A systemic functional linguistic analysis of advertising slogans for life insurance

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---o0o--- VŨ THỊ HIỀN A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-o0o -

VŨ THỊ HIỀN

A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

OF ADVERTISING SLOGANS FOR LIFE INSURANCE

Phân tích khẩu hiệu quảng cáo bảo hiểm nhân thọ theo quan điểm Ngôn ngữ học chức năng hệ thống

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220204

HANOI – 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-o0o -

VŨ THỊ HIỀN

A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

OF ADVERTISING SLOGANS FOR LIFE INSURANCE

Phân tích khẩu hiệu quảng cáo bảo hiểm nhân thọ

theo quan điểm Ngôn ngữ học chức năng hệ thống

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220204

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr Lâm Quang Đông

HANOI – 2017

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research I confirm that:

1 This work was done wholly while I am in candidature for a Master degree at this University;

2 This thesis has never been submitted partially or wholly for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution;

3 Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed;

4 Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work;

5 I have acknowledged all main sources of help;

6 Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself

I am fully aware that should this declaration be found to be false, disciplinary action could be taken and penalties imposed in accordance with University policy and rules

Hanoi, 2017

V Th Hi n

My appreciation also goes to all lecturers of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies for their ideas and useful lessons from which I benefited a lot for the accomplishment of this thesis

Furthermore, I am greatly indebted to different linguists whose books and pieces of research have been very useful materials for my writing of this paper Their notable ideas inspired me much during the process of study and writing

I especially thank all of my friends and my parents for their love, support and encouragement which help me complete this thesis

ABSTRACT

The language of advertising is a very special one, with its own characteristics that make it different from other languages As a result, an investigation into linguistic features of advertising slogans can be of great value This qualitative research is conducted on a total of 78 life insurance slogans chosen from each company‟s official website The study aims at giving readers a brief description and analysis of advertising slogans and their accompanying images The analysis was based on a combined framework of Halliday‟s SFL and Kress and Leeuwen‟s Multimodality theory The study firstly tries to investigate transitivity to clarify six main types of processes: material, mental, relational, behavioral, verbal and existential processes Secondly, image-text relations were expounded based on Systemic Functional theory across semiotic modes The findings indicated that advertisement designers employed various linguistic devices to attract customers In these slogans, material, relational and mental processes are the most frequently applied The paper also figures out that images help extend or add new meaning to the verbal texft Thus, the language use and images in advertising slogans consist of different distinctive features to enable advertisers to communicate with customers The paper hopefully will entail useful implications for the use of language and other modes of communication

TABLE CONTENT

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii

ABSTRACT iiii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Research questions 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Significance of the study 3

5 Organization of the thesis 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Systemic Functional Linguistics 5

1.1.1 The background to SFL 5

1.1.2 Traditional grammar vs systemic functional grammar 5

1.1.3 The keys elements of SFL 6

1.2 Multimodality theory 7

1.3 An overview of advertisement and slogans 8

1.3.1 Advertisement 8

1.3.2 Slogans 9

1.4 Review of previous research 11

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES 13

2.1 The Data 13

2.2 Analytical frameworks 13

2.2.1 Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics 13

2.2.2 Kress and van Leeuwen’s Multimodal theory 16

2.3 Method of Analysis 18

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 19

3.1 Summary of linguistic aspects 19

3.2 Analysis based on Systemic Functional Linguistics 20

3.2.1 Material process 21

3.2.2 Mental process 24

3.2.3 Relational process 25

3.2.4 Other processes 27

3.2.5 Circumstantial Elements 28

3.3 Analysis based on Multimodality theory 31

3.3.1 Representational meaning 31

3.3.2 Interactive meaning 34

3.3.3 Compositional meaning 38

PART C: CONCLUSION 31

1 Main findings 42

2 Limitation and suggestions for future research 43

REFERENCES 42 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: 78 life insurance slogans collected from 7 countries I APPENDIX 2: 12 printed advertisements V

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Introduction to Functional Grammar, Halliday (2004: 219) _ 14 Figure 2: The percentages of 6 different processes 21

