A study on lexical and syntactic features of cosmetic product advertisements in english and their vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY LÊ THỊ TÂM A STUDY ON LEXICAL AND SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF COSMETIC PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIV

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

LÊ THỊ TÂM

A STUDY ON LEXICAL AND SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF COSMETIC PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH

AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM TỪ VỰNG VÀ CÚ PHÁP CỦA QUẢNG CÁO MỸ PHẨM TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ CÁC

TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A THESIS

Field: English Language Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2015

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

LÊ THỊ TÂM

A STUDY ON LEXICAL AND SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF COSMETIC PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS IN ENGLISH

AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM TỪ VỰNG VÀ CÚ PHÁP CỦA QUẢNG CÁO MỸ PHẨM TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ CÁC

TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled a study on lexical and syntactic features of cosmetic product advertisements in English and their 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

Le Thi Tam

Approved by SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Date: ………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to

Ms Nguyễn Thị Vân Đông, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher

A special word of thanks goes to my friends and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would have been impossible for me to have this thesis accomplished

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

This study aims at conducting a study of advertisements for cosmetic products in English and their Vietnamese equivalents The data for analysis

in this thesis are 130 samples of advertisements for cosmetic products (100

in English and 30 in Vietnamese) collected from many different sources such as magazines, television, catalogs and websites of companies manufacturing cosmetic products in the United States, United Kingdom and

in Vietnam The study is carried out based on the theories of lexis, syntax and a combination of a variety of methods such as descriptive, comparative, contrastive, analytic and inductive The study focuses on analyzing some typical linguistic features in order to point out the equivalents between advertisements for cosmetic products in English and Vietnamese in terms of their lexical features and syntactic features The findings of this study are clearly presented based on a survey of 100 English advertisements for cosmetic products and 30 Vietnamese advertisements for cosmetic products Hopefully, the results of the study will really provide some practical applications for using English This study may also be useful for those who are interested in advertisement, especially advertisements for cosmetic products

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CpAE: Cosmetic product advertisements in English

CpAV: Cosmetic product advertisements in Vietnamese

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Verbs in English and Vietnamese advertisements for

cosmetic products

44

Table 4.2 Personal Pronouns in English and Vietnamese

advertisements for cosmetic products

Table 4.5 Imperative Sentences in English and Vietnamese

advertisements for cosmetic products

72

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The distribution of lexical features in CpAE and CpAV 57 Figure 2: The distribution of syntactic features in CpAE and CpAV 73

2.2.2.1 Definition of Cosmetic advertisement 24

2.2.2.3 The Persuasion Techniques of Beauty Product Advertisement 28

4.1 Lexical features of English advertisements for cosmetic products

and their Vietnamese equivalents

36

4.1.1.2 Using personal pronouns 44

4.2 Syntactic features of English advertisements for cosmetic

products and their Vietnamese equivalents

57

4.2.1.2 Using ellipsis in declarative Sentences 60

4.3 Possible implications for teaching and learning English for

students majoring in advertising and marketing in Academy of

Journalism and Communication

73

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

Thanks to economic development, people's income has been increasingly improved As a result, personal care needs also are enhanced The concern of both sexes to their appearance is growing People use cosmetic products to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body Therefore, cosmetics gradually become more popular consumer products Not only that, nowadays, cosmetics has become one of indispensable products for people at all ages In order to satisfy this need, there are so many companies both in Vietnam and foreign countries which produce cosmetic products with diversified models Specifically, Vietnamese cosmetic products do not only satisfy the domestic demand but is also an important export commodity

Advertising is a good way to introduce Vietnamese cosmetic products

to most people in the world and export to foreign countries It cannot be denied that advertising has a powerful and widespread influence on every member and corner of the society With the irresistible expansion of advertisements, advertising is now not only a closely related but an inseparable part in our life When we watch television in the comfort of our living rooms, we are bombarded with advertisements; when we read a newspaper or magazine, somehow our attention is distracted by one form of

an advertisement or another On our way to school or office, we come across advertisements in various shapes or colors Indeed, advertising, whether print, broadcast, or any other type, is part of our everyday lives By means of its linguistic power, advertising has placed a strong effect on social life and language style Advertising brings the benefits to not only manufacturers but also consumers Through advertisements, manufacturers

can effectively attract people’s attention to their products As a result, they will sell more products Besides that, advertising is useful to consumers Thanks to advertisements, consumers get information about products and services They know about the characteristics, benefits of each product or service in order to make a good choice

