LV An investigation into some commonly used stylistic devices in advertising language in English and Vietnamese newspapers

However, there are not many serious studies of the language used in advertising, especially stylistic devices used in advertising English and Vietnamese.. In order to create favorable co

Advertising is one of the disciplines where the use of language has to

be employed with care in order to deliver the message effectively and efficiently According to David Crystal [35], language is the systematic, conventional use of sound, signs or written symbols in a human society for communication and self-expression One can then bridge the great link between language and advertising since according to Leo Burnette [30], the aim of advertising is to draw attention to products or services in order to make them sell

Crystal also thinks that, most obviously, the language is generally laudatory, positive unreserved, and emphasizing the uniqueness of a product

An advertisement may not attain the goals of selling goods, services or ideas, not only because the target audience was not exposed to the advertisement, but also because the language used in the slogans did not suffice to grab the attention of the audience, captivate their interest, create a desire and move them to action It could as well be that, the message was not understood and conveyed a different meaning to the target population Hence the improper use of language will cause the advertisement not to serve the purpose intended

for Therefore, the language of advertising needs careful investigation and generalization

Along with the development of the society, advertising has been proving its increasingly important role It is hard to imagine how a modern society goes on without advertising It has been familiar to us since a long, long time ago It has become a close friend of everybody and every family Everywhere and every time we go out, we can see advertising Whether we are shopping, reading newspapers or magazines, travelling to work, watching television, or simply lazing around, we cannot avoid seeing advertisement probably, if we bother to count, several hundred everyday They come in an extra ordinary range of forms and context

In fact, advertising has become a part of our everyday life and is an indispensable component of all sorts of business Commenting on the indispensability of advertising in a business, Stewart H Britt states in a higher

vein “Doing business without advertising is like winking a girl in the dark; you know what you are doing, but nobody else does” [28, p.7]

Moreover, advertising is an art It is the art of persuading It is designed not only to capture everyone’s attention and provide information about goods, but also helps to promote economic growth and provide “a colourful, diverting aspect of life” Advertising has become a specialized activity It is deeply rooted in daily activities and closely follows our steps

Besides, 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 As a special practical style, it has its own features in the creative design or in the use of words

Industrialized people cannot lead a good life without useful advice from advertising Advertising assists them in satisfying their wants by informing the benefits of goods, offering knowledge and understanding of

their environment Advertising shows us what goods we can buy and where

to buy, how to rationalize labour to lighten the burdens of housework, what food we should eat and what medicines we should take for being healthy, etc

As far as we know, advertising nowadays not only spurs economic development, engineers sales, helps people and organizations find each other, creates and sustains thousands of jobs – in advertising agencies, in various promotion and exhibition industries but also gives the public the right to choose between many options, many brands It enables consumers to opt for the best quality or the lowest price or the best mix of quality and price Although advertising appears in many different forms and means, it basically uses the language as a means to draw customers’ attention and supplies listeners, readers, or viewers with necessary information about new products and services

Advertising is also a good guide and good educator for cultural needs, a source of information and stimulus for new achievements and progress in every field In the production field, advertising can ensure a certain number of buyers so that manufacturers can manage their production accurately and effectively In addition, advertising efficiently supports the development of other industries such as journalism, television… Every time an advertisement arouses a consumer’s interest enough to result in a purchase, it keeps a company going strong And it helps secure the job of the people who work there And when advertising does its job, millions of people keeps theirs Therefore, advertising is very important and has become indispensable in our modern life It can be said that the economy of any country would take a downturn without advertising

In order to enhance the appeal of an advertisement, advertising writers pay much attention not only to such expressive devices as plates, colour and the layout of a printed page, but also to the choice of words or phrases, to make an advertisement beautiful and attractive In the practice of the

advertising English and Vietnamese, people pay more and more attention to the use of stylistic devices in an 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

The frequent and wide use of stylistic devices is an important characteristic of advertising English and Vietnamese, which is an effective way to make the advertisement attractive A stylistic device is an example of the figurative use of words, which produces a particularly rhetorical effect when people use the language creatively in a specified context The use of stylistic devices in advertisements aims at arousing and persuading consumers

to buy what is advertised And their proper use can make an advertisement sweet to the ear, and pleasing to both the eye and the mind So advertising writers often use stylistic devices in advertisements

The typical linguistic features of advertisements have so far been the focus of attention of many linguists and researchers However, there are not many serious studies of the language used in advertising, especially stylistic devices used in advertising English and Vietnamese In order to create favorable conditions for those who want to understand more about advertising

language, I decided to carry out a detailed analysis of these features: An

Investigation into some Commonly Used Stylistic Devices in Advertising Language in English and Vietnamese Newspapers

1.2 JUSTIFICATION FOR THE STUDY

To some extent, the research will be a valuable contribution to the teaching and learning of English and Vietnamese Stylistics in general and of stylistic devices in advertising language in particular The findings of the research will help Vietnamese learners appreciate the beauty of advertising language Moreover, it will not only help them get better understanding of advertising language but also provide them with some necessary strategies

and techniques in writing advertisements I also hope that this research will provide the learner with precious experience of how to write and translate an advertisement As a result, their experience will certainly facilitate their English language learning so that they will be able to learn more effectively and successfully

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study focuses on the findings of stylistic features of some commonly used stylistic devices namely simile, metaphor, rhetorical questions, hyperbole, repetition and personification in English and Vietnamese advertising language, the similarities and differences, the frequencies of occurrence of the stylistic devices in advertising language in English and Vietnamese newspapers

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Findings are discussed in relation to the following research questions of the study :

1 What are stylistic features of some commonly used stylistic devices

in English and Vietnamese advertising language?

2 What are the similarities and differences in stylistic features in English and Vietnamese advertising language?

3 What are the frequencies of occurrence of some commonly used stylistic devices in English and Vietnamese advertising language?

