an investigation into morphopogical and syntactic features in electronic device advertisements in english = nghiên cứu đặc điểm hình thái và cú pháp trong quảng cáo các thiết bị điện tử

The language used in electronic device advertisements has some typical features that make it different from the language used in other products‘ adverts.. However, this study does not de

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐỖ THỊ THU

AN INVESTIGATION INTO MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC FEATURES

IN ELECTRONIC DEVICE ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH (WITH

REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE)

Nghiên cứu đặc điểm hình thái và cú pháp trong các quảng cáo thiết bị điện tử bằng tiếng Anh (có sự so sánh với quảng cáo bằng tiếng Việt)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Hanoi, 2009

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

bằng tiếng Anh (có sự so sánh với với quảng cáo bằng tiếng Việt

M.A Programme Minor Thesis

Field: English linguistics

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr VÕ ĐẠI QUANG

Hanoi, 2009

TABLE OF CONTENT

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

2 Aims of the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Design of the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

1.1 An Overview of Morphology

1.1.1 Some basic concepts 1.1.2 Inflection, derivation and compounding

1.1.2.1 Inflection 1.1.2.2 Derivation 1.1.2.3 Compounding 1.2 An Overview of Syntax

1.2.1 Some basic concepts 1.2.2 Types of sentences 1.2.3 Voice, Tense and Mood 1.3 Advertising

1.3.1 Definition of Advertising 1.3.2 Classification of Advertising 1.3.3 Functions of Advertising 1.4 Electronic device

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions

3.1 Morphological and Syntactic Features of Electronic Device

3.1.1 1 Inflection

3.1.1.2 Derivation

3.1.1.3 Compounding

3.1.2 Syntactic Features 3.1.2.1 Types of sentences 3.1.2.2 Voice, Tense and Mood 3.2 Some Similarities and Differences in Morphological and Syntactic

Features between English and Vietnamese Electronic Device Advertisements

2 Implications from the study results

3 Suggestions for further researches

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Suffix –s/-e/-eds of verbs in selected English adverts

Table 2: Summary of the derivational suffixes in selected English adverts

Table 3: Summary of the derivational suffixes of adjectives in selected English adverts

Table 4: Formation of compound words in selected English adverts

Table 5: Percentage of types of sentences in selected adverts

Table 6: Frequency of sentences which include “can”, “will” in selected English adverts

Table 7: Some common derivational affixes in selected Vietnamese adverts

Table 8: Percentage of types of sentences in selected Vietnamese adverts

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Nowadays, with the development of technology and mass media, advertising has influenced our life strongly Advertisement as a means of representation has been so frequently used that they become the part of present daily life As Angela Goddard (1998:5)

commented ―advertising is all around us‖, they can be seen everywhere, on television, on

newspapers, on posts along streets, or on the Internet Advertising provides a valuable service to society and its members, because it defines for consumers the meaning and the role of products, services, and institutions It indicates the difference that exists between brands of products and alternative services, as well as the distinguishing characteristics of companies and institutions Advertising also tells the consumer what a specific product, brand or service should do when it is used and thus helps him or her to understand and the products and services that he or she uses

Various forms are used in advertisements, and advertisers pay much attention to expressive devices as plates, colors or layout of printed pages, however, language is the

main carrier of message all along, as Vestergaard & Schroder say in The Language of

Advertising (1985), ―Advertising takes many forms, but in most of them language is of crucial importance.‖ Language has become a very efficient element in connection with

other aids to appeal the consumption of the readers In the practice of the advertising, advertisers normally pay more attention to the use of words or types of sentences to make the advertisements more vivid, persuasive and reliable, and then to stimulate the desire to buy and use advertised products

Furthermore, in the era of new technology development, electronic devices are products that make our life more relaxing and comfortable As electronic device products such as television, computer, mobile phone, etc., have become the most important things in our daily life, it seems to be very difficult for us to manage our life without them Everyday we see hundreds of electronic device advertisements on TV, newspaper or Internet Language used in electronic device advertisements has become more and more familiar through different means of mass media The language used in electronic device advertisements has some typical features that make it different from the language used in other products‘ adverts

