Lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements a comparative study in english and vietnamese

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

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

_

DƯƠNG BÍCH THUẬN

LEXICAL REITERATION IN THE LANGUAGE

OF ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS:

A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

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

M.A Minor thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

Hanoi-2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

_

DƯƠNG BÍCH THUẬN

LEXICAL REITERATION IN THE LANGUAGE

OF ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS:

A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

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

M.A Minor thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

Supervisor: Dr Kiều Thi Thụ Hương

Hanoi-2012

TABLE OF CONTENT

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALTY i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF FIGURES iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS v

TABLE OF CONTENT vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 RATIONALE 1

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 2

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

4 METHODS OF THE STUDY 2

5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 4

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1 1 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES 5

1.2 OVERVIEW OF ADVERTISEMENTS AND ADVERTISING LANGUAGE…6 1.2.1 Advertisement 6

1.2.1.1 Definition 6

1.2.1.2 Functions 8

1.2.1.3 Categories of advertisements 8

1.2.2 Features of advertising language 10

1.2.2.1 Lexical features 10

1.2.2.2 Syntactical features 12

1.2.2.3 Rhetorical figures 12

1.3 OVERVIEW OF ICT AND ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS 14

1.4 LEXICAL REITERATION 15

1.4.1 Definition 15

1.4.2 Classification 17

1.4.2.1 Repetition 17

1.4.2.2 Synonym or near synonym 17

1.4.2.3 Superordinate 18

1.4.2.4 General word 18

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

2.1 LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH 20

2.1.1 Repetition 20

2.1.2 Synonym or near synonym 21

2.1.3 Superordinate 22

2.1.4 General word 23

2.2 LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENT IN VIETNAMESE 23

2.2.1 Repetition 23

2.2.2 Synonym or near synonym 27

2.2.3 Superordinate 27

2.2.4 General word 28

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

3.1 SIMILARITIES 29

3.1.1 Popularity ……… 29

3.1.2 Flexibility 31

3.1.3 Kind of reiterated items 33

3.1.4 Combination with other rhetorical figures 34

3.2 DIFFERENCES 34

3.2.1 Coinage in ICT product advertisements in English 34

3.2.2 Loanwords in ICT product advertisements in Vietnamese 34

PART III: CONCLUSION 36

1 RECAPITULATIONS 36

1.1 Popularity 36

1.2 Flexible use 36

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

1.4 Diverse combination with other rhetorical figures 36

1.5 Different choices in making creative advertisements of ICT products 37

2 IMPLICATIONS 37

3 LIMITATIONS 37

4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 38

REFERENCES I APPENDIXES VI APPENDIX 1 VI

APPENDIX 2 X

PART I: INTRODUCTION

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

1 RATIONALE

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

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

Distance has obviously become a thing of the past Everything not only comes closerbut also rolls faster Something modern today may get out of date right the next day.Generations of personal computers, from desktop and then laptop to tablet PCs orversions of iPhone developed one by one are examples of this fast-changing world Noone wants to be lag behind We, therefore, should keep pace with the development ofthe ICT world

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

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

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

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

of ICT products or lexical reiteration in the language of ICT product advertisements inEnglish and Vietnamese, specifically As such, the use of lexical reiteration in thelanguage of ICT product advertisements in the two languages will be compared tofacilitate our catching up the message of an advertisement in this field

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY This study is targeted at:

2.1 Investigating how many subtypes of lexical reiteration are used in the

language of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese

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

3.2 What are the similarities and differences in lexical reiteration in the language

of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese?

4 METHODS OF THE STUDY

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

used to specify, delineate, or describe naturally occurring phenomena withoutexperimental manipulation” (Seliger & Shohamy, 1989:124) This research type aims to

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

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

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

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

two research questions

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

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

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

Vietnamese are picked at random from magazines like “Maximum PC”, “PC World Việt Nam - Thế Giới Vi Tính”, “Thế Giới Số” and “Tin Học và Đời Sống” issued from

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Work out the similarities of reiterated items in these advertisements

 Point out their differences

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

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

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

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

methods, the scope, and the design of the study

Part II: Development

Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background of the study Chapter 2 explores lexical reiteration in Vietnamese and English

advertisements of ICT products

Chapter 3 points out several similarities and differences between

lexical reiteration used in Vietnamese and Englishadvertisements of ICT products

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

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

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

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

of ICT product advertisements in English and Vietnamese is explored

1 1 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES

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

Leech (1966) examines standard advertising language in his research “English in Advertising: A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain” According to Leech,

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

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

Cook (1992) investigates the discourse of advertising He offers a comprehensiveintroduction to advertising discourse by examining the language of complementaryadvertisements

