101 LiCuS 1 (2006), 101-111

SATARUPA D ATTAMAJUMDAR
(Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India)
UDK: 316.77:659
Izvorni znanstveni rad
Primljen: 07. 05. 2006.
Prihvaćen: 30. 05. 2006.

Language of Advertisement and Gender Stylistics.

A discursive Approach
Abstract:
In advertising language the copywriter is
found to take the privilege to modify the
natural order of the language, keeping
in view their socio-economic
background, psycho-social set-up,
needs and aspirations of the target
group or the purchaser. The present
paper will examine the discourse of the
language of advertisement adopted by
the copywriter in advertising women’s
and men’s garments in different mass
media .The study has been carried out
in the city of Kolkata. The stylistic
variation in the language of
advertisement that exists between
men’s and women’s garments (i.e.,
gender variations) will be revealed
significantly in the present study. The
study will attempt to reveal the extent of
effectiveness of the communicative
technique adopted by the copywriter for
the advertisement, which is very much
dependent on the psycho-social and
cultural acceptability and the worldview
of the role and status regarding gender
distinction that exists in the concerned
society where the advertisement is
made.
Zusammenfassung:
In der Werbeindustrie meinen die
Werbetexter zur Modifizierung des
natürlichen Sprachbaus berechtigt zu
sein, indem sie den sozial-wirtschaft-
lichen Hintergrund und die psycho-
sozialen Gegebenheiten sowie die
Bedürfnisse und Wünsche der Adressa-
tengruppe bzw. der Käufer berücksichti-
gen. Im Beitrag werden der
Sprachdiskurs sowie stilistische Varia-
tionen des Sprachgebrauchs in
einzelnen Werbungen jener Texter
untersucht, die Werbetexte für Frauen-
und Männerkleidung in unterschied-
lichen Massenmedien entwerfen. Die
Untersuchung wurde in der indischen
Stadt Kalkutta durchgeführt. Im Beitrag
versucht man, die Effizienz der seitens
der Werbetexter eingesetzten Kom-
munikationstechniken festzustellen, die
im großen Maße von ihrer psycho-
sozialen und kulturellen Akzeptanz, den
Weltanschauungen sowie von der Rolle
und dem Status der Geschlechts-
unterschiede abhängen, die in der
Gesellschaft, in der die Werbetexte
entstanden sind, vorherrschen.

1. Introduction

Advertisement is an inevitable outcome of a capitalistic society. The natural

order of the language is modified, shaped and stylized by the copywriter
according to the product of the advertisement and the target group or the
SATARUPA DATTAMAJUMDAR:
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purchaser. The target group being the most important factor in the field of
commerce is paid due importance keeping in view their socio-economic
background, psycho-social set-up, needs and aspirations. For this purpose,
the style employed, the vocabulary used and even the semantic
considerations of the language of advertisement show marked variation
from the general spoken or written form of the language. The present paper
will examine the discourse of the language of advertisement adopted by the
copywriter in advertising women’s and men’s garments. The stylistic
variation in the language of advertisement that exists between men’s and
women’s garments (ie, gender variations) will be revealed significantly in
the present study. The data for the present paper has been collected from
the magazines (e.g., Sananda, Manorama, well circulated Women’s
magazines of the city of Kolkata dealing with contemporary fashions )and
other mass media (e.g., road side hoardings, The Statesman, The
Telegraph, Anandabazar Patrika, highly circulated news papers, audio
visual media) in general.

2. The Gender Variation

Gender variable is a significant sociolinguistic feature that has been studied

by various scholars in different languages like English, French, Koasati,
Bangla, etc. The variation in the speech that exists between men and
women has been noticed at various levels: phonology, morphology,
vocabulary and syntactic construction. This variation has also been found in
the use of proverbs, idioms, taboos, etc. Eakins and Eakins (1978: 18)
mentions, “A number of communication differences may be linked to these
sex differences in occupation. The allocation of different activities, duties,
roles, and work environments according to sex can contribute to disparate
conversational topics, dissimilar styles of talk, distinctive vocabularies,
divergent non-verbal communication patterns, and other typed language
variables.” Interestingly, this is not only observed in the speech of the
speakers of the speech community, but the variation can also be observed
in the language used specifically for an individual speaker or for a specific
group of speaker. That is, this gender variation can be noticed in the
specific use of the linguistic structure for specific addressee. Such linguistic
specification can be traced in the psycho-sociological understanding of the
role and status of the individuals in the concerned society. This has been
rightly put by Linton (1952: 75) “The individual is socially assigned to a
status and occupies it with relation to other statuses. When he puts the
rights and duties which constitute the status into effect, he is performing a
role. Role and status are quite inseperable…”. These socially existent role
and status notions in relation to gender distinction are reflected in the
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language of advertisement. This will be analyzed and discussed in the

following sections.

