i

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THỊ KIM NGÂN A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF LINGUISTIC
FEATURES OF ADVERTISING LANGUAGE USED
IN ENGLISH SLOGANS FOR FOOD AND DRINK
PRODUCTS

(PHÂN TÍCH MIÊU TẢ ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGÔN NGỮ KHẨU HIỆU
QUẢNG CÁO MỘT SỐ SẢN PHẨM THỨC ĂN VÀ ĐỒ UỐNG)

M.A. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15 HANOI - 2012

ii VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

LIST OF FIGURES XI
LIST OF TABLES XII
INTRODUCTION 1
1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study 1
2. Aims of the study 3
3. Research question 3
4. Scope of the study 3
5. Methodology 4
6. Organization of the study 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6
1.1 ADVERTISING AS A DISCOURSE 6
1.1.1 Discourse and discourse analysis 6
1.1.1.1 Definition of discourse and discourse analysis 6
1.1.1.2 Context and its role in discourse analysis 6
1.1.2 Advertising as a discourse: Advertisements as Texts 7
1.2 CONCEPT OF ADVERTISING AND ADVERTISING SLOGANS 8
1.2.1 Definitions of advertising 8
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1.2.2 Types of advertising 8
1.2.3 Advertising as kind of communication 10
1.2.4 Advertising slogan as an essential part of advertisement 11
1.2.4.1 Definitions of slogans and adverting slogans 11
1.2.4.2 Purposes of advertising slogans 11
1.3 FEATURES OF ADVERTISING LANGUAGE 12
1.3.1 Syntactic Features of Advertising Language 12
1.3.1.1 Groups 13
1.3.1.2 Verbless and non-finite clauses 13
1.3.1.3 Simple sentences 14
1.3.1.4 Multiple sentences 16

3.1.1 Complexity of sentence structure 36
3.1.2 Types of sentence 38
3.2 LEXICAL FEATURES OF FOOD AND DRINK SLOGANS 40
3.2.1 Verbal groups 40
3.2.1.1 Use of lexical verbs 40
3.2.1.2 Use of finite and non-finite verbs 41
3.2.1.3 Use of modal verbs 42
3.2.1.4 Use of tense 42
3.2.1.5 Use of negation 43
3.2.1.6 Use of voice 44
3.2.2 Adjectives 45
3.2.3 Brand names 46
3.2.4 Personal pronouns and possessive determiners 46
3.2.5 New words and phrases 48
3.3 SEMANTIC FEATURES OF FOOD AND DRINK SLOGANS 49
3.3.1 Use of metaphor 50
3.3.2 Use of metonymy 52
3.3.3 Use of personification 53
3.3.4 Use of hyperbole 54
3.4 PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES OF FOOD AND DRINK SLOGANS 55
3.4.1 Use of rhyme 56
3.4.2 Use of assonance 56
3.4.3 Use of alliteration 57
3.4.4 Use of onomatopoeia 57
CONCLUSION 59
1. SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS 59
2. IMPLICATIONS 60
2.1 Implications for creating effective slogans 60
2.2 Implications for teaching Business English and linguistics 61
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Table 6: Most frequently used adjectives in the corpus 45
Table 7: Occurrence of pronouns and possessive determiners in the corpus 47 1

INTRODUCTION
1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study
Nowadays, in a developed world, thousands of new products and services are
introduced each day, which makes advertising become a real art - the art of informing,
persuading customers and deeply embedding into their minds. According to Bovée et al.
(1995:16-20), advertising has never been as ubiquitous as it is nowadays. Language in
advertising is typified by a slogan which is present in every advertisement. Slogans can be
considered the heart of advertisements wherever they appear. Angela Goddard in her book
“The language of advertising” titles these slogans the hooks which she calls “the initial
piece of attention-seeking verbal language used to draw the reader in” (Goddard,
1998:106).
Slogans are the most important and condensed messages advertisers would like to
send to their customers. Sharp and intelligent slogans can help advertisers leave
unforgettable impressions on their potential customers‟ minds. They provide continuity for
a campaign and reduce a key theme or idea the company wants to be associated with its
product or itself to a brief statement (Bovée and Arens, 1992:274). However, creating a
successful slogan is never an easy task. The use of just a few words in a slogan proves to
be harder than it is supposed to be. It requires a sophisticated linguistic insight into
phonology, lexicology, syntax as well as semantics and pragmatics. Hence, the study on
some successful slogans promises to bring about a lot of interesting facts in the art of using
language especially among not only marketers but also sociologists, psychologists and
especially linguists.
Moreover, what can be called a successful slogan is still a question. The answer
depends on the area of products and services the slogan is used, the country or