Table 1: Types of relational process _ 15 Table 2: The frequency of occurrence of all the techniques _ 20 Table 3: Illustration of Material Process 21 Table 4: Illustration of Mental Process _ 24 Table 5: Illustration of Relational – attribute Processes 25 Table 6: Illustration of Relational- identifying Processes _ 26 Table 7: Illustration of Verbal processes 27 Table 8: Illustration of Existential processes _ 27 Table 9: Illustration of Behavioral processes 28 Table 11: Illustration of 12 pictures based on Representational meaning _ 31 Table 12: Illustration of 12 pictures based on Interactive meaning 34 Table 13: Illustration of 12 pictures based on Interactive meaning 38

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In accordance with dramatic shifts in society, language has performed more and more important roles and assumed more significant functions in life What are those functions? How can people perceive the organization of language, and how this organization gives an account of such functions? – These have been questions

of concern to linguists According to Halliday, language is “a resource for making meaning” or a "meaning potential" Furthermore, he defines linguistics as the study of "how people exchange meanings by „languaging‟ – (Halliday, 1985) For Halliday, language, “in relation to our ecological and social environment”, consists of two main functions: making sense of our experience, and acting out our social relationships” Language is made up of more-or-less closed “systems”

of words and grammatical structures From these systems speakers make selections in order to simultaneously construct “wordings” and “meanings” The systems of wordings and meanings then help speakers reflect the social and cultural context of the language Halliday also argued for three metafunctions of language: interpersonal metafunction – the interaction between speaker and addressee; ideational metafunction – concerning „ideation” – grammatical resources for construing our experience of the world around us and inside us; and textual metafunction – the creation of text

Considering this topic, a great number of studies were conducted in the light of SFL theory SFL – Systemic Functional Linguistics was developed by Michael Halliday in the 1990s as a new approach to language and language-related issues It enables us to better present language features under a specific type of cultural and situational context, to show how language functions in certain circumstances and to demonstrate what role language may assume in different aspects of social life (Halliday, 2008)

Among these aspects, language in the field of advertising has drawn considerable attention since “A man who stops advertising to save money, is like a

man who stops a clock to save time” (Henry Ford, 2008) and “Advertising takes many forms, but in most of them language is of crucial importance” (Vestergaard

& Schroder, 1985) Advertising is the best way to communicate the products‟ values to all customers, including the young and the old Advertising helps inform customers about quality brands in the market and promote sales for companies, so advertising should be fascinating, exciting, and creative Slogans are considered the heart of an advertisement Hence, it is undeniable that language of advertising slogans is pervasive, influential, and ubiquitous It can be catchy phrases or short sentences which help corporations or businesses tell the world what makes their products or services different Indeed, creating a successful slogan is real art of language use

As a result, an investigation into linguistic features of advertising slogans can be of great value Significant amount of research has been conducted on advertising slogans, but advertising slogans on life insurance remain almost untouched Life insurance slogans reflect people‟s beliefs in the value of life Clients are at different ages, have different backgrounds and religions, so careful choices of language are crucial These reasons provide a source of inspiration to the author to conduct a research into advertising slogans for life insurance

2 Research questions

This study is carried out with the aim to describe and analyze characteristics of language used in advertising slogans for life insurance from Systemic Functional Linguistics perspective Then, images accompanying these slogans are also investigated to figure out their meanings and functions based on multimodal analysis In order to achieve these aims, the following questions are addressed:

1 What are the characteristics of language used in advertising slogans for life insurance from Systemic Functional Linguistics perspective?