In advertising, language is very important because it helps people to identify the product and remember it Language in advertising as a tool of communication is used to deliver specific messages with the intention of influencing, convincing, and informing people These specific messages mostly aim to persuade people to buy certain products or services Advertising in the field of cosmetic products is not an exception In fact, words, phrases and sentences are used in advertising to convey information,

to influence attitudes and to affect behavior Selecting appropriate words and expressions to accomplish the advertiser’s objectives are important in creating strong impressions on readers and persuade them to buy products

by bringing the products to potential customers Cosmetic advertisements are quite popular in all means of media Actually, cosmetic advertisers bring the products to customers in different ways which depend mostly on who the customers are In other words, they design different advertisements of the same product to target different groups of viewers, namely men and women Good advertisements for cosmetic products must first grab the attention of the audience, captivate their interest by describing the merits of products, create a desire to possess a product as a good opportunity and finally move them to the action of purchasing the product In order to achieve the purpose of advertising, advertisers for cosmetic products must pay attention to such features as syntax and lexis Through advertisements for cosmetic products, we find out the beauty of language, strategies and techniques through the use of lexis and syntax that are expected to be

beneficial In addition, it is noticeable that many studies of advertising discourse have focused on the language used in advertisements However, none has been done to cosmetic product advertisement and its linguistic features

For the above reasons, it is necessary to do a research on lexical and syntactic features of cosmetic product advertisements in English and their Vietnamese equivalents I hope that the study will provide some useful knowledge of advertising language in the field of cosmetic products for using English of Vietnamese teachers and learners of English in as well as for those who are interested in advertising, especially advertising of cosmetic products

1.2 Aims of the study

The aim of the research is to carry out a study of English advertisements for cosmetic products in order to find out the features in terms of the lexis and syntax as well as discover the equivalents in Vietnamese This study is expected to help students majoring in advertising and marketing in Academy of Journalism and Communication grasp the linguistic features of English advertisements for cosmetic products

1.3 Objectives of the study

The objectives of the study are:

- To analyze the lexical features of cosmetic product advertisements in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

- To discover the syntactic features of cosmetic product advertisements in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

- To suggest some possible implications for teaching and learning English for students majoring in advertising and marketing in Academy of Journalism and Communication

1.4 Scope of the study

All the advertisements investigated in this study are taken from many different famous cosmetic brands which are very popular in the market The research is restricted to some linguistic features such as lexical and syntactic features of written English advertisements for cosmetic products and their Vietnamese equivalents collected from many different sources such as magazines, television, catalogs and websites of companies manufacturing cosmetic products in the United States, United Kingdom and in Vietnam

1.5 Significance of the study

(i) Theoretical significance

From the research results of the study, the readers may have the connecting, the comparison between the linguistic features of cosmetic product advertisements and other advertisements Since then, the study towards an overview about common features and distinctions (in terms of lexical and syntactic features) of cosmetic product advertisements compared

to other advertisements Such points of views can enrich the theories about advertising and contribute more theoretical bases for the theory of advertising language

(ii) Practical significance

It is hoped that the research will make a contribution to the understanding of the linguistic features of cosmetic product advertisements

in English and their Vietnamese equivalents The results of the study will help students majoring in advertising and marketing in Academy of

Journalism and Communication have a useful knowledge of using advertising language as well as language used in advertisements for cosmetic products Moreover, the findings can be helpful for people who are interested in this area to know about the linguistic features of advertisements for cosmetic products Specially, the research gives the knowledge of linguistic features related to lexis and syntax for students majoring in advertising and marketing to write an effective and persuasive cosmetic product advertisement for export

1.6 Structural organization of the thesis

Apart from the abstracts, the references, the research consists of five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1, entitled “INTRODUCTION”, outlines the background of the study In this chapter, a brief account of relevant information is provided about the rationale, aims, objectives, scopes, significance of the research, and design of the study

Chapter 2, “LITERATURE REVIEW”, is considered as a slight overview of the previous studies related to the problem under investigation

It provides the theoretical background of the study as theory of lexical and syntactic features, an overview of advertising and cosmetic products advertising

Chapter 3, the methodology, refers to the researching approach of the study and the method to collect and analyze the collected data to help the author achieve the best results in the study

Chapter 4, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS, is the most important part in the study, discusses the findings concerning the lexical and syntactic

features of cosmetic product advertisements in English and their Vietnamese equivalents and mentions the possible implications for using and practicing English

The last chapter is Chapter 5, the conclusion of the study; this chapter summarizes the research findings, and points out the limitations of the study Some suggestions for further research are also presented in this chapter

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Review of previous studies

Up to now, a lot of linguists all over the world have researched on advertising language in its different aspects Each of these is employed for different purposes in acquiring the target language

