IntroductionWe can define the problem of genre as such that requires close attention due to the fact that the interest in sociolinguistics and stylistics has grown so rapidly over the last decades. The question arises whether to perceive advertisement as a literary genre with its characteristic features and communicative purpose or let it be untouched until future investigations. Here we will make an attempt not only to view advertisement as a genre but also to identify its main typical traits and consider field, tenor, and mode as integral parts of the advertisement text.
To get deeper understanding of the subject we should first of all define the term “genre”. Genre is a historically and traditionally established whole of specific themes and motives common to a certain art form that combines these forms by means of recognized feelings and thoughts. The notion of genre implies succession of perception: the reader, having noticed specific peculiarities of the plot, scene of action, or character behavior unconsciously refers it to a certain familiar genre recollecting the already read materials and identifying familiar side of the new information. However, besides its distinct steadiness the category of genre possesses opposite features: it is historically active as the whole scale of artistic values.
The framework that divides literature and non-literature, as well as the borderline between two genres, is significantly fragile and vague. Any genre may borrow characteristic properties of another genre and in such a way change its usual appearance.Research BackgroundDuring the research it has been found that the topic was being investigated by a number of linguists such as Samuel I. Bellman, Nikolenko, Enkvist, David YW Lee, and many others.
Although the works of Bellman date back to 1960s, they remain of current importance even at the turn of the XXth century as he argues that advertisement is a new genre, which includes typical features of poetry, drama, and prose. Nikolenko, at his turn, considers gender aspects and claims that communicative purpose of the genre must be perceived and evaluated differently if aimed at different audiences. However, identifying the main issues in the usage of pronouns he does not point out the most efficient words and word combinations to be used to grab consumer’s attention. In his last works David YW Lee makes an effort to distinguish and categorize such terms as register, style, genre, and domain as the use of these words have become very chaotic and therefore dangerous for future investigations as they may initially be false due to incorrect definitions.
Genres can come and go, or change, being cultural constructs which vary with the times, with fashion, and with ideological movements within society. Thus, some sub-genres of “official documents” in English have been observed to have changed in recent times, becoming more conversational, personal, and familiar, sometimes in a deliberate way, with manipulative purposes in mind (Fairclough 1992).Having read through some theoretical materials it was decided to choose several newspaper and magazine advertisements that vividly illustrate characteristic features of advertisement genre and portray field, tenor, and mode of the text itself. These five advertisements include Avon Glazewear Lipstick, Citizen Eco-Drive Watch, Samsung SpinPoint S166, Nokia N95, Volvo XC90 SE Sport.
The reason why these particular advertisement have attracted the researcher’s attention lies in the fact that all of them differ in communicative purpose and include various stylistic devices and other linguistic characteristics. However, the advertisements that require the most consideration are Nokia N95 and Avon Glazewear Lipstick owing to the fact that both them include distinct stylistic features that are evidences of audience-oriented advertisements and imply different target groups. Thus, Nokia N95 is aimed at general masses of people regardless of their age, gender, and sex, while Avon Glazewear Lipstick directs its efforts towards women exceptionally.Previously collected theoretical data on the topic has shaped the overall perception of the problem as it allowed us to identify the key points in the structural system of field-tenor-mode hierarchy.
Apart from historical background of the investigated notions, these terms (field, tenor, mode) as integral parts of the theory of linguistics may seem ambiguous to the inexperienced student. The social and political role of these linguistic nuances has been most strongly felt in the XXth century when it provided the dissemination of doctrinal ideas, of social and political knowledge in various fields of sciences.At the end of the research we would try to outline the final results of the project that include identification of the main typical features of the advertisement genre and analysis of the sample data.MethodologyThrough the process of the research we used five newspaper advertisements that relate to women’s cosmetics, men’s personal accessories, technological equipment, and car.
They were chosen selectively according to their communicative purpose. Thus, in order to conduct more efficient research all of these samples were retrieved from the same newspaper that is an evidence of their equal reputation in the market and mass media.In order for us to receive the best possible ending results of the research it was decided to focus our attention on linguistic aspects of each advertisement such as field, tenor, mode, communicative purpose, and stylistic devices. During the research we counted all instances in the data to ensure valid conclusion of the project.