2 What are the meanings and functions of the images included in such slogans based on multimodal analysis?

3 Scope of the study

In this study, the author aims to concentrate on verbal advertisements – 78 written slogans of famous life insurance companies from different countries all over the world (collected in three-month period from September to November in 2016) Due to the limitation of time and the limited scope of a minor M.A thesis, this study does not make an analysis of all aspects of language use Rather, the author mainly focuses on analyzing these slogans‟ language in terms of transitivity system and the images based on multimodality theory The thesis is conducted for academic purposes only, i.e without any commercial intent

4 Significance of the study

This minor M.A thesis is believed to have the following contributions: (i) Its account of linguistic features of life insurance advertising slogans from SFL perspective provides better understanding of advertising language;

(ii) Its analysis of images in these advertisements contributes to improved awareness of the meanings, functions of images as well as the linkage between verbal and visual modes of communication;

(iii) These two contributions will naturally entail useful implications for the use of language and other modes of communication by language learners, language teachers, advertising and business communities alike

5 Organization of the thesis

This thesis consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction aims to give the background of the study, including

the rationale, the aims of the study, research questions, scope, significance and organization of the thesis

Part B: Development, the main part and also the focus of the study consists

of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review presents a review of previous research,

including the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) of M.A.K Halliday and multimodal discourse analysis by Kress and Van Leeuwen Next, this chapter will

present the concepts, types and functions of an advertisement as well as the language used in it, the definition of slogan and how to evaluate a slogan, and a review of previous research as well

Chapter 2: Methodology and Procedures offers a detailed explanation on

the choice of data, analytical frameworks, and tools in the study

Chapter 3: Data-analysis and discussion analyzes life insurance

advertising slogans in terms of transitivity system; images accompanying these slogans are also investigated based on multimodality theory Answers to the research questions are expected to reveal from the results of these analyses

Part C: Conclusion recapitulates of what has been analyzed and found;

limitations of the study and lastly, suggestions for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Systemic Functional Linguistics

1.1.1 The background to SFL

SFL is an approach to language developed mainly by M.A.K Halliday and his followers during the 1960s in the United Kingdom, and later in Australia (O‟Donnell et al, 2009) This theory is developed under the influence of such influential linguists as Bronislaw Malinowski and J.R Firth While many of the linguistic theories in the world today are concerned with language as a mental process, SFL is more closely aligned with Sociology: it explores how language is used in social contexts to achieve particular goals In terms of

concept, systemic refers to the view that language is viewed as a network of interrelated systems or set of choices for making meanings; functional suggests

that the focus is on function rather than form Language is viewed as a practical means of expressing meanings rather than as an abstract set of relations

According to Matthiessen & Halliday (1997), SFL can be characterized as

an “applicable” linguistics theory, which means it is designed to have the potential

to be applied to solving problems that arise in communities around the world SFL

is also well-known for its application in different fields such as healthcare, computational linguistics, translation, multimodal studies, education, and scholars are always discovering new areas of application (Matthiessen, 2010) In recent years, SFL has become helpful in different fields such as linguistics, language education, child language development and media discourse

1.1.2 Traditional grammar vs systemic functional grammar

Compared to structural linguistics featured by Leonard Bloomfield in the United States during 1930s and 1940s, SFL is quite contrasting Halliday claims that the central concern of linguistics should be the study of the language through meaning, which is not the same with Bloomfield‟s theory in American linguistics (Matthiessen & Halliday, 1997) Bloomfield is in favor of the need for linguists to

study oral language instead of analyzing written documents because the documents, for example, do not fully represent a spoken language due to the fact that language undergoes changes over time and what something means today might have meant a different thing altogether in the past (Hall & Koerner, 1987)

In addition, systemic functional linguistics presented by Michael Halliday and transformational generative grammar (TGG) featured by Noam Chomsky are distinct in many respects Indeed, SFL studies language through meaning (function) while TGG is a fully influential and developed version of linguistics through form

1.1.3 The keys elements of SFL

In SFL, a text can be analyzed through four aspects: Context, Semantics, Lexico-grammar and Phonology However, in this paper, context is clarified as the central part because language cannot be viewed separately from its functions in context (Firth, 1957) Similarly, the systemic relationship between context and text is a central part of the theory (Halliday & Hasan, 1989) Indeed, when language occurs in a context, it will relate or is linked to a number of contexts (Matthiessen & Halliday, 1997) Among them, the context of situation will be mainly focused Matthiessen & Halliday (1997) showed three aspects of the

context relating intimately to the language used to create text Field gives us an indication of the topic or what is being talked about; Tenor gives us an indication

of who is/are involved in the communication and the relationship between them

and Mode gives us an indication of what part of language is playing in the

interaction and what form it takes (written or spoken)

