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M.A. Thesis English Linguistics -- University of Languages and International Studies. Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 2012
This minor thesis on the use of conceptual metaphors in advertising slogans of Nokia, Samsung, Apple, Blackberry and Sony Ericsson cell phones was undertaken to provide advertisers with beneficial information when developing a slogan. The research attempts to answer two questions: How are conceptual metaphors frequently used in five brands’ cell phone advertising slogans?;What are the subtypes of conceptual metaphors employed in five brands’ cell phone advertising slogans?. The slogans used in this thesis are taken from newspapers, TV and the internet. They are first put into each cell phone brand numbered from 1 to 65 (see APPENDIX), then the analysis based on Lakoff and Johnson’s theory of conceptual metaphors is done to find out the appearing frequency of the metaphors in the corpus and each subtype used also. Finally, all the results and discussion on the frequent choice of metaphor subtypes in the slogans are represented. The study with a corpus of 65 slogans is still on its infancy and requires further research, though the copywriters, through this thesis, can develop a useful tool for their advertisements
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
In the epoch of information explosion, it is inevitable for any of us to bump into
advertising words and images. Advertising is all around us, though we like it or not, we
hear it, see it and feel it albeit on purpose or just by some chance. In order for a brand
name to go global, a good advertisement of their product is a key matter, no wonder
why billions of bugs have been spent on copywriting. English, an international
language, is used in every single advertisement with an aim of the company going
places world wide. The utmost aim of the advertisement is to capture our attention.
“The whole aim of the copywriters is to get us register their communication either for
purposes of immediate action or to make us more favourably disposed in general terms
to the advertised product or service. […] so copywriters have to find ways to shout at
us from the page.” (Goddard, A., 1998: 11). A question may arise that how advertising
can impinge on people‟s life so much and it is given a short answer by Fairclough:
Advertising has made many people into consumers, i.e. has brought about a
change in the way people are, in the sense that it has provided the most coherent and
persistent model for consumer needs, values, tastes and behaviour. It has done this by
addressing people as if they were commonsensically already fully fledged consumers.
The general point is that if people are obliged day-in day-out to occupy the subject
position of consumer, there is a good chance that they will become consumers […].
Advertising can show people lifestyles (and patterns of spending) which they might not
otherwise meet, but also invite them to “join” (1989: 207)
The researcher is captive in advertisements especially those of mobile phones.
That is the reason why I took a hook to go ahead with mobile phone advertising
slogans.
In order to achieve the aim of getting customers noticed, copywriters have
contributed a non-stop effort in creating an attractive, memorable, distinct advertising
slogan for each brand. The methods used in writing advertising slogans range from
employing phonological aspect, lexical and morphological aspect, syntactic aspect to
semantic aspect. More concretely, in phonological aspect, rhyme, homophone,
alliteration are often put into consideration while in lexical and morphological aspect,
verb phrase, noun phrase, collocation, idiomatic construction, formation of new words
and phrases are of great approval. What‟s more, when syntactic aspect can be found in
sentence types, sentence structure like ellipsis, semantic aspect is often realized
through rhetorical devices such as simile, hyperbole, metonymy, polysemy and
metaphors. The researcher is absolutely engaged in metaphors which have long been a
part of my interest. This explains the my reason to choose metaphors in advertising.
Metaphors are a part and parcel of everyday life in that they appear in nearly all
our everyday concepts without our realization of it. Lakoff and Johnson give the notion
of conceptual metaphors which have explained this all in an easy-understanding way.
This attributes to the cause for choosing Lakoff and Johnson‟s theory as a foundation
in analyzing the data obtained in the study.
2. Objectives of the study and the research questions
The study aims to describe a language phenomenon happening in advertising
slogans, specifically conceptual metaphors. To go further, it targets at five cell phone
brands to find out the frequency of conceptual metaphors used in their advertising
slogans and the subtypes of conceptual metaphors employed based on the theory of
Lakoff and Johnson. In other words, the study tries to seek out the answers to two
research questions.
Research question 1: How are conceptual metaphors frequently used in five
brands‟ cell phone advertising slogans?
Research question 2: What are subtypes of conceptual metaphors employed in
five brands‟ cell phone advertising slogans?
3. Scope of the study
Due to the time constraint, the thesis only focuses on five cell phone brands‟
slogans which are world famous ones.
The selected slogans of five brands are randomly taken from newspapers, TV
and the Internet at the researcher‟s ease.
A corpus of 65 chosen slogans is not a big one, so to some extents, the results
provided are just selective, not comprehensive.
In this study, the analysis is based on the theory and classification of metaphors
given by Lakoff and Johnson.
4. Method of the study
This research is a mixture of qualitative and statistical research. Firstly,
qualitative research is employed in analyzing the conceptual metaphors as well as the
subtypes of conceptual metaphors in each slogan. The researcher uses statistical
research method in order to give a description of a language phenomenon occurring in
advertising slogans of five mobile phone brands in quantitative data. In addition, the
exploratory research method is employed with an aim to examining the correlations
among three subtypes of conceptual metaphors namely structural, ontological and
orientational metaphors.
5. Design of the study
The thesis consists of four chapters: CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION,
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND, CHAPTER III: THE USE OF
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