lexical reiteration in the language of ict product advertisements a comparative study in english and vietnamese = lặp từ vựng trong ngôn ngữ quảng cáo sản phẩm công nghệ thông tin và truyền thông

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES _________________ DƯƠNG BÍCH THUẬN LEXICAL REITERATION IN THE LANG

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

_

DƯƠNG BÍCH THUẬN

LEXICAL REITERATION IN THE LANGUAGE

OF ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS:

A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(LẶP TỪ VỰNG TRONG NGÔN NGỮ QUẢNG CÁO SẢN PHẨM CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN VÀ TRUYỀN THÔNG: NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH ANH-VIỆT)

M.A Minor thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

Hanoi-2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

_

DƯƠNG BÍCH THUẬN

LEXICAL REITERATION IN THE LANGUAGE

OF ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS:

A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(LẶP TỪ VỰNG TRONG NGÔN NGỮ QẢNG CÁO SẢN PHẨM CÔNG NGHỆ

THÔNG TIN VÀ TRUYỀN THÔNG: NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH ANH-VIỆT)

M.A Minor thesis

TABLE OF CONTENT

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALTY i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF FIGURES iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS v

TABLE OF CONTENT vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 RATIONALE 1

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 2

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

4 METHODS OF THE STUDY 2

5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 4

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1 1 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES 5

1.2 OVERVIEW OF ADVERTISEMENTS AND ADVERTISING LANGUAGE…6

1.2.1 Advertisement 6

1.2.1.1 Definition 6

1.2.1.2 Functions 8

1.2.1.3 Categories of advertisements 8

1.2.2 Features of advertising language 10

1.2.2.1 Lexical features 10

1.2.2.2 Syntactical features 12

1.2.2.3 Rhetorical figures 12

1.3 OVERVIEW OF ICT AND ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS 14

1.4 LEXICAL REITERATION 15

1.4.1 Definition 15

1.4.2 Classification 17

1.4.2.1 Repetition 17

1.4.2.2 Synonym or near synonym 17

1.4.2.3 Superordinate 18

1.4.2.4 General word 18

CHAPTER 2: LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 20

2.1 LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH 20

2.1.1 Repetition 20

2.1.2 Synonym or near synonym 21

2.1.3 Superordinate 22

2.1.4 General word 23

2.2 LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENT IN VIETNAMESE 23

2.2.1 Repetition 23

2.2.2 Synonym or near synonym 27

2.2.3 Superordinate 27

2.2.4 General word 28

CHAPTER 3: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 29

3.1 SIMILARITIES 29

3.1.1 Popularity ……… 29

3.1.2 Flexibility 31

3.1.3 Kind of reiterated items 33

3.1.4 Combination with other rhetorical figures 34

3.2 DIFFERENCES 34

3.2.1 Coinage in ICT product advertisements in English 34

3.2.2 Loanwords in ICT product advertisements in Vietnamese 34

PART III: CONCLUSION 36

1 RECAPITULATIONS 36

1.1 Popularity 36

1.2 Flexible use 36

1.3 High reiterating frequency of brand names and striking features of ICT products 36

1.4 Diverse combination with other rhetorical figures 36

1.5 Different choices in making creative advertisements of ICT products 37

2 IMPLICATIONS 37

3 LIMITATIONS 37

4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 38

REFERENCES I APPENDIXES VI APPENDIX 1 VI APPENDIX 2 X

PART I: INTRODUCTION

This session carries the goal of providing the readers an overview of the study, consisting of the reason why the author chose this thesis, the aims of the study, the research questions, the method, the scope and the design of the study

1 RATIONALE

The term “global village” first appeared in “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man”, a work by McLuhan (1964:106) to describe closer contact between different parts of the world, with increasing possibilities of personal exchange, mutual understanding and friendship between “world citizens,” as well as creation of a global civilization Indeed, information and communication technology (ICT) is breaking through geographical barriers and distance, integrating the entire world into a village

We now have access to information about global events and news as and when they occur In the 14th minute of the EURO 2012 Final, Andrés Iniesta got the ball and passed it to Cesc Fàbregas Cecs beat Giorgio Chiellini to the end line and then passed the ball to Silva This player headed it into the upper left corner, giving Spain a 1-0 lead We definitely saw all of these simultaneously with all spectators at the Olympic stadium thanks to a TV, an Internet-connected personal computer or a smart phone of any kind