As a result, this study will mainly focus on the language of electronic device advertising It will describe some features of the language used in advertisements of electronic devices in English and then find out some similarities and differences between

English and Vietnamese language used in electronic device advertisements However, this study does not desire to describe all the language characteristics of electronic device advertisements in English and Vietnamese, it only focuses on morphological and syntactic features which are considered as the most typical features in advertising language to create the success of products

2 Aims of the study

This thesis aims at answering the research questions:

- What are the most typical features of morphology and syntax in English advertisements of electronic devices?

- To what extent are the identified morphological and syntactic features similar and different between English and Vietnamese advertisements of electronic devices?

- What suggestions should be made for advertisers, translators, learners of ESL from morphological and syntactic features of electronic device advertisements?

3 Scope of the study

Due to the limitation of time and with the limited scope of MA thesis, this study does not cover all aspects of the language of advertising as well as all language characteristics of electronic device advertisements This study deals with some features of English and Vietnamese electronic device product advertisements based on morphology and syntax

For analyzing morphological and syntactic features of advertising language in this study, pieces of electronic device product advertisements are not selected from all kinds of media but from some common magazines and famous websites The study focuses on the description, analysis and comparison of 40 advertisements in both languages, English and Vietnamese

4 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts In INTRODUCTION PART, the rationale,

aims of the study, scope of the study, and design of the study are presented so that readers can have the general view of the thesis There are three chapters in the DEVELOPMENT part Chapter 1 deals with theoretical background on morphology, syntax, advertising and electronic device products Chapter 2 comprises the methods of the study, data collection, data analysis Chapter 3, the backbone of the thesis, shows the findings and discussion This chapter mainly presents some morphological and syntactic features of electronic device advertisements in English and describes some similarities and differences in morphological and syntactic features between English and Vietnamese electronic device

advertisements The CONCLUSION part presents some concluding marks, some implications for advertisers, translators, learners of ESL, and suggestions for further researches

DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Various concepts and theoretical background in the field of morphology, syntax and advertising language are required for understanding and analyses of morphological and syntactic features of electronic device advertisements Therefore, this chapter will deal with the basis concepts and ideas to set the theoretical background for analyses which will

be carried out later in this study

There are different definitions of and discussion on some basic concepts of morphology and syntax from various linguistics authors, however, the most significant publications on which this study is based are Carstairs-McCarthy (2002) for morphology angle, and Miller, J (2000) for syntax angle Their books give a comprehensive account on English morphology and syntax based on different large-scale linguistic books The comprehensiveness of the description of English morphology and syntax in these books and the fact that they can help the author of this study get the final findings of typical morphological and syntactic features of electronic device advertisements are the main factors which account for the heavy reference of these books in this study

1.1 An Overview of Morphology

1.1.1 Some basic concepts

As defined by Fromkin (2000), ―morphology is the study of words and their

structure‖ Words are meaningful linguistic units that can be combined to form phrases or

sentences Words are not the smallest units of meaning They may be simple or complex

Fromkin (2000) also gives an example of a word carefully This word form can be segmented into the smallest constituent elements: care-ful-ly Or the word schoolmaster includes two smaller words, school and master Each of the words in this compound and

the other smaller word parts which cannot be divided into even smaller parts is called

morpheme Bauer (1983) defines ―a morpheme may be defined as the minimal unit of

grammatical unit.‖ It cannot be divided without altering or destroying its meaning Some

words consist of more than one morpheme For example, the word unkind consists of two morphemes: the stem kind and the negative prefix un-

