An investigation into the sentence patterns used in travle advertisements on english and vietnamese websites

INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Advertising is a device to arouse consumers' attention to a commodity and induce them to use it. In the increasingly keen competition of the market economy, advertising is an important means of scrambling for markets. According to the American Marketing Association, Chicago, "Advertising is any paid form of non personal presentation of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor." Advertising is as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. Advertising has become the part and parcel of present-day life. From everywhere around us, advertisements of diverse types come naturally to our life. In spite of it, there is an attractive power, which is able to manipulate the consumer; an invisible voice of advertisement advocates, encourages, asks, announces and deeply embeds into peoples’ minds. Advertising unifies language, pictures, music; it contains information, invokes emotions and imaginations, it can capture all five human senses. In order to enhance the appeal of an advertisement, advertising writers pay much attention not only to such expressive devices as plates, color and the layout of a printed page, but also to the choice of words or phrases or sentences, to make an advertisement beautiful and attractive. In the practice of the advertising, people pay more and more attention to the use of figures of speech with every effort to make the advertising succinct, accurate and vivid and to provide rich imagination and plentiful associations for readers so as to stimulate their desire. In terms of advertising language, advertising texts are of great value for the analyses from marketing experts, sociologist, etc. and last but not least linguists. Sociologists may be interested in the fact, how advertising influences the values, attitudes and behavior of the society. And marketing experts and advertising agencies are interested in the language of advertising to find the tricks how to make advertising more effective. On the other hand, linguists are interested in language of advertising because they want to know how particular language works in this type of discourse, which linguistic means are used here and how advertising language is changing in the course time. I have no ambition to make an analysis of language of adverting from all aspects such as phonological, lexical and morphological, syntactic and semantic aspect. Within the scope of my study in this thesis, I only focus on the sentence patterns used in advertisements. AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE SENTENCE PATTERNS USED IN TRAVLE ADVERTISEMENTS ON ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE WEBSITES is the study of what kinds of sentences are presented in the mass media – websites. 2. Aims of the study In this thesis, the hypothesis and the research questions are: What are the features of travel advertising sentences used in English and Vietnamese websites? To what extent are the identified characteristic features similar and different between English and Vietnamese? Are they due to the social and cultural influences on the advertisement writers? What suggestions should be noted for teaching and learning about travel advertisements? 3. Research methods and process of research In order to demonstrate the features of sentence patterns used on website advertisements, I combine qualitative and quantitative analysis. According to Nunan (1992) (adapted from Richard and Cook, 1979), a qualitative research is a naturalistic and uncontrolled observation, subjective, grounded, discovery-oriented, exploratory, descriptive and inductive (p. 4). Maykut and Morehouse (1994) define qualitative research as generally examining people’s words and actions in narrative or descriptive ways more closely representing the situation as experienced by the participants. The aim of qualitative research is to discover meanings that emerge after close observation, careful documentation, and thoughtful analysis. The qualitative method is used to gather data. The data are then analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of the mean length. When studying the features of sentence patterns used, as a result of quantification, we can look for recurring patterns emerging from the data. First I collect data for study from the internet, including advertisements written in English and those written in Vietnamese. The two sources then are to be investigated from a cross – linguistic perspective to study the similarities and differences between the sentence patterns of the two languages. On the ground of the findings in this stage of investigation, the texts in advertisements are randomly chosen and closely analyzed to serve the goals and aims of the study. 4. Scope of the study The study deals with sentence patterns used in travel advertisements on English and Vietnamese websites. The data for the study consists of texts from advertisements on English and Vietnamese websites. My areas of interest are the passages advertising specific tourist attractions in cities. The travel advertisements selected here are, therefore, about different places in some foreign countries and Vietnam. Due to a shortage of time and within the limitation of an M.A thesis, the study only focuses on the analysis and comparison of 10 travel advertisements in each language. 5. Design of the study The introduction of the study is aimed to give the background of the study. It mentions the rationale, aims of the study, the research methods, scope of the study and the process of research. The development part of the thesis consists of three chapters: Chapter 1 deals with theoretical background, giving sentence definitions, functions of sentences and discourse of advertising. Chapter 2 presents the sentence patterns used in English and Vietnamese advertisements including sentence types and sentence structure. Chapter 3 discusses the similar and different features in sentence patterns of the two languages in travel advertisements and implications for teaching and learning about travel advertisements. The conclusion works out with some findings and suggestions from the research. CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1. What is a sentence? 