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The study is organized into five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 is the introduction to the study, which presents the rationale,

the justification, scope, research questions and organization of the study

Chapter 2, Review of Literature, presents a review of prior studies and

concepts related to the problem under study General views of advertising and some fundamental theoretical background to the study will also be presented

The aims and objectives, research design, research method and procedure, description of population and sample, data collection and data

analysis will be fully described in Chapter 3

Chapter 4 deals with findings and discussion It provides the findings

of stylistic features of some commonly used stylistic devices, the similarities, the differences and the frequencies of occurrence of some commonly used stylistic devices in advertising language in English and Vietnamese newspapers

Chapter 5 gives the conclusions, the reality of the thesis, suggestions

for using stylistic devices, the limitations, the negative of advertising and some suggestions for further research

Chapter 2

us Although advertising has become familiar to us and, in fact, it has become

a part of our life, it is by no means easy to come to terms with a definition for

it Beside the usual definition: Advertising is a way to help selling the bad products, there are a lot of different definitions of advertising However, the

following ones seem to be the most appropriate to my study on stylistic devices in advertising language in English and Vietnamese newspapers

Advertising is defined by Harris & Seldon as a public notice

“Advertising designed to spread information with a view to promoting the sales of marketable goods and services” [42, p.40]

Another definition given by Cook, G (1992) states: “Advertising means clearly identifiable, paid for communications in the media, which aims

to persuade, inform or sell But the world is also used to cover a much broader range of activities – from design to public relations – by what are often the same organizations, using similar skills.” [34]

According to the Encyclopedia American, “Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of products, services, or ideas by an identifiable individual or organization.”

Or “Advertising is any no-personal presentation of ideas, goods, or services that is paid for an identified sponsor.” [50, p.15]

Each particular field defines advertising in their own way, however, a successful advertisement is expected to accomplish five functions namely (1) attracting attention, (2) commanding interest, (3) creating desire, (4) inspiring conviction, (5) provoking action Also, I can draw out some distinguishable points:

- Advertising delivers messages to a large number of people at low cost per “contact”

- Advertising is a fast method of communicating with many people at the same time

- The sole purpose of advertising is to sell something – a product, a service, or merely an idea through effective communication in each definition

In summary, as a linguist has stated, advertising is one of the disciplines where the use of language has to be employed with care in order to deliver the message effectively The most important thing is that advertising is

a device to arouse consumers’ attention to a commodity and induce them to use it Moreover, it is an art of persuading consumers about its usefulness, the attraction and the advantage of the product As a special practical style, it has its own features in the creative design or in the use of words

2.1.2 The Aims of Advertising

Any new product manufactured by a widely known company needs a solid informational support which, as a rule, is provided by advertising In order to sell its products, the company willing to do that must advertise them

in the language which a potential customer can understand, otherwise the company might fail Therefore, the aim of advertising is to draw attention to a product or service in order to sell it, to stimulate demand for a product, service, idea, or to make potential buyers aware of products or services – and

to get them to act! That act may be inquiring for more information, calling for

an appointment, coming buy your store or sending in an order by mail The outcome of these actions should, of course, eventually be a sale

Advertising is uniquely able to deliver consistent messages reliable, quickly and efficiently Unlike other marketing communication tactics, such

as public relations, advertising allows you to control the message, the placement and the frequency Through advertising, you deliver a message about your product or service Additionally, advertising can:

° establish and maintain an awareness and positive image of your company, products or services

° develop a need for products or services

° persuade customers that your products or services are the best

° promote events

Therefore, in this study, the aim of advertising is referred to as a main factor affected of creating an effective advertisement Once again, this is an important problem for advertisers, which requires an effort to use the techniques about linguistic to have a strong persuasion

2.1.3 The Functions of Advertising

Advertising aims at drawing the customers’ attention towards a product

or service and persuading them about its usefulness, attraction and advantage

In his desire to sell a product, the advertiser strives to make the public familiar with it, to create the belief that it is superior to rival products and to convince people that it is essential In my study, I found that advertising has the following functions:

2.1.3.1 Informative Function

This is the main function of advertising Advertisements describe available goods and state where and at what prices they can be bought

Advertising brings knowledge of desirable merchandise to customers It announces new products, describes new uses and improves features of familiar ones Advertising suggests that we enjoy more nourishing food, more attractive clothes, and more comfortable homes

Advertising also communicates information about organizations, technicians and tradesmen able and willing to also provide various services

In addition, advertising also draws the readers’ attention to coming events

2.1.3.2 Feeling-arousing Function

The art of the advertising writer is not only communicating information but also creating a favorable feeling about what he is selling This function is not less important than the informative function and sometimes it is much more important Advertising often appeals to basis such as mother’s love, sex, manliness, feminity…

In seeking to create a favorable feeling about what he’s selling, the advertiser often uses word magic working in harmony with the striking illustration He can thus appeal to the eye as well as to the intellect

In addition, humour in advertising is another form of emotional appeal, but one which needs to be used with discretion Its advantages are that it quickly establishes a warm contact between advertiser and the reader and that

it lends itself to the making of unusually attractive advertisements

2.1.3.3 Aesthetic Function

The advertising language has to satisfy human needs of beauty Therefore, new models of products or latest fashion of clothes are always competing with one another People’s aesthetic sense is increasing day by day, so advertising has to meet this need In newspapers, advertisements have

to be printed in places that please readers’ eyes A beautiful picture always catches the readers’ attention That is why beautiful girls’ photos often go

with the advertisements And these beautiful images give the readers pleasant feelings and make them want the product

2.1.3.4 Educative Function

Advertising is also a guide and a good means of education about the cultural needs of people With food for example, advertisements show the way for us to make good meals Or advertisements also tell us how to use the right medicines to prevent pain or illness Advertising educates us to the good things in life and advises us to follow them

2.1.3.5 Entertaining Function

This is only a subordinate function of advertising Advertising hoardings and posters at the station, at the bus stop or in streets are also a hobby, recreation for passers-by to watch It‘s really very interesting to look

at a beautiful advertising poster when we are tired after working or when we

go in streets These posters and hoardings usefully replace empty and dull walls

In addition, advertising on television also pleases our eyes very much with beautiful images Some people learn by heart the words in advertising and say them again very cheerfully Advertising is really a source of joy in life

2.1.4 Means of Advertising

Advertising reaches people through various forms of mass communication These media include newspapers, magazines, televisions and radio Advertisers buy space in newspapers and magazines to publish their ads They buy time on television and radio to broadcast their commercials National advertisers, such as airlines and food companies, use media to reach customers throughout large parts of the country or all of it Local advertisers,

such as department stores, supermarkets, restaurants, use the media to reach consumers within a district or town The chief advertising media are: newspapers, television, direct mail, radio, magazines and outdoor signs

