English in North America

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English in North America

• Lecture by
• Prof. Dr. Hildegard L.C. Tristram
• Winter Semester 2003/2004
• Potsdam

Linguistic Creativity Advertizing free market
economies AIDA rule
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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• E. Lewis AIDA rule (1900)
• to capture attention, to maintain interest
  and to create desire .... get action

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• Attention
• You have to attract the consumers attention. The
  consumer must look at your ADVERTIZEMENT or
  listen to it.

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• Interest
• You have to maintain the consumers interest,
  which means that he or she reads and/or sees the
  infor-mation on your advertizement.

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• Desire
• The consumer needs to develop the desire to buy
  your product and/or to demand your service.

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• Action
• That is the most important part of this rule The
  consumer actually buys your product!

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• - visual and oral appeals to arouse the
  consumers attention (print, voice, music,
  (moving) pictures)
• - language manipulation and de-automatization
• - closely circumscribed use of linguistic devices
  (largely morphology word formation)
• - repetition

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 1. hypercorism and suffixation
• -ette (lt French serviette)
• kitchenette, roomette, lunchette, luncheonette,
  parisette, giftette, launderette, superette
  (small supermarket), automat washette
• languagette, sermonette

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• -size
• queensize (beds), kingsize (beds), giantsize,
  jumbosize, economysize, condosize, tepeesize

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 2. blends (portemanteau formations)
• motel (lt motor, hotel)
• slotspitality (lt slotmachine, hospitality)
• pream (lt powdered cream)
• Anarbridge (lt Ann Arbor bridge)
• citrange (lt citron, orange)
• trainasium (lt training, gymnasium)
• Cubahama (lt Cuba, Bahama)
• Dieseliner (lt Diesel, liner)

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 2. blends (portemanteau formations)
• motorena (motor arena)
• scenicruiser (scenic cruiser)
• wreckreation (recreation, careless driving)
• floatel, seaquarium, TraveLodge

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 3. use of special formatives
• -athon (lt Greek marathon) telethon, talkathon,
  dancethon, swimathon
• -(o)rama (lt Greek panorama) cinerama,
  cosmorama (super-planetarium), figurama,
  Foodarama (name of a refrigerator), Speedorama
  (autosports show), Sale-o-rama, Scoutorama,
  Sport-o-rama, Tile-a-rama

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• -lon (lt nylon) indicating fashionable synthetic
  fibers
•   orlon, wearlon, wemlon, dacron
• -ex (lt kleenex)
•   windex, timex, sominex (sleeping pills), also
  cardex (card index), duplex (gt fourplex, with
  reinterpretation of formative)
• cf. Gm. Unkraut-ex

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• -eria (lt cafeteria)
•   groceteria
•   -cade (lt cavalcade)
•   motorcade, aquacade, rollercade
•   -(o)mat(ic) (lt automat, automatic)
•   laundromat, Laundromatic and Dry Cleaners
  (washing automatically), mailomat, gyromatic
  (automatically turning around), Fordomatic,
  Hydromatic, Ultramatic, Seeburg Wall-o-matic
  Jukebox (1955)

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 4. morphonological reinterpretations
• desert gt deserest gt The Deserest News
  (newspaper in Salt Lake City), The Deserest
  Motel (with a pseudo-superlative)
• Funtierland, Icecapade (lt escapade, Holidays on
  Ice), Washing Well (lt wishing well, laundry in
  New Orleans), Dairy Queen (lt Spensers Faerie
  Queene, brand of ice cream)

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• ham-burger (hamburg-er) family cheeseburger,
  chickenburger, Paul-Bunyan-burger (after the
  Western hero Paul Bunyan)
• Mc Donald, Mc Chicken, Mc Paper, Mc Book
• Betterest Waterbeds

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing
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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 5. clipping
•  
• minicam (miniature camera), camcorder (camera,
  recorder), autosharp (automatic sharpener), longs
  (long cigarettes), vets (veterans)

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 6. rhyme Dont forget, Hire the Vet.
• Come and join the Sunkist scene
• Good vibrations and no caffeine
• Im drinking at good vibration
• Sunkist starts so to taste sensation
• Sunkist-vibration-sunkist-exaltation
•   Good, good, good vibrations

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 7. deviant spellings
• Koffee-Kup, open all nite, Drive-inn (lt inn),
  Kool, Automobiles 4 Sale, Sunkist
• Sunkist-vibration-Sunkist-exaltation good,
  good, good vibration
• Come and join the Sunkist scene, good
  vibrations and no caffeine.

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 8. alliteration
• Rich full flavor from .
• The Ginny Jogger from .
• Its wacky, but it works!
•  
• Live In Luxury In London (N.Y. Herald Tribune
  ad)

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 9. assonance
•  
• mild kingsize cigarettes /ai i ai i/
• smoke smooth cool cigarettes /ou u - u/
• If they cant see it, they cant steal it /i -
  i i - i/

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 10. repetition (incremental reps)
• Run in it. Bicycle in it. Play tennis in it or
  just sit around looking smashing in it.
• Decisions . Decisions .
• Make your decisions!
• America Land to stir your spirit
• Land to feed your soul

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 11. negative repetition
• Dont ask me, why I smoke! Ask me, why I
  smoke
• 12. negative affirmation
• The brandy Napoleon did not drink!

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 13. intentional ambiguity (puns)
•   Some people never switch off (Philips, in Time
  Magazine)
• 14. reinterpretation of idioms and proverbs
•   Choosing is half the battle (lt Loosing is half
  the game)
• One good Bourbon deserves another (lt One good
  deed deserves another)

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• 15. rhythm
•  
• Move to Mildness
• Stay with Taste
• Come for the Filter
• Youll stay for the Taste

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Linguistic Creativity Advertizing

• Summary
• Advertizing makes use of the creative potential
  of language for the sake of de-automatizing
  convent-ional language, thereby calling attention
  to the product and to provide the consumer with
  an incentive to buy the product.