2.0. The Gender Stylistics in the Language of Advertisement

The women’s magazines are regularly found to advertise garments of

different shops or boutiques (shops for exclusive items) in the form of an
article. The privilege of advertising in this way enables an encoder to tell a
lot about the design, the texture, the colour, etc. of the garments. Not only
this, a social and material aspiration of consuming such types of goods is
also possible to inculcate among the addressees through such
advertisements. For instance, the language of a caption used for
advertising the garments of the boutique ‘Ogan’ in a Bangla women’s
magazine is as follows (Sananda : March 2001 issue):

Bg. coiti hawar ponthi1

A Bangla month of summer wind-gen. one who is on the same
path
En. 'With the wind of Chaitra’(a Bangla month of summer season)

This caption tells nothing about garments explicitly, but implicitly advertises
the garments which are comfortable in summer or those which are worn in
the summer season. Such a caption which is a case of message reduction
without telling anything explicitly about garments, at once captures the
attention of the reader and she is impelled to go through the pictures of the
garments anchored with the description. This in turn creates a
subconscious aspiration of consuming such a type of garment in the mind
of the readers.
Message reduction technique is also found to be used for advertising
branded men’s wear. Such advertisements make the caption sharp and
smart - a generalized notion of masculinity of the concerned society. Thus
the aspiration to become masculine enough strikes the reader to become a
consumer. This is evident from the language of the caption used by
TURTLE (a renowned manufacturing company of men’s garments) which is
presented in the following (hoarding advertisement in Kolkata):

Eng. Differential Thinking

1
This syntactic structure and the rhythm of the caption at once reminds the reader of
the line from Rabindranath Tagore’s Seser Kabita (1973: 35): “colti hawar ponthi” (in
order to fulfil the cultural aspiration of the target group) which means ‘along the wind
(trend)’. Is it not implicit that women of the concerned society are expected to follow
the existing trend rather than creating difference which is explicit from the captions of
advertisement made for men?
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The caption points out implicitly the concept of having the speciality of
thinking differently in the choice of shirt [by TURTLE].

2.1. The need for changing the texture, colour, design of a garment along
with the changing season and with the mood of the society is also found to
be established through the language used in the advertisement of women’s
wear. This can be evidenced from the language of the following
advertisement (Sananda: August 2001 issue):

Bg. pOrober poSak

festival-gen dress
En. ‘Dress of the festival’

This once again sends a message to the addressee regarding the

importance and relevance of the changing pattern of the dresses with bright
colours and unique designs (through pictures of such dresses worn by the
renowned models of the city) in the coming festivals.
Another such caption of an advertisement of women’s wear which is more
explicit than the above can be cited in this connection (Sananda: May 2002
issue):

Bg. dOgdho dine snigdho poSak

burn day-loc. polite dress
En. ‘Soothing (light and comfortable) dress in a scorching day’

Such a caption is followed by the advertisement of chiffon sarees stating

the following statement anchored with pictures (Sananda: June 2002
issue):

Bg. gOromer Sondhete SiphOn pOrar arami alada

summer- evening- chiffon wear- comfort- different
gen. loc. gen. emph.
En. ‘The comfort of wearing chiffon in a summer evening is completely
different.’