Similarly to the other authors, Carstairs-McCarthy (2002:21) divides morphological

units into two categories: free and bound morpheme When a morpheme stands on its own

in an appropriate context and constitutes an utterance by itself, it is termed as ―free‖ And when a morpheme cannot stand in isolation, it is ―bound‖ For example, care in carefully

can stand alone, but –ful and –ly cannot stand alone in appropriate context

Both Bauer (1983) and Carstairs-McCarthy (2002) agreed that English words

contain morphemes of different types: root-morphemes and affixational morphemes In

the words valuable, invaluable or valueless, the root valu(e) remains and cannot be analyzed any further after removing all such other affixes as –able, in- and –less The root

morpheme is the primary element of the word, conveys its essential lexical meaning and

contains tangible meaning Affixational morphemes or affixes are inflectional or

derivational morphs added to the roots Carstairs-McCarthy (2002:20) also defines that

―those affixes that precede the root (like en- in enlarge) are called prefixes, while those

that follow it are called suffixes (like –ance in performance, -ness in whiteness)‖

1.1.2 Inflection, derivation and compounding

In terms of word formation, morphology has three main subdivisions, namely

inflection, derivation and compounding Inflection deals with patterns of word structure

that are determined by the role of words in sentences Derivation created new words with different meanings Compounding is the combination of nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs

or prepositions to form complex words The definitions, classification and examples in the following sections are adapted from the description of these three main processes of word formation by Carstairs-McCarthy (2002) This description is supplemented with other consideration from the literature

1.1.2.1 Inflection

According to Carstairs-McCarthy (2002:30), inflection deals with the inflected

forms of words, it is the kind of variation that words exhibit on the basis of their

grammatical context Inflection is viewed as the process of adding very general meanings

to existing words, not as the creation of new words There are eight productive inflectional affixes (suffixes) in English

Genitive case -‗s/-‗ the man‘s bicycle

Verb: 3rd person singular present -s/-es give/gives, go/goes

past tense -ed learn/learned, paint/painted

perfect aspect -ed paint/painted, play/played

progressive aspect -ing give/giving, write/writing

Adjectives: comparative -er green/greener, happy/happier

Superlative -est green/greenest, good/best

(adapted from Carstairs-McCarthy (2002: 42))

1.1.2.2 Derivation

Derivation is the process by which affixes combine with roots to create new words

(e.g in 'modern-ize', 'read-er', '-ize' and '-er' are derivational suffixes) Derivation is

viewed as using existing words to make new words Derivation is concerned with one kind

of relationship between lexemes (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2002: 44) Affixed can change the

word meaning (for example, prefix –un in unreliable) or the word class (for example, suffix –ity, in electric-ity, changes adjective into noun)

According to Carstairs-McCarthy (2002), there are a number of prefixes and suffixes to build up new words For example, a noun can be built from other nouns by

adding suffixes: -let (droplet), -ess (waitress), -ine (heroine), -er (Londoner), -ian

(American), -ship (kinship), -hood (motherhood), etc A noun can also be derived from

members of other word classes, such as from adjectives (-ity in purity, -ness in goodness

or –ism in radicalism…) or from verbs (-ance in performance, -ment in development, -ing

in painting….) An adjective is derived from other adjectives (-un in uneatable, -il in

illegal…), or from members of other word classes (-able in breakable, -ent in dependent…) A verb is also built up from other verbs (re- in repaint, un- in untie, en- in enrich…) or from members of other word classes (de- in debug, -ise in organise)

1.1.2.3 Compounding

Carstairs-McCarthy (2002:59) states that while inflection and derivation are the ways to form words from other words, mainly by means of affixes, compounding is the way to form words by combining roots A compound word is a word that is formed from two or more simple or complex words (e.g greenhouse, blackboard, silkworm)

There are some common compounding patterns:

1.2.1 Some basic concepts

Grammar is traditionally categorized into morphology and syntax While morphology is the grammar of words and the form of word, syntax is the grammar of

sentences and is connected with the way that sentences are built Miller (2000) defines:

―syntax has to do with how words are put together to build phrases, with how phrases are

put together to build clauses or bigger phrases, and with how clauses are put together to build sentences‖ In other words, syntax is the study of the relationships between linguistic

forms, how they are arranged in sequence, and which sequences are well-formed

Words in English fall into a number of word classes - nouns, verbs, adjectives and

so on Word classes were traditionally defined by what they denoted – people, places and

things (nouns), actions (verbs) and properties (adjectives) Words are grouped into phrases,

which consist of a word called a head and other words (modifiers) which are said to

modify the head In the large dog, the word dog is the head and the and large are its modifiers In barked loudly, the word barked is the head and loudly the modifier

According to Miller, J (2000: 5), another unit of syntax is the clause which enables

us to talk coherently about the relationships between verbs and different types of phrase

An ideal clause contains a phrase referring to an action or state, a phrase or phrases referring to the people and things involved in the action or state, and possibly phrases

referring time and place For example, in clause My mother bought a present, the phrase

my mother refers to the buyer, bought refers to the action and a present refers to the what

was bought

1.2.2 Types of sentences

While words are the smallest units of syntax, sentences are the largest ones A

sentence is the basic unit of language that expresses a complete thought by following the grammatical rules of syntax A real sentence has at least (a minimum of) a subject and a

main verb to state (declare) a complete thought In English, a simple sentence (containing

a single, independent clause) with a verb (an action), subject (who or what is doing the action), and an object (who or what the action is done to) is written in a Subject-Verb-

Object word order For example, in the sentence "Robert opens the door", Robert is the subject, opens is the verb and the door is the object

Miller, J (2000: 62) states that simple sentences in English consist of a single main clause, but many consist of several clauses Depending on what types of clause are

combined, two types of multi-clause sentence are distinguished Compound sentences

consist of two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction The most

common coordinating conjunctions are: and, or, but, so For example:

Henry Crawford loved Fanny but Fanny loved Ed

The next type of multi-clause sentence is complex sentence which consists of a

main clause and one or more other clauses subordinate it That is, one clause, the main clause is preeminent in a complex sentence and the other clauses, the subordinate clauses, are subject to certain limitation There are some types of subordinate clauses: noun clause (modifying verbs), adjective clause (modifying nouns) and adverbial clause (modifying whole main clauses) For example:

Elizabeth regretted that she had met Wicham (noun clause)

The building that we liked is in Thornton Lacey (adjective clause)

When Fanny returned, she found Tom Bettram very ill (adverbial clause)

(Miller, Jim: 2000)

Talbut Onions, Charles et al (1971:2) also gives another type of sentences, that is

elliptical sentence or ellipsis Elliptical sentences lack one or some parts that are ideally

necessary to full form of a sentence as defined above Elliptical sentences play a great part

in English as well as in other languages They are common in all styles of speaking and writing, they give precision and brevity, save time and troubles For example, in the

sentence, The house to be lent or sold, the verb ―is‖ is omitted Ellipsis is most commonly

used to avoid repetition Another important reason for ellipsis is that by omitting share items attention is focused on new material For example:

A: Have you spoken to him? B: ( I have) Not yet (spoken to him)

1.2.3 Voice, Tense and Mood

The category of voice has to do with the different constructions available for taking

an event or state and presenting it from different perspective Voice relates to situation, not

to time but to which participants in a situation are presented to the hearer/reader and which

participants are presented as central There are two types of voice: active and passive

Miller, J (2000:151) gives us two examples of voice:

(a) Emma and Harriet were attacked yesterday (by those ruffians)

(b) Those ruffians attacked Emma and Harriet yesterday

Example (a) is an instance of a passive voice clause which mentions mainly the patient and possibly omits the agent of action, while example (b) is an instance of an active

voice clause which focuses on agent of action The active voice order agent-action-theme

seems to be the most common order for English speakers Passive voice verbs begin with

the copular verb be, which is followed by the main verb in its past participle form (e.g.,

eaten, attacked, sung) In passive voice clauses, it is not necessary to specify the agent The

by prepositional phrase containing the agent can be omitted, as the parentheses around it

indicate After copular verb be and main verb, passive voice clauses can be followed by by

prepositional phrase or an embedded sentence as the following examples:

The Committee was astonished that the president was willing to nominate such poorly qualified judges

While voice relates to situation, mainly to the participants in situation, tense is the

grammatical marking on verb that usually indicates time reference relative to either the time of speaking or the time at which some other situation was in force Also, according to

Miller, Jim (2000:148) there are two types of tense: present and past tense In fact, future

tense is controversial because it is achieved by verbs will or go combined with other verbs

whereas speakers refer to present and past time by means of a single verb Present and past

tense both formed from verbs stems plus suffixes –s and –ed

Mood of a verb or verb phrase indicates your attitude toward a statement as you

make it As Quirk, R et al (1973:40), stated, mood ―relates the verbal action to such condition as certainty, obligation, necessity, possibility.‖ In classification of Miller, Jim

(2000), there are three types of mood in English: indicative, imperative and subjunctive The indicative mood is for statements of actuality or strong probability, for example, a cat

sits on the stove Most sentences in English are in the indicative mood It simply states a

fact of some sort, or describes what happens, or gives details about reality The imperative

mood is for commands and requests made directly: "Give me back my money." One marker

of the imperative is that frequently the subject does not appear in the sentence, but is only

implied: "(You) Give me back my money." Another, rarer mood is the subjunctive mood

which indicates a hypothetical state, a state contrary to reality, such as a wish, a desire, or

an imaginary situation It is most often found in a clause beginning with the word if It is

also found in clauses following a verb that expresses a doubt, a wish, regret, request, demand, or proposal The subjunctive mood can be expressed by using one of the modal

auxiliaries which include can, could, may, might, will, etc For example, she

could/may/might be in the library

In fact, voice, tense and mood are not only parts of English syntax, but also belong

to the morphological features of verbs Therefore, voice, tense and mood, in this thesis, are

taken into consideration in the light of morpho-syntax Morpho-syntax is the study of

grammatical categories or linguistic units that have both morphological and syntactic properties Voice, tense and mood of verbs have features of inflection morphology, that is with or without inflectional suffix –s/-es/ed, and they also shows how verbs and other word classes are put together to build clauses

1.3 Advertising

1.3.1 Definition of Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade

potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or

service The term ―advertising‖ originates from a Latin word "advertere", which means to warn, or to call attention to something Modern advertising with the meaning ―to spread

commercial information‖ developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and

early 20th century

Advertising is aimed to influence consumers‘ behavior, stimulated them towards action such as sales promotion, high purchase, special offer Since it has different purposes,

advertising can be defined in different ways Bovee (1992: 7) defines "Advertising is the

nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media." In his book "The Advertising Controversy", Mark Albion defines advertising as

"any paid form of non-personal representation and promotion of ideas, goods or services

by an identified sponsor"

Basing upon the above definitions, we might summarize the features of advertising

as follows: Advertising is to tell about or praise products, services, ideas, etc publicly, not personally; Advertising draws support from mass media, such as, newspaper, handbills, radio, TV and internet, etc; The aims of advertising are to increase the sales of the product/service, to create and maintain a brand identity or brand image, to communicate change in the existing product line, or to introduce a new product or service, advertising can take a lot of different forms to attract customers\' interests

1.3.2 Classification of Advertising

Advertisements are developed for various purposes, mainly for promoting the sale

of commercial products, directed to different target audiences and transmitted through various media According to American Marketing Association, advertisements can be classified into different groups according to different criteria: by aim, by target audience and by medium

Based on the classification by aim, advertisements are mainly developed for promoting the sale of commercial products However, there are also advertisements for a variety of other purposes, such as, asking for service or help, or non-profit-making governmental advertisements or charity advertisements So depending on the aim, advertisements can be mainly divided into two types: commercial (short-term promotion

and long-term promotion) and non-commercial advertisements (awareness advertisements, public relations advertisements, political advertisements, etc.) Different aims will bring different audience to advertisements