In addition, there are some other ways of advertising such as window displays, telephone – directory advertising… but newspapers or magazines and television are the two most popular ways of advertising Especially, newspapers or magazines can advertise every products or services Therefore, the advertising language is paid special attention by advertisers

2.1.5 The Language of Advertising

Language has a powerful influence over people and their behavior This

is especially true in the fields of marketing and advertising The choice of language to convey a specific message with the intention of influencing people is vitally importance Visual content and design in advertising have a great impact on the consumer, but it is the language that helps people identify

a product and remember it In general, advertising language has some following typical characteristics [41]

2.1.5.1 Legality

Because advertisement texts are openly popularized to the public, in the form, at least, its language and messages must be legal and appropriate to the laws of local government For instance, in Vietnam, all advertising contents as well as advertising language, which sexually stimulate or provoke violence, are banned While in the United States of America they are legal if enclosed warning: For those over 18 only…

However, different the standard and force of implementing, advertising laws and government in most countries require advertising language and contents to be legal, decent, honest and truthful (four standards of advertisements in Britain) and truthful, correct, clear, harmless to

manufacturers, business men and consumers (standards of advertisements in Vietnam)

2.1.5.2 Theoretical, Factual Foundation

Advertisement texts must create belief on the benefit and strength of commodity and service Consequently, they need to give right reason along with statistics, factual evidences to confirm and heighten the truthful, the scientific and the legal of the advertisements of services and products

2.1.5.3 National Characteristic

This character requires that advertisement texts must be expressed in national language of customers Advertisement text of exported or across-national commodities or services must enclose the translation into the language of customers in order to infiltrate market easily However, we had better avoid translating textually It is better to use local words, expressions, and idioms to carry advertising information Moreover, advertising language need obey customs, cultural tradition that relate to national community’s respect

2.1.5.4 The Popularity

Words and expressions express advertising messages, which is popular

to the public Each advertising message just aims at a particular part of prospects; consequently, its language and style need studying and applying clearly and understandably and appropriately to age, level of knowledge, occupation, class, sex, taste, religion and linguistic style… of parts of public

2.1.5.5 The Vividness

Liveliness is the most striking characteristic of advertising language In hash competition of advertising environment, advertising messages in dull

and boring language will be for nothing The vividness in advertising is expressed in tone (funny, chatty, informal, relaxed, confident, pleasant, attractive), vocabulary (stimulating, suggestive, impressive, visual, figurative…) and text form (content, capacity and structure) Rhythm, rhyme and other phonetic effects are noticeable

2.1.5.6 The Multi-stylistic

What linguistic style does advertising language belong to scientific, political commentary, administrative, literary or conversational? In fact, advertising language clearly belongs to none of them

In phonetic, advertising language both adapts to the general standards and takes advantage of dialects Vocabulary in advertising is vivid and concrete In syntax, complete and incomplete sentences are much used in advertising Lastly, most ways of expression used in advertising are brief and clear

Because the purpose of advertising is to get people to think about or react to the product or the company in a certain way, advertising messages must be imaginative, entertaining and rewarding to their audience Effective advertising messages should be:

° meaningful, pointing out benefits that makes the product desirable or

interesting to consumers

° believable, so that consumer will believe that the product or service

will deliver the promised benefits

° distinctive, telling people how the product is better than competing

brands [47, p.21, 22]

In brief, advertising language has its own peculiarities most clearly illustrated in its register The register of the advertising language can be investigated in the following three aspects: vocabulary, grammatical

structures and discourse analysis Whatever aspect to be taken into consideration, the utilization of the register is aimed at chiefly persuading the audience and also providing information of the product or service in question Mastering the register peculiarities will facilitate learners in understanding and using this genre of the English and Vietnamese language in their business context

2.2 REVIEW OF PRIOR STUDIES

2.2.1 About Advertising Language

We are surrounded by trade advertisements in everyday life through many different means and forms The study of the language of advertising, nevertheless, has not been done much so far especially in Vietnam Most studies on advertising focus on economic aspects more than linguistic ones

Leech (1966), in his pioneering and comprehensive study on English in advertising, analyzed in detail different aspects pertaining to grammar, vocabulary, discourse and rhyme and rhetoric of advertising with special reference to television He has effectively related these aspects with the functional factors In addition, the distinctive property of advertising language has been closely identified with the use of clauses, phrases and words

Crystal, David and Davy, Derek (1969) in “Investigating English Style” made an attempt to describe how language is used in English

advertising He has focused on the semantic and stylistic features of advertising language

In addition, in “Stylistics”, I R Galperin (1971) studied certain

linguistic devices that figure most prominently in advertising According to him, the use of linguistic devices is to encourage people to buy the products

Similarly, in “An Introduction to Stylistics”, Clark, Urszula (1996)

looked into the aspects of vocabulary in advertising and point out the semantic features of advertising language

“A Discussion Concerning Linguistic Units and Meaning in English Language Advertisements” (1993) by Dinh Gia Hung, Ho Si Thang Kiet

discussed the features of English linguistic units and semantic meaning used

in advertisements

Another advertising work is “Mastering Advanced English Language”,

in which Sara Thorne (1997) analyzed the linguistic and stylistic aspects of advertising and discussed the general features of advertising language

In “The Language of Advertising”, Peter Sells and Sierra Gonzalezz

(1998) look at the relationship between advertising and culture They also focus on the interrelation of language, image, typeface, draw on literary and linguistic theory for analysis of texts, explore specific advertising strategies such as hooklines, puns… and examine a wide range of advertisements

In “The Discourse of Advertising” by Guy Cook (2003, 2nd edition), the author provided a framework for analysis of advertisements as a discursive genre Concepts from discourse analysis; stylistics and linguistics are applied to examine the advertisements textual and contextual features in a bottom-up approach that allow identifying their interaction and combinations Also, in this book, the interaction between advertising messages, their substance and their surroundings are discussed and their influence on the effectiveness of the advertising is shown

“A Study on Linguistic Devices used in English Male and Female Print Advertisements” (2003) by Nguyen Thi Huynh Loc revealed how these

linguistic devices work in male and female print advertisements with the consideration of gender as well as the relationship between gender and male and female print advertisements

