Ẩn dụ hình ảnh trong quảng cáo thương mại trên tạp chí tiếng anh

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER VISUAL METAPHOR ANALYSIS IN ENGLISH COMMERCIAL MAGAZINE ADVERTISING Supervisor: Trần Thu Hà, M.A Student: Nguyễn Thị Hồng Ngọc Year: QH.2008.F.1 HANOI – 2012 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƢ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP ẨN DỤ HÌNH ẢNH TRONG QUẢNG CÁO THƢƠNG MẠI TRÊN TẠP CHÍ TIẾNG ANH Giáo viên hƣớng dẫn: Trần Thu Hà Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thị Hồng Ngọc Khoá: QH.2008.F.1 HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2012 I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Thị Hồng Ngọc, group 08.1.E.20, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Date 30/4/2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Tran Thu Ha, for her unfailing support and invaluable guidance The study would not have been possible without her assistance I also owe much appreciation to all participants who made great contribution to the completion of questionnaire, thus to the paper as well Finally, words fail to express my gratitude to my family and friends, particularly the whole 08.1.E.20 whose encouragement and support gave me strength in fulfilling this study Last but not least, my words of thanks go to the readers for their interests and feedbacks on the thesis i ABSTRACT Traditionally, the focus of research and studies on metaphor has been on the verbal component while the non – verbal manifestation has been dedicated with little attention In the wake of cognitive sciences, the status of metaphor has dramatically changed, from a merely a figurative of speech to the cognitive device to reflex human thought patterns As metaphor has grown out of being a language phenomenon, it also permeates our daily life by making presence in music and images Since metaphor can now manifest itself in visual other than verbal, it quickly abounds advertising in form of visual metaphor With its compact and vivid nature, visual metaphor is preferably used in print advertising by copywriters and advertisers as indirect persuasion with a view to deducing customers to buy products With an aim to closely look at the visual metaphor in English commercial magazine advertising, this study has been carried out by analyzing advertisements of visual metaphor content and conducting questionnaire to see the participants‟ interpretations towards visual metaphor ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………i Abstract……………………………………………………………………………… ii List of tables, charts, and abbreviations………………………………………………vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study…………………………… 1.2 Research aims and objectives…………………………………………………… 1.3 Research scope…………………………………………………………………….3 1.4 Significance of the study………………………………………………………… 1.5 Organization of the study………………………………………………………….4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Advertising……………………………………………………………………… 2.1.1 Definition of advertising…………………………………………………… 2.1.2 Types of advertising………………………………………………………… 2.2 Metaphor………………………………………………………………………… 2.2.1 Definition of metaphor……………………………………………………… 2.2.2 Visual metaphor in advertising………………………………………………11 2.2.3 Linguistic context and pictorial context in print advertisements……………14 2.3 Related studies……………………………………………………………………15 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOG Y 3.1 Sampling and participants……………………………………………………… 17 3.1.1 Sampling of advertisements………………………………………………….17 iii 3.1.2 Participants………………………………………………………………… 18 3.2 Data collection instruments………………………………………………………19 3.2.1 Content analysis…………………………………………………………… 19 3.2.2 Questionnaire……………………………………………………………… 19 3.3 Data analysis procedure………………………………………………………… 20 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research question and 2……………………………………………………… 22 4.1.1 Edy‟s FruitBars ice cream advertisement………………………………… 22 4.1.2 Tacori engagement ring advertisement…………………………………… 24 4.1.3 Barilla‟s Basilico sauce and Farfelle pasta advertisement………………….26 4.1.4 Olay Wrinkle Revolution advertisement……………………………………28 4.1.5 Oscar Mayer Carving Board ham advertisement………………………… 29 4.2 Research question 3…………………………………………………………… 31 4.1.1 Edy‟s FruitBars ice cream advertisement………………………………… 31 4.1.2 Tacori engagement ring advertisement…………………………………… 32 4.1.3 Barilla‟s Basilico sauce and Farfelle pasta advertisement………………….34 4.1.4 Olay Wrinkle Revolution advertisement……………………………………36 4.1.5 Oscar Mayer Carving Board ham advertisement………………………… 38 4.3 Implication and application…………………………………………………… 41 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Major findings of the research………………………………………………… 42 5.2 Limitations of the research……………………………………………………….43 5.3 Suggestions for further studies………………………………………………… 44 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………45 iv APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………… 48 Appendix 1: Questionnaire……………………………………………………………48 Appendix 2: Advertisements………………………………………………………….52 v LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS, AND ABBREVIATIONS TABLES Table 1: Primary subject and secondary subject found in each advertisement Table 2: Properties projected from secondary subject onto primary subject in each advertisement CHARTS Chart 1: Informants‟ response to the content of FruitBars advertisement Chart 2: Informants‟ response to how the message is communicated in FruitBars advertisement Chart 3: Figure 3: Informants‟ response to the content of Tacori advertisement Chart 4: Figure 4: Informants‟ response to how the message is communicated in Tacori advertisement Chart 5: Informants‟ response to the content of Basilico advertisement Chart 6: Informants‟ response to how the message is communicated in Basilico advertisement Chart 7: Informants‟ response to the content of Olay advertisement Chart 8: Informants‟ response to how the message is communicated in Olay advertisement Chart 9: Informants‟ response to the content of Carving Board advertisement Chart 10: Informants‟ response to how the message is communicated in Carving Board advertisement ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for Specific Purposes FELTE: Faculty of English Language Teacher Education ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies VNUH: Vietnam National University, Hanoi vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study As a dominant feature of language, metaphor has been paid a great deal of attention by linguists, scholars and researchers over time The status of metaphor, though, has gone through ups and downs Traditional approaches view metaphor merely as a figure of speech (Halliday, 1985) i.e it serves as a purely stylistic device for some artistic and rhetorical purpose to make language graceful (Blasko, 1999) Meanwhile, historical semanticists see metaphor as a scheme in semantic change (i.e the evolution of word usage in which either “new meanings of the word appear” or “some old meanings drop out of the language or coexist with the new ones” (Nguyen Hoa, 2004, p.100) These approaches towards metaphor have not yet seen metaphor to its fullest potential In the light of cognitive semantics framework, especially the publication by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), the status of metaphor has witnessed great transformation: metaphor has grown out of being a poetic device in literary work to serve as a cognitive mechanism In that sense, metaphor is now seen as “a means of structuring our conceptual system and the kinds of everyday activities we perform” (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p 145) that influences the way we perceive the world On account of metaphor‟s ubiquitous presence in the use of language, metaphor also comes in handy in advertising so as to enhance the customers‟ perception of certain products Within linguistic field, on account of the fact that “Advertising takes many forms, but in most of them language is of crucial importance.” (Vestergaard & Schroder, 1985, p.140), quite a lot of studies have been carried out in an effort to gain an insight into advertising linguistic features That is to say those have largely looked at the advertising discourse The non – verbal manifestations, in other words, the visual aspect, quite a newfangled field, unfortunately, have been devoted with little attention In few studies on the non – verbal manifestations, since the wake of Forceville‟s publication Pictorial metaphor in advertising (1960) on the base of conceptual and interaction theory, it is to be recognized that metaphor has its pervasive presence not CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Major findings of the research The focus of this research has been on the use of visual metaphor in print advertising Following Forceville‟s theoretical framework on deciphering visual metaphor (1996), conceptual metaphor takes the form of “A is B” in which A and B is respectively dubbed “primary subject” and “secondary subject” In order to process a visual metaphor, the viewer must take into consideration the context (linguistic and visual) in which they interact By analyzing a total of five advertisements reproduced from international magazines covering different products, five visual metaphors were found out and verbalized as follows: Table 1: Primary subject and secondary subject found in each advertisement No Advertisement Primary subject Secondary subject FruitBars ice cream FRUITBARS POPSICLE FRESH FRUIT Tacori engagement ring MARRIAGE HONEY Basilico sauce BASILICO & FARFELLE PERFECT TWO Olay Wrinkle Revolution OLAY LAP BUTTON Oscar Mayer Carving CARVING HOME-MADE HAM Board Ham BOARD COLD CUTS Complex Content analysis also yielded information to answer the second question regarding the priorities projected from the secondary subject to the primary one Such features are also the values of the products that the advertisers wish the viewers/customers to perceive Table 2: Properties projected from secondary subject