1.1.1. Definitions There is a variety of definitions of a sentence. McDougal Littell (2004) simply defines a sentence is a group of words that conveys a complete thought (p. 36). Brown, Nilson, Shaw & Weldon (1984) share the same and add some more information: “a sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought. The purpose of a sentence is to describe an action or state a condition of a person, a place, a thing or an idea.” (p. 57) Halliday (1994) argues that “describing a sentence as a construction of words is rather like describing a house as a construction of bricks, without recognizing the walls and the rooms as intermediate structural units.” (p. 180). He states that a sentence should be defined as a clause complex with the simple sentence (one clause) as the limiting case. Morley (2000, p.25) looks at a sentence in many aspects. In meaning terms, he says “the role of the sentence is to express one or more ideas or ‘proposition’ from the ideational component, each proposition being realized by a clause.” Nguyễn Hòa (2001) says “…the sentence refers to the system or language side: it can be thought of as the ideal structure behind various realizations in utterances.” (p. 23) Mai Ngọc Chừ, Vũ Đức Nghiệu & Hoàng Trọng Phiến (2006) give out the definition about a sentence: “câu là đơn vị của ngôn ngữ có cấu tạo ngữ pháp (bên trong và bên ngoài) tự lập và có ngữ điệu kết thúc, mang một tư tưởng tương đối trọn vẹn có kèm thái độ của người nói hoặc chỉ biểu thị thái độ của người nói, giúp hình thành và biểu hiện, truyền đạt tư tưởng, tình cảm với tư cách là đơn vị thông báo nhỏ nhất.” (p. 285) (A sentence is the language unit which has independent inner and outer grammatical structure and ending intonation. It bears a relatively complete thought enclosed with the speaker’s attitude or only displaying the speaker’s attitude, which helps form, show and communicate ideas and affection as the smallest information unit.) I myself like and follow the definition of Richards and Platt (1992) about a sentence: “the largest unit of grammatical organization within with parts of speech (e.g. nouns, verbs, adverbs) and grammatical classes (e.g. word, phrase, clause) are said to function. In English a sentence normally contains one independent clause (…) with a finite verb.” (p. 330). From that we can conclude that a sentence must make complete sense by itself. Thus, “The mobile phone on the table” is not a sentence as it does not express a complete thought. The correct one can be “The mobile phone on the table belongs to my father.” 1.1.2. Functions of the sentence In language usage, Diệp Quang Ban (2004) lists three major functions of the sentence: expressive function, interpersonal function and text-making function. Expressive function: in daily communication, one by some means or other expresses one or some events in his experience. This can be done thanks to the fact that language has a mean compatible with it which is called “the sentence in expressive function” (p.27). Those events in experience are not in fixed forms; they are expressed through one’s viewpoint and coded in grammar of a certain language. Therefore, the same event can be viewed and expressed in different ways in different languages and even different in one language due to different expressions. Interpersonal function: in conversations, people use sentences to communicate with one another. In that process, the speaker always intends to do some action to influence the hearer. For example, the speaker speaks to inform about something, to ask the hearer to do something, to express his thought to the hearer or to set up a communication relation. Those actions are called speech actions. In each language system, there are means that mark those speech actions, such as declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences. (p 29 – 30) Text-making function: in a certain situation, the sentences must be organized to be in harmony with the preceding and following ones (in other words, co-text) or with the outside situation (context of situation). In this case, sentences are regarded as a message. The organization of the sentences to make a message requires two elements: Theme and Rheme. The relation of these two elements is called Theme – Rheme structure. (p. 30 – 31) 1.2. Discourse of advertising 1.2.1. The concept of advertising The concept of advertising dates back to early civilization. Approximately, in 3,000 B.C, Babylonian merchants knew to place signs over their doorway to indicate what they sold. In ancient Greece and Rome, advertisements were found on walls in the streets. Advertising today began in 19th century and developed with industrialization and mass production. In this part of the study, I would like to give an idea what advertising is, and which types of advertising exist. This will bring the general and basic definitions necessary for understanding the issue as a whole. 1.2.1.1. Definitions of advertising “Advertising is a one-way communication whose purpose is to inform potential customers about products and services and how to obtain them.” ( Michael, on defines advertising is “Making known; calling public attention to a product, service, or company by means of paid announcements so as to affect perception or arouse consumer desire to make a purchase or take a particular action.” and advertisement is “A paid public announcement appearing in the media.” The American Heritage Dictionary says that the advertising is: (1). “The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media. (2).The business of designing and writing advertisements. (3). Advertisements considered as a group: This paper takes no advertising.” Another definition of advertising is according to the Investorwords glossary: “Description or presentation of a product, idea, or organization, in order to induce individuals to buy, support, or approve of it.” ( Lý Tùng Hiếu in the book Quảng cáo và ngôn ngữ quảng cáo (2004) gives out his definition of advertising after analyzing other definitions of advertising as follows: “Quảng cáo là hoạt động của các cá nhân hoặc các tổ chức sản xuất và dịch vụ, sử dụng các phương tiện và phương thức truyền thông để thông báo cho công chúng về nhu cầu, khả năng của mình hoặc về lợi ích của những hàng hóa và dịch vụ nhất định nhằm gia tăng số lượng người tiêu dùng, sử dụng các dịch vụ và hàng hóa đó.” (p. 26) (It can be temporarily translated as Advertising is the activity of individuals or organizations of manufacturing and services, using modes and means of communications to inform the publics about their demands and ability or the benefits of given goods and services in order to increase the number of consumers using those goods and services) All these definitions have in common the fact that advertising is a means of promotion of a product, an idea, or an organization on the market with the aim to give information and/ or to persuade people of the advantage of the product and induce them to take and action (e.g. buy to use it). Goddard (1998, p. 10) suggests that “advertising is not just about the commercial promotion of branded products, but can also encompass the idea of texts whose intention is to enhance the image of an individual, group or organization.” This suggestion gives out a full description of advertising, helping give out types of advertising as in the following. 