An investigation into syntactic and semantic features of advertising language in english with reference to the vietnamese equivalents

1 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled An Investigation into Syntactic and Semantic Features of Advertising La

1

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

TRẦN THỊ THANH HÀ

AN INVESTIGATION INTO SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF

ADVERTISING LANGUAGE IN ENGLISH WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA

CỦA NGÔN NGỮ QUẢNG CÁO DU LỊCH TRONG TIẾNG ANH TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT

M.A THESIS

Field: English Language Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2015

2

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

TRẦN THỊ THANH HÀ

AN INVESTIGATION INTO SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF

ADVERTISING LANGUAGE IN ENGLISH WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA

CỦA NGÔN NGỮ QUẢNG CÁO DU LỊCH TRONG TIẾNG ANH TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT

M.A THESIS

Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Phan Van Que

Hanoi, 2015

1

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled An Investigation into Syntactic and Semantic Features of Advertising Language on Tourism in English with reference to the Vietnamese Equivalents submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement

in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2015

Tran Thi Thanh Ha

Approved by

SUPERVISOR

as an academic researcher

A special word of thanks goes to all my classmates and many others, without their support and encouragement it would never have been possible for

me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

3

ABSTRACT

The thesis presents the investigation into syntactic and semantic features

of advertising language on tourism in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents The objective of the study is to investigate the syntactic and semantic features of advertising language on tourism in English and Vietnamese, then to work out the similarities and differences of those linguistic devices in two languages In order to achieve this objective, a corpus of 40 passages of tourism advertisements in both languages was collected to examine and identify the syntactic and semantic features

The findings of the study reveals that declaratives, complex sentences, simile and metaphor appear the most frequently in tourism advertising of both languages Analyzing the syntactic and semantic features of advertising language on tourism will not only benefit the advertisers and readers to better understand advertising writing styles, but can serve as an informative source for pedagogical and research purposes, and hopefully it becomes a motivation for other learners to carry out further researches

4

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

e.g.: for example

ads: Advertisements

TAs: Tourism Advertisements

ETAds: English Tourism Advertisements

VTAds: Vietnamese Tourism Advertisements

etc.: et cetera

5

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 4.1: Distribution of sentence types in ETAds 39

Figure 4.2: Distribution of ETAds sentence structure 40

Figure 4.3: Distribution of sentence types in VTAds 42

Figure 4.4: Distribution of sentence structure in VTAds 43

Figure 4.5: Distribution of stylistic devices in ETAds 50

Figure 4.6: Distribution of stylistic devices in VTAds 52

1.1 Rationale for the research 1

1.3 Objectives of the research 2

1.5 Significance of the research 4 1.6 Structural organization of the thesis 5

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Review of previous studies 13 2.2 Review of theoretical background 15 2.2.1. Advertising and Tourism Advertisements 15 2.2.1.1 Definitions of Advertising 15 2.2.1.2 Types of Advertising 15 2.2.2. Advertising language and its functions 17 2.2.3. Features of Advertising language 21

3.2.1. Major methods vs supporting methods 33 3.2.2. Data collection techniques 33 3.2.3. Data analysis techniques 34

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Syntactic and Semantic features in ETAds and VTAds 36 4.1.1. Syntactic features in ETAds 36 4.1.2. Semantic features in ETAds 40 4.2 Similarities and Differences of Advertising Language on

Tourism in English and Vietnamese

APPENDICES

9

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the research

Nowadays, together with the development of the society and the world, advertising becomes an important part in our life You can see advertising with different types from everywhere around us: adverts on TV, adverts in newspapers and magazines, brochures in travel agencies, internet pages, posters in stations and so on Advertising could alert customers about new products that come into the market because it contains information about what the product is, what it does and why you should buy it The main purpose of advertising is to inform people about new products and services offered by an organization, persuade people to buy these products or make use of the services offered and then to remind people about the organization and encourage repeat purchase and use Therefore, advertisers use various linguistic devices to make the message of an advertisement to be more colorful, legible, understandable and memorable

In the field of tourism, advertising plays a vital role in developing the countries tourism by attractively presenting the nations points-of-interests, historical and cultural Advertising helps us introduce the various cultures and societies abroad, as well the history, ancient, historical sites, and languages of the advertised country to readers So tourism advertisements have its own characteristics and the language used in it must be believable and distinctive

10

Many linguists so far have studied the linguistic perspectives of advertising language It can be studied in term of appearance, the language used, structures and meaning Advertisers use various writing styles in drawing attention of the customers to the products and services In addition to that, the language used in advertising is different depending on the types of advertised products and services Because of the various kinds of language used, it is very interesting to study how the advertisers produce pieces of advertising efficiently

