AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE SENTENCE PATTERNS USED IN TRAVEL ADVERTISEMENTS ON ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE WEBSITES

thạc sỹ, luận văn, ngoại ngữ, tiếng anh, khóa luận, chuyên đề

1 Rationale

Advertising is a device to arouse consumers' attention to a commodity and induce them touse it In the increasingly keen competition of the market economy, advertising is animportant means of scrambling for markets According to the American MarketingAssociation, Chicago, "Advertising is any paid form of non personal presentation of ideas,goods and services by an identified sponsor."

Advertising is as ubiquitous as the air we breathe Advertising has become the part andparcel of present-day life From everywhere around us, advertisements of diverse typescome naturally to our life In spite of it, there is an attractive power, which is able tomanipulate the consumer; an invisible voice of advertisement advocates, encourages, asks,announces and deeply embeds into peoples’ minds Advertising unifies language, pictures,music; it contains information, invokes emotions and imaginations, it can capture all fivehuman senses

In order to enhance the appeal of an advertisement, advertising writers pay much attentionnot only to such expressive devices as plates, color and the layout of a printed page, butalso to the choice of words or phrases or sentences, to make an advertisement beautiful andattractive In the practice of the advertising, people pay more and more attention to the use

of figures of speech with every effort to make the advertising succinct, accurate and vividand to provide rich imagination and plentiful associations for readers so as to stimulatetheir desire

In terms of advertising language, advertising texts are of great value for the analyses frommarketing experts, sociologist, etc and last but not least linguists Sociologists may beinterested in the fact, how advertising influences the values, attitudes and behavior of thesociety And marketing experts and advertising agencies are interested in the language ofadvertising to find the tricks how to make advertising more effective On the other hand,linguists are interested in language of advertising because they want to know howparticular language works in this type of discourse, which linguistic means are used hereand how advertising language is changing in the course time

I have no ambition to make an analysis of language of adverting from all aspects such asphonological, lexical and morphological, syntactic and semantic aspect Within the scope

of my study in this thesis, I only focus on the sentence patterns used in advertisements ANINVESTIGATION INTO THE SENTENCE PATTERNS USED IN TRAVLEADVERTISEMENTS ON ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE WEBSITES is the study ofwhat kinds of sentences are presented in the mass media – websites

2 Aims of the study

In this thesis, the hypothesis and the research questions are:

- What are the features of travel advertising sentences used in English andVietnamese websites?

- To what extent are the identified characteristic features similar and differentbetween English and Vietnamese? Are they due to the social and culturalinfluences on the advertisement writers?

- What suggestions should be noted for teaching and learning about traveladvertisements?

3 Research methods and process of research

In order to demonstrate the features of sentence patterns used on website advertisements, Icombine qualitative and quantitative analysis According to Nunan (1992) (adapted fromRichard and Cook, 1979), a qualitative research is a naturalistic and uncontrolledobservation, subjective, grounded, discovery-oriented, exploratory, descriptive andinductive (p 4) Maykut and Morehouse (1994) define qualitative research as generallyexamining people’s words and actions in narrative or descriptive ways more closelyrepresenting the situation as experienced by the participants The aim of qualitativeresearch is to discover meanings that emerge after close observation, carefuldocumentation, and thoughtful analysis

The qualitative method is used to gather data The data are then analyzed both qualitativelyand quantitatively in terms of the mean length When studying the features of sentencepatterns used, as a result of quantification, we can look for recurring patterns emergingfrom the data

First I collect data for study from the internet, including advertisements written in Englishand those written in Vietnamese The two sources then are to be investigated from a cross– linguistic perspective to study the similarities and differences between the sentencepatterns of the two languages

On the ground of the findings in this stage of investigation, the texts in advertisements arerandomly chosen and closely analyzed to serve the goals and aims of the study

4 Scope of the study

The study deals with sentence patterns used in travel advertisements on English andVietnamese websites The data for the study consists of texts from advertisements onEnglish and Vietnamese websites My areas of interest are the passages advertisingspecific tourist attractions in cities The travel advertisements selected here are, therefore,about different places in some foreign countries and Vietnam