drink products have been discussed among MA theses in ULIS and becomes one of the
few papers on food and drink slogans in the world.
For all the reasons mentioned above and be motivated by previous studies, a study
entitled: “A descriptive analysis of linguistic features of advertising language used in
English slogans for food and drink products” is carried out. By conducting this study, the
researcher hopes to gain better insight into the most significant linguistic features of the
advertising language used in English slogans for food and drink products. This study with
its results is hoped to be served as an invaluable source of reference for teachers and
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learners of English as a foreign language, translators, advertisers and those who concern
themselves about this subject matter.
2. Aims of the study
The objective of this study is to investigate the advertising slogans for food and
drink products in the phonological, lexical, syntactic and semantic aspects to draw out the
most significant linguistic features of advertising language used in these English slogans.
Moreover, the study also grasps some implications especially in ways of creating an
effective slogan for food and drink products in the Vietnamese context to achieve success
for the brands.
3. Research question
In brief, the study seeks the answers to this research question:
What are the most significant linguistic features of food and drink slogans in
English?
Specifically, the linguistic features of slogans are analyzed based on these four
different levels:
 phonological level
 lexical level
 syntactic level
 semantic level
4. Scope of the study

and organization of the study is provided.
Chapter 1, with the title “LITERATURE REVIEW”, can be considered a brief
overview of some previous papers on the same subject in English. At the same time, it
provides the theoretical framework concerning discourse analysis, advertising, advertising
slogans as well as some linguistic means used in advertising language.
Chapter 2 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY – refers to the research approach used in
the study and the methods of collecting and analyzing the data to help the author achieve the
best results in the study.
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Chapter 3 is called MAIN FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS, in which the author
summarizes her findings in the form of answering four research questions mentioned in the
first chapter to arrive at the most significant characteristics of the English language used in
food and drink advertising slogans.
The last section is CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS, which provides the
implications of the study to the creating process of advertising slogans in general and food
and drinks slogans in particular, and some suggestions for further studies.
The study ends with “BIBLIOGRAPHY”.
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CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 ADVERTISING AS A DISCOURSE
1.1.1 Discourse and discourse analysis
1.1.1.1 Definition of discourse and discourse analysis
According to Widdowson (2000:8), discourse is a use of sentences in order to perform
acts for communication purposes which cohere into bigger communicative components and
set up a rhetorical model which characterizes language pieces as a whole type of
communication.
Widdowson (2000:100) also emphasizes the distinction between Discourse and Text
by stating that “discourse is a communicative process” and its situational effect is a change

support.
(Hymes, 1962 quoted in Brown and Yule, 1983:38)
1.1.2 Advertising as a discourse: Advertisements as Texts
Following Hervey et al. (1995:126), awareness of genre and text type is necessary
in that translators must be familiar with styles of presentation and language use based on
particular genre requirements in particular cultures. The present part concentrates on the
most major aspects of the advertising register and the genre of advertising as a text type
characterized by specific features.
Register can be defined as a set of lexical and grammatical features that come with
and help to identify discourse that occurs in a particular recurrent situation (Johnstone,
2002:147). With respect to advertising as a genre, Trosborg (1997:9) states that the
defining criterion of any genre is the communicative purpose that it is intended to fulfill.
Information included in advertisements should not be considered as a primary goal.
Instead, it should be perceived as a complimentary function which helps the advertisement
become more persuasive. Advertising as a genre can be classified under the category of
appeal-oriented texts, having the predominant functions of persuasion. In commercial
advertising, form and content are “at one in their overall goal of arousing consumer
response” (Reiss, 2000:38). In other words, a commercial advertisement strives at
convincing consumers to buy the advertised products.
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To sum up, it is also shown that the ultimate communicative purpose of advertising
genre is persuasion. This allows us to regard advertisements as appeal-focused texts.
1.2 CONCEPT OF ADVERTISING AND ADVERTISING SLOGANS
This part of the study will bring the general and basic ideas of advertising and
slogans which are necessary for understanding the issue as a whole.
1.2.1 Definitions of advertising
Advertising is an inevitable part of our modern market economy society whose
outstanding feature is its competitive fight. Cook (1992:182) states that advertising is not
some “external curiosity” into which we investigate but it is “something of which we are

Most television, radio, newspaper and magazine advertisements belong to
consumer advertising. The consumer advertising includes alcoholic ads, cigarette ads,
drink ads, food ads, wear ads, cosmetic ads, automobile ads, home electric appliance ads,
and other products which are used and purchased by ordinary people. To this kind of
advertisements, most people have developed a kind of ambivalent psychology. On the one
hand, they are bored with the endless advertisements hiding in the newspapers and
magazines, clamoring on the radio, or dazzling on the TV. On the other hand, they still
need the information to guide their purchasing. Therefore, to attract the consumers‟
attention is the most important task for an advertising copywriter. All advertising slogans
which are analyzed in this study belong to consumer advertising category.
Non-commercial advertising can be also called Public Interest Advertising. The
general objective of public interest advertising is to inform, persuade, or remind people
about the particular idea, cause, or philosophy being advertised. This kind of advertising is
often used by non-business institutions, such as schools, hospitals and charitable
organizations. Due to the fact that public interest advertising is nonprofit, the words it uses
are much more different from the other 3 kinds of commercial advertising. Its purpose is
not to urge readers to spend their money, but to disseminate a kind of concept or advocate
a social ethic.
Moreover, advertising can also be classified based according to the type of medium
: TV, radio, brochures, leaflets, magazines, newspapers and other printed materials, the
Internet and Direct Mail advertising or outdoor advertising, etc.
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1.2.3 Advertising as kind of communication
Churchill, Jr. and Peter (1998: 142) show their opinions about advertising by
stating as follows:
Advertising is noted as any announcement or persuasive message placed in the mass
media in paid or donated time or space by an identified individual, company, or
organization to serve a number of audience about products and persuade or remind them
of buying, to convey information about the organization itself or issues important to the