Basing on the above facts and other acquired information I make the

decision to investigate more in detail about the syntactic and semantic

features of advertising language on tourism in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents for my graduation paper, hoping that the results of the study and analysis are useful for me and other learners farmiliarizing and understanding the main issues connected with the technique of writing advertising texts; and data of the study can provide information for those who are working in advertising sphere The main reason I choose this topic is my interest in English language and advertising as I find advertising language is very fascinating; therefore, I want to discover its meanings and grammar structures

1.2 Aims of the research

The graduation thesis is conducted with a view to find out some syntactic and semantic features of advertising language on tourism in English, and suggests some possible implications for teaching and learning English for Tourism to Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language at Hanoi University of Business and Technology

1.3 Objectives of the research

(iii) Suggesting some implications for teaching and learning English for tourism to Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language

1.4 Scope of the research

(i) Academic scope: The study focused on analyzing and comparing features of English and Vietnamese advertising language on tourism in terms

of syntactic and semantic perspectives The similarities and differences are withdrawn from this study could be explained on the basis of cultural and linguistic features, thus helping us find out some implications in teaching, and learning English for tourism

(ii) Social scope: In the field of advertising, although there are many previous studies that analyze grammatical structures, sentence structure, and rhetorical mode in advertising, within the scope of my study in this thesis, I only focus on some typical syntactic and semantic features used in tourism advertisements such as sentence types, simile, metaphor and hyperbole; most

of those tourism advertisements are about destinations of different places Due

to the duration of time and the length as well as the references available, I only focus my study on the analysis and comparison of about 40 short tourism advertising passages in two languages (20 short passages in English and 20 short passages in Vietnamese)

1.5 Significance of the research

12

(i) Theoretically, the study helps to find out the syntactic and semantic features used in advertising language on tourism in particular and in our social life in general

(ii) Practically, it helps to find out the effectiveness of those linguistic features when applying to the act of advertising and hopefully suggests some ways for learning, teaching and translating tourism advertisements

1.6 Structural organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1 – Introduction provides the reason why the topic is chosen In

this chapter, it also provides the aims and objectives of the study; the scopes and design of the study

Chapter 2 – Literature Review presents an overview of some previous

researches on the same subject both in English and Vietnamese At the same time, it gives a theoretical background to the study with theoretical preliminaries directly related to the investigation of syntactic and semantic features of advertising language on tourism in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents

Chapter 3– Methodology refers to the researching approach of the study

and the method to collect and analyze the collected data to help me achieve the best results in the study

Chapter 4 – Findings and Discussion, in which I will summarize the

findings; discussion the similar and different features of advertising language

on tourism in two languages in term of syntactic and semantic features and implications for teaching and learning as well as writing advertisements

Chapter 5- Conclusion provides the recapitulations, concluding remarks

and limitation of the study, and suggestions for further studies

13

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides a review of previous works related to the study, dealing with theoretical framework of investigation such as concepts of discourse, discourse analysis, text and context which are relevant to the purpose of the thesis, as well as the definitions, types and features of advertising language from the syntactic and semantic perspectives

2.1 Review of previous studies

There have been a lot of authors whose studies relate to the language of

advertising In “the discourse of advertising” by Guy Cook (2013, 2nd edition), the author provides a framework for analysis of advertisements as a discursive genre Besides, there are some famous researches in this field which can be

mentioned here include “English in advertising: A linguistic study of Advertising in Great Britain” by Geoffrey N.Leech, G.N (1996), “Advertising

as communication”by Gillian Dyer (1982), “The Language of Advertising” by Vestergaard, T & Schroder, K (1985) In addition, there are some journals focusing on the analysis of some certain features of advertising language such

as “Figures of Rhetoric in Advertising Language” by McQuarrie, E.F & Mick, D.G (1996), “The Linguistic Features of English Advertising” by Zhu, L

of Travel Advertisements in English and Vietnamese” Besides, there are some studies directly related to the field of the study as follows:

14

“An investigation into the sentence patterns used in travel advertisements on English and Vietnamese websites” by Phung Ngoc Bich,VNU - CFL in 2008

In the study, the author focused on the analysis of sentence structures used in travel advertisements on the internet and made a comparison between two languages He mentions different approaches of sentence types on English and Vietnamese websites including sentence classification by structure, by purpose and clause patterns The Theme – Rheme structure is also viewed and analyzed carefully both in English and Vietnamese The analysis of sentence patterns also indicates the influences of culture on the writing styles of advertisements in each language

“An investigation into the style of the English language used in advertising slogans issued by some world famous airlines” by Bui Thi Bich Thuy,VNU - CFL in 2010

In this paper, the author analyzed and discussed syntactic, semantic, phonological and lexical features of the airline advertising slogans She has attempted to investigate the style of English language employed in the world-famous airlines’ slogans and has come out with the most popular linguistic features in advertising slogans’ language