This once again implicitly tells the addressee to wear this type of chiffon
available in the particular shop to make oneself comfortable in a summer
evening.
The deictic aspects like facial expressions, the movement, the posture and
the attitude of such models (wearing the referred garments), act as a
support for the linguistic expression stated above. The caption like
(Sananda: April 2003 issue):
SATARUPA DATTAMAJUMDAR:
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Bg. bOSone boiSakh

dress-loc. a Bangla month of summer
En. ‘Baisakh (a month of summer) in dress.’

connotes the information that it is scorching summer in the month of

‘baisakh’ and therefore a particular type of garment is required to cope up
with the climate. This is followed by other information and the pictures of
the garments. Thus the reader is indirectly instructed to buy such garments
which will be suitable in that climate. It is worthy to mention in this
connection that such elaboration of advertisement, keeping in view the
changing season, is yet to gain ground in the advertisement of men’s wear.

2.2. Another form of advertisements of ladies' garments are those which

take into account the feelings, wishes, desires, attitudes of the addressee
and use the language accordingly i.e., the directive function of the speech
act, can be evidenced from the following message used to advertise the
sarees of ‘Adi dhakeshwari bastralaya’, a renowned saree shop of Kolkata
(Monorama: September 2002 issue):

Bg. ruper hater SoodagOr

appearance-gen. market-gen. merchant
En. ‘The merchant of the market of beauty’

The expression ‘ruper hat’ informs the addressee that anybody who
purchases a saree from such a merchant, will look beautiful as the
merchant deals with the concept of beauty in the market.
This directive function of the language is evident in the advertisement made
for men in a completely different way. The following caption will make the
point clear (hoarding advertisement in Kolkata):

Eng. Even in the corporate jungle, the stripped ones rule (a caption of PARK
AVENUE company)

The caption conveys the message that even in the urban corporate life
which is full of high quality commodities, the stripped design made by Park
Avenue stands in the authoritative position. Thus the ‘desire to rule’, ‘the
desire to have a high position in the corporate world’, is utilized by the
copywriter as a psycho-social motivating factor for the urbanized male
target group .

2.3. A different technique of advertising is done by using the metaphorical

function of the language as a stylistic device. This is evident from the
following statement used in advertising sarees of the shop ‘Ragini’ in
Shakespeare sarani, Kolkata (Anandabazar Patrika: 4th November, 2002):
SATARUPA DATTAMAJUMDAR:
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Eng. Ensemble of lyrical Fantasies

This is a case of a metaphor in which the word that actually belongs to an

object is shifted and used to describe another object in such a way, that a
comparison between the two objects is implied. Thus this is obvious here
that ‘…when people speak ‘in order to transform reality’ they sometimes
create fresh ideologies which re-naturalize the social.’’(Silverman and
Torode, 1980: 261). This results in a stylistic way of expression which in
turn catches the attention of the reader. In the above example, the word
‘lyric’ and ‘fantasy’ tells nothing of the garments. The words are used to
describe the patterns and contents of a poem. But with the anchoring of
pictures of sarees and describing their colour and texture the copywriter
makes the message clear. Thus the design of the garments along with its
unique colours and textures has been elevated to the height of fantasy
found in the ‘lyrics’. Therefore, the rhetorical function of the statement
entails that it is the collection of sarees found in this shop, which can be
compared with the fantasy of a lyric and in its turn also creates a fantasy of
a particular life style.
The poetic function of the language is employed in the advertisement of
men’s wear in a different manner than women . An instance can be
mentioned that advertises Moustache Jean trousers by the following
caption (hoarding advertisement in Kolkata):

Eng. Reinventing the Blues

The use of the terms like invention and reinvention convey a sense of
technicality and not any kind of fantasy. Such instances reveal that the
concepts of ‘technicality’ and ‘fantasy’ are exclusively implied for men and
women respectively.

2.4. A different type of example can be cited in which the instruments or

techniques used to make the dress attractive are the focal point of the
advertisement.
This may be done in order to develop the taste of the women target group
for particular type of design or pattern which is possible only by using those
instruments or media, thus imprinting the importance of such design in the
human psyche. The following caption will make the point clear (Sananda :
August 2002 issue):

Bg. rON tuli ar chuMcSutor gOlpo

colour-brush and needle-thread-gen. story
En. ‘The story of colour-brush and needle-thread’
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The copywriter makes it clear from his statement rON tuli 'colour-brush' that
it is something concerned with painting and chuMcSuto ‘needle-thread’
makes it clear that it is something about the embroidery work. Thus it is a
stylistic way of telling that those garments which are designed by using
colour and brush, needle and thread are unique (hand made) designs. This
is anchored by pictures of such painted and embroidered garments,
narrating the techniques that are employed in making the designs. Thus the
advertisement makes it obligatory to think that such painted and
embroidered clothes which are unique collections are available in such and
such shops. It is worthy to mention here that such advertisements by
commenting on the manufacturing instruments (to create a specific type of
design) of the commodity are not found in case of men’s wear.

