Words in advertising English

（School of foreign languages and literature， Wuhan University Wuhan City， Hubei Province 430061）

Abstract：With the development of technology and media， advertising has been an inevitable part of our daily life. This passage analyzed the lexical features in advertising like rhyme， alliteration， use of pronouns， simple words， pun-making， and so on. Whether a product can be sold well or not depends greatly on its advertisements. The alternatives of words in advertising language are indispensable.

Key words：lexical， rhyme， pun-making， misspelling， coinage， loan words， compound.First of all， I’d like to introduce the advertising.

中图分类号：H319 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1672-1578（2016）06-0005-02

Advertising language is a style of immediate impact and rapid persuasion. The point of an advertisement is to persuade you of the merits of a particular product or service， in order that you will take out some of your money to buy it.

1 Lexical Features

1.1 Rhyme or alliteration

Advertisers sometimes use rhyme or alliteration of words to make a special communicative effect. Such advertisements are easy to read and pleasant to ears. Therefore， they are more easily remembered by the readers.

For example：

（1） Go for the sun and fun.

（2） Join the team， make the dream.

（3） Go well， use shell.

1.2 Repetition of key words

In order to emphasize some advantages of a certain product or service， advertisers often use the skill of repetition. It can usually help readers to remember the contents of the advertisements more easily and clearly.

（1） Double delicious， double your pleasure.

（2） Extra taste， not extra calories.

（3） Mosquito to bye bye bye.

1.3 Pun-making

Pun is an amusing use of a word or phrase that has two meanings. The word usedas a pun is usually closely related to the characteristics of a certain product or the brand name of the product. Making pun can often leave a deep impression on readers by its readability， wit， and humor.

For example：

（1） Give your hair a touch of spring.

（2） Ask for more. （More is a famous brand of cigarette）

（3） The unique spirit of Canada.（ an advertisement of a Canadian tipple ）

1.4 Misspelling and Coinage

In some of advertisements， the advertising copywriter misspells some words on purpose， or adds some suffix or prefix to the common words in order to make the advertisement more vivid， interesting and attractive.

For example：

We know eggsactly How to sell eggs.

In this advertisement， “eggsactly” is the variation of “exactly”， and echo the word “eggs” at the end of the sentence to make this advertisement more vivid.

1.5 Loanwords

The most frequently used loanwords are French and Spanish.

For example：

Order it in bottles or in cans.

Perrier…with added je ne sais quoi.

The meaning of “je ne sais quoi” is “I don’t know what”. The purpose to use this simple French is to show the French flavor of this drink. The loanwords in some advertisement are good methods to express the exoticism of the products.

1.6 Contraction

Furnished Edinburgh Court， 426 Argyly st， 2nd floor， 1，630 sqft4 bedrooms with dining and living room， provide garage. Sale at 130，000. Rent 1，400. Tel， 38954 office time or 823748.

This is an advertisement to rent or sell a house. There are many contractions， such as： st=street， sq=square， ft=foot， Tel=telephone.

1.7 Verbs

Although the ultimate purpose of advertising is to persuade consumers to buy its products， advertisements seldom use the word “buy” in it. Statistics show only two out of ten advertisements use the verb “buy” directly. On one hand， the advertisers try their best to promote their product； on the other hand， they don’t want to give the consumers a feeling of spending their money. Therefore， the choice of verbs is very careful in advertising. It is a kind of knowledge in a way.

The most frequently used 20 verbs and phrasal verbs are let， send for， use， call， try， ask， get， take， make， come on， hurry， see， give， come， remember， discover， serve， introduce， choose， and look for.

For Example：

（1） Take time to indulge

（2） Just do it

（3） Ask for more.

（4） The choice of a new generation.

（5） Feel the new space.

These all examples above all don’t have the verb “buy”

or any other words closely related with buying the products.

1.8 Compound words

There are lots of compound words in advertisement mainly because the elements of compound words could be any part of speech， and have few limits in grammar and word order.

2 Ways of word forming

adj+noun： high-fashion jacket

noun+adj： brand-new

noun+v-ed： honey-coated sugar puffs， home-made

noun+noun： economy-size shredded-wheat

noun+v-ing： a relief-giving liquid， record-breaking

adj/adv+v-ed： warm-hearted

adj+v-ing： good-looking， fresh-tasting milk

adv+v-ing： hard-working， best-selling

adv+noun： up-to-the-minute sculling

v-ing+adj： shining-clean

参考文献：

[1] 林承璋，刘世平.英语词汇学引论[M].武汉大学出版社，

2009.7.1.

[2] 张维友.英语词汇学教程[M].华中师范大学出版社，2015.6.1.