Communicative Purpose And Typical Features Of The Genre (Analysis)All antique judgments about genre norm mostly implied written in verse genres. Prosaic genres were not perceived seriously and were treated disrespectfully due to the fact prose was considered to be worthless, and excessively associated with colloquial and official language. In Ancient Greece antique novel was regarded as trivial literature. (Bloomfield 1993).
In Europe the reestablishment of genre system contemporizes with the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in XI-XVI centuries. Such genres as Middle Age novel, sonnet, tragedy, comedy, and short story experience their greatest times. (Nikolenko 2005).In fact, the framework of fiction does not limit the notion of genre: any text or speech may be referred to a specific genre.
Each of them is characterized by a number of formal and content traits and peculiarities; the central content feature of the genre is a specific set of conventions that deal with the relationships between the author and the addressee of a certain text in a written or oral form. Thus, scientific report differs greatly from the lecture. Namely, the genre of the scientific testimony virtually implies that the presenter delivers the speech that includes personally collected or invented by him data or other important materials (and that it is unknown for the audience). At the same time the audience should be qualified in this field of science; consequently, the content of the report is submitted for the discussion and evaluation of the auditory.
The genre of the lecture implies that the orator speaks on the chosen topic applying any facts and ideas (including those being already discovered and available for the scholars); the lectured addresses his speech to people that are less qualified in that specific area of studying. (Schiffrin 1994). The parallel may be also drawn between the scientific work and textbooks. Genres of speech including greetings, toasts, anecdotes, and oaths differ mainly in conventional relationships between the author and the addressee.
Discussions of sexist language within the framework of author/audience relationships have often been reduced to what Williams calls the he/man approach to language, that is, the use of male terms to refer both to males in particular and to human beings in general. (Williams 1992). Such forms designate men as the “unmarked” and women as the “marked” human category. Of the words, which serve as «generic» referents, the ones which have received the most attention in English, are the masculine pronouns he, him, and his in such sentences as:The average student is worried about his grades.
We will hire the best-qualified person regardless of his sex.Each student can select his own topicEveryone should do his bestEach student will do better if he has a voice in the decisionWhen everyone contributes his own ideas, the discussion will be a success.Some examples of generic masculine terms are man, man-to-man, prehistoric man, brotherhood, chairman, and policeman. (Williams 1992).
Although the discussion of the uses and effects of the generic masculine should be understood as only one part of the study of (non)sexist representational practices, it is one with some quite concrete effects. For instance, a number of linguists claim that gender-biased job advertisements for positions in traditionally masculine jobs attracted fewer female applicants than unbiased ads. (Coulmas 1992).Many academic journals, newspapers, and magazines now require that submissions be written in more inclusionary language.
Such changes in linguistic prescriptions as Coulmas points out clearly demonstrate that conventions of representation can be deconstructed and reconstructed if they are found to disadvantage groups. (Coulmas 1992). Several strategies suggested for avoiding the use of the generic masculine pronoun in advertisements are:· Drop the masculine pronoun:The average student is worried about gradesWe will hire the best person regardless of sex· Rewrite the sentence in the plural rather than the singularStudents can select their own topics· Substitute the pronouns one or one’s for he or hisOne should do one’s best· Use he or she, his or her (oral mode) or s/he (written mode)Each student will do better if he or she (s/he) has a voice in the decision· Use their when the subject is an indefinite pronounWhen everyone contributes their own ideas, the discussion will be a success.It would be wrong to refer advertisement texts to utilitarian genres as they frequently include creative features and high level of analytics.
(Coates 1993). Taking this into account we may divide advertisement texts into several information categories:· Announcements: Samsung has introduced a new line of its SpinPoint hard drives, which, it promises, are super-quiet. The Samsung SpinPoint S166 drives have updated versions of SilentSeek and NoiseGuard, Samsung’s low-noise technologies. Available in 80GB and 160GB sizes, drives produce 24dB and 25.