There have been a lot of books in which advertising and its characteristics are discussed by well-known scholars In other words, their works discuss language characteristics of English advertising from different angles and each of them emphasizes some particular aspects or a type of advertising in English influence on the effectiveness of the advertising In

the book entitled “English in Advertising” (13), Leech analyzes in detail

different aspects pertaining to grammar, vocabulary, discourse and rhyme and rhetoric of advertising with special reference to television He has effectively related these aspects with the functional factors such as attention value, listenability/readability, memorability and selling power In addition, the distinctive property of advertising language has been closely identified with the use of clauses, phrases and words Another book dealing with

advertising in English is “Words in Ads” (15), in which Myers begins with

the most basic units, sounds and letters, then goes on to the words, and the associations the words have and ways they are interpreted He also analyses

different types and structures of sentences in advertising In “An

advertising and points out the semantic features of advertising language

Specially, In “The Discourse of Advertising” (4), Cook provided a

framework for analysis of advertisements as a discursive genre Concepts from discourse analysis, stylistics and linguistics are applied to examine the advertisements’ textual and contextual features Also, in this book, he

discusses the interaction between advertising messages and their surroundings are discussed and show their influence on the effectiveness of the advertising

Besides, some Vietnamese linguists approached advertising and advertising language and examined the related issue in a number of studies Ton Nu My Nhat (22) provided a description of lexicon-grammatical features in travel advertisements in the light of Halliday’s functional-systematic grammar She also reviewed literature on discourse analysis and proposed an analytical framework for the linguistic description of this specific advertising genre The thesis of Mai Xuan Huy (2001) is the first project in Vietnam surveyed and studied of the characteristics of advertising language fully and entirely Moreover, this is also the first project approached advertising language from communication theory-pragmatics, a new theory to almost Vietnamese linguistics in Vietnam By researching semantics-pragmatics of advertising discourse, the thesis determined the mechanism to communicate in the language or the campaign of advertisers

in advertising discourse Thereby, the thesis also found some interesting semantics-pragmatics issues of Vietnamese in advertising discourse Tran Thi Thu Hien (31) researched, analyzed, and contrasted systematically advertising language in printed newspapers in Vietnamese and English in order to find the stylistic characteristics of the Vietnamese advertising language in terms of lexis, semantics, grammar and text Through the stylistic characteristics, she defined the style and function of advertising which have not been unified before According to Bui Diem Hanh (2013), The studying the rationale of the advertisement, the means and semantics methods with the advertising model determined the syntax, semantics, pragmatics in the types of advertisement in Vietnamese and new theoretical models in advertising She compared the syntax, semantics and pragmatics

in the Vietnamese advertisements and advertisements in English to recognize the signs (phonetics, vocabulary, grammar) and then took out the similarities and differences between two languages

However, up to now, no research among above have focused their studies on what I want to research: A study on lexical and syntactic features

of cosmetic product advertisements in English and their Vietnamese equivalents I hope this will contribute some more information to this field

2.2 Review of theoretical background

2.2.1 Theoretical framework

2.2.1.1 Lexis/ Lexicon

Notion of Lexis/ lexicon

Lexis is a term in linguistics for the vocabulary of a language Adjective: lexical Lexis is also the stock of words in a given language (38)

Jim Scrivener (2005) states that while vocabulary “typically refers

mainly to single words”, lexis “is bigger… It refers to our internal database

of words and complete ready-made fixed/ semi-fixed/ typical combinations

of words…” Lexis is also defined as the compilation of all known words in

a language Every word in the English language would be part of its lexis The term “lexicon” derives from the word “lexis” A lexicon is a collection

of sorts, and that's what lexis is: a collection of words The lexis of a sentence would be the words contained in the sentence Lexis is not concerned with grammar or pronunciation “Lexis” comes from the Greek word meaning “word” or “speech”

Formally, in linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory

of lexemes Linguistic theories generally regard human languages as

consisting of two parts: a lexicon, essentially a catalogue of a language's words (its word-stock); and a grammar, a system of rules which allow for the combination of those words into meaningful sentences The lexicon is also thought to include bound morphemes, which cannot stand alone as words (such as most affixes) In some analyses, compound words and certain classes of idiomatic expressions and other collocations are also considered to be part of the lexicon Dictionaries represent attempts at listing, in alphabetical order, the lexicon of a given language; usually, however, bound morphemes are not included (34)

The lexicon is the bridge between a language and the knowledge expressed in that language Every language has a different vocabulary, but every language provides the grammatical mechanisms for combining its stock of words to express an open-ended range of concepts Different languages, however, differ in the grammar, the words, and the concepts they express

Word Structure

The morpheme

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit in a language In other words, it is the smallest meaningful unit of a language The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word, by definition, is freestanding When it stands by itself, it is considered

a root because it has a meaning of its own (e.g the morpheme cat) and when

it depends on another morpheme to express an idea, it is an affix because it

has a grammatical function (e.g the –s in cats to specify that it is

plural) Every word comprises one or more morphemes The more combinations a morpheme is found in, the more productive it is said to be (35).