Distance has obviously become a thing of the past Everything not only comes closer but also rolls faster Something modern today may get out of date right the next day Generations of personal computers, from desktop and then laptop to tablet PCs or versions of iPhone developed one by one are examples of this fast-changing world No one wants to be lag behind We, therefore, should keep pace with the development of the ICT world

Luckily, information about these products is nowhere but right around us, in advertisements of all kinds Right from morning till night we come across a number of

advertisements in newspapers, in magazines, on the roads, in shops, on the radio, TV and the Internet In fact, no mater where we are, at home, at work or away on holiday,

we can not refuse to encounter them However, because of their massive popularity, we often take them for granted and rarely do thoughts of advertising origin or language pop into our mind though they do deserve some recognition

Thus, this paper seeks to make some investigation into the language of advertisements

of ICT products or lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese, specifically As such, the use of lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in the two languages will be compared to

facilitate our catching up the message of an advertisement in this field

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

This study is targeted at:

2.1 Investigating how many subtypes of lexical reiteration are used in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese

2.2 Pointing out some similarities and differences between lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese

4 METHODS OF THE STUDY

The study is a descriptive investigation because it “involves a collection of techniques

used to specify, delineate, or describe naturally occurring phenomena without experimental manipulation” (Seliger & Shohamy, 1989:124) This research type aims to

“find out more about a phenomenon”, here lexical reiteration in the language of advertisements of ICT products in English and Vietnamese and “capture it with detailed information” (Wisker, 2001: 118)

First, the study explores which subtypes of lexical reiteration appear in advertisements

of ICT products in English in Vietnamese and sees what is often reiterated in such ads Second, it examines measures of frequency, here, of the occurrence of the subtypes of lexical reiteration in English and Vietnamese advertisements of ICT products Thus,

this study uses a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods to answer its

two research questions

Moreover, comparative and contrastive methods are utilized to point out the

similarities and differences in the use of lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese

As for data collection, 30 English advertisements of ICT products and 30 others in

Vietnamese are picked at random from magazines like “Maximum PC”, “PC World

Việt Nam - Thế Giới Vi Tính”, “Thế Giới Số” and “Tin Học và Đời Sống” issued from

2008 up to now and on the Internet, mostly homepages of ICT products, accessed at the same period of time, are taken into consideration

Next, advertisements which make use of lexical reiteration in each language are gathered into different groups, namely repetition, synonym or near synonym, superordinate and general word (i.e four subtypes of lexical reiteration as classified by Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 278) and taken into consideration in separate sessions

To find out the popularity and frequency of lexical reiteration subtypes used in English and Vietnamese advertisements of ICT products, advertisements with this means of lexical cohesion will be enumerated and classified into its groups Necessary measurement will be conducted to find out the proportion of each group in each language

The steps of the study are in the order as follows:

 Collect 30 ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese respectively from magazines or the Internet

 Pick out ICT product advertisements with lexical reiteration in each language

 Classify them into different groups on the basis of lexical reiteration subtypes they fall into

 Work out the similarities of reiterated items in these advertisements

 Point out their differences

5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Within the scope of this study, just lexical reiteration classified by M.A.K Halliday and Hasan (1976:278) is taken into consideration The study makes no efforts to cover advertisements of all kinds in English and Vietnamese but ICT product advertisements

in the magazines and on the Internet in these two languages only

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

Part I: Introduction represents the rationales, the aims, the research questions, the

methods, the scope, and the design of the study

Part II: Development

Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background of the study

Chapter 2 explores lexical reiteration in Vietnamese and English

advertisements of ICT products

Chapter 3 points out several similarities and differences between

lexical reiteration used in Vietnamese and English advertisements of ICT products

Part III: Conclusion sums up the study outcomes, points out the implications and

limitations of the study as well as suggests ideas for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This first chapter presents an overview of advertisements, advertising language, ICT and lexical reiteration Understanding this background knowledge will prepare us in the investigation presented in the latter chapter where lexical reiteration in the language

of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese is explored

1 1 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES

Together with the pervasion of advertisements, more and more studies have been conducted to explore advertising language in general and that of ICT product advertisements in particular

Leech (1966) examines standard advertising language in his research “English in

Advertising: A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain” According to Leech,

disjunctive grammar, the low frequency of function words, complexity of nominal groups and simplicity of verbal groups are some of the most distinctive properties of advertising language

Dyer (1982) investigates advertising as a kind of communication in modern societies, which involves both cultural and economic context for discussion

Cook (1992) investigates the discourse of advertising He offers a comprehensive introduction to advertising discourse by examining the language of complementary advertisements