5dB respectively; lower than rival hard drives which produce, on average, about 28 to 32dB. Prices for these whispering drives haven’t been announced yet, but they’re expected to be abailable at the end of the month.· Notes: Unstoppable Kevin Pietersen is. So is his Citizen Eco-Drive.
Fuelled by light, it never needs a battery. It’s unstoppable. Just like the people who wear it. Modena Perpetual Calendar.
RRP $249, 5 year guarantee. (Coates 1993).Advertisements DescriptionThe communicative purpose of Avon lipstick advertisement is to grab attention of female consumers by means of such words as shine, glisten, gloss, tantalizing, and temptation. The first three lexical units virtually render the same meaning.
However, to be consistent with the register of the language and follow the rules of stylistics, the developers of the advertisement have chosen to employ several different synonyms to emphasize the meaning of the message. Words tantalizing and temptation could have been used in a male advertisement owing to the fact that a great number of modern commercials and newspaper advertisement underline sexual aspects of any lifestyle. But together with previously indicated synonyms these words create exceptionally female style of advertisement and determine the field of the text. Note, that the ad itself comprises only short simple sentences with no subjunctive moods or gerund.
It is aimed at bombing women with brightness, beauty, and attraction that play significant role for every lady in modern society.The field of the text is advertisement (cosmetics), which may be understood with the help of the following words and sentences: Say hello to Avon today and say hello to a more beautiful tomorrow, twenty tantalizing non-waxy, non-sticky colours. The text deals with beauty products and is aimed at focusing attention of women on Avon lipstick which will give them the best shine ever.The tenor of the text may be characterized as formal owing to the way the information is delivered.
For example, no capital letters, polite forms, or pronouns like I, you, us are present. Also, the creators have chosen to use the imperative mood: Say hello to Avon today and say hello to a more beautiful tomorrow, Call ****** or visit avonshop.co.uk, and Let it shine.
The mode of the text is written. We also noticed that the author prefers using simple sentences to long, confusing, and distracting utterances, as it must be clearly stated in the female ad which advantages the advertised product has. The lexis of the advertisement is neutral and may be employed in all styles of the language. This layer is the most stable of all and has no local (dialectal) meanings.
It testifies to the fact that the ad-people were aiming at female audience in general rather than at its particular (local) part. The neutral words have no specific colouring, whereas both literary and colloquial strata have special connotations. (Nikolenko 2005).The next advertisement of Citizen Eco-Drive watch bears the resemblance of Avon poster.
Having used words like unstoppable (tantalizing) we can easily draw a parallel between these two messages. Also the following sentences It’s unstoppable. Just like the people who wear it and say hello to a more beautiful tomorrow vividly indicate posh lifestyles with beauty and stylishness as the main priorities. It not only promises to improve your look and overall appearance but also to make your social, and personal life considerably better.
The field of the text is advertisement (personal accessories) as well. The creators of the texts made an attempt to highlight the practical side of the product by such words as non-waxy, non-sticky, fuelled by light, unstoppable that in fact define the field of the text (advertisement). The only difference between these two subjects of investigations lies in their target audience that differs in gender. For example, words like shine, glisten, gloss, tantalizing are obviously aimed at female audience indicating good looks and magnificence, while lexical units in Citizen Eco-Drive watch advertisement convince male consumers of the truth: wearing our Citizen Eco-Drive watch you will be as unstoppable as our product!The tenor of the ad is very formal as it is perceived as a story telling by the third person singular.
No possessive or personal pronouns are present. The mode of the text is written and includes short simple sentences just as a previous advertisement. The expressions in them are short, distinct, and persuasive to show the appreciation of the unstoppable time of potential consumers.In the list of mentioned above advertisement Samsung SpinPoint is the most interesting from the point of view of linguistics and stylistics in particular.
First of all, it gives an impression as if the text itself was delivered by the third person singular intending to involve the reader into some not yet widely known secret unavailable for the rest of the publicity. The narrator’s purpose in this case is to attract consumer’s attention by making him feel as a conspirator or a devoted person. This is being achieved by words and word combinations such as shhh..