religious, and other contexts as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. In the
particular case of an advertising slogan, it is a verbal logo normally appearing just beneath
or beside the brand name or the logo of the product. In other words, a slogan is kind of a
condensed message of the whole advertisement which advertisers want their customers to
remember most. It is the usual case that slogans come to customers‟ mind first when they
think about the products.
As Whittier (1958: 11) suggests:
A slogan should be a statement of such merit about a product or service that it is worthy
of continuous repetition in advertising, is worthwhile for the public to remember, and is
phrased in such a way that the public is likely to remember it.
An advertising slogan or a tagline is, as Rein (1982:49) defines it as a "unique
phrase identified with a company or brand". It is often a summarized "big idea" which
gives the product or the company a concept in the contracted form and "ties together all of
the elements in an advertising campaign" (Rein, 1982: 54). A slogan has "to say something
about the product uniqueness or values" and it "should command attention, be memorable
and be brief" (Rein, 1982: 54).
In different countries, slogans can be replaced by different terms such as endlines
(in the UK), taglines or theme lines (in the USA) or signatures (in France).
1.2.4.2 Purposes of advertising slogans
According to Rey (1996, as cited in Abreu et al. 2006:42), slogans can be used for
the following general purposes:
 To express especially the main advantage of the product
 To identify clearly the advertised product
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 To attract the addressee‟s attention
The reason why a slogan commonly appears together
with the logo of the product is to ensure that if customers get
nothing from the advertisement, they can get nothing from the
advertisement; they can get from the slogan instead. Moreover, in

single nominal group or a single adverbial group may be grammatically independent.
Either of these groups may in turn consist of a single word. In other words, there is no
limit to the simplicity of a grammatical unit.
According to the increasing degree of complexity, the constituents of sentence are
classified into 4 sub-categories: groups, verbless and non - finite clauses, simple sentences,
multiple sentences. As a special kind of multiple sentences, compound-complex sentence
is not mentioned here due to its rare occurrence in advertising language in general and
advertising slogans in particular.
1.3.1.1 Groups
The Group is defined as expansion of a word (Richards, 1996:5).
Example 1:
NG: “New classics” (Chic and Cher)
Toolan (1988:57) and Bruthiaux (1996:79) state that one of the standard features of
advertisements is the tendency to use lengthy and complex noun phrases or groups. In
advertising language, the interesting part of a noun phrase is the pre-modifying part, which
is very complex and is characterized by some uncommon structural features. In many
cases, the whole adverting text contains only noun phrases. Inside each noun phrase,
clusters of two, three or more adjectives are possible.
1.3.1.2 Verbless and non-finite clauses
A verbless clause is defined as “a clause containing no V element but otherwise
generally analyzable in terms of one or more clause elements”. (Quirk and Greenbaum,
1973: 310). Within a verbless clause, we can usually infer ellipsis of the verb “be”, the
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subject, when omitted, can be treated as recoverable from the context (Quirk and
Greenbaum, 1973: 312).
Example 2:
Drei Wetter Taft. (is) Always perfect
A non-finite clause is defined as “a clause whose V element is a non-finite verb
phrase” (Quirk and Greenbaum, 1973: 310). The four classes of non-finite verb phrase

relations (Fairclough, 1995) and becomes a frequently -found feature in advertising
language as well.
Besides, another typical feature of interrogatives in advertising is that they are often
rhetorical. In other words, they require an answer that can either be apparent or provided
by the advertiser (Myers, 1994: 49). The answer usually justifies the purchase of the
product or affirms its dominance.
Example 5:
Is your skin thirsty? (Clinique)
 Declaratives
It can be said that declarative sentences widely appear in advertising language since
they are primarily used to convey information and the ultimate aim of advertising is to
inform customers of the quality of a certain product or the profit it may bring.
Example 6:
The fun develops instantly (Polaroid)
 Exclamatory sentences
Exclamatory sentences also suggest personal and interactive communication, which
explains for its frequency in advertisements (Myers, 1994:50-51). They begin with either
what or how and continue with a subject-verb verb pattern. (Biber et al., 2002:254).
Example 7:
What a beautiful day it was!
However, Myers argues that exclamatory sentence in advertisements could actually
be seen as simple statements containing an exclamation mark.
Example 8:
It is Miller time! (Miller beer)
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1.3.1.4 Multiple sentences
Based on inner complexity, all sentences can be divided into simple, consisting of a
single clause (see 1.3.1.3) and multiple, consisting of several clauses (Quirk et al.,
1985:40). Multiple sentences include complex sentence and compound sentence. (Quirk et