Besides, from different views, some linguists approached advertising and advertising language, examining the linguistic usage in billboards and advertisements, the correspondence between forms and contents as well as the

influence of cultural factors such as: “Về ngôn ngữ trong quảng cáo” (Trần

Đình Vĩnh – Nguyễn Đức Toàn, 1993), “Ngôn ngữ quảng cáo – phương pháp sao phỏng” (Nguyễn Đức Dân, 1994), “Về lập luận trong quảng cáo” (Mai Xuân Huy, 1999), “Đôi nét về quảng cáo ở Việt Nam” (Võ Thanh Hương,

2000)… Also, Nguyễn Thị Thu Hương pointed out some linguistic techniques used in language of advertising such as the diversity of structures, the names

of products… And Mai Xuân Huy with the Ph.D thesis studying advertising

from the view of linguistic named “Các đặc điểm của ngôn ngữ quảng cáo dưới ánh sáng của lý thuyết giao tiếp” (2001) perhaps is the person who gave

a great deal of thought to advertising Recently, a book in Vietnamese

published in 2003 by Linguistic Study Centre named “Quảng Cáo và Ngôn Ngữ Quảng Cáo” mentioned general problems of advertising and advertising language Some of these studies are “Cultural elements in advertising” by To Dinh Nghia, “Advertisement texts studied in aspect of the structure” by Vo Thanh Huong or “Language of advertising looked at from psychological angle of consumers” by Dr Nguyen Ngoc Thanh…

“An Investigation into English Lexical Choice in Trading Advertisements” (2004) by Ngo Thi Hong found out the distinctive lexico –

semantic features of chosen lexical items and their stylistic features as well as the distribution of lexical devices in trade advertisements

Most lately, in “A Study on Directives in Advertising in English and Vietnamese” (2005) by Ngo Thi Nhu Ha, she studied on ten typical directives

in English and Vietnamese advertising as well as their syntactic and pragmatic features

There are many other studies on Stylistic Devices and Advertising Language in English and Vietnamese I cannot mentioned here However, as far as I am concerned, so far no reported research has been found on the contrastive analysis of stylistic devices in English and Vietnamese advertising language

Based on the main purpose of the study, I decide to use the theory of some authors such as Leech, Sara Thorne, Crystal, David and Davy, Derek, I

R Galperin, Clark, Urszula, Cù Đình Tú, Đinh Trọng Lạc, Hữu Đạt… and to discuss some commonly used stylistic devices in advertising languages in English and Vietnamese newspapers

The study is hoped to make some valuable contributions to the teaching and learning of English Stylistics in general and of stylistic devices in advertising language in particular Also, I believe that studying stylistic devices in advertising language is one of the most direct ways to understand and write advertisements effectively Especially, it will not only help Vietnamese learners get better understanding of advertising language but also provide them with some necessary strategies and techniques in writing and translating advertisements

2.2.2 About Stylistics

The study of stylistics has been done much in different places in the world so far

In European continent, very early treatises devoted to the study of style

can be found in Demetrius’ On Style However, stylistics in pre-twentieth

century hardly became an autonomous discipline due to its appearance just as

a secondary component of rhetorical and grammatical analyses or in general studies of literature and literary language The roots of modern stylistics are

usually seen uncovered in the work of Charles Bally (1865-1947) and Leo

Spitzer (1887-1960) The description and analysis of a language’s generally

available stylistic properties is stressed in Bally’s Précis de Stylistique (1905)

Literary texts, in Bally’s formulation, are particular examples of language use; the analysis of their style is not the core of the general stylistics he

emphasizes Nevertheless, Bally’s work as well as its later realization in Jules Marouzeau’s Précis de Stylistique Franscaise (1946) and Marcel Cressot’s

Le Style et ses Techniques (1947) strongly influenced the formation of modern literary stylistics Leo Spitzer, in contrast, follows the more

philologically based tradition of textual (often literary-textual) analysis Style

is seen as an expression of a particular psychological, social, or historical sensibility or moment rather than as a general property of a particular language It can be said that modern stylistics in European continent in mid-twentieth century witnessed an early separation between linguistic stylistic description and literary stylistic interpretation

In Anglo-American linguistics at this time, there remained a link between literary stylistics and structural linguistic analysis However, it was

Noam Chomsky’s transformational-generative grammar that signaled the

establishment of stylistics as a discipline with independent, self defined goals

at least, if not yet a real autonomy Then the founding of the field’s major

Anglo-American journals named Style (1967) and Language and Style (1968)

contributed to the full arrival of stylistics as an academic discipline in Britain and America

Later, there appeared a series of related works including Donald

Freeman, ed., Linguistics and Literary Style (1970); Pierre Guiraud, Essais de

Stylistique (1970); Guiraud and Pierre Kuentz, ed., La Stylistique: Lectures (1970); Seymour Chatman, ed., Literary Style: A Symposium (1971); Roger Fowler, ed., Style and Structure in Literature: Essays in the New Stylistics (1975); Freeman, ed., Essays in Modern Stylistics (1981), etc Other linguists such as I R Galperin, H G Widdowson, Sara Thorne, David Crystal and Derek Davy etc focus on English stylistics They not only present an overview of English stylistics but also categorize English stylistic devices into different groups and provide carefully analysed examples

In Vietnam, Cù Đình Tú, Đinh Trọng Lạc, Nguyễn Thái Hoà, Đinh Xuân Quỳnh do the same job with Vietnamese stylistics However, none of

the foreign and Vietnamese linguists named above show the reader how to systematically investigate stylistic features in advertising language

2.3 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.3.1 Stylistic Devices

2.3.1.1 Stylistic Devices (Rhetoric)

In reality, having a good idea or something important to say is not enough Everyone wishes their messages to get across to the intended

recipient(s) in an attractive and effective way Undoubtedly, how something is

said is always of great importance and necessity And it is stylistic devices that assist people in using language well So “stylistic devices” just means

“fancy ways of saying or writing something” Those who have excellent understanding of stylistic devices and use them artfully will certainly become masters of saying and writing

Stylistic Devices (Rhetoric) is a branch of general linguistic which is regarded as a language science It deals with the result of the act of communication [40, p.12] It means that Rhetoric takes into consideration the

“output of the act of communication” The most frequent definition of rhetoric

is one defined as the ability to write clearly, correctly and in a manner calculated to interest the readers [40, p.12]

