainly not the case. However, without any explanation the ad dictates a subjective
viewpoint, which does not seem very tactful, though gives an impression of a good
will of the addresser. The suggestion becomes too pressing to be a requestive one. In a
similar way, in the slogan: lChoose peace of mind. Choose to cut your image¶s cost,
even on small routine orders. Choose smiling. Choose meals with your family. Choose
to know exactly how much your employees are spending. (And where.) Choose to
make your business life easierl /VISA card/ the text structure and its meaning create
an impression that a person is sure to be unhappy if he or she does not use the VISA
service. The effect is increased by repetition of the word choose, which suggests two
 44

opposite implications: (1) the choice is yours; (2) you don¶t really have any choice.
Please choose whatever you like, but what we are offering you is the only way to
happiness. Consequently, by no means can we say that this is a neutral request. On the
contrary, growing persuasion runs through the entire text.
 
 

The pragmatic effect of an advertising message depends upon the following
factors:
- the addresser's intention, which results in the creation of the content of a message,
and subsequently leads to the creation of certain addressee's motivations;
- the output of the addressee's decoding procedure, which in its turn depends on the
content of the message and the situational at the moment of reception;
In case of successful completion of the transmission procedure the advertiser
receives the desired response from the addressee, which comprises three stages:
knowledge, convictions, and actions.
The key component of an advertising message is its appeal. Various appeals
used in advertising tend to recruit the recipient by means of addressing his needs and
desires, and camouflaging the real addresser's intention, which is to convince the
addressee to take certain actions.
Ad-slogans are characterized by predominant causal consecutive relations,
which may be both explicit and implicit. Analysis of contextual realization shows that
persuasive and informative objective in an ad-slogan can be expressed by various
combinations of causal consecutive relations, and therefore these relations make up
one of the basic structural models in ad-slogans.
The implication of causal consecutive relations serves to convince the
addressee to make a logical conclusion and to act accordingly, which means that they
display imperative modality.
The texts of advertising are represented by two varieties: monologue
advertising, which does not contain structures presupposing a reply from the
addressee, and dialogue advertising, which either implies a reply from the addressee,
or the reply is provided in the text itself.
A typical feature of advertising is the peculiar use of speech acts, resulting in
displacement of logical stresses in advertising texts. The most productive speech acts
 45

in the language of advertising are constative, directive, and questive, as well as

various combinations of those. The use of speech acts in advertising provides for
realization of the persuasive intention of the addresser.
 46


 

Advertising is a communicative act, which follows the general principles of a

communication procedure and has its own specific features.
The general principles include the components of advertising (the addresser,
the message and the code, and the addressee), the role of the addresser's intention and
the addressee's motivation.
The specific features of advertising comprise the following factors:
- peculiar intention of the addresser, which is to persuade the recipient to buy the
product advertised;
- the forms of media used to convey the message, usually reaching a wide audience;
- when the media is selected, social and demographic types of the target recipients are
of crucial importance;
- Advertising serves two communicative functions: information and persuasion. In the
synthesis of informative and persuasive (motivating) functional properties of this
genre, the leading role is played by the persuasive function.
The language of advertising is a specific linguistic variety with its own laws
and structures, which combines, but is not limited to linguistic devices characteristic
of other varieties. The speech and non-speech planning activity in advertising lies in
coordinating the overall preliminary knowledge and the strategies known to the
advertiser both with the needs and motivations of the addressee and with the object of
advertising, and eventually producing the subjective motivation. Speech planning is
coordinated by the semantic and pragmatic intention of the addresser.
The activating feature, the active speech influence of advertising texts is
expressed by special lexical, grammatical, and syntactical forms and stylistic methods.
These special forms comprise, first of all, various instruments of establishing a contact
with the addressee, expressions of shadow (implicit) motivation, carrying out indirect
persuasion. The linguistic and stylistic means described above serve to offer goods
and services in a friendly style of intimate advice, and to lead the recipient to the point
where he will involuntarily discover an opportunity to satisfy his own need.
Advertising slogans are the most expressive means of the advertising text.
They are distinguished for brightly manifested personal character, expressive and
 47

confiding tones, colloquial features. Wide addressiveness of advertising provides for