The SFL model proposes that human language has evolved to make three generalized kinds of meanings They are: Experiential meanings (clause as representation), Interpersonal meanings (clause as exchange), and Textual

meanings (clause as message) The Experiential meanings are with the way reality

is represented and the grammatical resources for construing our experience of the world around us, as to what is going on, who is involved in the going-on, and

when, where, and how the goings-on are going on One of its chief grammatical

systems is classified as Transitivity Transitivity includes a number of aspects:

the processes, the participants, and the circumstances The interpersonal meanings

are concerned with the interaction between speaker(s) and addressee(s) It is used

to establish the speaker‟s role in the speech situation and relationship with others

One of its main grammatical systems is Mood and Modality The textual

meanings are concerned with the creation of text and the way we organize our

meanings into the text that makes sense One of the main textual systems is

Theme and Rheme (Matthiessen & Halliday, 1997)

1.2 Multimodality theory

Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996) use the term “multimodality” to show that

we seldom communicate by “one single mode of communication”; it is done simultaneously through a number of modes, i.e multi-modality, by combinations

of the visual, sound, language, etc An advertisement, for example, may attract readers by using linguistic devices that accompany images at the same time According to David Machin (2007), all modes need to be considered as semiotic systems whose potential choices, patterns and grammar can be described and analyzed For instance, visual elements may not be simply seen as connoting particular meanings but also their communicative uses

Regarded as a social semiotic approach, the theoretical foundation of Kress and Van Leeuwen‟s theory is the model of language grammar of Michael Halliday 1985) It is suggested that there are three basic metafunctions which can be presented by any semiotic system or mode For Kress and Van Leeuwen,

Ideational metafunction: “any semiotic mode has to be able to represent aspects of

the world as it is experienced by humans”, e.g the color blue on a map presents

the idea of the ocean; Interpersonal metafunction: “any semiotic mode has to be

able to project the relations between the producer of a (complex) sign, and the receiver/reproducer of that sign”, e.g the color red may create a mood of warning

or romance and Textual metafunction: “any semiotic mode has to have the

capacity to form texts, complexes of signs which cohere both internally with each

other and externally with the context in and for which they were produced”, e.g in

a picture, the color red could be used in a text and a picture to show the relevance

1.3 An overview of advertisement and slogans

Harris and Seldon (1962: 40) claim advertising as a public notice “designed

to spread information with a view to promoting the sales of marketable goods and services” Bolen (1984: 9) defines advertising as “paid, non–personal communication through various mass media by business firms, non–profit organizations and individuals who are in some ways identified in the message and who hope to inform or persuade members of a particular audience” Also,

according to Cook (1992: 7) “Advertising is the non-personal communication of

information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media” In the book

The Language of Advertising, Angela Goddard (1998: 10) says “Advertising is not

just about the commercial promotion of branded products but also encompass the ideas of texts whose intention is to enhance the image of an individual, group of organization Advertisements are forms of discourse which make a powerful contribution to how we construct our identities”

In terms of aim, Vestergaard and Schorder (1985: 1) categorize two main

types of advertising: Commercial advertising and Non-commercial advertising

Commercial advertising – is also “prestige or good-will advertise”, where

advertisers promote “a name or an image”, rather than “a commodity or a service” It is the most frequent type with the aim of “creating long-term goodwill with the public” Non-commercial advertising can be seen as “appeals from associations and societies whether their purposes are charity or political propaganda”

Advertisement published with the goal of not only creating a specific demand for products and services but sustaining the brands‟ momentum To fulfill this, an advertisement has at least one of two functions: informing or persuading, indeed these two can be performed simultaneously Based on functions, Bolen (1984: 6) divides advertising into two main types Informative advertisements inform “customers about goods, services, or ideas and then tell people how to get them by means of an identified sponsor” Persuasive advertisements are the instruments used by advertisers “who have defined their target audience and determined the effect they hope to achieve through persuasive advertisements in the media”