In addition, there are two scientific studies on tourism advertising language in English and Vietnamese which are used as a reference in my study

including “An analysis of English Tourism Discourse” by Nguyen Phuoc Vinh

Co and Nguyen Xuan Vinh, Da Nang University; and “Phân tích diễn ngôn quảng cáo du lịch trong Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt” by Nguyen Thi Dieu Ha, Thai Nguyen University Those studies help me a lot in making analysis and comparison of tourism advertising language in two languages

2.2 Review of theoretical background

15

2.2.1 Advertising and Tourism Advertisements

2.2.1.1 Definitions of Advertising

“Advertising is a form of marketing communication used to persuade

an audience to take or continue some action, usually with respect to a commercial offering, or political or ideological support” (Wikipedia 2015) Thus, the function of advertising is not only to inform customers about products and services, but also to persuade them to buy these products of services, to increase the sales of products or services, to create and maintain a brand identity or brand image, to communicate a change in the existing product line, and last but not least to increase the buzz-value of the brand or the company

Another definition of the term presented by R.F.Taflinger, the author of

Principles and Practices of Advertising defined advertising as: “the personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive

non-in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media."(Bovee, 1992, p 7)

According to Otto Kleppner, advertising is “a method of delivering a message from a sponsor, through an impersonal medium, to many people ”

The above definitions from many experts show that advertising can benefit both producers and customers, which means it informs about the product to the customers and also publicizes the products in order to increase the profit of the company Moreover, the main purpose of advertising is to draw attention from the reader to become familiar with and believe in the products Obviously, both small and big businesses have to plan advertising strategies which are unique in order to create success for their products

2.2.1.2 Types of Advertising

16

There are many types of advertising, each has different attributes, such

as price, viewing demographic, and medium To better understand the nature and purpose of advertising, it can be divided into various types of advertising

as described below (Buzzle: 2015)

1 Print Advertising: Newspapers, Magazines, Brochures and Fliers

- Print media has always been a popular advertising option Advertising

products via newspapers or magazines is a common practice In addition to this, the print media also offers options like promotional brochures and fliers for advertising purposes Often, newspapers and magazines sell the advertising space according to the area occupied by the ad, its position in the publication (front page/middle page, above/below the fold), as well as the readership of the publication

2 Outdoor Advertising: Billboards, Kiosks, Tradeshows and Events

- this type of advertising makes use of several tools and techniques to attract

the customers outdoor Billboard advertising is very popular However, it has

to be really terse and catchy, in order to grab the attention of passersby Kiosks not only provide an easy outlet for the company's products, but also make for

an effective advertising tool to promote the company's products A company can organize trade fairs, or even exhibitions for advertising their products If not this, the company can organize several events that are closely associated with their field For instance, a company that manufactures sports utilities can sponsor some tournaments to advertise its products

3 Broadcast Advertising: Television, Radio and the Internet -

Television advertisements have been very popular ever since they were introduced The cost of television advertising often depends upon the duration

of the ad, the time of broadcast (prime time/lull time), sometimes the show on which it will be broadcast, and of course, the popularity of the television

17

channel itself The radio might have lost its charm owing to new-age media, however, it remains the choice of small-scale advertisers

4 Covert Advertising: Advertising in Movies - this is a unique kind of

advertising, in which a product or a particular brand is incorporated in some entertainment and media channels like movies, television shows, or even sports There is no commercial advertising as such in the entertainment, but the brand or the product is subtly (or sometimes evidently) showcased in the entertainment show

5 Surrogate Advertising: Advertising Indirectly - this is prominently

seen in cases where advertising a particular product is banned by law Advertisements for products like cigarettes or alcohol, which are injurious to health, are prohibited by law in several countries Hence, these companies come up with several other products that have the same brand name, and indirectly remind people of the cigarettes or alcohol of the same brand, by advertising the other products

6 Public Service Advertising: Advertising for Social Causes - it is

used to convey socially relevant messages about important matters and social causes like AIDS, energy conservation, political integrity, deforestation, illiteracy, poverty, and so on

7 Celebrity Advertising: Using celebrities for advertising involves

signing up celebrities for campaigns, which consist of all sorts of advertising including television or even print ads How effective these ads are, is something that each consumer himself can determine

8 In-Store Advertising: This is also a popular advertising method for

large malls and departmental stores, popularized by stores such as Wal-mart Also known as 'point of purchase advertising', the products are usually displayed prominently at checkout counters and packaged attractively They

18

aim to influence the customer to make an impulse purchase, rather than actively create a need for the product

9 Coffee Cup Advertising: A relatively new form of mass advertising

is the placement of small ads or promotional material on paper cups for coffees

or onto the tabletops of the diner or cafe Its origins can be traced to Australian companies, and is now gaining popularity in Asia and America