Vietnamese scholars also work on advertising language and its features from different perspectives

Mai (2000) carries out his doctoral dissertation in advertising language, laying the foundation for a number of studies worked on later In this dissertation, he studies major features of advertising language in light of communicative theory (semantics-applied linguistics of advertisements discourses)

Nguyen (2004) conducts a study on cohesive devices in ICT advertisements to fulfill her M.A course in English linguistics She works out cohesive devices in ICT advertisements, realizes the meaning of these devices in ICT advertisements and finds out features of ICT ads to catch up the main message

Ton (2005) continues on this topic by investigating the discourse analysis of travel advertisements in English and Vietnamese She points out lexico-grammatical and textual features which are the characteristic of the travel advertisements in English and Vietnamese in order to improve Vietnamese advertisements and help them meet both commercial and cultural ends as well as to effectively adapt the travel advertisements written in English by the Vietnamese professionals to meet English speaking target readership

The most recent research on this issue was carried out by Bui (2012) who analyzes linguistic features of advertising language used in English slogans for food and drink

products on the phonological, lexical, semantic and syntactic levels

1.2 OVERVIEW OF ADVERTISEMENTS AND ADVERTISING LANGUAGE 1.2.1 Advertisement

1.2.1.1 Definition

The term “advertisement” owes its origin to the classical Latin word “advertere” which means “to turn” or to “face to”, using the Latin prefix “ad-” (to, in addition), derived from the word “vertere” (to turn; turn, turn around; change) (Retrieved from

advertisements were “salesmanship on paper” This definition was provided a long

time before the advertisements of radio, television and the Internet came into being, so

it is inappropriate in modern time In addition, advertisements may be considered “a

public notice designed to spread information with a view to promoting the sales of marketable goods and services” (Vestergard and Schroder, 1985:2) or “paid public messages designed to describe or praise a product” by Arjun Kumar Bhatia

(2000:273) These definitions are not perfect, either, sadly speaking, because it is quite easy to find many non-paid or non-marketable things advertised like a volunteer environmental protection campaign

Oxford Advanced Learner‟s dictionary (2003: 23) defines “advertisement” as “a notice,

picture or film telling people about a product, job or service” This definition indicates

that an advertisement can take a wide range of forms, and not only products but also jobs or services are advertisement targets However, it does not cover all the aspects of

an advertisement; it states the form and the purpose of an advertisement only

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), an advertisement is

“Any announcement or persuasive message placed in the mass media in paid or

donated time or space by an identified individual, company, or organization”

(Retrieved from http://www.marketingpower.com/_layouts/Dictionary.aspx)

Four features of an advertisement can be pointed out from this definition First of all, advertisements either inform or influence the consumer to take certain action Second, the message is conveyed through many different kinds of mass media with the target of reaching a large audience of potential consumers Third, advertisements can be paid for

or at no charge Finally, the sponsor is identified Therefore, compared to others, the definition offered by the AMA seems to be most precise and comprehensive

There is another point that we should notice when exploring the language of advertisements People often define advertising along with the term “marketing” or PR

(public relations) Advertising is not marketing; rather, it is another tactic, besides PR,

that is used by marketers to communicate messages to their customers and other stakeholders

1.2.1.2 Functions

An advertisement informs, persuades, and/or reminds customers of business and organizational offerings such as products, services, campaigns, jobs and so on Ogden and Rarick (2010:2) point out that advertising can create an immediate response (e.g., “only two days left in the sale”) or can be used to keep the product and/or business/organization‟s name in front of the consumers so that they remember the product, service, or organization when they are out shopping Advertising should attempt to develop product or company loyalty, provide information to ease the customer‟s decision-making process, and develop awareness among the targeted group about potential offerings that are available to consumers In short, advertising aims at benefiting the producer, educating the consumer and supplementing the salesmen Above all, it is a link between the producer and the consumer

1.2.1.3 Categories of advertisements

There are a number of ways to classify advertisements into different categories In this study I would like to take the most popular criterion into consideration i.e means of advertising According to http://www.businessdictionary.com, advertising media are

“the means through which advertisements are delivered to the target audience”, using words, speech, and pictures such as press, television, radio, billboards, the Internet, etc Hoang (2005) presents different means of advertisements with their own pros and cons Major means pointed out in her study can be described in brief in the table below

and motion simultaneously

 High cost, especially at special time and channels

 Short exposure

2.Radio

 Wide coverage

 Modest cost

 No extensive preparation of tangible illustration

 No visual impact on the target market

 Greatly high cost

5 Newspaper  Wide circulation and the degree of

frequency accessible to the audience (published daily)