According to Andrea Lunsford rhetoric is the art, practice, and study of human communication Some other linguists, such as Backman, Mark assume that:

“Rhetoric deals with the artificial structures of reality that in their compound complexities constitute what we call culture We do it an injustice

to define it simply as communication, etc Rhetoric is itself a structuring art

As an art of persuasion its materials are words and images, sentences and paragraphs, arguments and examples, all of which are used to organize the responses and actions of an audience As an attitude about the world, rhetoric

underwrites all kinds of processes and methods that aim to produce order out

of chaos.” [60]

According to the Encyclopedia that Rhetoric is classically defined the art of speaking in such a manner as to impress the hearers and influence them for or against an opinion exists implicitly or explicitly in any society It is essential to cultural, political, and social activities as such in so far as these demand a display of uninterrupted speech or monologue As a formalized type

of knowledge, it has been studied and practiced by the ancient Greeks since the fifth century BC; it was developed by the Sophists of Athens, who learnt it from Sicily (Corax and his pupil Tisias, both of Syracuse), discussed by Plato and Aristotle – the creator of a systematic and scientific Rhetoric – continued

by the Alexandrian Hellenists, and later by Romans (Cicero, Quintilian), for whom the oratorical skill had an ethical bearing as attached to the art of living

In the popular sense, the word Rhetoric has associated with it the stigma of empty, flowery talk, or impressive speech saturated with falsehood

It should be also noted that a Rhetorical question is really not intended to elicit an answer, one often regards Rhetoric as suspiciously false and dishonest Rhetoric refers to the art of oratory, or persuasive speaking – the art of effective argumentation with the view to influencing opinion

In many spheres of life, persuasive communication is popular, for example, counseling, cajoling, and even deceiving It is a vital mode of discourse in business, politics, and negotiation Even so, certain cultures within the nonliterate world have been particularly known for their eloquence The spoken word is powerful and well-recognized in non-literate societies Being the embodiment of acoustic energy, the spoken word has an immediate impact, the capacity to make or break According to a Yoruba proverb,

‘Speech is like an egg, when dropped it shatters.’ And according to an Arab

saying, ‘Words can bring you an elephant, and also bring you to the foot of

the elephant’ In daily life, those endowed with the power of effective speech

are held in high social esteem due to the facility with which they contain situations of stress through persuasion

An important corollary of the power of speech, as against the written word, is the basic risk involved in all face-to-face communication The special and temporal link between the speaker and hearer puts discourse participants

at considerable risk since unlike in writing where evaluation is delayed, there

is here an instant evaluation of each other’s communicative competence The stakes in oral communication are high, and they become higher in public speaking where speakers have to contend with a wider audience This is partly the reason why good orators are highly prized in nonliterate societies

2.3.1.2 Functions of Stylistic Devices (Rhetoric)

Madison gives the notion of basic function of rhetoric as follows:

“The basic function of rhetoric is the use of words by human agents to form attitudes or to induce actions in other human agents.” He adds: “for rhetoric as such is not rooted in any past condition of human society It is rooted in the essential function of language itself, a function which is wholly realistic, and is continually born anew.” [49]

In a word, rhetoric is the study of the principles and devices by which writing is made more effective and persuasive Rhetoric in language can be defined as distinctive linguistic expression to serve its own purposes and effect with its own inventory of tool [65]

The word rhetorical means using language well Device, in this sense, according to William Shakespeare is anything fancifully conceived Rhetorical device just means a fancy of way of saying something It is how something is said, not what is said This meant that, having a good idea or something important to say is not enough, one must also get the message

across to the intended recipient, and do in such a way that both the message and its importance are received and understood [65]

2.3.2 Simile

Simile is a specific semantic trope in stylistics, especially in stylistic devices The existence of simile in stylistic devices has partly created the creativeness in the development of languages In the language of literature, music as well as the one of advertisement, we can easily find out many kinds

of simile and they themselves have enabled these kinds of language to be more attractive, more expressive, charming and persuasive By using similes, the poets, the writers, the musicians, the advertisers, etc have helped us to approach such ways of figurative comparison although they are very deviatory Since they are comparisons of objects belonging to entirely different classes, they have high value of expressiveness stimulating the conceptual ability from the hearers and readers In order to understand what is simile and how it works in languages, let’s study some simile definitions both

in English and Vietnamese

According to Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied

Linguistics, “Simile is an expression in which something is compared to something else by the use of a FUNCTION WORD such as like or as.” [44]

“Simile is a figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike The comparison is made explicitly by the use of some such words or phrases as: like, as, than, similar to, resembles,

quan không đồng nhất với nhau hoàn toàn mà chỉ có một nét giống nhau nào

đó, nhằm diễn tả bằng hình ảnh một lối tri giác mới mẻ về đối tượng (Simile

is also called figurative comparison, it is a kind of semantic trope in which two different unentirely homogeneous classes of thing in the objective reality were compared to express figuratively a new way of perception about things compared) [9, p 154]

So sánh tu từ là cách công khai đối chiếu hai hay nhiều đối tượng cùng

có một dấu hiệu chung nào đấy (nét giống nhau), nhằm diễn tả một cách hình ảnh đặc điểm của một đối tượng (Simile is an explicit comparison between two or more things that resemble each other in a certain way aiming to describe the characteristics of things compared figuratively) [25, p.175] and

Cù Đình Tú added more for interpretation: “Các đối tượng được đưa ra so sánh là các đối tượng khác loại và mục đích của so sánh tu từ là nhằm diễn tả một cách hình ảnh đặc điểm của một đối tượng” (Things compared are essentially unlike ones and the aim of simile is to describe the comparison figuratively)

In the definitions of [68] & [73], the simile markers such as: like, as, as…as, than, similar to, resembles, appears, more than… in English or như, như là, là, bao nhiêu, bấy nhiêu in Vietnamese were mentioned for the illustration of simile

By examining the definitions above, to some extent, we have a basic knowledge about what is simile In fact, to understand thoroughly about

simile and apply its theories in analyzing structural or stylistic features… is

not such an easy game at all It requires a passion for linguistic research as well as a wish to maintain the fascinating beauty of rhetoric

Simile in English and Vietnamese is a comparison between two different things that resemble each other in at least one way The simile is a device both of art and explanation, comparing an unfamiliar thing to some familiar thing (an object, event, process, etc.) known to the reader