To make direct appeal to the customers, different advertising techniques

are applied to creation of necessary illusion of superiority and effectiveness for the product being advertised Advertisers often use special words or phrases called

„weasel words‟ Besides vague words, scientific evidence and rhetorical question

are also used In terms of stylistic features, it may be common to use persuasive

vocabulary, neologisms, imperatives, repetition, homophony, pun, hyperbole, syntactic parallelism, association and glamorization Among them, imperatives, repetition, parallelism, and using brand names are likely to be more popular Imperatives used to add force and urgency to the customers‟ command to choose the products while repetition refers to a repeated word, phrase, or statement which may be important and outstanding within the slogans The use of second person addressee “you” tends to shorten the distance between the company and consumers, creates more sincere promises and honest recommendations Using

brand names enables a good slogan to stay consistent with the brand name either obviously stated or strongly implied

1.3.2 Slogans

A slogan is defined as the “catch phrase or group of words that are put together to identify a product or company brand.” Slogans are a vital part of marketing and have been used to help promote business and engage with customers Most slogans are memorable phrases that may use devices such as metaphors, alliteration or rhymes with simple, vibrant language Sometimes, people may use the terms “tagline” and “slogan” interchangeably; indeed there are

differences between two terms A tagline is a short, powerful phrase that is

associated with the company‟s name It represents the products or services‟ tone and feeling brought to the customers It is often part of a company‟s graphics (e.g the logo or the letter) Figliulo et al, (2015) claim that “A tagline tends to be a communications device and is used by the brand when it‟s communicating to consumers‟ Taglines tend to be about the company, whereas slogans tend to be more about the products, the marketplace, the consumer and a need met The word

slogan comes from a Scottish word meaning "battle cry" – the slogan goes with

the “battle you are waging right now” That means slogans are often used only

for one product, or one campaign A slogan may change regularly according to different campaigns to advertise a specific aspect of a product or service, while a company tagline is used consistently for a company as a whole Because slogans often change, they are usually current and modern and give an impression of being new and trendy; they are designed to be a “hook” However, sometimes when a brand starts out, the slogan and tagline are one and the same With these above features, when developing a slogan people have more room to be creative The key point is to make sure the slogan catchy, memorable, and reliable; slogans also should consist of emotional attachment, effectively reflecting the brand image

1.4 Review of previous research

Advertising is a wide-ranging topic which covers different research fields

In terms of linguistics, the language of advertisements has been thoroughly studied Cook (1992) provides a comprehensive introduction to advertising discourse by investigating the language of complementary advertisements In terms of strategic goals, Vestergaard and Schroder (1985) claims that there are five strategic goals that should be achieved by advertisers The language of advertising was later studied by Toolan (1988) with the provision of guideline of standard features of English advertisements Besides, the study of advertising language was also conducted based on Theme – Rheme structure by Fries (1993)

In Vietnam advertising language has received considerable attention and been

studied by many linguists, most notably Mai Xuan Huy (2005) with Ngôn ngữ

quảng cáo dưới ánh sáng của lý thuyết giao tiếp (Avertising language in light of communicative theory) and Tran Thi Thu Hien (2012) through her doctoral

dissertation on the topic “Tìm hiểu các đặc trưng phong cách của ngôn ngữ quảng

cáo tiếng Việt (trong sự so sánh với tiếng Anh)” (Style characteristics of the Vietnamese advertising language – in comparison with English) Besides, many

other postgraduate students at the University of Languages and International

Studies conducted invaluable studies on different topics in this field such as “An

investigation into the style of the English language used in advertising slogans is used by some world- famous airlines” by Bui Thi Bich Thuy (2008) They all

made major contributions to providing better understanding of advertising language However, these papers just analyze some aspects of advertising language such as figures of substitution, style, and conceptual metaphor Indeed, advertising slogans on life insurance remain almost untouched As a result, an investigation into linguistic features of advertising slogans on life insurance from SFL perspective should be highly appreciated