10 Digital Out of Home Advertising: This is a new type of

advertising, which is gaining in popularity and effectiveness as a quick way to get the customers' attention Digital out of home advertising can take many forms, but is essentially a systematic arrangement of media at different venues across a geographic location, where there is a lot of foot traffic such as cafes, bars, gyms, gas station, and many others

11 Digital Signage: Already a very widely used form of information

dissemination in both public and private areas, digital signage is growing ever more prevalent, as it is a cheap alternative to the costly excesses of television commercials It is primarily done through the installation of LED or plasma screens in public places, such as railway and subway stations, cafes, airports, retail stores, hotels, and many other similar locations

12 Smartphone Advertising: The world of smartphones is an

ever-growing and changing one The mobile connectivity it offers to consumers makes it fertile ground for advertising Advertisers are striving to make ads which are more adaptable to smaller screens, and make them available across a range of operating systems such as Android, iOS and Windows

13 Niche Advertising - this type of advertising deals with targeting

these select groups of customers with tailored ads Companies are taking advantage of online blogs and websites which cater to exclusive content such

as exotic travel or wines or regional cuisine, and using these as platforms to

19

advertise their products The use of Internet marketing for these niche offerings ensure that potential customers are exposed to the ads whenever they search for related terms or log on to a particular site

14 User-Generated Advertising - This is a radically new form of

advertising that is interactive to the point of letting customers create their own ads for the brand, one of which is chosen as the brands official ad for a particular time period User-generated ads are not cost prohibitive, and allow the company to generate a lot of publicity via word-of-mouth

2.2.2 Functions of Advertising Language

It is generally acknowledged that language has a powerful influence over people and their behavior, especially in the field of advertising The choice of words and phrases to convey specific message with the purpose to influence people is very important Thus, language of advertising is supposed to be colorful, impressive and powerful to persuade a potential customer to buy a product or service

According to Leech (1966:25), most advertising language comes under the broader heading of “loaded language” that is aimed to change the will, opinions or attitude of its audience….etc What is characteristic of advertising and what distinguishes it from other types of loaded language such as political journalism is the main objective, to sell a product (Leech 1966:26) Cook (in

Okeke2006:13) sees advertising as a part of discourse In the book the Discourse of Advertising, Cook argues that discourse has to do with text, content, interaction and persuasion and advertising performs all these functions

In order to fulfill its functions, an advertisement must also meet the criteria of a successful persuasive text According to Leech, four major functions of a successful advertisement are identified as follows:

20

• Attention Value (Attention) - an advertisement has to attract addresses’

attention It must be in the limelight, and it relies on the unconventional usage of language To draw attention to itself, an advertisement can contain unusual illustration or distinctive typographical features Advertisers also invent new words, i.e neologism which can motivate the reader to encode their meaning Similarly, literary devices such as

metaphor can be exploited by advertisers (Leech 1966: 27-8)

• Readability (Interest) - the reader need be motivated to sustain reading

the adverts The ads must be pleasurable and easy to read in order to maintain the interest it has evoked Therefore, simple sentences prevail and lexis, too, is far from the complex The style has to be personal and

colloquial, and also the vocabulary needs be familiar (Leech 1966:28)

• Memorability (Desire), i.e., an ad must be perceived as familiar The

message of an advert needs to be remembered by the recipient and recognized as familiar An advertising message has to make an appeal,

an impression on the reader and importantly, this appeal has to be remembered, has to last and lead to the act of buying the product Thus, repetition is one of the most frequent techniques used in advertising to

enhance memorability

• Selling power, i.e., an advert must prompt the reader to purchase the

product, it also must facilitate the customers to buy and promote the advertised item or idea Imperatives are ideally suited to tell people clearly what kind of action to take and therefore feature very frequently

in advertising language

2.2.3 Features of Advertising Language

21

2.2.3.1 Syntactic Features

Syntactic features are the features involving the rules governing the structure of a language such as the form of words, the structure of phrases, clauses and sentences, word order, collocation…etc The major features of English used in advertising on the syntactic level in this study will be presented from the aspect of sentence types and sentence structures

a) Sentence types

According to Quirk & Greenbaum (1990:231), sentences may be divided into four major syntactic types: declaratives, interrogatives, imperatives and exclamatives Their use mostly corresponds with four different discourse functions (Quirk & Greenbaum 1990)

Declaratives are sentences in which a subject is present and generally

precedes the verb They are primarily used to convey information

For example: I feel Slovenia Naturally Nepal - Once is not enough

(International Journal of Geography and Geology: 2014)

Interrogatives are sentences which are formally marked in one of two

ways: yes-no interrogatives or wh-interrogatives They are primarily used to

seek information on a specific point

For example: Did Pauline give Tom a digital watch for his birthday?; or

What did Pauline give Tom for his birthday?