, super-quiet, and it promises. The name of the advertisement already prepares the potential consumer for uncertainty and secrecy creating an atmosphere of trust and openness. The last sentence Prices for these whispering drives haven’t been announced yet, but they’re expected to be available at the end of the month renders the meaning of privacy and arouses the feeling uniqueness and enjoyment of the right to be involved in secrecy.The Samsung SpinPoint advertisement is presented in the form of narration as a functional style.
The information here is not homogeneous and greatly depends on the subjective viewpoint of the narrator or the author of the text whose emotions and views are observed in the author’s speech. In this case in the process of developing the plot different aspects are taken into account (characteristics, properties) in order to focus consumer’s attention on the quality of the product.If we refer to the advertisement about Nokia N95 it is possible to notice that the text includes a number of stylistic devices that require clear definitions and further explanation. The first sentence of the text It can rally the masses, it can silence the crowd, which is actually the slogan of the advertisement is an illustrative example of antithesis.
This stylistic device is based on finding some points of sharp contrast of two things or phenomena. From the syntactic point of view, it is a variety of parallel constructions. Let’s mention that parallelism is indifferent to the semantics of its components while the two parts of antithesis must be semantically opposed to one another and completely coherent in order to form a logically correct utterance. The following is another example of antithesis: Some people have much to live on, but little to live for.
Antithesis rests on the borderline between stylistics and logic. It is used in all types of speech and genres: in belle-letter, journalistic style, scientific styles and everyday colloquial speech. Its stylistic function includes both the contrastive comparison of the things and rhythmical arrangement of the utterance. Owing to the rhythmical arrangement of the sentence, it is widely used in poetry in combination with anaphora, epiphora, and alliteration.
Sometimes, the whole poem may be based on this device. (Crystal 1987).In the case with Nokia N95 advertisement, the creators’ communicative purpose is to emphasize the multifunctionality of the telephone and highlight the fact that they appreciate preferences, schedule, and experience of the potential buyer by means of such expressions as depending on what you want, beyond what you’re used to, and store and manage your good files. The text of the ad also includes a rhetorical non-personal question Another bonus? that intends to provide the customer with even greater possibility Nokia N95 can give.
The most characteristic feature of the advertisement Volvo XC90 SE Sport is its emotional aspect, which is expressed by adjectives like exhilarating, dynamically responsive, the verb enjoy, and nouns like twist, turn, and experience. The developers reached their goal of high emotional level of attractiveness and appealing factor.The sentence It doesn’t just put you in control of the road, it puts you in touch with it may be perceived as a climax which is another case of semantically complicated parallelism. It is a special arrangement of words or sentences, in which every other unit is more important than the previous one.
The increase of significant may be implemented in several ways depending on what time of climax is distinguished in the given context. For example, logical gradation is based on the relative importance of the component parts considered from the point of view of the concept embodied in them: Like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside. At the same time, emotional climax is formed by expressive tension produced by words with emotive meaning: It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city, a veritable gem of the city. As you can see, the gradation here is based on synonymous strings of words with emotive meaning having slight semantic differences.
Since emotional tension cannot last long we find this type of climax mostly in sentences but not in longer semantic unities.In the previously mentioned sentence from Volvo XC90 SE Sport advertisement, it is possible to argue that the climax here is logical as it provides the reader with an alternative option that other brands may not guarantee.The following advertisement of DFS (upholstery company) is designed for consumers from all walks of life as it sells the product, which is a routine necessity for a significant number of people and is not associated with a specific social layer of the customer/reader. Having taken this into account, the developers of the text included certain linguistic elements catered to the needs of a vast majority of people.
For instance, they employed psychological approaches that make connection between the product (sofa) and the name of the company (DFS) with the help of matching headache tablets and allergies with the chemist and identifying sofa with upholstery specialist. They also put an emphasis on their impressive experience (40 years) and good reputation (Europe’s leading upholstery specialist). The communicative purpose of the underlying theme of the text may be rendered as such that makes an attempt to recognize DFS as the only one specialist in the field of upholstery. We may draw this conclusion from the sentence when you’re thinking new sofa, think specialist, think DFS (not butcher, baker or candlestick maker, which vividly illustrates this intention.