Due to a shortage of time and within the limitation of an M.A thesis, the study only focuses

on the analysis and comparison of 10 travel advertisements in each language

5 Design of the study

The introduction of the study is aimed to give the background of the study It mentions therationale, aims of the study, the research methods, scope of the study and the process ofresearch

The development part of the thesis consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1 deals with theoretical background, giving sentence definitions, functions ofsentences and discourse of advertising

Chapter 2 presents the sentence patterns used in English and Vietnamese advertisementsincluding sentence types and sentence structure

Chapter 3 discusses the similar and different features in sentence patterns of the twolanguages in travel advertisements and implications for teaching and learning about traveladvertisements

The conclusion works out with some findings and suggestions from the research

CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 What is a sentence?

1.1.1 Definitions

There is a variety of definitions of a sentence McDougal Littell (2004) simply defines asentence is a group of words that conveys a complete thought (p 36) Brown, Nilson,Shaw & Weldon (1984) share the same and add some more information: “a sentence is agroup of words that expresses a complete thought The purpose of a sentence is to describe

an action or state a condition of a person, a place, a thing or an idea.” (p 57)

Halliday (1994) argues that “describing a sentence as a construction of words is rather likedescribing a house as a construction of bricks, without recognizing the walls and the rooms

as intermediate structural units.” (p 180) He states that a sentence should be defined as aclause complex with the simple sentence (one clause) as the limiting case

Morley (2000, p.25) looks at a sentence in many aspects In meaning terms, he says “therole of the sentence is to express one or more ideas or ‘proposition’ from the ideationalcomponent, each proposition being realized by a clause.”

Nguyễn Hòa (2001) says “…the sentence refers to the system or language side: it can bethought of as the ideal structure behind various realizations in utterances.” (p 23)

Mai Ngọc Chừ, Vũ Đức Nghiệu & Hoàng Trọng Phiến (2006) give out the definition about

a sentence: “câu là đơn vị của ngôn ngữ có cấu tạo ngữ pháp (bên trong và bên ngoài) tựlập và có ngữ điệu kết thúc, mang một tư tưởng tương đối trọn vẹn có kèm thái độ củangười nói hoặc chỉ biểu thị thái độ của người nói, giúp hình thành và biểu hiện, truyền đạt

tư tưởng, tình cảm với tư cách là đơn vị thông báo nhỏ nhất.” (p 285)

(A sentence is the language unit which has independent inner and outer grammatical

structure and ending intonation It bears a relatively complete thought enclosed with the speaker’s attitude or only displaying the speaker’s attitude, which helps form, show and communicate ideas and affection as the smallest information unit.)

I myself like and follow the definition of Richards and Platt (1992) about a sentence: “thelargest unit of grammatical organization within with parts of speech (e.g nouns, verbs,adverbs) and grammatical classes (e.g word, phrase, clause) are said to function In

English a sentence normally contains one independent clause (…) with a finite verb.” (p.330)

From that we can conclude that a sentence must make complete sense by itself

Thus, “The mobile phone on the table” is not a sentence as it does not express a complete thought The correct one can be “The mobile phone on the table belongs to my father.”

1.1.2 Functions of the sentence

In language usage, Diệp Quang Ban (2004) lists three major functions of the sentence:expressive function, interpersonal function and text-making function

(1) Expressive function: in daily communication, one by some means or other

expresses one or some events in his experience This can be done thanks to the fact

that language has a mean compatible with it which is called “the sentence in expressive function” (p.27) Those events in experience are not in fixed forms;

they are expressed through one’s viewpoint and coded in grammar of a certainlanguage Therefore, the same event can be viewed and expressed in different ways

in different languages and even different in one language due to differentexpressions

(2) Interpersonal function: in conversations, people use sentences to communicate

with one another In that process, the speaker always intends to do some action toinfluence the hearer For example, the speaker speaks to inform about something, toask the hearer to do something, to express his thought to the hearer or to set up acommunication relation Those actions are called speech actions In each language

system, there are means that mark those speech actions, such as declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences (p 29 – 30)