Imperatives are sentences that normally have no overt grammatical

subject, and whose verb has the base form Their discourse function is primarily a directive which means that they are mostly used to instruct somebody to do something

For example: Jump into Ireland Visit Bangladesh before tourists come

(International Journal of Geography and Geology: 2014)

22

Exclamatives are sentences which have an initial phrase introduced by

what or how, usually with subject-verb order They are primarily used for

expressing the extent to which the speaker is impressed by something

E.g.: Smile! You are in Spain! Incredible (International Journal of

Geography and Geology: 2014)

In Vietnamese, according to Diep Quang Ban (1989)“câu là đơn vị cấu trúc lớn nhất trong tổ chức ngữ pháp của một ngôn ngữ” Regarding the

classification of sentences, he wrote “câu có thể được phân loại theo hai phương diện: phương diện cấu tạo ngữ pháp và phương diện mục đích nói”. In term of classification of sentences by communication purpose, the sentences are divided into the four following sentence types [2:161]:

- Câu trình bày (hay còn gọi là câu trần thuật, câu tuyên bố)

(declarative): e.g., Con đi đây

- Câu nghi vấn (interrogative): e.g., Vì sao mà họ vẫn chưa đến?

- Câu cầu khiến hay câu mệnh lệnh (imperative): e.g., Con đi đi!

- Câu cảm thán (exclamative): Ô hay! Bà cứ tưởng con đùa (Nam Cao)

A multiple sentence contains one or more clauses as its immediate constituents

The major types of multiple sentences are the compound and the complex sentences A compound sentence consists of two or more coordinated main clauses; the clauses of a compound sentence provide classic instances of a paratactic relationship that is they have equivalent function

23

A complex sentence is like a simple sentence in that it consists of only one main clause, but unlike a simple sentence it has one or more subordinate clauses functioning as an element of the sentence For example:

You can put the dish on the table (simple sentence)

I admire her reasoning but I reject her conclusions. (compound sentence)

Although I admire her reasoning, I reject her conclusions (complex sentence)

In Vietnamese, according to Diep Quang Ban in terms of grammatical structures, sentences can be divided into simple, compound and complex ones based on the number of subject and its predicate in the sentence Simple sentences are the ones consisting of one subject and predicate Compound and complex sentences have more than one subject and predicate However, with regard to the relation between subject, predicate and others in a sentence, a compound sentence is the one consisting of one subject and predicated embedded within another while complex sentence is not For example:

Tay xách nón, chị ấy bước lên thềm nhà [2:99] (simple sentence)

Cơn bão ấy to quá làm ngã khá nhiều cây [2:93] (complex sentence)

Vì trời mưa, họ đến muộn [2:99] (compound sentence)

2.2.3.2 Semantic Features

According to Yule, semantics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and entities; that is how words literally connect to things Semantic analysis also attempts to establish the relationships between verbal descriptions and states of affairs in the world as accurate or not, regardless of who produces that description

24

In Vietnam, according to Nguyen Hoa (2004), semantics is the systematic study of meaning Put another way, it is the study of how language organizes and expresses meaning

Thus, as a sub-brand of linguistics, semantics studies the meaning of linguistic signs However, it focuses on how linguistic signs are conventionally meant or related with the external world In other words, it tries to spell out those natural, static or stable meanings of words and sentences The meanings

of words in dictionaries, for instance, are semantic meanings or the outcomes

of semantic explorations of words

In my study, there are some semantic features discussed, thus I will initially define the terms simile, metaphor and hyperbole

to illustrate the characteristics of the advertised products or services

Let’s see an example of simile:

Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.

(Myer 1997:125)

In this advertisement, the writer uses the simile pattern to compare the brand of orange juice to sunshine As you all know the sunshine often provide people with comfort and warmth; so drinking the orange juice will give you the pleasant having sunshine Through this advertisement, we can realize the function of advertising is persuasion

b) Metaphorical meaning

25

According to Cook, metaphor defined as a sign, “in which one signifier refers to two signifiers by virtue of a shared component in the signifiers” (1992:62) Thus, it seems that metaphor is rather similar to simile However, they are really different from each other in spite of the fact that they are both forms of comparisons A metaphor is related to mental transformation of one object into another, whereas the simile simply compares two different objects

on the base of shared qualities

In advertising, a metaphor usually creates a comparison between the product or service and some other quality the advertiser wishes to be associated with the product or service advertised

For example: in the advertisement “Cortina The Queen of the Dolomites”, the metaphorical pattern is used to compare the destination with a

“Queen” As all of you know that a queen is a symbol of power and the centre

of an empire A Queen can also symbolize a beauty, where in this particular example Cortina is described as a beautiful and well-known place The advertiser uses metaphor in this advertisement to compare two objects