subjective modal character of narration in this speech genre. The best samples of ad-
slogan are characterized by the following features: conciseness, specificity,
transparency (form); repetition; brightness, accuracy, uniqueness, emotional content
(style); as well as argumentation, association, consideration of consumers¶ needs,
interests and desires (content); which makes them attractive, interesting and
suggestive.
The text aspect of advertising, that is, the totality of formal means of
expression for its denotative and pragmatic orientation, reveals a number of linguistic
and stylistic features of organization of the communicative nucleus. Analyses of the
material under review showed that the modern English language advertising manifests
incomplete structure, implicit shaping of the slogans, their isolated character, logical
and intonation links between segments of an utterance, and causal consecutive
relations as a major factor of the logical, grammatical, and semantic structure.
Advertising slogans are distinguished for manipulative use of linguistic tools,
such as phonetic, graphetic, lexical, and syntactic stylistic devices, as well as their
combinations. Stylistic means can be used in a way which can become the subject of
calamity in the society, which is brightly manifested by comparative advertising. The
latter can make a serious impact on social and economic life.
The advertising slogan is a specific form of mass communication text, where
one can see realization of connection between pragmatics and linguistics. The
pragmatic effect of advertising depends on two factors: the addresser's intention,
realized in the message, and the way it is decoded by the addressee in the context of
his background and the situation at the moment of reception. If the case of a
successful completion of the transmission procedure the advertiser receives the
addressee's respons
e, which comprises three stages: knowledge, convictions, and actions. The success of
advertising depends to a great extent upon the appeal contained in the message.
Advertising is characterized by both direct explicit influence upon the
addressee and shadow influence, effected in close relation with conditional and
imperative modality. Advertising belongs to the texts with a noticeable dominance of
 48

causal consecutive relations. This accounts for high frequency of conditional

utterances in advertising with various form, meaning and functions.
There are two types of advertising texts: monologue advertising, which does
not contain structures presupposing a response from the addressee, and dialogue
advertising, which either implies a response from the addressee, or the response is
provided in the text itself.
The use of speech acts in advertising provides for the realization of the
addresser's intention. The most productive speech acts in this language variety are
constatives, directives, and questives.
Social speech acts not only semantically and functionally enrich linguistic
forms, but also transform them, giving rise to situationally conditioned tools of
expression, pertinent to one specific speech genre.
 49

£ (  %

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17.Ⱥɪɧɨɥɶɞ ɂ.ȼ. ɋɬɢɥɢɫɬɢɤɚ ɫɨɜɪɟɦɟɧɧɨɝɨ ɚɧɝɥɢɣɫɤɨɝɨ ɹɡɵɤɚ. Ɇɨɫɤɜɚ:

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ɫɨɰɢɚɥɶɧɨɝɨ ɜɡɚɢɦɨɞɟɣɫɬɜɢɹ. ɉɟɪɟɜɨɞɵ. ɋɨɫɬ. ȼ.Ɇ.ɋɟɪɝɟɟɜɚ, ɉ.Ȼ.ɉɚɪɲɢɧɚ.
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20. ȼɚɣɧɚɪɢɯ, ɏ. Ʌɢɧɝɜɢɫɬɢɤɚ ɥɠɢ./ əɡɵɤ ɢ ɦɨɞɟɥɢɪɨɜɚɧɢɟ ɫɨɰɢɚɥɶɧɨɝɨ
ɜɡɚɢɦɨɞɟɣɫɬɜɢɹ. ɉɟɪɟɜɨɞɵ. ɋɨɫɬ. ȼ.Ɇ.ɋɟɪɝɟɟɜɚ, ɉ.Ȼ.ɉɚɪɲɢɧɚ. Ɇɨɫɤɜɚ:
ɉɪɨɝɪɟɫɫ, 1987.
21. ȼɨɢɧɨɜ ȼ.ȼ. ɋɨɰiɚɥɶɧɨ-ɨɰiɧɨɱɧi ɧɨɦiɧɚɰiʀ ɜ ɤɨɧɬɟɤɫɬi ɤɭɥɶɬɭɪɢ ɋɒȺ. Ʉɢʀɜ:
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22. Ⱦɟɣɜɢɫɨɧ, Ⱥ. Ʌɢɧɝɜɢɫɬɢɱɟɫɤɨɟ ɢɥɢ ɩɪɚɝɦɚɬɢɱɟɫɤɨɟ ɨɩɢɫɚɧɢɟ: ɪɚɡɦɵɲɥɟɧɢɟ
ɨ lɉɚɪɚɞɨɤɫɟ ɉɟɪɮɨɪɦɚɬɢɜɧɨɫɬɢl/ ɇɨɜɨɟ ɜ ɡɚɪɭɛɟɠɧɨɣ ɥɢɧɝɜɢɫɬɢɤɟ. ɋɛɨɪɧɢɤ.
ɉɟɪ. ɫ ɚɧɝɥ. ɋɨɫɬ. ɂ.Ɇ.Ʉɨɛɨɡɟɜɨɣ, ȼ.Ɂ.Ⱦɟɦɶɹɧɤɨɜɚ. Ɇɨɫɤɜɚ: ɉɪɨɝɪɟɫɫ, 1986.
23. Ⱦɟɦɶɹɧɤɨɜɚ ȼ.Ɂ. l
ɟɨɪɢɹ ɪɟɱɟɜɵɯ ɚɤɬɨɜl ɜ ɤɨɧɬɟɤɫɬɟ ɫɨɜɪɟɦɟɧɧɨɣ
ɡɚɪɭɛɟɠɧɨɣ ɥɢɧɝɜɢɫɬɢɤɢ. / ɇɨɜɨɟ ɜ ɡɚɪɭɛɟɠɧɨɣ ɥɢɧɝɜɢɫɬɢɤɟ. ɋɛɨɪɧɢɤ. ɉɟɪ. ɫ
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24. ɂɜɚɧɨɜɚ ɂ.ɉ.; Ȼɭɪɥɚɤɨɜɚ ȼ.ȼ.; ɉɨɱɟɩɰɨɜ Ƚ.Ƚ.
ɟɨɪɟɬɢɱɟɫɤɚɹ ɝɪɚɦɦɚɬɢɤɚ
ɫɨɜɪɟɦɟɧɧɨɝɨ ɚɧɝɥɢɣɫɤɨɝɨ ɹɡɵɤɚ. Ɇɨɫɤɜɚ: ȼɵɫɲɚɹ ɲɤɨɥɚ, 1981.
25. Ɉɫɬɢɧ, Ⱦɠ.Ʌ. ɋɥɨɜɨ ɤɚɤ ɞɟɣɫɬɜɢɟ./ ɇɨɜɨɟ ɜ ɡɚɪɭɛɟɠɧɨɣ ɥɢɧɝɜɢɫɬɢɤɟ.
ɋɛɨɪɧɢɤ. ɉɟɪ. ɫ ɚɧɝ. ɋɨɫɬ. ɂ.Ɇ.Ʉɨɛɨɡɟɜɨɣ, ȼ.Ɂ.Ⱦɟɦɶɹɧɤɨɜɚ. Ɇɨɫɤɜɚ: ɉɪɨɝɪɟɫɫ,
1986.
26. ɉɚɞɭɱɟɜɚ ȿ.ȼ. ȼɵɫɤɚɡɵɜɚɧɢɟ ɢ ɟɝɨ ɫɨɨɬɧɟɫɟɧɧɨɫɬɶ ɫ ɞɟɣɫɬɜɢɬɟɥɶɧɨɫɬɶɸ.
Ɇɨɫɤɜɚ: ɇɚɭɤɚ, 1985.
27. ɋɟɪɥɶ Ⱦɠ.Ɋ. ɑɬɨ ɬɚɤɨɟ ɪɟɱɟɜɨɣ ɚɤɬ?/ ɇɨɜɨɟ ɜ ɡɚɪɭɛɟɠɧɨɣ ɥɢɧɝɜɢɫɬɢɤɟ.
ɋɛɨɪɧɢɤ. ɉɟɪ. ɫ ɚɧɝ. ɋɨɫɬ. ɂ.Ɇ.Ʉɨɛɨɡɟɜɨɣ, ȼ.Ɂ.Ⱦɟɦɶɹɧɤɨɜɚ. Ɇɨɫɤɜɚ: ɉɪɨɝɪɟɫɫ,
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28. ɋɬɪɨɫɨɧ, ɉ.Ɏ. ɇɚɦɟɪɟɧɢɟ ɢ ɤɨɧɜɟɧɰɢɹ ɜ ɪɟɱɟɜɵɯ ɚɤɬɚɯ./ ɇɨɜɨɟ ɜ ɡɚɪɭɛɟɠɧɨɣ
ɥɢɧɝɜɢɫɬɢɤɟ. ɋɛɨɪɧɢɤ. ɉɟɪ. ɫ ɚɧɝ. ɋɨɫɬ. ɂ.Ɇ.Ʉɨɛɨɡɟɜɨɣ, ȼ.Ɂ.Ⱦɟɦɶɹɧɤɨɜɚ.
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29. Ɍɪɟɫɤɨɜɚ ɋ.ɂ. ɋɨɰɢɨɥɢɧɝɜɢɫɬɢɱɟɫɤɢɟ ɩɪɨɛɥɟɦɵ ɦɚɫɫɨɜɨɣ ɤɨɦɦɭɧɢɤɚɰɢɢ.
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 51

30. Harrap's 2tandard ×earner's English Dictionary. London: Harrap, 1981.

31. Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advanced ×earner's Dictionary of Current English. Oxford:
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32. Elle, July 1996;

33. @inancial Times, November 11, 1996;
34. ×ife, April 1997;
35. Newsweek, April 28, 1997;
36. People, June 10, 1996;
37. The Economist, December 21, 1996;
38. Time, July 15, 1996;
39. Time, July 22, 1996;
40. Vogue, November, 1996;
41. Vogue, January, 1997.