Session Thirteen Concluding Remarks About Advertising Language

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Session ThirteenConcluding Remarks About
Advertising Language
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Today in China, while our economic structure
is shifting from the entirely planned economy
to the socialist market system, advertising is
becoming more and more active and
sophisti- cated. In 1992, Chinas advertising
expenditure reached 862 million, among the
fastest growing countries in Asia. Now with
Chinas entry into WTO, this expenditure figure
will undoubtedly rise up, which will support the
view that adverti- sing is an indispensable means
for providing the information that all
market-oriented indus- trialized societies need
for economies to function
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efficiently. And as English is one of the
most widely used languages in the world, it is
necessary to study and analyze the language
features of English advertising. Current
advertisements reflect radical changes in the
technology, me- dia, the social and economic
relations, the sense of personal and group
identity. For the insight they provide the
nature of these changes and for the way they
prepare us for further changes to come. It is a
particular valuable field of study. It goes
without saying that research into the
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language of English advertising is both
interesting and rewarding. To achieve this
awareness, we should not only have a good
understanding of the language of English
ad- vertising, but also know its influence on the
English language, its trend and existing
pro- blems. A. Influence on English
Language One obvious influence of English
advertising on the English language lies in the
fact that English advertising contributes a lot
of new words to the vocabulary stock of modern
English.
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Some products or services are so popular
that they have significantly changed peoples
life patterns. Their brand names, product names
or words appearing in their advertisements
enter the lexical items instead of being the
privilege of English advertising. For example
the word mackintosh originally was the brand
name of a raincoat. It was named after its
in- ventor, Charles Mackintosh. However, in
modern English, it almost becomes the substitute
for any raincoat. The association between the
brand name and the product has been cut off.
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In this category we also can include jacuzzi,
the brand name of a bathing service crock
pot, the brand name of an electric cooker
aspirin, the brand name of a medicine
trea- ting headache xerox, the brand name of
photo copier biro, the brand name of a
ball-pen. The other type of words
contributing to the English language are the
advertising coinages, whose abundance is one of
the lexical features of English advertising. The
most typical exam- ple is the word pinta in the
advertising slogan
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of British milk Drinka pinta milka day,
which is mentioned in the second chapter. This
slo- gan acquired its popularity immediately
after its appearance and became a household
word. And later the coined word pinta became
the substitute for milk, and many people would
use pinta rather than milk, although the
latter are also found in everyday usage. The
other advertising coinages coming into the
common core of the English language inc- lude
cellophane, escalator, travolator, etc.
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All of these words contributed by English
advertising are used by modern English
spea- kers so commonly that even lexicographers
have to include them in the dictionary as
lexi- cal entries. In this way, their legal
status in the English language has been
confirmed. Some of them become so common and
even get derivatives, such as escalatory from
escalator, xerography from xerox,
etc. Theres a paradox about such words,
espe- cially those words from brand names.
Adver- tisers always want consumers to notice
their advertisements and remember the
advertised
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products longer so they make great endeavor to
create eye-catching and easy-to-remember brand
names. Nevertheless, with the populari- ty of the
products, some brand names turn out to be common
words and lose their originality as advertising
coinages. But, on the other hand, advertisers
often have to apply for patent right to protect
their privilege of using brand names, and
prevent competitors from taking advan- tage of
their inventions. For example, in order to
protect its privilege of the word Xerox, the
companys legal adviser even warns the general
public not to say Ill xerox a copy for you,
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but to say Ill make a duplicate for you on the
xerox copier. However, the extensive
utiliza- tionof the promoted product usually
makes such efforts end in vain. At last, these
brand names will inevitably become common words
of the English language in general and are used
by the public to refer to types of products. So
when they create some extraordinary brand names,
advertisers have to face the reality that one
day they will lose their privilege of such brand
names. This is the price they have to pay for
the popularity of their products. Another
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main influence on English advertising is
so- called movement of colloquialisation, which
is also a main contribution of English
adver- tising to the English language.