“Cortina” and “the Queen” with the aim to make the readers extract some

abstract ideas about the destination’s characteristics

c) Hyperbolical meaning

Hyperbole is a figurative language technique where exaggeration is used

to create a strong effect With hyperbole, the notion of the speaker is greatly exaggerated to emphasize the point The word “hyperbole” is actually composed of two root words: “hyper” which means “over,” and “bole” which means “to throw.” So, etymologically, “hyperbole” translates roughly to “over throw” or “to throw over.” True to its origins, hyperbole or language that is hyperbolic overstates a point or goes a bit too far

26

Hyperbole is a facet of advertising in every medium, from print ads and radio spots to TV commercials and promotional websites Marketers use such hyperbolic statements to attract customers, not with the facts about their products but with wild exaggerations not intended to reflect the truth

Hyperbole is often used in advertising, often referred to as “dramatizing

the selling point” For example: “Nobody cares for eyes more than Pearl!” It

is obvious that the advertisement is exaggerated because here Pearl is a glasses brand and this phrase adds a highly positive quality to the brand of Pearl and is efficient advertising, leading people to want to try the “best”

2.2.4 Tourism and Tourism Advertisements

2.2.4.1 Definitions of Tourism

Tourism is an important element in building the modern developed world Different disciplines define tourism according to their own perspectives and aims So the concept of tourism can be seen in some of the published descriptions and definitions as follows:

According to Medlik (2003, p.vii), tourism has a connotation of leisure travel and tends to be synonymous with holidays (vacations) This is also reflected in dictionaries, which commonly refer to tourism as travel for pleasure… business usage, the language of those who earn their living from serving tourists; most of them see tourism in terms of the products they sell and the markets they serve

However, the World Tourism Organization (1997) defined tourism as:

“the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.”

27

Hence, there is general agreement that tourism involves travel away from home for pleasure This is an extremely inclusive definition that must inevitably include jobs that can be seen as serving tourism

2.2.4.2 Tourism Advertisements

The objectives of tourism advertising are no different from those of advertising for other products Tourism advertisement is to provide tourists with essential information for helping them what places to visit and which tours to book Thus, Holloway (2004: 265) summarizes the underlying objectives of advertising in three words: “informing, persuading and reminding”, which are in line with the AIDA principle used in marketing:

“attracting Attention, creating Interest, fostering Desire and inspiring Action”

Berger (2004:71) describes advertisements as “a genre of communication that use words and images to convince people exposed to the advertisement to purchase the product or service being promoted” The description is also applicable to the case of tourism advertising, which is exactly what travel brochures aim to achieve

2.2.4.3 Language in Tourism Advertising

Language of tourism gives detail portrayal of the potential tourist destination in which attempts to persuade, attract, encourage and seduce the potential tourists to be actual tourists Therefore, tourism becomes a discourse object As a discourse, tourism promotion is established in a persuasive manner

in order to attract visitors Hence, the association between persuasiveness and attractiveness in tourism promotion are anchored in different types of media, where the language is utilized to enhance the element persuasiveness and attractiveness

Language in tourism offers more than just pure information to potential tourists Tourism has its own language with which it communicates and

28

develops the image of tourism The language which represents tourism has a central connection with tourists’ attitudes to languages that deserve to be included in the overall research of language tourism And according to Harrison (1997), the language of tourism is flexible and pervasive and differs

in its approaches from one type of tourist to another

2.2.5 Summary

This chapter has presented important terms related to the theme of my study It has also discussed various advertising definitions, advertising characteristics before distinguishing advertising from other related genres A theoretical framework of syntax and semantic is concurrently established to prepare for the detailed analysis in the remainder of this study

The research bases its syntactic and semantic analysis on the perspective of Quirk and his colleagues, Yule, Nunan D., in English and of Diep Quang Ban and Nguyen Hoa in Vietnamese Different as their points of view are, they contribute to round out the picture of syntactic and semantic features of advertising language on tourism

29

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY

This study aims to analyze the English and Vietnamese tourism advertisements from syntactic and semantic perspectives, employing both quantitative and qualitative methods This section consists of the following parts; research-governing orientations, research methods, data collection and data analysis techniques

3.1 Research-governing orientations

3.1.1 Research questions

The study is conducted to find out the answers of the following questions:

- What are syntactic and semantic features of advertising language on tourism in English and with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents?

30

- What are the similarities and differences of advertising language on tourism in English with reference to Vietnamese in terms of syntactic and semantic features?

- What are the implications for teaching and learning English for Tourism

to Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language?