(3) Text-making function: in a certain situation, the sentences must be organized to be

in harmony with the preceding and following ones (in other words, co-text) or with

the outside situation (context of situation) In this case, sentences are regarded as a message The organization of the sentences to make a message requires two elements: Theme and Rheme The relation of these two elements is called Theme

– Rheme structure (p 30 – 31)

1.2 Discourse of advertising

1.2.1 The concept of advertising

The concept of advertising dates back to early civilization Approximately, in 3,000 B.C,Babylonian merchants knew to place signs over their doorway to indicate what they sold

In ancient Greece and Rome, advertisements were found on walls in the streets.Advertising today began in 19th century and developed with industrialization and massproduction

In this part of the study, I would like to give an idea what advertising is, and which types

of advertising exist This will bring the general and basic definitions necessary forunderstanding the issue as a whole

1.2.1.1 Definitions of advertising

“Advertising is a one-way communication whose purpose is to inform potential customers

about products and services and how to obtain them.”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising)

Michael, on http://www.motto.com/glossary.html defines advertising is “Making known;calling public attention to a product, service, or company by means of paid announcements

so as to affect perception or arouse consumer desire to make a purchase or take a particularaction.” and advertisement is “A paid public announcement appearing in the media.”

The American Heritage Dictionary says that the advertising is:

(1) “The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paidannouncements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media

(2).The business of designing and writing advertisements

(3) Advertisements considered as a group: This paper takes no advertising.”

Another definition of advertising is according to the Investorwords glossary: “Description

or presentation of a product, idea, or organization, in order to induce individuals to buy,support, or approve of it.” (http://www.investorwords.com/129/advertising.html)

Lý Tùng Hiếu in the book Quảng cáo và ngôn ngữ quảng cáo (2004) gives out his

definition of advertising after analyzing other definitions of advertising as follows: “Quảngcáo là hoạt động của các cá nhân hoặc các tổ chức sản xuất và dịch vụ, sử dụng các

phương tiện và phương thức truyền thông để thông báo cho công chúng về nhu cầu, khảnăng của mình hoặc về lợi ích của những hàng hóa và dịch vụ nhất định nhằm gia tăng sốlượng người tiêu dùng, sử dụng các dịch vụ và hàng hóa đó.” (p 26)

(It can be temporarily translated as Advertising is the activity of individuals or

organizations of manufacturing and services, using modes and means of communications

to inform the publics about their demands and ability or the benefits of given goods and services in order to increase the number of consumers using those goods and services)

All these definitions have in common the fact that advertising is a means of promotion of aproduct, an idea, or an organization on the market with the aim to give information and/ or

to persuade people of the advantage of the product and induce them to take and action (e.g.buy to use it)

Goddard (1998, p 10) suggests that “advertising is not just about the commercialpromotion of branded products, but can also encompass the idea of texts whose intention is

to enhance the image of an individual, group or organization.” This suggestion gives out afull description of advertising, helping give out types of advertising as in the following

1.2.1.2 Types of advertising

According to Leech (1972), most frequent and important type of the advertising is

“commercial consumer advertising: advertising directed towards a mass audience with

the aim of promoting sales of a commercial product or service…”

E.g: “Plump it up New volume boost liquid lip colour Paints lips with a high shinelacquer finish Feel the tingling sensation as formula begins to work.”

Another type of commercial advertising is ‘prestige advertising’ Here the name and the

positive image of the company are advertised rather than a product or a service

E.g: “The America’s Cup: the oldest and most coveted trophy in the world of sailing Itsorganizers have entrusted once again the vital timing of the races to Omega, a companywhose experience in watchmaking and sports timekeeping dates back over 150 years…tothe very origins of the America’s Cup itself.”

As an example of non-commercial advertising, we may mention appeals from

associations and societies whether their purposes are charity or political propaganda:

“Thanks to the World Food Programme, this little girl in Mozambique knows she won’t gohungry today.”