Advertising has been in the vanguard of this
tendency, which has gained impetus in the 20th
century particularly through the develop- ment of
the popular press and radio and tele- vision
broadcasting. Together with the over- whelming
popularity of advertising, English advertising
with the public-colloquial style, produces much
influence on the English
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language as a whole. English advertising
contributes a great deal to the movement of
colloquialisation and is partly respon- sible
for the rise of the public-colloquial style.(
??, 19977 ) At present, colloquialism seems
to be the general trend. For instance, if we
compare contemporary prose with that of the 19th
cen- tury, we will find that prose today is
generally simpler, easier and livelier. When we
appreci- ate modern prose, we should pay tribute
to English advertising. It is partly through the
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influence of English advertising that modern
users of the English language acquire the
public-colloquial style for public
communication. The influence of English
advertising justifies the relationship between a
language and its users people create a language
form as de- sired this form, in turn affects
peoples concep- tion of the language as a whole.
B. Trend of English Advertising
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When describing a products qualities,
adver- Tisers prefer a sincere suggestion
rather than an explicit declaration. These
adver- tisers act as multi-sensory authors who
use a style of literary deceptiveness for
commer- cial purposes. Through weak implications,
advertisers aim to influence and direct
con- sumers behavior based on advertising
lan- guage that is very secretly constructed.
Adver- tisers control inference possibilities by
both demarcating message parameters and by
skillfully accessing audience prior knowledge.
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Message recipients are then more likely to
construct inferences that have a limited
sub- stantiated base. One trend of English
advertising, as many linguists have feared, is
that the advertising language becomes elusive
and manipulative. Authors like Aldous Huxley and
E.B. White have warned of its manipulative
nature. As Barbara Stern aptly rationalizes, the
deceptive nature of advertising language lies in
the fact that it frequently uses poetic license
to say one thing and mean another, borrowing
literary
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tactics to convey messages by means other than or
in addition to the words ( Charles A. ONeill ,
198672 ). The other trend of English advertising
is the language is getting oral and the grammar
is getting simpler. All these changes, if
careless- ly used, may easily lead to ambiguity
and mis- understanding, which affects the
products image negatively. The most
authoritative critic of advertising is the
Journalist Edwin Newman. In his book Strictly
Speaking, he worries that the careless
utilization of language might
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some day threaten the survival of the
English (Charles A ONeill, 1986127). Now
lets see the following example. Tired of
cleaning yourself ? Let me do it. This is an
ad of a company that provides all kinds of
services to family like cleaning windows,
carpets, etc. But from its sentence structure,
it is obviously misleading and even ridiculous
to the readers. If yourself is used as an
object, cleaning yourself simply means taking
a shower or a bath. As a consequence the whole
sentence means if you are tired of
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taking a bath, our company will do this for you.
But if the sentence order is like this
yourself tired of cleaning ? Let me do it.
This meaning is what the company really intends
to convey to the customer. The
above-mentioned sentence is a typi- cal example
of ambiguity caused by words, conjunctions, and
modifications. If we dont pay much attention to
this tendency, it will lead to vagueness in
expression, leading the consumers to
misunderstanding. The language of advertising
appeals to our
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emotional needs under the skillful
craftsman- ship of the copywriter. At the same
time, language is always changing. So is the
language in advertising. Charles A. Oneill
(1986117) states over the years the texture of
advertising Language has frequently changed.
Styles and creative concepts come and go. But
there are at least four distinct general
characteristics of the language of advertising
that make it different from otherlanguages.
1. The language of advertising is edited
and purposeful.
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2. The language of advertising is rich and
arresting it is specifically intended to
attract and hold our attention. 3. The
language of advertising involves us in
effect, we complete the advertising
message. 4. The language of advertising
holds no secrets from us it is a simple
language. In summary, though some of the
language characteristics of English advertising
are de- veloping to the linguists worry and
dismay, its propaganda and practical roles still
cannot be over-underlined.