 Ability to reach large audience

 Featuring sections and articles for certain advertising items

 Low cost

 Short life span of ads

 Uncertainty that the desired audience will see ads in specific date

 Difficulty for readers when an ad has long text

or small font words

6 Direct

mailing

 More information

 No competing product advertised

 No restriction in time, size, color

 Possibility of mails‟ being unchecked or marked as spam

 High cost

Figure 1: Advantages and disadvantages of means of advertising

1.2.2 Features of advertising language

Advertisers use various linguistic means at their disposal to attract target audience‟s attention Within the scope of this study, a small number of these linguistics features in

advertisements are discussed briefly and separately

1.2.2.1 Lexical features

This session deals with lexical features of word using in advertisements, including the use of monosyllabic verbs, weasel words, favorable words, personal pronouns and neologism as presented by Zhu (2006)

o Use of monosyllabic verbs

A simple advertisement is intended not only to arouse the reader‟s attention and interest, but also to make consumers remember it right after the first time they heard it The most common way of reaching this is using popular monosyllabic verbs

E.g “Have a break, have a Kit Kat.”

(Kit Kat advertisement)

o Use of weasel words

The expression “weasel word” is aptly named after the egg-eating habits of weasels A weasel will suck out the inside of an egg, leaving it appear intact to the casual observer Upon examination, the egg is discovered to be hollow Words or claims that appear substantial and attractive upon only first look are called “weasel words.” Those words are made great use in advertisements Commonly used weasel words include “help”,

“acts”, “works”, “up to”, “as much as”, “refreshes”, “comforts”, “fights” and so fourth

E.g “Probably the best beer in the world.”

(Carlsberg advertisement)

o Use of favorable words

As the purpose of advertising is to describe the quality of products, favorable words, especially adjectives, are often employed in advertisements

E.g “Toshiba Leading Innovation.”

(Toshiba advertisement)

o Use of personal pronouns

The use of personal pronouns is extremely common, especially “you” and “we” in order to narrow the gap between the advertiser and the reader

E.g “We live to deliver.”

(FedEx advertisement)

o Neologism

The creativity of advertising language is best seen in its extensive use of neologisms- the introduction or use of new words or new senses of existing words Generally, neologisms can be categorized as coinage, anagrammatic spelling, and loanwords．

Coinage

New words or phrases created by means of imitation are not rarely seen in English ads Such newly-coined words and phrases may suggest that the product advertised possesses peculiar qualities as well as the value of novelty

E.g “Hi-fi, Hi-fun, Hi-fashion, only from Sony.”

(Sony Audio advertisement)

Perrier with added je ne sais quoi.”

(Perrier beer advertisement)

The manufacturer uses a sentence with French words at the end, “je ne sais quoi” (“I

don‟t know what”) in order to stress the French flavor of this beverage

1.2.2.2 Syntactical features

As a special branch of language, advertising language should be concise and attractive simultaneously with certain syntactical characteristics This part will cover sentential and clausal features employed in advertisements as stated by Zhu (2006)

“Amtrak has created a new Nationwide passenger rail system Literally from the

ground up A system that represented a viable alternative for people who fly For

repetition, reversal, substitution and destabilization as presented by Luu (2010) to

increase the appeal of an advertisement and to arouse consumers‟ interest of buying the product Frequently used figures of rhetoric are repetition, reversal and substitution will

be discussed briefly in the following part

o Repetition

Repetition- saying something again- especially those of key words or sentences in advertisements is used intentionally to emphasize what is being advertised For examples:

“Double your pleasure Double your fun

It's the right one, the Doublemint gum.”

(Double mint gum advertisement)

o Reversal

As McQuarrie & Mick (1996) put it,

“The rhetorical operation of reversal combines elements that are mirror images

of one another in an expression A characteristic of a mirror image, of course, is

that it repeats the original, but in reverse […] The English language permits

semantic as well as syntactic reversals, in the form of binary pairs in which one

term might be thought of as the reverse or opposite of the other (i.e high/low,

The two authors McQuarrie & Mick (1996) also state,

“The rhetorical operation of substitution selects an expression that requires an

adjustment by the message recipient, aimed at grasping the intended content.”

Three dimensions were pertinent to the analysis of advertising language include: exaggerated/understated claims (e.g., hyperbole); absence/plenitude of expression elements (e.g., ellipsis) and strong/weak assertive force (e.g., rhetorical question)

E.g “Adds amazing luster for infinite, mirror-like shine.”