Vietnamese researchers also give out many ways to classify advertising Lý Tùng Hiếu(2004) classifies advertising into 34 minor types according to four criteria: technique,target audience, morality and legality (p 40 – 51)

Mai Xuân Huy (2005, p 40 - 47)) collects ideas from many researchers to give out sevenways or criteria of classifying advertising as follows:

(1) Basing on medium criterion, advertising types include print advertising(newspaper, magazines), broadcast advertising (radio, television), out-of-homeadvertising (outdoor and transit), and direct mail advertising

(2) Geographic area criterion: international advertising, national advertising, regionaladvertising and local advertising

(3) Target audience criterion: consumer advertising, and business advertising

(4) Consumer response criterion: action advertising and awareness advertising

(5) Purpose criterion: commercial advertising, and noncommercial advertising

(6) Layout criterion: display advertising, classified advertising, and noticedadvertising

(7) Promoted object criterion: product advertising and nonproduct advertising (orinstitutional advertising/ corporate advertising/ prestige advertising)

1.2.2 Advertising - a kind of communication

According to Widdowson (1996), human language “serves as a means of cognition andcommunication: it enables us to think for ourselves and to cooperate with other people inour community.” (p 3) Nguyễn Văn Khang (1999) discusses the participants in thecommunication can take up to four roles: an addresser, a speaker, an addressee and ahearer

Communication is the process by which individuals share information, ideas and attitudes

It is the process between at least two sides – the addresser (transmitter – speaker or writer)and the addressee (receiver – listener or reader) Between these two participants, the codedmeaning (information) is transmitted through the communication channel Eachcommunication is proceeding in given context or situation

Wilson & Wilson (1998) give out a very simple communication model as the following:

Message

Source ============> Receiver

Channel

Diagram 1.1: communication model (source: Wilson & Wilson 1998, p 7)

They argue the source can be called the sender, communicator or encoder; the message iswhatever the source attempts to share with someone else; the channel is the way in which

we send our message: it may be our sense or technological devices, etc and the receivercan be called the destination, audience or decoder In mass communication, the receiver isusually a large audience

Mai Xuân Huy (2005) cites the communication process of Jakobson (1960) in the book

“Linguistics and Poetics” as follows:

Ngữ cảnhNgười phát - Thông điệp - Người nhận

Tiếp xúc Mã

It can be translated as:

Context Encoder - Message - Decoder

Channel Code

Diagram 1.2: communication factors (source: Mai Xuân Huy 2005, p.16)

It follows that advertising is a kind of communication between the creator of advertisement(in fact, the copywriter who substitutes the producer/seller and transfers his ideas intoadvertisements), and the consumer

From this representation we can clearly see that, in case of advertising, the encoder is thecopywriter, and the decoder is the reader, the meaning transmitted is about the product ormore specifically, an attempt to make the reader buy the product, the code (in the case ofpress advertising) is language and some sort of visual code, the channel consists of printedpublications, and the context include such features as the reader’s total situation (Does hehave the product already? Can he afford it? etc.), and the publication in which theadvertisement appears

This shows advertising is a kind of communication with its own principles The encoder is

a producer – a company that tries to persuade the decoder – a consumer - to buy a product.The code of the language has to be known by all participants of the communication Themessage communicated by the advertisement does not discuss everything about theproduct It is incomplete because there is no space enough to describe the product intodetails The message only contains what the producer thinks the consumer needs to know

It always contains the name of the product and usually the information how it can benefitthe customer

Goddard (1998) discusses about the communication of advertising under the idea ofnarrator and narratees She states that the writer is the person who constructs the text inreality (in advertising texts, the real writers are the copywriters and artists who work in anadvertising agency’s creative department), while the narrator is the storyteller within thetext Copywriters can “construct all sorts of different narrators to convey to us the message

of an advert” (p.29), for example, a female writer can construct a male narrator, or an adultwriter can construct a child narrator Narratees are, on the other hand, people who appear

to be addressed In fact, in advertising communication, a narratee is not a certain person,but at least a target group, or a whole public

“The widest address forms to be given to a narratee in an advertisement are no addressform at all (0) or ‘you’ In both these cases, any person reading the advert can feeladdressed by it and not excluded from the communication.” (Goddard 1998, p.31) Thewidely used pronoun ‘your’ symbolizes the closeness of the product to the consumer

A narrator might be:

 The first person singular narrator ‘I’ – a character in the story itself; this kind oftext sounds more personally; the narrator talks to us

E.g.: “I won a certificate good for a free meal!” (Phan Tường Vân 2004, p 20)

 The first person plural narrator ‘We’ – This may evoke the effect the wholecompany or association talks to the narratee It makes a corporate impression E.g.: “We bring Olympic energy to your home.”