Based on the classification by target audience, advertisements can be divided into consumer advertisements, business advertisements, and service advertisements

In term of the classification by medium, English advertisements may be classified into two main parts: printed advertisements (newspaper advertisements, magazine advertisements, and etc.) and non-printed advertisements (television advertisements, radio advertisements, and etc.) Different kinds of advertisements have their special advantages and disadvantages For example, the non-printed advertisements have many a strong point that the printed ones don't have because they can be screened quickly and widely, and they can combine picture, music and color together or some of them together to make excellent sensuous

1.3.3 Functions of Advertising

Although the primary objective of advertising is to persuade, it may achieve this

objective in many different ways Henderson, Steuart (1994) in Marketing Manager’s

Handbook points out that an advertisement should have four functions: AIDA, which

represent four words—Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

(1) Attention—a good advertisement should attract the consumer to direct their attention to the product of it This function is also considered as the identification function, that is, to identify a product and differentiate it from others; this creates an awareness of the product and provides a basis for consumers to choose the advertised product over other products

(2) Interest—the introduction and publicity of an advertisement should arouse consumers‘ great interest This function can help establishing an interpersonal relationship between producer or advertiser and the consumer This aims at creating a trust or good-will

to customers, which helps the acceptance of product and consumer image

(3) Desire—the publicity of advertising should stimulate consumers‘ desire to buy the product, and make them realize that this product is just what they want This is also considered as persuasion function which is to induce consumers to try new products and to suggest reuse of the product as well as new uses

(4) Action—the advertising makes consumer to response to the advertising information and evoke them to take the action of purchasing

1.4 Electronic device

According to Babylon dictionary, electronic device is a device that accomplishes its purpose electronically Electronics is the study of the flow of charge through various

materials and devices such as, semiconductors, resistors, inductors, nano-structures, and vacuum tubes Electronic devices are used to solve practical problems is an essential technique in the fields of electronic engineering and computer engineering

With the above functions, a number of various products of electronic device are used and advertised in different kinds of media to attract the customers 40 electronic device products which are used in advertisements to be analysed in this study are mainly components of computer, PDA, mobile phones, answering machine, printers, scanners or vacuum tubes

1.5 Summary

This chapter has given the theoretical background on morphology, syntax, advertising and electronic device products This will be the base for the author to analyze the most typical features on morphology and syntax of English and Vietnamese advertisements of electronic device

Three research questions which are restated in this thesis are:

- What are the most typical features of morphology and syntax in English advertisements of electronic devices?

- To what extent are the identified morphological and syntactic features similar and different between English and Vietnamese advertisements of electronic devices?

- What suggestions should be made for advertisers, translators, learners of ESL from morphological and syntactic features of electronic device advertisements?

2.2 Methods

In order to reach the final aims of this study, the following methods have been used:

Deductive and inductive methods: the principal method is used in the current thesis

is deduction Being motivated by theories of morphology, syntax, the author makes some descriptions and interpretation of English advertisements of electronic devices which are inescapably grounded in the works of some prominent authors and their contribution to the literature However, the final goal of this thesis is to find out the most typical features of morphology and syntax of advertisements not previously described, induction is essentially used to support deductive method By means of induction, we arrive at generalizations of reoccurring patterns, explanation and form questions for further research

Descriptive and comparative methods: in order to provide in-depth and detailed

description of electronic device advertisements, the study is obviously descriptive in nature The major language analyzed in this thesis is English, and contrastive language is Vietnamese The method of making a contrastive analysis is also used to clarify the similarities and differences in morphological and syntactic features between English and

Vietnamese electronic device advertisements The findings from these methods can help the author give some useful implications, and some suggestions for further researches