To sum up, the researcher has clarified fundamental features of SFL and Multimodality theory Besides, the definition of advertisements and slogans are

also included A review of previous research helps the author avoid unnecessary duplication This will be useful for the researcher to carry out the next step

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES

2.1 The Data

Famous life insurance brands all over the world were selected as the sources of data because of their large number of creative and popular slogans for each launched advertising campaign They are all reliable, well-known and gain enormous prestige among the readers in English speaking countries and in Vietnam as well The main data for analysis are 78 life insurance slogans from different countries They are all in English collected from insurance companies‟ official websites The researcher chooses these sources since they are secure, informative and sufficient for the analysis

There are huge ranges of life insurance advertisement components available on the websites; however the researcher just focuses on the advertisements‟ slogans and their accompanying images As investigated, all other editorials, comments, instruction, direction, warnings are completely excluded from the data Within the scope of a MA minor thesis, it is supposed that 78 slogans would be sufficient for a relatively comprehensible analysis The ways these slogans are presented through art (accompanying images) are also assessed

2.2 Analytical frameworks

2.2.1 Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics

In discussion on SFL, there are three major functions of language: the textual, the interpersonal and the ideational

“A clause is the product of three simultaneous semantic processes It is at one and the same time a representation of experience (ideational), an interactive exchange (interpersonal), and a message (textual)” (Halliday, 1985: 53)

In this paper, however the writer analyzes the system of transitivity to

clarify the meaning of clause as representation In Introduction to Functional

Grammar, Halliday figures out three components of the system of Transitivity:

“(i) a process unfolding through time

(ii) the participants involved in the process

(iii) circumstances associated with the process”

As the main elements, the process is indicated by the participants and the circumstances Process is typically realized by verbal group, whereas participant is realized by nominal group; circumstance is realized by adverbial group or prepositional phrase

In the transitivity system, there are six types of process listed: material,

mental, relational, verbal, existential, and behavioral

Figure 1: Introduction to Functional Grammar (Halliday, 2004: 219)

A Material Process

Material processes are processes of “doing” or “happening”, which concern

with “our experience of the material world” There are two participants: Actor and

Goal Among them, Goal may be optional These processes may be categorized

into two types of “doing”: creative or transformative; or belong to different impact: intransitive or transitive Besides, there are also some additional participants involved: Scope, Recipient, Client and Attribute

B Mental Process

Mental processes are processes of “sensing”, which concern with “our experience of the world of our consciousness” There are 2 main participants:

Senser and Phenomenon Senser must be a “conscious being” which could feel,

think, want or perceive It could be “a person, persons or a human collective” Phenomenon that is sensed- is not only “a thing but an act or fact” These mental

processes can be categorized into four subtypes of sensing: “perceptive”,

“cognitive”, “desiderative” and “emotive” In the mental process, simple present

is unmarked

C Relational Process

Relational processes serve to “characterize or identify” Two participants will appear in these clauses: “something is said to „be‟ something else” ”; two separate entities may be relevant through Relational processes are divided into three main types All these types may follow two types of mode:

Relational process modes and their types are specifically divided into six types as shown in the following table:

Table 1: Types of relational process

Circumstance Circumstance Possession Possession

Participants Carrier Process Attribute Identified Process Identifier

D Behavioral process

Behavioral processes are of “physiological and psychological behavior” (typically human) These processes stay somewhere between material and mental

processes The participant here is labeled as Behaver – is a “conscious being”

There are some typical types of verbs serving as process: processes of consciousness represented as forms of behavior, bodily postures and pastimes, physiological processes and verbal processes as forms of behavior

Verbal process

Verbal processes are the processes of “saying” The participants in these

processes: Sayer, Receiver, Verbiage, Target Sayer is the participant who speaks

verbalization itself: content of what is said, name of the saying Target defines the entity which is “targeted by the process of saying”

Existential process

Existential processes represent that something exists or happens The

participant is labeled as Existent The existent may be a phenomenon or an event

Other participants and circumstantial elements

There are two other participants in English clauses: Beneficiary and

Range Beneficiary is the one to whom or for whom the process taken place;