 The third person omniscient narrator ‘He’, ‘She’, ‘It’, ‘They’ or ‘0’– it is ‘anobserver’ of events, telling us about actions or product

E.g.: “In their eyes, they can tug forever.”

“Stop seeing broken hair everywhere.”

“One just right for you.”

The communication through advertising text is interesting: like the communication throughtext on magazines or newspapers, the writers “are in difficulty in addressing a massaudience They cannot possibly claim to know the identity of each individual reader, yetthey often speak as though they already know the reader, their thoughts, attitudes, likes anddislikes.” (McLoughlin 2000, p 67)

CHAPTER 2 THE SENTENCE PATTERNS USED IN TRAVEL ADVERTISEMENTS ON ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE WEBSITES

In this chapter, we focus on analyzing sentence patterns used in travel advertisements onEnglish and Vietnamese websites It should be noted that advertising on websites isremarkably different from advertising on television as the latter “generally lies on strikingvisual imagery, colour and music to get the audience’s attention and to take advantage ofthe connotations of words, images and sounds in a very shot space of time.” (Marshall &Werndly 2002, p 36) while the former focuses mainly on words and images to attract massaudience regardless of how much time it takes

As for sentences types used both in English and Vietnamese advertisements, we investigatesentence types from the number and kinds of clauses in a sentence as well as sentenceclassification by purpose Finally, sentences both in English and Vietnameseadvertisements are also analyzed according to the thematic structure under Halliday’sphilosophy

2.1 Sentence patterns used in travel advertisements on English websites

2.1.1 Clauses, clause classification and clause elements

In sentences classified by structure, clauses are an important element Leech and Svartvikremark “clauses are the principle structures of which sentences are composed.” (1989,p.211)

According to Quirk and Greenbaum (1973), clause types fall into three main classesstructurally: finite clause, non-finite clause and verbless clause (p 310)

A finite clause is a clause whose V element is a finite verb phrase

E.g.: John has visited New York (p 310)

A non – finite clause is a clause whose V element is a non – finite verb phrase

E.g.: For a bridge to co llapse like that is unbelievable (p 320)

A verbless clause is a clause containing no V element but otherwise generally analysable

in terms of one or more clause elements

E.g.: When ripe, these apples will be delicious (p 313)

And the five units: Subject (S), verb (V), complement (C), object (O) and adverbial (A) arecalled elements of clause structure, being defined syntactical and semantic ways (p 170 –175) as follows:

2.1.1.1 Clause elements syntactically defined

a Subject

A subject is normally a noun phrase or a clause with nominal function

E.g.: The pretty girl in the corner is Tom’s sister

That she is still alive is a consolation

The subject occurs before the verb phrase in declarative, and immediately after theoperator in questions

E.g.: A special period will need to be set aside for this operation

Are computers fairly commonplace today?

However, we can use subject-verb inversion for emphasis

E.g.: Here comes the bus

In went the sun and down came the rain

A subject also has number and person concord with the verb phrase where applicable

E.g.: The party is open to all people in the village

How they got there is still a mystery

What were once human dwellings is now nothing but piles of rubble

b Object

The object is a noun, noun phrase or clause, or pronoun in sentences with transitive verbs,which is affected by the action of the verb There are direct objects (Od) and indirectobjects (Oi)

E.g : They gave him a cake

Oi Od

The object often follows the subject and the verb phrase and by the passive transformation,

it assumes the status of the subject

E.g.: The window was broken by that little boy

c Complement

A complement is a noun, an adjective phrase or a clause with nominal function, having aco-referential relation with the subject or object

“The expression that describes the subject in clauses (…) is often called the ‘complement’

of the clause or a ‘subject complement’… In some structures, the object of a verb can have

It is a part of the sentence which follows the verb to complete the sentence

E.g.: Alice is a ballet dancer

Cs

Do you call yourself a journalist?

