AN ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE FEATURES IN ENGLISH ADVERTISEMENTS
2.2.1 Few verbs are used
G. N. Leech, English linguist, lists 20 most used verbs in his English In Advertising: Linguistic study of Advertising In Great Britain (方薇, 1997:20). They are: make, get, give, have, see, buy, come, go, know, keep, look, need, love, use, feel, like, choose, take, start, taste.
All these verbs listed above are also popular in the corpus we built.
You will often read such sentences in an advertisement:
Buy x. Use it. We make… X will give you what you need. You’ll love x. Get x. Fox example:
We’ll make this quick. (Hertz Car Return)
Get great coverage that’s so weightless and water-fresh. (ALMAY)
All you need is a taste for adventure. (Millstone Coffee)
You’ll love it even more with the 2.1 megapixel C-2000 ZOOM. (Olympus Camera)
Don’t have much of a personality? Buy one. (Honda Motor)
…
All these frequently used verbs are monosyllabic and most of them have Anglo-Saxon origin that is the common core of English vocabulary. Linguistic study shows English native speakers tend to use words of Anglo-Saxon origin, because native words have comparably stable meaning. In advertising, these simple words can win the consumers by their exact, effective expression and a kind of closeness. Etymological studies show that the 20 verbs listed before, except use and taste which are from ancient French, all are Anglo-Saxon origin. Even the two words, use and taste have long become indispensable lexical items in the stock of common core vocabulary of the English people, developing their stable meaning and usage.
2.2.2 Use of emotive words
A close scrutiny of recent advertisements suggests that the soft-sell technique is now popular. By soft-sell technique we mean the one that favors a more emotive and less directive approach to promote a product, mainly focusing on the building of brand image. As a result, emotive words, most of which are pleasant adjectives, are greatly encouraged to use.
Data from the corpus shows that the most frequently used adjectives are as follows:
new, good/better/best, fresh, free, delicious, sure, full, clean, wonderful, special, crisp, real, fine, great, safe, and rich.
These adjectives help to build a pleasant picture in readers’ minds and manage to create a belief in the potential consumer: If I buy this product or if I choose this service, I will lead a better life. In addition, comparatives and superlatives occur to highlight the advantage of a certain product or service. For example:
Nothing comes closer to home. (Vegetable and Chicken Pasta Bake)
Think Lysol is the best disinfecting spray. (Disinfecting Spray)