The word

In linguistics, a word is the smallest element that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content (with literal or practical meaning) This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own A word may consist of a

single morpheme (for example: oh!, rock, red, quick, run, expect), or several (rocks, redness, quickly, running, unexpected), whereas a morpheme may

not be able to stand on its own as a word (in the words just mentioned, these

are -s, -ness, -ly, -ing, un-, -ed) A complex word will typically include

a root and one or more affixes (rock-s, red-ness, quick-ly, rning,

Words can be put together to build larger elements of language, such

as phrases (a red rock), clauses (I threw a rock), and sentences (He threw a

The term word may refer to a spoken word or to a written word, or

sometimes to the abstract concept behind either Spoken words are made up

of units of sound called phonemes, and written words of symbols called graphemes, such as the letters of the English alphabet (37)

Types of Words

There are thousands of words in any language But not all words have the same job For example, some words express "action" Other words express a "thing" Other words "join" one word to another word And when

we want to build a sentence, we use the different types of word Each type

of word has its own job We can categorize English words into eight basic types or classes These classes are called "parts of speech"

Eight types of word ("word classes" or "parts of speech") are distinguished in English: nouns, determiners, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions (Determiners, traditionally classified along with adjectives, have not always been regarded as a separate part of speech.) Interjections are another word class, but these are not described here as they do not form part of the clause and sentence structure

of the language

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs form open classes-word classes

that readily accept new members, such as the noun celebutante (a celebrity

who frequents the fashion circles), similar relatively new words The others are regarded as closed classes For example, it is rare for a new pronoun to

be admitted to the language (33)

Word Class

Open-class words or Lexical words

Open-class words, as Leslie Jeffries writes, are “those which contain the main semantic information in a text, and they fall into the four main lexical word classes: noun, verb, adjective and adverb” (Jeffries, 2006, p

83) Stott and Chapman, in their book Grammar and Writing (2001) (20)

define these classes as:

• Verb: A word or phrase which expresses the action, process or state

in the clause (e.g I’m eating my favorite meal right now; I will go to that football match; I went quietly)

• Adverb: Single words that modify verbs by adding to their meaning

(e.g The choir sang sweetly) Words or phrases that modify or give extra

definition to the verb in terms of place, manner and time (e.g I’m eating my

favorite meal right now; I’m eating my favorite meal in my favorite

• Noun: Words that names persons/ places/ things or abstractions (e.g

Edward, Tanzania, guitar, happiness) In earlier centuries all nouns in the English language were given a capital letter In English now, only proper nouns are given capital letters

• Adjective: Words that modify nouns by adding to their meanings

(e.g That was a long film) Most adjectives have comparative (I’m glad it wasn’t any longer) and Superlative forms (It was the longest film I’ve ever

seen)

Noun, verb, adjective and adverb are referred to as open-class because “they are open-ended and can be added to readily” (Jeffries, 2006,

p 83), but they are also often referred to as lexical words because they carry

a lexical meaning (sometimes they are even referred to as semantic words, for the same reason) Sara Thorne goes on to say: New words can be added

to nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs as they become necessary, developing language to match changes in the society around us The computer age, for example, has introduced new words like hardware, software, CD-ROM and spreadsheet; the 1980s introduced words like Rambo, kissogram and wimp; the 1990s introduced words like babelicious, alcopop and e-verdict; and the twenty-first century words like bling, chav, sudoko, bluetooth, chuggers (“charity muggers”), mediatrics (“media dramatics” i.e a story created from nothing), and doorstepping (journalists catching celebrities on their doorsteps to question them about incidents they would prefer not to discuss) Open-class words are often called lexical

words and have a clearly definable meaning (Sara Thorne, 2008, p 4)

Closed-class words, or grammatical words or functional words

If open-class words tend to change frequently, then closed-class words tend not to change very often Closed-class or grammatical words (sometimes referred to as function words) have less meaning than open-class or lexical words, but do useful jobs in language They are the “little words” that act as the glue, or connectors, inside a sentence Without them, lexical words might still carry meaning but they do not make as much sense