CoHowever, in formal speech, the complement can be fronted with nuclear stress and thus to

be given special emphasis

E.g.: Mary her name is

CsDisappointment you call it!

Co

d An adverbial

Adverbials are the most diverse of the clause elements The adverbial is normally anadverb phrase, prepositional phrase or adverbial clause It may also be a noun phrase

E.g.: The manager is not in

She left a card for John

John met Mary John met Mary before she went back to America to study.She came late this morning

Adverbial can occur in more than position in the clause The adverbial follows the subjectand verb It may also follow the direct object and other predication adjuncts normallyappear at the end of the clause

E.g.: He got through the window.

Put your hands off me!

By now, Mary must have been there

He greeted us warmly

Adverbials are generally optional as they may be added or removed from the clausewithout affecting its acceptability and without affecting the relations of structure andmeaning in the rest of the clause

E.g.: She kindly sent them a warm greeting

A_optional

In Vietnam, students are now on summer holiday

A_optional A_optionalHowever, in some clause types, adverbials are obligatory

E.g.: Your children are outside [SVA]

The plane is off the ground [SVA]

We keep Tom off cigarettes [SVOdA]

She wants the payment in cash [SVOdA]

2.1.1.2 Clause elements semantically defined

a Agentive, affected, recipient, attribute

The most typical semantic role of a subject is agentive; that is, the animate beinginstigating or causing the happening denoted by the verb

E.g.: Tom greeted the delegation warmly

She lay in his arms

Direct object (Od) mostly functions as the affected participants That means the participant(animate or inanimate) does not cause the happening denoted by the verb, but is directlyinvolved in some other way

E.g.: We laid him on the sofa

O_affectedThe frost has killed my roses

O_affectedIndirect object (Oi) often functions as the recipient; that is an animate participant beingpassively implicated by the happening or state:

E.g.: I’ll give you the answer

O_recipientThe subject complement (Cs) plays the role of attribute of the subject whether a current orexisting attribute (with stative verbs) or one resulting from the event described by the verb(with dynamic verbs)

Current attribute: She looks happy

It sounds good

Resulting attribute: His face turned red.

He became restless

The object complement (Co) plays the same role

Current attribute: I prefer coffee black

Resulting attribute: He painted the wall blue.

They made him chairman

b Agentive and instrumental subject

Apart from its agentive function, subject frequently has an instrumental role It expressesthe unwitting material cause of an event:

E.g.: The cold affects me badly

With intransitive verbs, the subject also has the affected role

E.g.: The bell rang loudly

The table is shaking

c Recipient subject:

E.g.: I heard it ring, too

You have got brains

The subject may also have a recipient role with verbs such as have, own, possess, benefit(from), as is indicated by the following relation:

E.g.: Mr Brown has bought his son a radio

 So now his son possesses the radio

Such perceptual verbs as see and hear also require a “recipient” subject while look at andlisten to are agentive subjects

d Locative, temporal and eventive subjects

The subject may have the function of designating place or time:

E.g.: The road is swarming with ants (= Ants are swarming all over the road)

The bus holds thirty people (Thirty people can sit in the bus)Temporal subjects can usually be replace by “it”, the temporal expression becomesadjunct.

E.g.: Tomorrow is my birthday (= It is my birthday tomorrow)

Eventive subjects (with abstract noun heads designating arrangements and activities) differfrom others in permitting intensive complementation with a time adverbial

E.g.: The concert is on Tuesday

e Empty “it” subject

A subject may lack semantic content altogether, and consist only of the meaningless word

“it”, used especially with climatic predications:

E.g.: It is raining now

It is getting dark

g Locative and effected object

- Direct object: Apart from the affected object, semantic types of direct object are thelocative object and the effected object

E.g.: I climbed the high as light fell short (Locative object)

We are just passing the Eiffel Tower (Locative object)

Similar verbs used in this case include turn, leave, reach, surround, penetrate, mount,

cross, climb

An effected object is one that refers to something which exists only by virtue of theactivity indicated by the verb:

E.g.: Who is making all that noise?