Qualitative and quantitative methods: in order to describe characteristics of English

and Vietnamese electronic device advertisements in terms of morphology and syntax, this study is carried out by the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods Qualitative method helps the study approach the advertising samples Qualitative analysis allows the author to study the individual advertisement texts closely, and then find out general features of these advertisements After the qualitative analysis, the data is also gathered and analyzed by quantitative method which is useful to avoid a subjective over-reliance during the study

2.3 Data

English and Vietnamese Magazines namely Người Tiêu Dùng (The Consumers) (published by VINASTAS), Thế Giới Số (Digital World) (published by Truong Phat Company), PC World (published by IDG), Electronic Product World (published by Hearst

publication) and websites such as www.sony.com, www.toshiba.com ,

prestige to the readers in English speaking countries, in Vietnam and all over the world There are hundreds of electronic products are advertised on these magazines and websites,

I have randomly chosen 40 samples (20 of English and 20 of Vietnamese) to analyze Among my 40 samples, to get the exact and the best data, I have also randomly chosen 35 texts of medium length (from five to twenty sentences) and 5 texts of lengthy length (more than twenty sentences) These 40 samples are to be investigated from a cross-linguistic perspective to study the morphological and syntactic features in advertisements of two languages

2.4 Data analysis

As mentioned above, this study is carried out by the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods The samples were mainly analyzed through mechanical techniques rely on counting words, phrases, or coincidences of tokens within the data These techniques can help the author scan and sort large sets of qualitative data Descriptive statistics then are used to quantitatively summarize the advertisement sample sets and describe the main morphological and syntactic features of these sets

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Morphological and Syntactic Features of Electronic Device Advertisements in English

3.1.1 Morphological Features

This part will focus mainly on the outstanding morphological characteristics of electronic device advertisements, particularly inflection, derivation and compounding

3.1.1.1 Inflection

Inflection is a grammatical phenomenon which helps characterize an academic text

in general, and a specialized text in particular In ten collected pieces of electronic device

advertisement in English, suffixes –s/es (after verbs for singular subject), and –er/est (after

adjectives to make comparative and superlative forms) are the prominent features which distinguishes language of electronic device advertisement from general languages

Inflectional suffix –s/es/ed after verbs

According to Carstairs-McCarthy (2002), adding –s/es after verb is to form present simple tense for singular subjects, adding –ed is to form past tense or passive voice

Among 20 selected English advertisements, there are 272 verbs which are used in simple

and complex sentences The following table shows the number of suffix –s/es/ed of main

verbs in simple and complex sentences in collected English advertisements :

Suffix Number of suffixes of

main verbs in simple and complex sentences

Percentage of suffixes –s/-es/-ed

of main verbs in simple and complex sentences

Table 1: Suffix –s/-e/-eds of verbs in selected English advertisements

Beside infinitive verb in elliptical sentences, verbs in simple and complex sentences

in selected advertisements of electronic products are added –s/es to draw the audience‘s

attention about the brand name of products which are repeated in singular forms This aims

at arousing the reader‘s interest on the names of products Let‘s have a look at some following examples taken from selected English advertisements of electronic devices:

The ultra-easy SELPHY CP780 features a simpler user and 2.5‖ screen with a

straightforward layout – so anyone can start making prints effortlessly

[Appendix 1]

When it comes to telecommunications, the Strata® CIX40 IP business communication system delivers

[Appendix 2]

MacBook provides a fast 1066MHz frontside bus and 3MB of shared L2 cache, so

you’ll have more than enough horsepower to get the job done

[Appendix 8]

Inflectional suffix –er/-est after adjectives

One remarkable feature of adjectives in English advertisements of electronic

devices is the frequent use of comparatives and superlatives by adding suffix –er or –est

Here are some examples:

With its faster Intel processor, faster memory, and larger hard drive, MacBook is a

full-powered, full-featured, do-it-all notebook

[Appendix 8]