Grammatical words include articles, prepositions, conjunctions and pronouns

• Articles: There are only two articles in English: the definite article,

the, and the indefinite article a (n) (Jeffries, 2006, p 96)

• Prepositions: Define the relationships that exist between elements

This includes relationships of place (at, on, by, opposite), of direction (towards, past, out, of, to, through), of time (at, before, in, on), of comparison (as, like), of source (from, out of), and of purpose (for) (Thorne,

2008 p 20) Prepositions are by no means uncomplicated - you will have noticed from this list that the word 'at' can function as both a preposition of place and of time, depending on its contexts

• Conjunctions: The function of conjunctions is to link together

elements of sentences and phrases They come in two forms Coordinating conjunctions are words that join two clauses in a sentence, where each clause is of equal importance (i.e., and, but, either, or, neither, nor) Subordinating conjunctions are words that link sentences where one half is a

consequence of the other (although, as, because, if, since, that, though, until, where, when, while, etc.)

• Pronouns: Pronouns come in two forms Firstly, the pronoun itself,

where words are “used instead of a noun or noun phrase (e.g it, he, who, theirs)” Secondly, there is the personal pronoun, in which “words identify speakers, addressees and others (I, you, she, it, we, they)” (Stott and Chapman, 2001)

2.2.1.2 Syntax

Notion of Syntax

In linguistics, syntax is the set of rules, principles, and processes that

govern the structure of sentences in a given language The term syntax is

also used to refer to the study of such principles and processes The goal of many syntacticians is to discover the syntactic rules common to all languages (36)

The part of grammar that represents a speaker’s knowledge of sentences and their structure is called syntax Syntax specifies the correct

word order for a language All languages have mechanisms like syntax to make a limitless number of sentences This is a characteristic shared by all

speakers of a language Syntax also specifies the grammatical relationship

of a sentence

Examples: subject and direct object: Who is doing what to whom?

Grammatical: Corresponds to syntactic structure for written communication Ungrammatical: Does not correspond to the syntactic structure of written communication

Our knowledge of syntax tells us how words form groups in a sentence Syntactic rules reveal the grammatical relations among words of a sentences as well as the order of those words

Syntactic Patterns in Languages

Phrases: A phrase can be considered the lowest syntactic unit It can

be defined as a syntactic unit that contains more than one word and lacks the subject-predicate relationship.1 The phrase contains one word which is more important than the others (headword) and some other single-word or word group elements that specify, modify or complete the headword in various ways They can be placed in front (specifiers, premodifiers) or after the headword (postmodifiers, complements) The type of the phrase is determined by the type of the headword, so there are the following types of

phrases:

• Noun phrase (NP)

• Verb phrase (VP)

• Adjective phrase (AdjP)

• Adverb(ial) phrase (AdvP)

• Prepositional phrase (PP)

- Noun Phrase (NP): A noun phrase is a syntactic unit which consists of a noun and all the words and word groups that cluster around the noun and add to its meaning

For example, the structure of the noun phrase the lively little painting of

1 It should be noted that in recent theories it has been recognized that some phrases can actually consist of

a single word For instance, the word group the second-year students of English is clearly the noun phrase with the headword students, but the single noun Students or the personal pronoun They can also be

considered minimal noun phrases, since they can be used in a sentence in the same way as the larger noun phrase Moreover, the term ‘phrase’ in Transformational Generative Grammar has a broader meaning and refers to any kind of syntactic unit in the analysis

Paris which I bought last year can be represented as:

Specifier Prenominal

modifiers

Head noun Post nominal modifiers

The lively little painting of Paris Which I bought

last year The only obligatory element in a noun phrase is the head noun, which means that a noun phrase minimally consists of a noun

- Verb Phrase (VP): A verb phrase is a syntactic unit which consists of a verb and all the words and word groups that cluster around the verb and add

to its meaning, functioning as auxiliaries, modifiers and complements

The structure of the verb phrase has never written a letter to his aunt

Auxiliary Pre-modifier Verb head Complement(s) Post modifier

Direct object

Indirect object has never written а letter to his

around the adjective and add to its meaning

Look at the structure of the adjective phrase quite fond of chocolate:

Premodifier Adjective head Complement (of the adjective)

- Adverb Phrase (AdvP): An adverb phrase (also called adverbial phrase) is

a syntactic unit which consists of an adverb and all the words and word

groups that cluster around the adverb and add to its meaning

The structure of an adverb phrase is rather simple, as can be seen from the following two examples:

Premodifier Adverb head

unexpectedly reluctantly

- Prepositional Phrase (PP): A prepositional phrase is a syntactic unit which consists of a preposition and a word/word group that completes its meaning

Premodifier Preposition head Object of the preposition

Clauses: The term ‘clause’2 in various grammar books and grammar theories is used to refer to different things, so it is always a good idea to

check what particular authors really mean by it

Most commonly, a clause is defined as a syntactic unit which has a subject-predicate relationship and is part of a larger unit Usually it is viewed as a linguistic unit smaller than a sentence and larger than a phrase

In the following sentence we can identify three clauses – one is the main clause and two are subordinate

I think that you will succeed if you try hard

main clause subordinate clause subordinate clause

Subordinate clauses can be further classified into various syntactic and semantic types According to their function in a sentence clauses can be

2 The word derives via Old French from the Latin clausula, the close of a sentence.

- Finite clauses: I don’t know where I should go

- Non-finite clauses: I don’t know where to go

The best thing is to tell the truth

It is impossible for him to tell the truth

- Verbless clauses: You can start reading, when ready

Sentences: For our syntax course we are going to consider a sentence

the largest syntactic unit and use the following working definition: a sentence is string of constituents characterized by the subject-predicate relationship

According to their inner structure or level of complexity, sentences can be:

- Simple: Simple sentences have one subject-predicate relationship In some theories and grammar books such sentences are called clauses

- Complex: Complex sentences have one main and at least one subordinate clause

A cute little puppy that probably got lost stayed in front of my door all night because it felt safe there

The underlined clauses are subordinate

- Compound: Compound sentences have at least two independent clauses (they make up the structure of coordination)

Some grammarians also distinguish a special type which they call complex-compound sentences and these consist of one main clause and at least one subordinate and one coordinated clause

A cute little puppy that probably got lost stayed in front of my door all

night because it felt safe there, but I didn’t notice it before morning and I

- Declarative sentences (expressing statements): They study English

- Interrogative sentences (expressing questions): What do they study?

- Imperative sentences (expressing commands or requests): Go and study!

- Exclamative (exclamatory) sentences (express exclamations): How nice!

2.2.1.3 General View of Advertising

Notions of Advertising

Today, advertising is very familiar to us and has become a part of our life Many definitions of advertising have been stated by linguists Harris

and Seldon (10, p.40) define that “Advertising designed to spread

information with a view to promoting the sales of marketable goods and

composed nonpersonal communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products (goods, services, and ideas) by identified sponsors through various media”.

Another definition given by Cook (4, p.34) states: “Advertising

means clearly identifiable, paid for communications in the media, which aims to persuade, inform or sell.”

Similarly, in the book entitled “Advertising” (2, p.9), Bolen defines

advertising as “a kind of paid, non-personal communication through various

mass media by business firms, nonprofit organizations, and individuals who are in some way identified in the message and who hope to inform or

Burnett & Moriarty (23, p.8), “Advertising is a paid non-personal

communication form with an identified sponsor using mass media to persuade or influence the audience”

In summary, although advertising can be defined in many different ways, all definitions express the main purpose of advertising: to persuade and influence the audience to sell products, services, and ideas through using mass media Therefore, the use of language plays an important part in this special discourse type so that advertisements can perform their mission well

Language of Advertising

Advertising language serves as an effective tool in persuading and influencing the audience Therefore, the choice of language to convey a specific message is vitally important Goddard (8, p.106) states that

“Vocabulary is chosen to promote positive associations in the minds of the target audiences” In addition, Delin (6, p.32) claims that “Vocabulary is clearly a central element in building the image of a product” Obviously, language choice plays an important role in creating effectiveness of an advertisement Moreover, it is the use of language that makes advertisements distinctive from the other genres According to Goddard (8), advertising language has such typical characteristics as legality, theoretical, factual foundation, national characteristic, popularity, vividness and multi-stylistics Because the task of adman is to attract attention, arouse interest, stimulate desire, create conviction, get action (Lund, 1947, p.83), advertising messages must be imaginative, entertaining and rewarding to the audience Effective advertising messages should be meaningful, believable and distinctive That is the reason why advertising language needs to have distinctive characteristics such as legality, theoretical, factual foundation, national characteristic, popularity, vividness, and multi-stylistics

Media of Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services Advertising reaches people through media of advertising

In fact, media of advertising carrying the advertiser’s messages are the vital connection between the company that manufactures a product or offers a service and customer who may wish to buy it Arens (1982) classifies advertising media into six major categories: print electronic, digital

interactive, out-of-door, direct mail, and other media

- Print media: The term “print media” refers to any commercially

published, printed media such as magazines and newspapers that sells advertising space to a variety of advertisers Print media also consist of directories such as the Yellow Pages, school or church newspapers and yearbooks, and programs used at theatrical performances and sporting events One important benefit of print media is that the message is written down and therefore it lasts longer than electronic media’s messages