Vietnamese scholars also work on advertising language and its features from differentperspectives

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

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

Ton (2005) continues on this topic by investigating the discourse analysis of traveladvertisements in English and Vietnamese She points out lexico-grammatical andtextual features which are the characteristic of the travel advertisements in English andVietnamese in order to improve Vietnamese advertisements and help them meet bothcommercial and cultural ends as well as to effectively adapt the travel advertisementswritten in English by the Vietnamese professionals to meet English speaking targetreadership

The most recent research on this issue was carried out by Bui (2012) who analyzeslinguistic features of advertising language used in English slogans for food and drinkproducts on the phonological, lexical, semantic and syntactic levels

1.2 OVERVIEW OF ADVERTISEMENTS AND ADVERTISING LANGUAGE 1.2.1 Advertisement

1.2.1.1 Definition

The term “advertisement” owes its origin to the classical Latin word “advertere” whichmeans “to turn” or to “face to”, using the Latin prefix “ad-” (to, in addition), derivedfrom the word “vertere” (to turn; turn, turn around; change) (Retrieved fromhttp://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=advertise&allowed_in_frame=0) Later

on, it became a term employed to indicate whatever draws attention or informssomething

There are different definitions of advertisements Lord and Thomas (1900:9) gave thevery first definition which was considered to change the history of advertising i.e

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

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

it is inappropriate in modern time In addition, advertisements may be considered “a public notice designed to spread information with a view to promoting the sales of marketable goods and services” (Vestergard and Schroder, 1985:2) or “paid public messages designed to describe or praise a product” by Arjun Kumar Bhatia

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

Oxford Advanced Learner‟s dictionary (2003: 23) defines “advertisement” as “a notice, picture or film telling people about a product, job or service” This definition indicates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

that is used by marketers to communicate messages to their customers and otherstakeholders

1.2.1.2 Functions

An advertisement informs, persuades, and/or reminds customers of business andorganizational offerings such as products, services, campaigns, jobs and so on Ogdenand Rarick (2010:2) point out that advertising can create an immediate response (e.g.,

“only two days left in the sale”) or can be used to keep the product and/orbusiness/organization‟s name in front of the consumers so that they remember theproduct, service, or organization when they are out shopping Advertising shouldattempt to develop product or company loyalty, provide information to ease thecustomer‟s decision-making process, and develop awareness among the targeted groupabout potential offerings that are available to consumers In short, advertising aims atbenefiting the producer, educating the consumer and supplementing the salesmen.Above all, it is a link between the producer and the consumer

1.2.1.3 Categories of advertisements

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

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

 Large audience reaching in

short  High cost, especially at

 Vivid

messages conveyed by  Short exposure

using visuals, language, soundand motion simultaneously

 Wide coverage  No visual impact on

 A wide variety of information  Lack of intrusiveness

3 Internet  Low cost

 Possibility of links‟ being

 Ability to reach a global audience

5 Newspaper  Wide circulation and the degree of

 Short life span of ads

audience (published daily) desired audience will see

 Ability to reach large audience

ads in specific date

 Featuring sections and articles for

 Difficulty for readers

 Low cost

or small font words

1.2.2 Features of advertising language

Advertisers use various linguistic means at their disposal to attract target audience‟sattention Within the scope of this study, a small number of these linguistics features inadvertisements are discussed briefly and separately

1.2.2.1 Lexical features

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

o Use of monosyllabic verbs

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

E.g “Have a break, have a Kit Kat.”

(Kit Kat advertisement)

o Use of weasel words

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

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

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

(Carlsberg advertisement)

o Use of favorable words

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

E.g “Toshiba Leading Innovation.”

(Toshiba advertisement)

o Use of personal pronouns

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

E.g “We live to deliver.”

(FedEx advertisement)

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

neologisms-Coinage

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

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

(Sony Audio advertisement)

Perrier with added je ne sais quoi.”

(Perrier beer advertisement)

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

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

1.2.2.2 Syntactical features

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

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

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

repetition, reversal, substitution and destabilization as presented by Luu (2010) toincrease the appeal of an advertisement and to arouse consumers‟ interest of buying theproduct Frequently used figures of rhetoric are repetition, reversal and substitution will

be discussed briefly in the following part

o Repetition

Repetition- saying something again- especially those of key words or sentences inadvertisements is used intentionally to emphasize what is being advertised Forexamples:

“Double your pleasure Double your fun.