(Brilliant Brunette shampoo advertisement) Here in this advertisement, the adman exaggerates the quality of his shampoo by saying that it‟s going to bring customers smooth hair with “infinite, mirror-like shine”

1.3 OVERVIEW OF ICT AND ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS

ICT stands for Information and Communication Technology It is no longer an unfamiliar concept However, there is not a universally accepted definition of ICT Why is that so? Because the concepts, methods and applications involved in ICT are constantly evolving on an almost daily basis It is difficult to keep up with the changes

- they happen with an incredible pace As mentioned at the beginning of this study, something modern today may get out of date right the next day Let us focus on the three words behind ICT, i.e information, communication and technology only From these words, we can see that a good way to think about ICT is to consider all the uses

of all technologies to help individuals, businesses and organizations use information and communicate with each other

As such, ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically and serve our communication such as computers, television, telephones, emails, robots, softwares, hardwares, applications and so on But it is worth remembering that when you use your computer to play Solitaire, it is, of course, not the use of ICT because in this process, no information is handled or no communication takes place

ICT plays a key role in business today In fact, its use is now so widespread that it is difficult to succeed without it Rapid developments in the ICT sector in the last two decades have produced a huge range of new products and services These include

products such as personal computers (PCs), notebooks and fax machine, and services such as e-mail, intranet and Internet Business of all types and sizes use computer-based systems like these because they offer way to work – one which saves time and money ICT is also employed in other fields of the society like education with e-learning; politics with governmental e-conferences, economy with e-commerce, and entertainment with music live shows, etc It is, in fact, penetrating into all corners of life to all walks of life and getting known mostly through advertising

This study makes no attempt to define an advertisement of ICT product because it doesn‟t make much sense but how to get the message that an ICT ad convey and its roles in the sector as well the society does The advertisements can introduce, modify

or declare a new product/application/service in ICT field

All advertisements of ICT products exploit technical terms of ICT The wording in these advertisements tends to be simple but exact, which proves to be the language of a branch of natural sciences Moreover, images and sounds are taken great use of in ads

of this field We‟ll further explore this in the next chapter of the study to have a better insight in advertisements of ICT products

Conjunction Additive, adversative,

causal and temporal relations, external and

Discourse adjuncts:

adverbial groups, prepositional groups

Personals Demonstratives Definite articles Comparatives

Lexical cohesion Collocation (similarity of

lexical environment) Reiteration (identity of lexical reference)

Same or associated lexical items

Same lexical items; synonym, super ordinate; general word

Substitutions Identify of potential

reference (class meaning)

in context of non-identity

of actual (instantial) reference

Verbal, nominal or clausal substitute

Verbal, nominal or clausal ellipsis

Figure 2: Cohesive relations by Halliday and Hassan (1976:324)

As for lexical cohesion, it includes reiteration and collocation The former is defined

as follows by Halliday & Hasan (1976:278),

“Lexical reiteration is a form of lexical cohesion which involves the repetition of

a lexical item at one end of the scale; the use of a general word to refer back to a lexical item at the other end of the scale; and a number of things in between the use of synonym or superordinate”

Hatim & Mason (1990:234) use the term recurrence to express the repetition of

lexical items and consider it a phenomenon that creates a cohesive effect

However, recurrence may be used with pro-forms i.e substitution of the reiterated item by a pronoun

From the definition of lexical reiteration presented above by Halliday & Hasan (1976:278) we can see that lexical reiteration consist of four subclasses- repetition, general word, synonym and superordinate-which will be discussed in the following session

1.4.2 Classification

1.4.2.1 Repetition

Repetition which involves the restating of a lexical item is the simplest form of lexical cohesion

E.g “There was a large mushroom growing near her, about the same height as

herself; and, when she had looked under it, it occurred to her that she might as well look and see what was on the top of it She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and

peeped over the edge of the mushroom.”

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:278)

1.4.2.2 Synonym or near synonym

Lexical cohesion results from the choice of a lexical item that is in some sense synonymous with a preceding one to avoid unnecessary repetition

E.g “Accordingly, I took the leave, and turned to the ascent of the peak

The climb is perfectly easy.”