Range is the element that specifies the scope of the process Types of circumstantial elements are also mentioned through four main types: enhancing, extending, elaborating and projection

2.2.2 Kress and van Leeuwen’s Multimodal theory

“In order to function as a full system of communication, the visual, like all

semiotic modes, has to serve several representational and communicational requirements We have adopted the theoretical notion of „metafunction‟ from the work of Michael Halliday for this purpose” (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996:40)

Based on the theory of SFL, Kress and van Leeuwen figure out that all semiotic modes may present three meta-functions: the ideational meta-function, the interpersonal meta-function, and the textual meta-function

A multimodal text, as a unit of meaning, combines semiotic resources to produce meaning The Meaning in a multimodal text is realized through the selection of semiotic choices from meaning potentials of all semiotic modes in the text Systemic Functional theory provides a social semiotic framework for the analysis of multimodal texts with context-dependent meaning studies and a comprehensive approach to language In recent years, Systemic Functional Linguistics, particularly with reference to cohesion and inter-clause relationships,

is widely applied in the theoretic study of image-texts relation Image-text relation

is expounded based on Systemic Functional theory across semiotic modes in this article

Firstly, he defines the ideational meta-function as “the ability of semiotic systems to represent objects and their relations in a world outside the representational system or in the semiotic systems of a culture” To achieve this function, representational structure should be considered through narrative processes and conceptual processes When narrative patterns presents “unfolding actions and events, processes of change, transitory spatial arrangements”; different kinds of narrative processes may be Action processes, Reactional process, Speech process, Mental process, Convention processes, and Circumstances as well By investigating these processes, structural features will be revealed: transactional or non-transactional; actional or reactional; verbal or mental Then “conceptual processes” represent “participants in terms of their class, structure or meaning” There are three main types of conceptual representations: classificational processes, analytical processes, and symbolic processes

Interpersonal meta-function is described as the ability of representing “a particular social relation between the producer, the viewer and the object represented” Considering the second meta-function, some dimensions are

suggested such as the image and gaze, social relations, and attitude and power The image act and gaze clarifies two kinds of image: Demand and Offer Social

relations determine the distance; these relations are categorized: close personal distance, far personal distance, close social distance, and far social distance In terms of attitude and power, the selection of an angle – a “point of view” may imply different categorizations: the involvement and detachment; the viewer power, equality or representation power

Textual meta-function is defined “different compositional arrangements to allow the realization of different meanings” There are three “interrelated

systems”: Information value, Salience and Framing Information presented

through images‟ arrangement, varies from left and right, top and bottom, center and margin Salience and Framing are both investigated through maximum or minimum connection (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996)

2.3 Method of Analysis

The study is conducted to give readers a brief description and analysis of advertising slogans and images which accompany these slogans Within the framework of an M.A thesis, the researcher cannot cover all aspects of language use; we therefore limit it to a manageable scope: analyze slogans in terms of transitivity system, and images in terms of multimodality theory The analysis is conducted qualitatively through 3 main steps First, each slogan is briefly analyzed based on linguistic aspects: length, word choices, tense, voice and some advertising techniques Then, to fulfill the focus of the study six types of transitivity process in each slogan are identified The paper also provides the meanings, functions of images as well as the linkage between verbal and visual modes of communication After all, the main findings of the research are expected

to be drawn

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter will provide the detailed analysis of the selected slogans to answer the two research questions:

1 What are the characteristics of language use in advertising slogans for life insurance from Systemic Functional Linguistics perspective?