When you compare a noun to a noun, the simile is usually introduced

The grass bends with every wind; so does Harvey

But in Vietnamese just one word is in comparison such as là or như :

“Nhớ lại hồi kháng chiến, mỗi lần nhìn về phía Đà Nẵng, tôi nhớ Ngân

như một con bướm trắng bay chập chờn trong khói súng”

(Nguyễn Văn Bổng, 2000)

Em là gái trong song cửa

Anh là mây bốn phương

Anh theo cánh gió chơi vơi

Em vẫn nằm trong nhung lụa

(Lưu Trọng Lư, Một mùa đông) Similes can be negative, too, asserting that two things are unlike in one

or more respects:

“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”

(Shakespeare)

Other ways to create similes include the use of comparison:

“Norman was more anxious to leave the area than Herman

Milquetoast after seeing ten abominable snowmen charging his way with hunger in their eyes”

“Chị tôi cho biết Nguyệt đang làm ở ngành, một nơi rất ác liệt, vẫn ở

gần chị Cô ta giờ đã lớn, càng ngoan ngoãn và xinh đẹp hơn trước kia

nữa

(Nguyễn Minh Châu, Mảnh trăng cuối cùng) But a simile can sometimes be implied, or as it is often called, submerged In such cases no comparative word is needed:

“Leslie has silky hair and the skin of an angel”

“Gái thương chồng đang đông buổi chợ

Trai thương vợ nắng quái chiều hôm.”

In brief, simile is a stylistic trope, it is an explicit comparison between

or among essentially unlike things that resemble each other in at last one way The aim of simile is to reach for an expressive and figurative description about things compared

2.3.3 Metaphor

Metaphor, one of the most beautiful and symbolic rhetorical devices in the field of stylistics It is a type of expressive and figurative language in which one semantic field of reference is carried over or transferred to another

A metaphor consists of two main parts: the tenor and the vehicle The tenor is the implied idea or the hidden subject of the comparison; the vehicle is the

metaphorical word(s) or image(s) by which the tenor is conveyed These two parts are combined together basing on the common ground between them For

example in the following sentence: Life is a yo-yo, the tenor of life and the vehicle is yo-yo The fact that both life and yo-yo have ups and downs is the

ground Metaphor is different from logic comparison, a device focusing on the aspects of comparison directly, simply in order to find out the likeness between /amongst objects in the same class Logic comparison seems to be a very simple rhetorical device that draws less attention from the language users Metaphor, in contrast to logic comparison, carries more affirmative characteristic in comparing to simile; when focusing on a certain aspect of comparison, it requires a higher level of cognitive competence Metaphor, undoubtedly, much more creativeness, and this is also the reason why it has been wantedly used by thousands of writers, composers and advertisers in many styles of language, especially in poet, music and advertising language Here, many kinds of metaphor are used; to bring about many new, strange feelings; stimulate the creativeness in ways of thought from the readers and hearers and especially, to draw attention and persuade the consumers to products, goods or services

It is difficult to imagine any process of mentation in which metaphor does not enter Accordingly metaphor is thought as the currency of mind Metaphor is a fundamental and indispensable structure of human understanding, a basic and irreducible unit of mental functioning It is by

means of metaphor that we generate new perceptions of the world; it is

through metaphor that we organize and make sense out of experience

So far foreign and Vietnamese linguists have tried to suggest various

definitions of metaphor, some of which cited below are considered the closest

to the nature of metaphor

A metaphor is a relation between the dictionary and contextual logical

meanings based on the affinity or similarity of certain properties or features

of the two corresponding concepts [40, p.136]

According to “Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied

Linguistics”, “In a metaphor, no function words are used Something is

described by stating another thing with which it can be compared In “Her

words stabbed at his heart, the words did not actually stab, but their effect is

compared to the stabbing of a knife” [44, p.139]

Ẩn dụ tu từ là cách cá nhân lâm thời lấy tên gọi biểu thị đối tượng này

dùng để biểu thị đối tượng kia dựa trên cơ sở của mối quan hệ liên tưởng về

nét tương đồng giữa hai đối tượng [25]

With such a nature, metaphor is obviously an important way of building new meanings and new words even Perhaps that is why Quintilian

[40, p.136] gives an interesting remark “It is due to the metaphor that each

thing seems to have its name in language”

The examples below will illustrate the structure of metaphor and its

immense capability for expression as well:

- In “the leaves fell sorrowfully”, the metaphor lies in the adverb

sorrowfully: the tenor is the speaker’s/writer’s sad mood; the vehicle is the

sorrowful scenery created by falling leaves; and sadness is the common

great value and prosperous potential of a forest; the word gold itself is

literally the vehicle; the fact that both forests and gold are precious is the ground

In Vietnamese people’s hearts of old times, familiar banian-trees and

wharfs in their beloved villages used to be attached to something changeless

They then associated such a quality with that of a faithful woman, as implied

in the following folk:

Thuyền về có nhớ bến chăng?

Bến thì một dạ khăng khăng đợi thuyền

Here bến acts as metaphor denoting a faithful woman

To interpret metaphors we need to understand both the literal meaning and facts about the world and it depends on the origin linguistic knowledge about words, their semantic properties and their combining powers that all

speakers possess “Time is money”, here, it is necessary for the hearer to

know that in our society we are often paid according to the number of hours

or days worked Or in Vietnamese:

Chỉ có thuyền mới hiểu Biển mênh mông dường nào Chỉ có biển mới biết

Thuyền đi đâu về đâu

examples above, “thuyền” and “mận” stand for boys and “biển” and “đào”

for girls

Everyday metaphors are invisible because we understand them immediately, and therefore have no need to pay attention to their metaphorical character Metaphors by and large are conceived and grasped with the same facility as our ordinary literal vocabulary There is no problem in understanding metaphors: the problem is to explain how we understand them

In summary, metaphors are a significant and common phenomenon of language all over the world More specific, in English and Vietnamese, metaphors are dominant stylistic devices They are the way of saying one thing but meaning another

Metaphor is easily confused with simile and metonymy because they all base on associative relations Therefore, simile and metonymy should be mentioned herein in comparison with metaphor