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:278)

Near synonym can also be found in lexical reiteration like brand and sword in

“Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,

And leaping down the ridges lightly, plung‟d

Among the bulrush beds, and clutch‟d the sword

And lightly wheel‟d and threw it The great brand

Made light‟nings in the splendour of the moon…”

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:278)

1.4.2.3 Superordinate

Superordinate terms are nouns that can be used to stand for an entire “class” or

“category” of things For example, “vehicle” is the superordinate concept for “lorry”,

“automobile”, “bicycle”, and “tram” Superordinate terms play an important role in promoting cohesion by linking ideas either back to earlier pieces of text, or forward to upcoming information

E.g Henry‟s bought himself a new Jaguar He practically lives in the car

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:278)

1.4.2.4 General word

General words, like “man”, “people”, “creature”, “thing”, “stuff”, “business”, “matter”,

“question”, “idea” , “make”, do, etc also play their part in making cohesion

These four subclasses of lexical reiteration are illustrated with the following example

There is a boy climbing that tree

i The boy is going to fall if he doesn‟t take care

ii The lad is going to fall if he doesn‟t take care

iii The child is going to fall if he doesn‟t take care

iv The idiot is going to fall if he doesn‟t take care

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:279-280)

Figure 3 Examples of lexical reiteration subtypes

Summary

In conclusion, Chapter 1 has dealt with four main issues The first part presents related studies by some foreign and Vietnamese authors The second one gives an overview of advertisements and advertising language General information about ICT and advertisements of ICT products is described in brief in the third part and the fourth part

of this chapter sets the general knowledge of lexical reiteration, covering its definition and classification suggested by Halliday and Hasan (1976:278) All of these provide the vital background for discussing how lexical reiteration is employed in Vietnamese and English advertisements of ICT products in the upcoming chapter

CHAPTER 2: LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

2.1 LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH

As presented in the previous chapter, lexical reiteration includes four subclasses, namely repetition, synonym or near synonym, superordinate and general word as classified by Halliday and Hasan (1976:278) Now we will take a careful look at how these four subtypes are exploited in English advertisements of ICT products Just 10 advertisements of ICT products with lexical reiteration out of 19 are presented here due

to the limitation of time Regarding the whole list of ICT English product advertisements (30 in total, 19 advertisements with lexical reiteration), please take a look at appendix 1 The ad number is its order in the appendix

2.1.1 Repetition

Repetition is often found in advertising language of English ICT products As observed, repeated words belong to different parts of speech Repetition can happen with a noun phrase, as in:

(4) “These moments are beautiful

These moments are perfect

These moments are Canon.”

(Canon camera advertisement)

This advertisement stars Avril Lavigne singing her song entitled “Innocence” and the adman creates the message of the product based on the song lyrics:

“The innocence is brilliant

I hope that it will stay

This moment is perfect

Please don’t go away…”

That‟s why the message goes smoothly with the background song and thus, sounds so appealing to the audience, especially Avril‟s fans

The name of the product can be reiterated to make it easy to remember, like in,

(5) Dell, purely you Dell, uniquely you”

(Dell laptop advertisement) Verbs are also reiterated in English advertisements of ICT products

For example:

(27) Take Toshiba Take the World

(Toshiba laptop advertisement) (11) Pump up the beat Choose custom-built Immense yourself with high definition audio powered by the smart 2010 Intel® Core™ Processor Family

For expert advice on your own custom-built PC, visit us today

(Intel advertisement) Repetition of adjectives and adverbs is also realized in ICT product advertisement in English

E.g

(20) “Nokia Nseries See new Hear new Feel new.”

(Nokia Nseries advertisement)

(8) Simply likeable Simply You The new HTC Saga

(HTC cell phone advertisement)

2.1.2 Synonym or near synonym

This subtype of lexical reiteration is also found in English advertisements of ICT products Take these advertisements for exemplification

(6) “Stay connected wherever you are Get linked up to the world through

digital home and media wireless and wired networking […]”

(D-link advertisement)

(7) “Virus/Spyware removal Complete peace of mind Protects data

Safeguards privacy […]”

(HP Virus/Spyware removal advertisement) The poster designed by Hanumanth, a user interface designer at Singapore-based Hewlett-Packard impressed the audience by the image of a man taking a nap in a hammock on the beach, having nothing to worry about because the Virus/Spyware removal protects his data and safeguards his privacy

2.1.3 Superordinate

Superordinate is another subclass of lexical reiteration which is often made full use in

English advertisements of ICT product For example:

(14) “Introducing iPhone Apple reinvents the phone.”

(iPhone advertisement)

In this ad, the adman uses “the phone” to refer back to “iPhone”- its hyponym

iPhone advertising poster from http://themarketeer.org/2012/03/10/the-iphone-hype