3.1.2 Research setting

Today, advertising language as a special kind of language is very different from common language With the development of information technology, the language of advertising is broadcasted to readers through various means of media such as radio, newspapers, television or the Internet In

my study, the collection and study on a wide variety of tourism advertisements are taken from different kinds of English and Vietnamese materials, most of the passages on tourism advertising come from Student’s Book of Tourism 1&2 and some websites of travel agencies such as lonelyplanet.com; blacktomato.com; dulichvietnam.com; mytour.vn…etc Some of these sites are the official ones of travel agencies, and the others officially get information from travel agencies with source citations, clear figures and dates I took more than three months to collect tourism advertisements from those materials from June to September, 2015 It is not a too short time to choose and collect data carefully

3.1.3 Research approach(es)

My study uses a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods The qualitative method is used to describe and analyze the selected data in order to find out the distinctive features of advertising language on tourism in English and Vietnamese as well as point out the similarities and differences of tourism advertising language between two languages in term of syntactic and semantic perspectives On the other hand, the quantitative method

31

is helpful in determining the occurrence, the percentages of those linguistic devices in tourism advertisements of two languages as well as making comparison of their frequency in English and Vietnamese

3.1.4 Principles/criteria for intended data collection and data analysis

This study is conducted based on the frequency of syntactic and semantic features used in English and Vietnamese tourism advertisements and figure out the similarities and differences of those linguistics in two languages

In order to achieve these aims of the study, the data collection and data analysis techniques are used The first stage, the data collection is used to choose randomly some tourism advertisements of different English and Vietnamese materials However, the field of tourism includes a lot of components necessary for a complete vacation such as destinations, transportation, food and accommodation, festivals and so on Thus, only the tourism advertisements about the destinations of advertised places are selected for my study Those advertisements are taken unintentionally on syntactic and semantic features with the purpose of creating objectives of the research Then, the data analysis techniques are used based on the syntactic and semantic features This method helps me to understand thoroughly the language elements making up tourism advertisements become famous

In addition, the validity and reliability of data in the thesis were also established from collecting and analyzing data to produce the research results

In order to obtain reliable and accurate data, all the collected data for my thesis come from different prestigious sources such as newspapers, magazines, books

or websites of popular travel agencies in the United States, the United Kingdom and Vietnam Well-known names of newspapers and websites that can be mentioned here include lonelyplanet.com; blacktomato.com; mytour.vn; ivivu.com, and so on

32

3.2 Research methods

3.2.1 Major methods vs supporting methods

The research is conducted with combination of several methods: descriptive, comparative and contrastive analysis methods Among them, descriptive is the major method which is most frequently used in my thesis

According to The Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP), descriptive study is defined as “any study that is not truly experimental.” Descriptive studies are also conducted to demonstrate associations or relationships between things in the world around you The major purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of affairs as it exists at present Thus, the descriptive method used in the thesis to support us in presenting a detailed description of features of ETAds and VTAds This method shows to

be effective in justifying and clarifying syntactic and semantic features of the tourism advertisements in the two languages Besides, the comparative and contrastive analysis method is helpful for us to find out the similarities and differences of tourism advertisements in the two languages in terms of semantic and syntactic features

3.2.2 Data collection techniques

The data collection is the most important step in any research At the initial stage, over a period of more than three months, approximately 60 small passages of tourism advertisements in both languages were collected from the Internet and from several copies of travel magazines However, due to the limited period of time allowed for this thesis to be written, a total of 20 tourism advertisements in each language was selected and analyzed Most of the tourism advertising passages for the analysis were downloaded from websites and Student’s Book of Tourism 1 & 2 After collecting tourism advertisements from those materials, I read and picked out short paragraphs of each tourism

33

advertisement which contained different linguistic features needed for my study Then I typed them in an excel spreadsheet so that they could be selected easily during our analysis In addition to the primary data collected, secondary materials consisted of books on grammar, syntax, semantic, and stylistic means which all related to the theme of the study were also collected to set the theoretical basic for this thesis

The complete corpus of the analyzed data can be found in the Appendix while the whole passages of tourism advertisements in the appendix table can

be found in the attached source websites

3.2.3 Data analysis techniques

The procedures to analyze the data are as follows: In the first stage, all tourism advertisements were collected randomly from different kinds of English and Vietnamese materials Then I selected the tourism advertisements following the scope and criteria which I will use for the data, separated them and put them in the excel program Next, I begin to analyze the data in term of the semantic and syntactic features of tourism advertisements in each language Then, I will count the semantic and syntactic features found in each category and calculate the percentage and also to work out the proportion of advertisements using each feature and make comparison of English and Vietnamese advertising language after the analysis results of each category is revealed

3.3 Summary

This chapter has explained and justified the choice of research methods

to the study, and also explains the procedures of collecting and analyzing data Through this chapter, we have learnt that the quantitative and qualitative approaches are applied in the thesis to make analysis and identify the frequency rates of syntactic and semantic features in English and Vietnamese tourism

34

advertisements The following chapter analyses the research findings The results of the analysis are introduced and discussed according to the approaches and the literature review