- Electronic media: The electronic media called the broadcast media are

radio and television Radio is known as an intimate medium because it can reach an audience anywhere, at home, on the road or in the office Two advantages of radio advertising are that radio advertising costs less and people can hear it while they are doing something On the other hand, advertising on TV can persuade watchers because of the lively combination

of sight, sound and color Moreover, with the advent of cable TV, many programs are now transmitted electronically through wires

- Digital interactive media: Digital interactive media are the new media

form that the advent of the information superhighway has brought Specially, digital interactive media allow the audience to participate immediately and actively The Internet is the example of digital interactive media In fact, digital interactive media are changing the way advertisers and agencies do business The Internet gives tiny companies instant access

to customers worldwide by creating a marketplace in which they can swap advertising space on their own sites However, a challenge to advertisers and agencies to learn new forms of creativity is dealing with a new environment for their ads On the Internet, advertisers risk to receive harsh criticism by e-mail if people do not like their advertisements

- Out-of-home media: The main types of out-of-home media are outdoor

advertising and transit advertising In the United States, most outdoor advertising is billboard Transit advertising including bus, taxi and subway advertising is an effective and inexpensive medium to reach the public Out-of-home media also consist of posters in bus shelters and train stations, billboards in airport terminals, stadium scoreboards, flying banners and skywriting and kiosk posters

- Direct mail: Direct-mail advertising is the way in which companies mail

or e-mail their advertising directly to prospective customers The advertisement is a simple sales letter, a postcard, a catalog or a complex package with coupons, brochures, samples or other devices designed to stimulate a response

- Other media: A number of new advertising media have been spawned by

technology Advertising may appear on videocassettes and computer disks Moreover, computers dial telephones and deliver messages by stimulating speech or playing a prerecorded sales message Additionally, business presentations are created on computer and copied to disks that are mailed to prospective customers The main advertising media of advertisements for beauty care products are often newspapers, magazines, television, radio and the Internet Besides, they also appear in direct mails, billboards, catalogs

In this thesis, the data collected in both English and Vietnamese are on the Internet In fact, they are from websites of companies manufacturing cosmetic products in the United States and Vietnam

2.2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.2.1 Definition of Cosmetic advertisement

Cosmetic advertisement is a picture, set of words, a short film… that

is used to advertise cosmetics and beauty products by the cosmetics industry through a variety of media The cosmetics advertisements are usually aimed

at women wishing to improve their appearance, commonly to increase physical attractiveness and reduce the signs of ageing

2.2.2.2 Feature of Cosmetic advertisement

Cosmetics are a major expenditure for many women, with the cosmetics industry grossing around 7 billion dollars a year, according to a

2008 YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) report Cosmetic retailers design advertisement to alter women's attitudes toward cosmetics, encouraging them to buy more products Many advertisers shape this attitude by encouraging women to feel dissatisfied with their appearance

In her book, "Can't Buy My Love" (12) sociologist Jean Kilbourne analyzes nearly a century of advertisement She argues that, as expenditures

on cosmetic advertisement increase, so do women's cosmetic purchases Because women feel pressure to meet idealized beauty standard, cosmetic advertisements that offer women the opportunity to live up to that standard can be highly effective, encouraging more cosmetic purchases

a product designed to make women look better, so some cosmetic companies may cause women to feel insecure and then offer their product as

a solution to the insecurity Many people are acutely aware that their

personal appearance can have a significant effect on how they are regarded and treated by others Advertisement can play on these concerns by encouraging the target market to be concerned about signs of aging or making themselves more attractive to the opposite sex For example, some cosmetics campaigns may emphasize the ability of a product to reduce wrinkles, giving users a more youthful appearance In a time of high unemployment, in which older workers may be concerned about age discrimination, this type of advertisement can be very effective

Unrealistic Beauty Standards

Cosmetic advertisements frequently use retouched images to make models appear more "perfect" than they are In 2011, for example, a UK advertisement watchdog agency called the Advertisement Standards Authority ruled that some makeup advertisements were so heavily retouched that they constituted misleading advertisement The rampant retouching of images in cosmetic advertisements can cause women to develop unrealistic beauty standards that no one even models can actually live up to This increasing fixation on beauty can encourage women to buy even more cosmetic products