2.5. In the words of Vestargaard and Schroder (1985: 73): “What we are
faced with here is a ‘signification process’ whereby a certain commodity is
transformed into the expression of a certain content (the lifestyle and
values). Evidently, the ultimate objective of this signification process is to
attach the desired identity to a specific commodity, so that the need for an
identity is transformed into a need for the commodity.” Therefore, in order
to make a commodity, the expression of lifestyle and values, a copywriter
carefully selects the set of vocabulary and uses it frequently in advertising
certain commodity. The frequent use of the words like Bg. Sajujjo ‘balance’,
Bg. jOmaTi kaj ‘heavy work’, Bg. akorSOk ‘attractive’, Bg. aNgik ‘pattern’,
Bg. SOmbhar ‘collection’, Bg. biplOp ‘revolution’, Bg. oitijjhobahi ‘carrier of
heritage’, Bg. obhinObotto ‘novelty’, Bg. naTokiota ‘dramatic’, Bg. lokkhonio
‘significant’, Bg. abhijatto ‘aristocracy’, Bg. SOkiota ‘individuality’, Bg. Soili
‘style’, Eng. casual, Eng. fashionable, Eng. concept, Eng. ethnic, Eng.
exclusive, Eng. fancy, Eng. arrangement, Eng. effect, Eng. motif, etc.
signify a particular class of society of the city who have the need and
culture for individual identity, aristocracy and style of their own in order to
project themselves in the society they live in. Purchasing exclusive, ‘offbeat’
garments, especially from boutiques, identifies a woman to be cultured and
having aesthetic sense and aristocracy, and an appraisal for ethnicity.
Advertising by using particular vocabulary items in particular sentence
structures is a way of claiming that such a commodity will surely satisfy the
already existent needs of the potential customers, thus exploiting the need
of self identification (a crisis of the concerned society), membership of a
particular social class and culture and so on. It is worthy to be noted in this
connection that in such Bangla articles of Bangla magazines and papers,
English words like concept, arrangement, effect, motif are widely used. This
code mixing is probably done for the purpose of introducing an essence of
artistry and culture to the commodities advertised, as these words are
usually used by art professionals.
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2.6. A different technique of advertising men’s garments is adopted by the

copywriter which is evident from the structure of the language used, the
vocabulary item used, the length of the sentences and even in the choice of
language used for the purpose. It is pertinent to mention in this connection
that regarding the choice of language for advertising men’s garments,
English.is especially used in the hoardings advertising men’s garments. Of
course the Bangla magazines which generally advertise casual wear
(especially Indian dresses like dhoti, Punjabi, kurta, sherwani, etc.) in the
form of articles use the Bangla language. Formal wears (i.e., western
wears) like shirt, suit, trousers are generally advertised in the English
language. This may be due to the fact that it is taken for granted that the
target group (men community) knows the language and can communicate
effectively by using the particular language.
The gender stylistics is significantly reflected in the use of the vocabulary
items. That is, the catch words of the advertisements are efficiently used,
keeping in mind the psycho-social perspective of the target group. The
following captions will also reveal the above discussed perspective:

Eng. Step out of the shadows (a caption of RAYMONDS company, hoarding

advertisement in Kolkata)

Eng. When you are sure, it shows (a caption for advertising shirts by JOHN
PLAYERS, hoarding advertisement in Kolkata)

Eng. Power dressing (a caption of VAN HEUSAN company, hoarding

advertisement in Kolkata)