2.3.4 Rhetorical Questions

According to M.H Abram, a rhetorical question is a sentence in the grammatical form of a question which is not asked in order to request information or to invite a reply, but to achieve an expressive force different from, and usually more effective than, a direct assertion In everyday discourse, for example, if we utter the rhetorical question “Isn’t it a shame?”

it functions as a forceful alternative to the assertion “It’s a shame.” The figure is often used in persuasive discourse [51]

Rhetorical question is a forceful statement which has the form of a question but which does not expect an answer For example, “What difference

does it make?”, which may function like the statement, “It makes no difference” [44]

According to Galperin [40], the rhetorical question is a special syntactical stylistic device the essence of which consists in reshaping the grammatical meaning of the interrogative sentence In other words, the question is no longer a question but a statement expressed in the form of an

interrogative sentence Thus there is an interplay of two structural meanings: 1) that of the question and 2) that of the statement Both are materialized simultaneously For example:

“Is there not blood enough upon your penal code, that more must be poured forth to ascend to Heaven and testify against you?”

(Byron)

One can agree with Prof Popov who states: “… the rhetorical question

is equal to a categorical pronouncement plus an exclamation.” Indeed, if we

compare a pronouncement expressed as a statement with the same pronouncement expressed as a rhetorical question by means of transformational analysis, we will find ourselves compelled to assert that the interrogative form makes the pronouncement still more categorical, in that it excludes any interpretation beyond that contained in the rhetorical question

From the example given above, we can see that rhetorical questions are generally structurally embodied in complex sentences with the subordinate clause containing the pronouncement Here is another example:

“… Shall the sons of Chimary Who never forgive the fault of a friend Bid an enemy live? ”

(Byron) Without the attributive clause the rhetorical question would lose its specific quality and might be regarded as an ordinary question

The subordinate clause, as it were, signalizes the rhetorical question

The meaning of the above utterance can hardly fail to be understood: i.e., The sons of Chimary will never bid an enemy live

There is another structural pattern of rhetorical questions, which is based on negation In this case the question may be a simple sentence, as in

“Did not the Italian Mosico Cazzani Sing at my heart six months at least in vain?”

(Byron)

The nature of the rhetorical question has not been fully studied and what structural peculiarities cause an ordinary question to turn into a rhetorical one is still to be discovered In the question-sentence

“Is the poor privilege to turn the key Upon the captive, freedom?”

(Byron) instead of a categorical pronouncement one can detect doubt It is the word

‘poor’ that prompts this interpretation of the utterance

So rhetorical questions may be defined as utterances in the form of questions which pronoun judgements and also express various kinds of modal shapes of meaning as doubt, challenge, scorn and so on

The rhetorical question re-inforces the essential quality of interrogative sentences and uses it to convey a stronger shade of emotive meaning The rhetorical questions most often used in publicistic style like in advertising where the arousing of emotions is the effect generally aimed at

[40, p.248-250]

According to Đinh Trọng Lạc, “Câu hỏi tu từ là câu về hình thức là câu hỏi mà về thực chất là câu khẳng định hoặc phủ định có cảm xúc Nó có dạng không đòi hỏi câu trả lời mà chỉ nhằm tăng cường tính diễn cảm của phát ngôn Đây là dạng tiêu biểu nhất của câu hỏi tu từ.” [9] For example:

Vì sao ngày một thanh tân?

Vì sao người lại mến thân hơn nhiều?

Vì sao cuộc sống ta yêu?

Mỗi giây mỗi phút sớm chiều thiết tha?

(Tố Hữu) Rhetorical questions consist of two forms: affirmative and negative

° Affirmative form:

Em là ai? Cô gái hay nàng tiên?

Em có tuổi hay không có tuổi?

Mái tóc em nay hay là mây là suối?

Đôi mắt em nhìn hay lửa chớp đêm đông?

2.3.5 Hyperbole

Hyperbole is one of the most prominent features in stylistic devices In order to understand what is hyperbole and how it works in languages, let’s study some hyperbole definitions both in English and Vietnamese

According to Galperin, “Hyperbole is deliberate overstatement or exaggeration, the aim of which is to intensify one of the features of the object

in question to such a degree as will show its utter absurdity” [40, p.173] The

following is a good example of hyperbole:

“Those three words (Dombey and Son) conveyed the one idea of Mr Dombey’s life The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in and the sun and moon were made to give them light Rivers and seas were formed to float their ships; rainbows gave them promise of fair

weather; winds blew for or against their enterprises; stars and planets circled in their orbits to preserve inviolate a system of which they were the centre.”

(Dickens)

In order to depict the width of the river Dnieper, Gogol uses the following hyperbole:

“It’s a rare bird that can fly to the middle of the Dnieper.”

Like many stylistic devices, hyperbole may lose its quality as a stylistic device through frequent repetition and become a unit of the language-as-a-system, reproduced in speech in its unaltered form Here are some examples

of language hyperbole:

‘A thousand pardons’; ‘scared to death’, ‘immensely obliged’; ‘I’d give the world to see him.’

Byron says:

“When people say “I’ve told you fifty times”

They mean to scold, and very often do.”

Hyperbole differs from mere exaggeration in that it is intended to be understood as an exaggeration In this connection the following quotations deserve a passing note:

“Hyperbole is the result of a kind of intoxication by emotion, which prevents a person from seeing things in their true dimensions… If the reader (listener) is not carried away by the emotion of the writer(speaker), hyperbole becomes a mere lie.”