The field of the text is advertisement (furniture), which may be clearly seen in utterances that comprise words like upholstery specialist, design sofas and manufacture them, sofas are their business 52 weeks, etc. The tenor of the text is informal as we may observe here the usage of the pronoun you and that specific type of written speech (mode here) as if it was a teacher’s or actually a doctor’s instructions: if you want a sofa it makes sense to see a specialist too, they design sofas and manufacture them, sofas are their business.The last text to be analyzed is the advertisement of Free Mogo Mouse, which embraces the functions of the Wireless Bluetooth. The communicative purpose of the advertisement is aimed at business people because much emphasis is put on the following expressions: for the on-the-go user, perfect for the modern mobile professional, easily stored and charged, no hassle carrying your mouse when traveling, less than an hour to fully charge your mouse.
However, it would be well to note that the text is full of “empty” lexical units that in fact render no meaning: sleek, elegant, impressive, stylish, and award winning. The field of the text is advertisement (technology) as it contains many terms associated with this area of production, while its tenor is informal due to expressions like Take out a subscription to Micro Mart today, and you’ll not only…that include imperative mood.Discussion/ConclusionThe genre of advertisement texts is characterized by sharp decrease in themes, simplified problem perception, keywords usage, simple but emotional expressions, constant repetition of slogans, tautology, etc. Having conducted the investigation, we may claim that prevailing majority of advertisement texts are presented in highly expressive manner, and make use of emotionally coloured utterances intended to bomb previously defined audience with the specific message that frequently evolves imperative mood.
In mentioned above advertisements we may select such sentences as:o Say hello to Avon today and say hello to a more beautiful tomorrowo Take out a subscription to Micro Mart todayo Slide the front up, you reveal the keyboardo Find out more at *****o Call ****** or visit avonshop.co.ukIf we take a closer look at these utterances, all of them with the exception of the third point encourage consumers to take immediate actions: to call, to subscribe, to visit, to purchase, etc. This core of an advertisement is sustained by previously indicated “empty” words that perform the function of accented and often hyperbolical glamour.
Unlike journalistic genre substantial novelty of advertisement texts involve the meaning of practicality and “objectness”. The main point in an ad is not the process of advertising itself but rather the object or a subject that is being demonstrated. It may be both a product with consumer traits or an abstract image of some social establishment. The genre of advertisement not only informs about the existence of the product but also calls upon the action: to purchase, to use, to vote, or at least to try.
Therefore, it would be fair to claim that the thematic dominant of advertisements is material while an imperative language renders the communicative purpose.Taking these preliminary considerations into account, it might be well to note that the advertisements that were being investigated during the research do not fall into categories that strictly divide or discriminate the audience according to their sexual or gender characteristics as all of them use second person singular when addressing the audience:1. Twenty tantalizing non-waxy, non-sticky colours that drench your lips with gloss2. Slide the front up, you reveal the keyboard.
Slide it down, and you have the music controls, backlit in blue3. It doesn’t just put you in control of the road, it puts you in touch with it. So you can enjoy the whole experience.However, momentarily one gets a clear understanding of at whom this or that advertisement is aimed.
Basically, it is accomplished through the standard set of words and expressions like glisten, gloss, and shine for women and unstoppable for men.Interestingly enough, Citizen Eco-Drive watch advertisement together with Samsung SpinPoint demonstrate no presence of form of address as they are presented only in the form of a note or a narration.Guiding by the theory provided in the reasearch we may outline the main characteristics of advertisement texts as a new separate genre:o High level of expressivenesso Short simple sentenceso Specific audience (defined by the age, gender, or social status) orientationo Outlined communicative purposeo Use of emotionally coloured words as well as persuasive and assertive sentences (written mode) and intonation (oral mode).In conclusions, it would be appropriate to note that we have identified the typical features of the advertisement genre and analyzed and discussed the results of the investigated sample data.
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