1.2.1.2. Types of advertising According to Leech (1972), most frequent and important type of the advertising is “commercial consumer advertising: advertising directed towards a mass audience with the aim of promoting sales of a commercial product or service…” E.g: “Plump it up. New volume boost liquid lip colour. Paints lips with a high shine lacquer finish. Feel the tingling sensation as formula begins to work.” Another type of commercial advertising is ‘prestige advertising’. Here the name and the positive image of the company are advertised rather than a product or a service. E.g: “The America’s Cup: the oldest and most coveted trophy in the world of sailing. Its organizers have entrusted once again the vital timing of the races to Omega, a company whose experience in watchmaking and sports timekeeping dates back over 150 years…to the very origins of the America’s Cup itself.” As an example of non-commercial advertising, we may mention appeals from associations and societies whether their purposes are charity or political propaganda: “Thanks to the World Food Programme, this little girl in Mozambique knows she won’t go hungry today.” Vietnamese researchers also give out many ways to classify advertising. Lý Tùng Hiếu (2004) classifies advertising into 34 minor types according to four criteria: technique, target audience, morality and legality. (p. 40 – 51) Mai Xuân Huy (2005, p. 40 - 47)) collects ideas from many researchers to give out seven ways or criteria of classifying advertising as follows: Basing on medium criterion, advertising types include print advertising (newspaper, magazines), broadcast advertising (radio, television), out-of-home advertising (outdoor and transit), and direct mail advertising. Geographic area criterion: international advertising, national advertising, regional advertising and local advertising. Target audience criterion: consumer advertising, and business advertising. Consumer response criterion: action advertising and awareness advertising. Purpose criterion: commercial advertising, and noncommercial advertising. Layout criterion: display advertising, classified advertising, and noticed advertising. Promoted object criterion: product advertising and nonproduct advertising (or institutional advertising/ corporate advertising/ prestige advertising) 1.2.2. Advertising - a kind of communication According to Widdowson (1996), human language “serves as a means of cognition and communication: it enables us to think for ourselves and to cooperate with other people in our community.” (p. 3). Nguyễn Văn Khang (1999) discusses the participants in the communication can take up to four roles: an addresser, a speaker, an addressee and a hearer. Communication is the process by which individuals share information, ideas and attitudes. It is the process between at least two sides – the addresser (transmitter – speaker or writer) and the addressee (receiver – listener or reader). Between these two participants, the coded meaning (information) is transmitted through the communication channel. Each communication is proceeding in given context or situation. Wilson & Wilson (1998) give out a very simple communication model as the following: Message Source ============> Receiver Channel Diagram 1.1: communication model (source: Wilson & Wilson 1998, p. 7) They argue the source can be called the sender, communicator or encoder; the message is whatever the source attempts to share with someone else; the channel is the way in which we send our message: it may be our sense or technological devices, etc. and the receiver can be called the destination, audience or decoder. In mass communication, the receiver is usually a large audience. Mai Xuân Huy (2005) cites the communication process of Jakobson (1960) in the book “Linguistics and Poetics” as follows: Ngữ cảnh Người phát ------------------ Thông điệp ------------------- Người nhận Tiếp xúc Mã It can be translated as: Context Encoder ------------------ Message ------------------ Decoder Channel Code Diagram 1.2: communication factors (source: Mai Xuân Huy 2005, p.16) It follows that advertising is a kind of communication between the creator of advertisement (in fact, the copywriter who substitutes the producer/seller and transfers his ideas into advertisements), and the consumer. From this representation we can clearly see that, in case of advertising, the encoder is the copywriter, and the decoder is the reader, the meaning transmitted is about the product or more specifically, an attempt to make the reader buy the product, the code (in the case of press advertising) is language and some sort of visual code, the channel consists of printed publications, and the context include such features as the reader’s total situation (Does he have the product already? Can he afford it? etc.), and the publication in which the advertisement appears. This shows advertising is a kind of communication with its own principles. The encoder is a producer – a company that tries to persuade the decoder – a consumer - to buy a product. The code of the language has to be known by all participants of the communication. The message communicated by the advertisement does not discuss everything about the product. It is incomplete because there is no space enough to describe the product into details. The message only contains what the producer thinks the consumer needs to know. It always contains the name of the product and usually the information how it can benefit the customer. Goddard (1998) discusses about the communication of advertising under the idea of narrator and narratees. She states that the writer is the person who constructs the text in reality (in advertising texts, the real writers are the copywriters and artists who work in an advertising agency’s creative department), while the narrator is the storyteller within the text. Copywriters can “construct all sorts of different narrators to convey to us the message of an advert” (p.29), for example, a female writer can construct a male narrator, or an adult writer can construct a child narrator. Narratees are, on the other hand, people who appear to be addressed. In fact, in ad