All that and more makes it the best phone you’ll ever use

Your iPhone gets even better with every new app Play games Be more productive The iPhone keyboard is software based, so it’s smarter and more adaptable than

the physical keyboards on other phones

[Appendix 9]

It’s compact enough to take anywhere, which is made even easier with an

optional battery pack

[Appendix 1]

The adjectives in advertisement help to build a pleasant picture in readers‘ minds and manage to create a belief in the potential consumer Comparatives and superlatives occur to highlight the advantage of a certain product or service The customers are always interested in the products which they hear or listen with comparatives or superlatives By

adding suffixes –er and –est to make adjectives comparative and superlative forms,

advertisements of electronic devices are intended to present the position of their products

in the market in the era of technology development Using suffix –er/-est can also help

customers make a comparison between advertised products and others Therefore, the final aim of comparative and superlative form of adjectives is to focus on the quality of the products advertised, and then to persuade the customer to choose them

3.1.1.2 Derivation

English advertisement of electronic devices generally exploits a wide range of derivation (using suffix), in which number and frequency of suffixes are higher than prefixes, and therefore they are more noticeable than prefixes The most frequently used suffixes in collected advertisements are summarised as followed:

Suffix Meaning Combinability and

V + - er/or-> N

V + -ing -> N

availability, scalability, reliability, functionality…

solution, navigation, distraction, application…

preference, appearance, performance, difference

requirement, investment, equipment

urgency, efficiency, frequency brightness, preparedness storage, breakage

player, processor, printer, caller, filter, converter

handling, scrolling, recording

N + -ous -> adj mainly adj + -ize-> V

powerful, helpful, colourful widen, wooden

cordless, wireless, seamless, effortless

visual, ideal, professional, optional

adaptable, capable, compatible,

productive, innovative, responsive,

voluminous, synchronize, personalize

Table 2: Summary of the derivational suffixes in selected English adverts

Derivation of Nouns

Most of suffixes used in advertisements are to form nouns These suffixes are mainly derived from Greek and Latin origins There are a number of suffixes to build up a

noun in advertisements of electronic products Nouns are mainly formed from (t/s)ion

which are usually added to Latin verbs ending with –t, representing Latin and French

origin For example:

When it comes to telecommunications, the Strata® CIX40 IP business

communication system delivers

Base configuration of 8, 16, or 24 IP channels for IP telephone connections, SIP

trunks, and IP Strata Net multi-system networking

[Appendix 2]

Add to your collection by downloading music and video wirelessly

from the iTunes Store

[Appendix 9]

The etymological meaning of -(t/s)ion was primarily ‗the state or condition of

being A‘, but in modern English, its commonest meaning is the noun of action, equivalent

to native suffix –ing Most nouns ending with -(t/s)ion in selected advertisements are

technical words, such as: connection, communication, telecommunication, collection,

resolution, etc

Other common derivational suffix of nouns in advertisements of electronic products

is –ity, in many case –ility, which means ― state or quality of being A‖ The most frequent nouns ending with –ity, which are technical words, are capacity, reliability, possibility,

compatibility…This suffix is mainly added after adjectives For examples:

Scalability means you can expand capacity as your requirements change—without losing your initial investment

Because it's from Toshiba, you can count on unsurpassed reliability, audio clarity, and performance

[Appendix 2]

Built-in 802.11n wireless capabilities mean you can connect at work-friendly speeds wherever you are

[Appendix 8]

Suffixes –a/ence, -ing and –ment, especially –er, adding to verbs are also some

common derivational suffixes to form nouns in collected advertisements Normally suffix –

er is used to describe a person of an action, but in these advertisements of electronic

products, it mainly means ‗something for an action’ Common technical nouns ended with –er in these advertisements are printer, player, converter… Latin suffix –ment means

―state or action‖ and -ance means ―action or result of action‖ Following are examples of

these derivational suffixes taken from advertisements:

If you want an easy, one-stop way to take and print photos, you’ ll love Canon’s new SELPHY CP780 compact photo printer

[Appendix 1]