After that, I paid her a visit every evening

h Affected indirect object

There is only one exception to the rule that the indirect object has the role of “recipient”:

this is when give (or related verbs like pay, owe) has an “effected” object as direct object

and an “affected” object as indirect object:

E.g.: I paid her a visit (“I paid her”)

I gave the door a couple of kicks (“I kicked the door a couples of times”)Has anyone touched the television today?

Have you dropped your handkerchief, my dear?

2.1.2 Sentences classification by clause patterns

Basing on the concord of five elements of clause: subject, verb, complement, object andadverbial (Quirk and Greenbaum (1973)), clause (sentence) patterns include: SV, SVA,SVC, SVO, SVOA, SVOC and SVOO (p 167)

In 10 selected advertisements written in English, there are total of 249 sentences, some ofwhich consist of more than one independent clause The following analysis about thedistribution of seven sentence patterns counts the total patterns occurring in one sentence,

but only with sentences which consist of more than one independent clause; those patterns

in dependent clauses are not counted but treated as a clause element (i.e adverbial)

The data collection of sentence patterns in advertisements on English websites is presented

in the following chart:

SVA 97 29%

SVC 112 34%

SVO 48 14%

SVOA 56 17%

Others 20 6%

SVA SVC SVO SVOA Others

Figure 2.1: Sentences realized by clause patterns in advertisements on English websites

As it can be seen from the about chart, of 333 independent clauses, the type SVC and SVAare dominant structures (accounting for 34% and 29% respectively) These two structures

have been used very effectively and suitably for writers to give clear descriptions about thetourist attractions The main verbs in both these patterns are intensive one (i.e be, become,etc.), followed by subject complements (Cs) or adverbials (A) to help readers understandmore about the subjects which are often the names of the tourist attractions Selectedadvertisements about such places as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Seoul andTaipei are typical for using these patterns The following are some examples forillustration:

[2:2] On the edge of the Orient, TOKYO – the last great conurbation before the yawning

technically known as Metro Manila (Manila)

Cs[2:7] Boat Quay, an excellent reincarnation of Peranakan shophouses and godowns, is a

apartment buildings and modern buildings interspersed with historical treasures (Seoul)

(A)[2:9] Taipei, the political and financial center of Taiwan, is the island's most populous

what Manileños have learned to do (Manila)

[2:12] Just south of Chongno is the Namdaemun/Myungdong area, at the Hoehyon and

Myungdong Subway stops (Seoul)

[2:13] Just at the eastern outskirts of the colonial core stands the renowned Raffles Hotel

[2:15]…it doesn't have, for example, the narrow alleys, bicycles and mahjong games of

Melaka or Kota Bharu or the atmospheric waterfront of Kuching (Kuala Lumpur)

[2:16] Legend says that a giant catfish sleeps beneath Tokyo Bay, and its wriggling can be

felt in the hundreds of small tremors that rumble the capital each year (Tokyo)

[2:17] But under the shadow of the skyscrapers you'll find a heady mix of frenetic markets

and rich cultural diversity in an optimal period of time (Singapore)

(A)The last three types (SV, SVOC and SVOO) only count for 6% of all Despite their smallrate of frequency, these types make a contribution to the variety of the Englishadvertisements

[2:23] …and Malaysian independence – Merdeka – finally came in 1957 (Kuala Lumpur)

and Ever Loyal City) (Manila)

[2:26] An excellent infrastructure, an efficient underground system and all the other

Sfacilities of an international city make this an extremely soft entry into the Chinese world

V O Co

(Hong Kong)

[2:27] … but Hong Kong also holds some surprises for the traveler - … (Hong Kong)

2.1.3 Sentence classification by structure

We can classify sentences basing on the number and kinds of clauses they contain Leech

& Svartvik (1989, p 288) categorize sentences into simple sentences (containing just one clause) and complex sentences (containing more than one clause) This idea is also seen in

Halliday’s philosophy in terms of clause simples and clause complexs

In this study, we use the terms simple sentence(s) and complex sentence(s) for analysis

So a simple sentence consists of one independent clause and no subordinate clauses It mayhave any number of phrases or a compound subject But it has no more than one clause E.g.: My grandmother once saw Queen Victoria (Thomson & Martinet 1986, p 162) Both men and women were drafted into the army (Thomson & Martinet 1986, p 288)