V.V Vinogradov, developing Gorki’s statement that “genuine art enjoys the right to exaggerate,” states that “Hyperbole is the law of art which brings the existing phenomena of life, diffused as they are, to the point of maximum clarity and conciseness.” [40, p.173, 174]

According to Đinh Trọng Lạc, Phóng đại (còn gọi là khoa trương, thậm xưng, ngoa ngữ, cường điệu) là dùng từ ngữ hoặc cách diễn đạt để nâng

lên gấp nhiều lần những thuộc tính của khách thể hoặc hiện tượng nhằm mục đích làm nổi bật bản chất của đối tượng cần miêu tả, gây ấn tượng đặc biệt mạnh mẽ Khác hẳn với nói điêu, nói khoác về tính chất, động cơ và mục đích, phóng đại không phải là thổi phồng sự thật hay xuyên tạc sự thật để lừa dối Nó không làm người ta tin vào điều nói ra, mà chỉ cốt hướng cho ta hiểu được điều nói lên.” [9, p 46]

For example: vô cùng vĩ đại, (bận) trăm công nghìn việc, không cánh

mà bay, một ngày dài hơn thế kỷ, người đen như cột nhà cháy…

Tiếng đồn cha mẹ anh hiền Cắn cơm không vỡ , cắn tiền vỡ đôi

(Ca dao)

In advertising language, businessmen and manufacturers often use hyperbole, an indispensable technique that advertising writers use when they want to give dignity to their products

In brief, hyperbole is a device which sharpens the reader’s ability to make a logical assessment of the utterance This is achieved, as is the case with other devices, by awakening the dichotomy of thought and feeling where thought takes the upper hand though not to the detriment of feeling

2.3.6 Repetition

According to Galperin, “Repetition is also one of the devices having its origin in the emotive language Repetition when applied to the logical language becomes simply an instrument of grammar Its origin is to be seen

in the excitement accompanying the expression of a feeling being brought to its highest tension.” [40, p.211]

Lê Bá Hán, Trần Đình Sử, Nguyễn Khắc Phi asserted that, “Điệp ngữ

là một hình thức tu từ có đặc điểm: một từ, cụm từ, câu hoặc đoạn thơ văn

được lặp lại với dụng ý nhấn mạnh hoặc gây ấn tượng cho người đọc, người nghe.” [6]

“Giá trị nhấn mạnh và biểu cảm của điệp ngữ được hình thành trong mối quan hệ ngữ cảnh với những từ ngữ khác trong chuỗi lời nói Thông thường, việc sử dụng điệp ngữ bao giờ cũng gắn liền với sự tăng tiến hoặc vận động của ý nghĩa và cảm xúc Về mặt hình thức, điệp ngữ tạo ra lời văn thông suốt, nhịp nhàng hoặc dồn dập, mạnh mẽ.” [6, p.101]

It has already been pointed out that repetition is an expressive means of language used when the speaker is under the stress of strong emotion It also shows the state of mind of the speaker

When used as a stylistic device, repetition acquires quite different functions It does not aim at making a direct emotional impact On the contrary, the stylistic device of repetition aims at logical emphasis, an emphasis necessary to fix the attention of the reader on the key-word of the utterance For example:

“For that was it! Ignorant of the long and stealthy march of passion, and of the state to which it had reduced Fleur; ignorant of how Soames had watched her, ignorant of Fleur’s reckless desperation… - ignorant

of all this, everybody felt aggrieved.”

Repetition can be regarded as the typical stylistic device in advertising language It is also resorted to in order to persuade the audience, to add weight to the speaker’s opinion

Repetition is classified according to compositional design If the repeated word (or phrase) comes at the beginning of two or more consecutive

sentences, clauses or phrase, we have anaphora as in the two examples above

If the repeated unit is placed at the end of consecutive sentences, clauses or

phrases we have the type of repetition called epiphora, as in:

“I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case

as that I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that I can act with philosophy in such a case as that.”

(Dickens) Here the repetition has a slight different function: it becomes a background against which the statements preceding the repeated unit are made to stand out more conspicuously This may be called the background function It must be observed, however, that the logical function of the repetition, to give the emphasis, does not fade when it assumes the background function This is an additional function

Any repetition of a unit of language will inevitably cause some slight modification of meaning, a modification suggested by a noticeable change in the intonation with which the repeated word is pronounced

What are the most obvious stylistic functions of repetition?

The primary one is to intensify the utterance Intensification is the direct outcome of the use of the expressive means employed in ordinary intercourse; but when used in order compositional designs, the immediate emotional charge is greatly suppressed and is replaced by a purely aesthetic

In fact, like many stylistic devices, repetition is polyfunctional And any repetition enhances the rhythmical aspect of the utterance

2.3.7 Personification

Personification, one of the most outstanding rhetorical devices in the field of stylistics Up to now, a lot of English and Vietnamese linguists have given out a variety of definitions on personification which are the closest to its nature

M.H Abrams asserted that “in personification, either an inanimate object or an abstract concept is spoken of as thought it were endowed with life or with human attributes or feelings” [51, p 69]

It was defined from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “Personification

is a term used in literary criticism to name the figure of speech which involves directly speaking of an inanimate object, or an abstract concept, as if it were

a living entity, often one with specifically human attributes These attributes may include sensations, emotions, desires physical gestures, and expressions, and powers of speech, among others Personification is widely used in poetry and in other art forms.” For example:

- I closed the door and my stubborn car refused to open it again

- The flower nodded their heads as if to greet us

- The frogs began their concert

- The diamonds are jealous of your beauty!

“Once again, the heart of America is heavy The spirit of America weeps for a tragedy that denies the very meaning of our land.”

(Lyndon Baines Johnson)

In “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath, for example, the mirror – the “I” in the first line – is given the ability to speak, see, and swallow, as well as human attributes such as truthfulness:

I am silver and exact

I have no preconceptions

Whatever I see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike

I am not cruel, only truthful

According to Đinh Trọng Lạc, “Nhân hóa (còn gọi: nhân cách hóa) là một biến thể của ẩn dụ, trong đó người ta lấy những từ ngữ biểu thị thuộc tính, dấu hiệu của con người để biểu thị thuộc tính, dấu hiệu của đối tượng không phải con người, nhằm làm cho đối tượng được miêu tả trở nên gần gũi

dễ hiểu hơn, đồng thời làm cho người nói có khả năng bày tỏ kín đáo tâm tư, thái độ của mình.” [9, p 63]

It is defined from Cù Đình Tú that “nhân hoá là cách lấy những từ ngữ biểu thị thuộc tính, hoạt động của người dùng để biểu thị thuộc tính, hoạt động của đối tượng khác loại dựa trên mối quan hệ liên tưởng nét tương đồng

về thuộc tính, về hoạt động giữa người và đối tượng không phải người (khác loại) [25, p.185]

Hữu Đạt referred that “nhân hóa là biện pháp gán cho sự vật, hiện tượng các hành động, cảm nghĩ, nói năng như con người.” [5, p 413]

In short, personification is a rhetorical figure of speech in which objects

or abstractions are endowed with human qualities or are presented as possessing human form In advertising, personification is one of the stylistic devices used most by the advertisers