The above mentioned captions clearly state the concept of exclusiveness

by coming out even from one’s own shadow (anchored by a picture of a
man with his shadow) [by RAYMONDS], the specialty of reflecting
confidence of being sure of one’s own choice of shirts [by JOHN
PLAYERS], the concept of power which accompanies the concept of
masculinity is clearly evident from the caption [by VAN HEUSAN].
Such a social and psychological perspective that is revealed by the use of
vocabulary items like –Eng. sure, Eng. step out, Eng. differential, in
advertising men’s garments is not found to be reflected in advertising
women’s garments. In advertising women’s garments the copywriter initially
makes the commodity an expression of lifestyle by selecting the vocabulary
items such as Bg. obhinObotto ‘novelty’ , Bg. abhijatto ‘aristocracy’, Bg.
aNgik ‘pattern’, Eng. arrangement, Eng. fancy, Eng. effect, etc.(already
discussed in section 2.4.)
Significantly enough, the concept of ‘ethnicity’ that is found to be utilized for
advertising women’s garments is never done in advertising men’s
garments. Rather, the caption like Eng. Urbanely Male [by HOOREY
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HENRY] could be seen. It is clear from such advertisements that the socio-
cultural backdrop of the city where the advertisement has been done, does
not permit the target group i.e., male community to be ethnic, but rather
prefers the folk to be ideally urban. This once again makes the equation of
social power relationship explicit by equating men and women with the
urban and rural community respectively.
Therefore, it is evident that such a distinction in the use of language in the
advertisement depends on some predetermined conceptions regarding the
role of men and women in specific domains of the social life.

3.0. Conclusion

The above study that analyses the gender stylistics as reflected in the
language of advertisements reveals the following features:

1. Choice of Language:
English is generally used in the hoardings advertising men’s formal wears
(i.e., western wears) like shirt, suiting, trousers. However, in case of
women’s garments the English language is rarely used. Bangla (i.e.,
mother tongue) finds its place in the advertisements meant for the women.2

2. Syntactic Structure:
Captions in short and simple sentences are generally observed in case of
advertising men’s wear, whereas elaboration of sentence structures
(sometimes even in the form of article) and rhetorical use of the language
are noticed in advertising women’s wear.

3. Conceptual distinction:
The concept of ‘ethnicity’, ‘fantasy’, ‘exclusiveness of design’, ‘artistry’ are
utilized as a technique in advertising women’s commodity . On the contrary,
‘urbanity’, ‘surety’, ‘power’ ‘rule’ are the concepts utilized for advertising
men’s wear, thus highlighting the predetermined conception of the role and
status of the two sexes in the concerned society.
The ‘change of season’ and the ‘coming festival’ are the concepts used
very effectively for women target group, which cannot be observed in the
advertisement where men are the target group.

2
The concerned society lulls the notion that men are ‘globe trotters’ (though many
women of the society are found to have equal exposures), whereas women folk are
expected to have certain social confinements. Does it not justify the choice of
language for men to be necessarily English and for women any regional language
(here it is Bangla)?
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4. Vocabulary items:
Use of ‘tatsama’ words is a characteristic feature in the advertisement of
women’s wear which is completely absent from the advertisement of men’s
commodity (as most of the advertisements are made in English, there is no
such scope anyway)

5. Code mixing:
English vocabulary items in Bangla discourse is an observed linguistic
feature in the advertisements aimed at women. Such a feature is not found
in the advertisements aimed at men.

6. The Rhetorical function:

Though the rhetorical function of the language is employed in the
advertisements made both for men and women, this is done by using
different concepts and different lexical items in different ways in each of the
cases (discussed in section 2.3.)

7. The Directive function:

The directive function of the speech act is evident in the advertisement
made for both genders, of course utilizing different concepts and
vocabulary as well depending upon the world view of both the target group
and the copywriter (discussed in section 2.2.)

8. Message Reduction:
The message reduction technique is found in the advertisements of both
men and women commodities. However, in the advertisements where the
target group are women, such message reduction is often followed by
elaboration and description of the commodity. Such elaborations are not
observed in the language of advertisements where men are the target
group.

The study reveals that the extent of the effectiveness of the communicative
techniques adopted by the copywriter for the advertisement is very much
dependent on the psycho-social & cultural acceptability and the worldview
of the role and status regarding gender distinction that exists in the
concerned society where the advertisement is made.3

3
I am thankful to my colleague Sm. Shubhasree Ganguly for providing me with valuable
suggestions and insights which helped me to carry out this study.
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