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter discusses in detail the syntactic structures and semantic features of advertising language on tourism in English and Vietnamese; and generalizes the similarities and differences of advertising languages on tourism

of two languages in term of syntactic and semantic features

4.1 Syntactic and Semantic features of Advertising Language on

Tourism in English

4.1.1 Syntactic features of advertising language on tourism in English

35

The syntactic features of advertising language on tourism are presented

in this thesis under the forms of sentence types and sentence structures

4.1.1.1 Sentence types

a) Declaratives

The frequently used sentence patterns are imperative, declarative, interrogative sentences and exclamations Among them, declaratives are the most frequently used in advertising because of its well-composed statements giving the readers a very deep impression

The following advertisement about Balearic Islands shows the dominance of declaratives in English advertising:

Floating between Spain and the North African coast, the Balearic Islands offer the perfect location for a fantastic holiday There are four main islands for you to choose from, each with their own special atmosphere The gorgeous climate boasts more than 300 days a year of guaranteed sunshine, making the islands the ideal setting for a beach holiday The long hot summer stretches from May to October, with temperatures around 27 0 C - just right for relaxing and getting a tan [1:1]

In this advertisement, all the sentences are declarative They are simple and clear enough to introduce the readers about the Balearic Islands as a fantastic location for holiday They also stimulate the readers’ desire and help realize the persuasion function of advertising

Let’s consider another example for illustration of frequently using declarative sentences in ETAds:

An ancient country with a fascinating history, spectacular landscapes, vibrant culture and cities at the height of modernity, China ticks all the boxes and should be at the top of any travel bucket-list China is a spectacularly beautiful country, enriched by over 5000 years of history, a cutting edge

36

cultural scene and out of this world cuisine A trip here could see you navigating the noisy and labyrinthine streets of China's infamous and modern cities one day and quietly gazing upon the serene and mystical landscapes of Yangshuo the next No day spent in China is the same, something we feel makes for an exciting destination You just have to go [1:10]

Like the example above, all the sentences in this advertisement are declaratives They are used to introduce China as an exciting destination to attract visitors and also to show the leading position of this country in the travel bucket-list in order to inspire customers to pay a visit to this fascinating country

The data collection of sentence types on English tourism advertisement

is presented in the following chart:

Figure 4.1: Distribution of sentence types in ETAds

As you can see from the above figure, with total of 20 short selected passages of English Tourism Advertisements, 102 sentences from the total 134 sentences in this corpus which account for 76,12% of the studied advertisements present a declarative sentence type The reason for those figures’ appeal is easily explained by one of the advertising objectives - persuasion Besides, declaratives are primarily used to convey information, so

it widely appears in advertising language as the ultimate aim of advertising is

For the purpose of inspiring visitors to the new destinations and selling the goods, the advertising English tries to be more persuasive so as to increase the persuading and prevailing effects, and the imperative sentence can meet the demands with the effect of asking for, call for and persuade somebody to do something, thus often used in advertising English

Let’s see the following examples for illustration:

Take this as a hint to look up: you'll find San Francisco's crooked Victorian rooflines, wind-sculpted treetops and fog tumbling over the Golden Gate Bridge [1:3]

Discover the ancient port of Apollonia, an enchanting city now partly sunk beneath the sea which forms a dazzling backdrop to its theatre and the columns of its Byzantine churches.[1:2]

Enjoy the good times in Thailand Follow us to uncover where to find them…

As you can see from all the above examples, all the imperative sentences are short, encouraging and forceful They are all used to make the visitors very interested in the destinations and also to tell the visitors what places to visit, to relax and what to enjoy in the place The application of imperative sentence is demanding, influencing and stimulating visitors to take action which declarative sentence cannot exert such kind of effect

c) Interrogatives

38

Apart from declaratives and imperatives, interrogatives are also used in the English tourism advertisements Although they account for only 3,73% (5 out of 134 sentences) of the total sentences, they can arouse interest and curiosity of tourists so as to draw their attention and leave deep impression

Let’s see the following examples:

How can a small island contain so much effervescing vibrancy? [1:14]

Las Vegas, of course, is famous for its casino, but if your luck is down, is there anything else to entertain you? And what about kids? What is there for them? MGM Grand Las Vegas, Student’s Book of Tourism [2: 79]

The interrogative sentences are very popular in English advertising because this type of sentence often contains presuppositions which convey implicit assumptions of power and gender relations and becomes a frequently -found feature in advertising language Besides, another typical feature of interrogatives in advertising is that they are often rhetorical In other words, they require an answer that can either be apparent or provided by the advertiser The answer usually justifies the purchase of the product or affirms its dominance

d) Exclamatives

In my selected advertisements, there are not any exclamatives found It

is apparent that the declaratives and imperatives have been used with high frequency rate in English advertising as the primary purpose of tourism advertisements is to give information about the place

4.1.1.2 Sentence Structure

As mentioned in the literature review, the sentences can be classified based on the number of clauses they contain In this study, sentence structure is categorized into simple, compound and complex sentences