2 What are the meanings and functions of the images included in life insurance slogans based on multimodal analysis?

3.1 Summary of linguistic aspects

As usual a printed advertisement may consist of two components: image and text Among them slogans are regarded as a part of text, which are created to appeal to the reader‟s emotions and convince them into buying the product Indeed, the choice of language to convey specific messages with the intention of influencing people is very important Though image and organization in advertisements exert a great impact on the consumer, it is the language that helps people identify a product and remember it In this section the author first analyzes the slogans in terms of length, and then some advertising techniques

After a study of 78 slogans from different life insurance companies, the following findings are drawn out In terms of length the medium length for a slogan is about 8 words Among them, slogans which are shorter than 5 words just account for 25%; the number of eight-worded slogans is outnumbered with 60% The long-form slogans may probably be preferred because of the rich and multi-layered meaning conveyed The length of a slogan is a factor worth considering Previously, it is quite common that when it comes to slogans, “the shorter the better” in spite of long-form slogans However it may change; in cases like these, the slogans are formed with many words to create strong messages and evoke customers‟ emotion Regarding the types of sentences, short simple sentences are the most popular one with more than 90% Slogans should be short and simple;

complicated and clumsy ones are not highly appreciated A concise style may make slogans memorable

Advertisers are likely to employ various advertising techniques to attract attention, engage minds and change what people may think

Table 2: The frequency of occurrence of all the techniques

The “water is wet” statement 9

The “ we are different and unique” claims 4

These techniques comprise for 25% of all slogans Having understood that customers are frequently driven by emotions, advertising creators try to use effective techniques to elicit audience‟s feelings These feelings help to relax the target audience and make them more focus on the products

3.2 Analysis based on Systemic Functional Linguistics

There are 78 selected slogans which aim at delivering messages from life insurance companies to potential customers Before analyzing advertising slogans based on transitivity system, the researcher needs to break complex sentences into simple clauses which involve a process and the participants in the process Then,

these slogans consist of 83 clauses which are clearly numbered and illustrated in different types

Generally, Material processes considerably outnumber with nearly 45% in total Relational processes take the second place with 26% Then, mental processes account for 16% The other processes (verbal, existential and behavioral processes) rank the last at 13% These percentages may be presented more clearly

in the chart below:

Figure 2: The percentages of 6 different processes

3.2.1 Material process

Table 3: Illustration of Material Process

Cl# Process Actor Goal Beneficiary Scope Attribute Circumstance

27a Enriching [Guardian] The lives

of

advantage for life

Your child (client)

dream

Your child‟s(client)

Education

With every dream(means)

Mainly, Material Process involves Actor and Goal as Participants Considering the frequency and the role of participants, Actor occurs in 17 clauses while Goal occurs in 23 clauses Of 17 Actors, the mainly focused participants are

two pronouns “You” and “We” which involve both life insurance companies and

the customer This suggests that the role of the customer and the customer relations are highly evaluated Of 23 Goals, life and related issues – education, changes… appear prominent By focusing on life, the advertising slogans play a decisive role to highlight the nature of life insurance

company-advertisements These advertisements mention both effective and negative aspects

(advantage, benefits, risk, problems…), real and abstract things (education,

change, dream…) in life Among analyzed material processes, a number of

participants - Actors are hidden; however, the viewer may interpret themselves as the role of Actor carrying out the process By doing this way, the advertising creators cleverly seek the customer‟s attention without any direct mention

Clauses of doing (transitive) – Material Process are more outstanding This type consists of an Actor which may extend to other participant, Goal For

example, you keep the company (see clause 15), the implication is that the Actor –

You (customer) did something – keep, which was directed at the Goal – the Company

Clauses of happening (intransitive) – Material Process imply that the

outcome just may be confined to the Actor itself The real life never stops (see clause 53); for instance, the slogan just simply presents the Actor‟s activity –

never stop

Transitive clauses suggest 2 representations: Operative (active form) and

Receptive (passive form) All analyzed transitive material clauses are presented in

active form We keep our promises (see clause 25) is Operative when the Actor –

We is mapped on to the Subject, so it is given modal responsibility

The clauses also may be construed as creative or transformative ones based

on the different processes True partners build success (see clause 52) is presented

as a creative clause because the outcome is the coming into existence of the Goal

– success In contrast, transformative clause as in You keep the Company (see clause 15), the outcome is just the change of an already existing Goal – the

Company Thus, the outcome is the maintaining not the creation of the Company Transformative clauses may contain separate elements to represent the outcome

For example, Get you back (see clause 11a) or Help you go right (see clause 3), where back and go right serve as Attribute to clarify the result of Goal