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

(Double mint gum advertisement)

As McQuarrie & Mick (1996) put it,

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

of one another in an expression A characteristic of a mirror image, of course, isthat it repeats the original, but in reverse […] The English language permitssemantic as well as syntactic reversals, in the form of binary pairs in which oneterm might be thought of as the reverse or opposite of the other (i.e high/low,easy/tough)”

This rhetorical figure can easily found in many advertisements Note how, in Tide advertisement, the parallelism is created to make a simple but effective slogan

E.g “Tide‟s in Dirt‟s out.”

(Tide advertisement)

o Substitution

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

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

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

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

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

(Brilliant Brunette shampoo advertisement)Here in this advertisement, the adman exaggerates the quality of his shampoo by

saying that it‟s going to bring customers smooth hair with “infinite, mirror-like shine”

1.3 OVERVIEW OF ICT AND ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS

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

- they happen with an incredible pace As mentioned at the beginning of this study,something modern today may get out of date right the next day Let us focus on the threewords behind ICT, i.e information, communication and technology only From these words,

we can see that a good way to think about ICT is to consider all the uses of all technologies

to help individuals, businesses and organizations use information and communicate witheach other

As such, ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit orreceive information electronically and serve our communication such as computers,television, telephones, emails, robots, softwares, hardwares, applications and so on But

it is worth remembering that when you use your computer to play Solitaire, it is, ofcourse, not the use of ICT because in this process, no information is handled or nocommunication takes place

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conjunction Additive, adversative, Discourse adjuncts:

relations, externaland prepositional groups

by specificity (only) Definite articles

Lexical cohesion Collocation (similarity of Same or associated lexical

general word

Substitutions Identify of potential Verbal, nominal or clausal

reference (class meaning) substitute

in context of non-identity Verbal, nominal or clausal

of actual (instantial) ellipsisreference

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

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

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

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

lexical item at one end of the scale; the use of a general word to refer back to a

lexical item at the other end of the scale; and a number of things in between the

use of synonym or superordinate”

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

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

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

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

1.4.2 Classification

1.4.2.1 Repetition

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

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

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

peeped over the edge of the mushroom.”

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:278)

1.4.2.2 Synonym or near synonym

Lexical cohesion results from the choice of a lexical item that is in some sense

synonymous with a preceding one to avoid unnecessary repetition

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

The climb is perfectly easy.”

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:278)

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

“Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,

And leaping down the ridges lightly, plung‟d

Among the bulrush beds, and clutch‟d the sword

And lightly wheel‟d and threw it The great brand

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

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:278)

1.4.2.3 Superordinate

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

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

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

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

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:278)

1.4.2.4 General word

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

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

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

There is a boy climbing that tree.

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

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

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

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

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:279-280)

No Reiterated item Reiterating item Type of lexical cohesion

Figure 3 Examples of lexical reiteration subtypes

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

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

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

2.1 LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH

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

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

2.1.1 Repetition

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

These moments are perfect.

These moments are Canon.”

(Canon camera advertisement)

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

“The innocence is brilliant

I hope that it will stay

This moment is perfect

Please don’t go away…”

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

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

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

(Dell laptop advertisement)

Verbs are also reiterated in English advertisements of ICT products

For example:

(27) Take Toshiba Take the World.

(Toshiba laptop advertisement)

(11) Pump up the beat Choose custom-built Immense yourself with high

definition audio powered by the smart 2010 Intel® Core™ Processor Family

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

(Intel advertisement)

Repetition of adjectives and adverbs is also realized in ICT product advertisement inEnglish

E.g

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

(Nokia Nseries advertisement)

(8) Simply likeable Simply You The new HTC Saga.

(HTC cell phone advertisement)

2.1.2 Synonym or near synonym

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

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

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

(D-link advertisement)

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

Safeguards privacy […]”

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

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

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

However, this subclass of lexical reiteration isn‟t as frequently found in advertisements

of ICT products as other subclasses

(MacBook Pro advertisement)

“Re-everythinged” becomes the next in line of Apple‟s tagline of coinage withThinnovation” (New MacBook Air advertisement) and “Trilemma” (New iBooksadvertisement) “Redesigned Reengineered Re-everythinged” tells the audience thatApple has redesigned their MacBook, reengineered it and changed it whatever way to

get this new one and termed this whatever change re-everythinged.

2.2 LEXICAL REITERATION IN ICT PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN VIETNAMESE

Vietnamese advertisers also use lexical reiteration in advertising their ICT products.Let‟s examine how this means of cohesive devices is made use of in Vietnameseadvertisements of this high-end stuff This session presents 11 typical advertisements

of ICT products that employ lexical reiteration out of 18 advertisements of the typeonly The ad number is its order in appendix 2

2.2.1 Repetition

Words of different classes are repeated in advertisements of ICT products inVietnamese