Another effective component of cosmetics advertisement is the blurring of distinctions between cosmetics and pharmaceutical drugs The

term cosmeceutical has been used to describe products that can have both

medical and cosmetic benefits The trouble is that, in some jurisdictions, the term is not regulated and may be used in advertisement to make a product seem like a legitimate healthcare treatment when it has not undergone the same type of rigorous testing normally required of pharmaceuticals if they are to be sold to customers Advertisement may further confuse the issue by making references to clinical studies, including testimonials from doctors,

and in some cases even using photographs or videos of doctors or actors and models dressed like doctors in the advertisement

To demonstrate the beneficial qualities of their products, companies will often utilize "before and after" photographs Interesting and different

"before and after" promotional material was recently published in the United Kingdom An L'Oreal advertisement for its Revitalift cream, promising smoother skin and a complexion of a more even nature through the use of the product, was prohibited by the British ASA (Advertisement Standards Authority) for being "misleadingly exaggerated" The British ASA held that the advertisement was digitally-enhanced, and the actress' skin retouched, which created an image of skin that was unrealistically smooth, thus exaggerating the qualities of the product

Cosmetic Information

Ads for cosmetics don't typically present scientific information about their products except to point to scientific studies that have "proven" the product's benefits However, cosmetic advertisement can provide women with information about available products Kilbourne emphasizes that women are more likely to buy products when they see an advertisement for the product, but ads also increase the overall market for a class of products For example, a woman who sees an advertisement for mascara might not buy that particular brand of mascara, but would still be more likely to buy mascara, according to Kilbourne

Advertisers are very good at making the cosmetic products sound useful, rather than saying is pros and cons They make certain cosmetics seem as if they are not only used to just make you look pretty, but it's

“healthy” is another way of catching the buyer’s eye “The

term cosmeceutical has been used to describe products that can have both

medical and cosmetic benefits.”

2.2.2.3 The Persuasion Techniques of Beauty Product Advertisement

Advertisement is designed to persuade consumers to buy products and services, with ads containing a call to action that is either implicit or explicit In other words, they either imply that you need a product, or come right out and tell you that you’ve got to have it The beauty product industry relies on both kinds of persuasion techniques to sell products

Association: Ads that rely on celebrities to sell their beauty products use

implicit persuasion While not explicitly telling you that using their products will result in "star quality," the message is implied Association can be a powerful tool, according to the Media Literacy Project, because it targets emotional responses when the product is associated with feelings, such as feeling good about you, being accepted by a certain group of people or

being in league with the spokesperson

Promises: When beauty product ads make promises that a certain face

cream will make you look younger or that a foundation will take years off your appearance, the message is explicit The effectiveness and quality of the products are emphasized rather than the emotional connection There’s also a call to action in explicit ads that may include money-saving sales,

limited editions or bulk purchase savings

Fulfillment: Targeted marketing typically is based on extensive research so

that the ads will fulfill a need for the target market For example, women surveyed may tell researchers they want their hair to look and be healthy, so the marketing team delivers ads that promise users of a beauty product that they will have healthy hair after using it The ads likely would stress

ingredients that sound healthy, such as minerals and vitamins Targeted marketing based on research fills the need with every line of copy,

persuading consumers that their answers lie in the advertised product

Image: Image and how people perceive women is at the basis of most

advertisement in the beauty industry, according to the Center for Media Literacy, which adds that in the advertisement arena, women are most always portrayed as housewives or sex symbols And it’s those images that marketers want to project to persuade women to buy the products to be either competent and cherished, or lovely and desirable The image-based ads rely on the human need to develop a self-concept and are particularly effective with adolescents who are in the process of discovering themselves and their identities With the purchase of a beauty product, women see

themselves in the image portrayed in the ad (32)

2.3 Summary

This chapter reviews the previous studies as well as theories related to the study The focus of the study is on the lexical and syntactic features of cosmetic product advertisements in English and their Vietnamese equivalents, so the concept of lexis and syntax are included in this chapter Additionally, in the general view of advertising and cosmetic advertisement, the definitions, media and language of advertising are discussed in order to help the description of an advertisement for cosmetic products become

easier

3.1.2 Research approaches

The thesis design was based on the combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches The qualitative approach was used in describing and analyzing data to find out the lexical and syntactic features

of cosmetic product advertisements in English and their Vietnamese equivalents On the other hand, the quantitative approach was used to find out the occurrence, the percentage of some linguistic devices as well as showing their frequency in cosmetic product advertisements in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

Thanks to both qualitative and quantitative approaches, the researcher can describe, analysis, makes evaluation and then draws conclusions in order to reach the goals already set

3.1.3 Description of samples