onto primary subject in each advertisement 42 No Metaphor POPSICLE IS FRESH FRUIT Properties transferred Taste of fresh fruits Vitamins of fruits LOVE IS HONEY Sweetness Reward BASILICO AND FARFELLE ARE Perfect match PERFECT TWO Impeccable OLAY IS LAP BUTTON Stop function (aging process) CARVING BOARD COLD CUTS Original IS HOME-MADE HAM taste and smell of holiday ham In exploring informants‟ opinions of visual metaphor in the five advertisements, the questionnaire provided precious information on the recognition of advertisement content as well as the means by which copywriters guided them to understand the intended message Overall, to a point, the respondents are able to catch the intended messages and reasonably know how such messages are communicated to them Nevertheless, it is worthy of note that in decoding visual metaphor, more often than not, the informants missed out the context, usually the linguistic ones (in Basilico sauce and Carving Board cold cuts advertisements) Thus, in order to fully understand the message, the viewers must take into consideration the pictorial context, the linguistic context as well as world knowledge 5.2 Limitations of the research As the study has been carried out in a limited amount of time, it resulted in some limitations as follows Firstly, the study has been done with a small corpus of five advertisements as well as a limited number of ten participants The moderate number of samples as well as respondents cannot fully provide a multifaceted insight into the issues being inquired 43 Furthermore, although initially claimed that advertisements are of commercial value and cultural significance, the research has only put its emphasis on the former one of which people are more often than not of the same mind The study could be more thorough if it had dealt with the cultural issue in visual metaphor to see how people of different cultures may react to the same advertisements 5.3 Suggestions for further studies As can be seen, the research has been done on the small corpus, both in the sampling of advertisements and the number of respondents If further research continues, it is hoped that the future researchers will conduct it with a larger number of advertisements and informants to yield more general overview on the perception of respondents on the use of visual metaphor Also, future researchers may find their interest in different types of advertisements other than print commercial ones which can be non – commercial, institutional, television commercials, etc Regarding the participants, they are not necessary students of English major but non – English major can be also a potential population Furthermore, it is advisable for interested studies to consider the factor of culture in visual metaphor to see how it works to deliver the intended messages to multicultural consumers/viewers 44 REFERENCES Advertising definition Retrieved from http://www.learnthat.com/define/view.asp?id=162 on January 20 th 2012 Barthes, R (1964) Rhetoric of the image The Responsibility of Forms Oxford: Blackwell Behm, J (2006) The Aida Model - Wrong Spelling in Advertisements As an AttentionSeeking Device Grin Verlag Belk, R.W and Pollay, R.W (1985) Materialism and Magazine Advertising during the twentieth century Advances in Consumer Research, 12, pp 394-398 Black, M (1993) More about metaphor In Ortony, A (ed.) Metaphor and thought New York: Cambridge University Press, 19-41 Blasko, D.G (1999) Only the tip of the iceberg: Who understands what about metaphor? Journal of Pragmatics 31 (12), 1675-1683 Concept of advertising Retrieved from http://wikieducator.org/CONCEPT_OF_ADVERTISING on January 21st 2012 Cosmopolitan U.S February 2012, p.12 Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W.M and Ferrell, O.C (2006) Marketing concepts and strategies Boston: Charles Hartford Dyer, G (1982) Advertising as Communication London and New York: Routledge Fletcher, W (2010) Advertising a very short introduction Oxford University Press Forceville, C (1996) Pictorial metaphor in advertising New York: Routledge Food Network, May 2012, p.33 Food Network December 2011, p.23 Food Network December 2011, p.153 Food Network September 2011 p 28 Halliday, M A K (1985) An Introduction to Functional Grammar London, Baltimore and Melbourne: Edward Arnold 45 Janoschka, A (2004) Web Advertising: New Forms of Communication on the Internet Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Johns, B (1984) Visual metaphor: lost and found Semiotica, 52, pp 291–333 Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (5 th ed.) (2001) London & New York: Longman Kaplan, S (2005) Visual Metaphors in Print Advertising for Fashion Products In Smith, K., Moriarty, S., Barbatsis, G., and Kennedy, K (2005) Handbook of visual communication: Theory, Methods, and Media New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc Ch.11 Kennedy, J.M (1982) Metaphor in pictures Perception, 11(5), pp 589–605 Kittay, E.F (1987) Its Cognitive Force and Linguistic Structure Oxford: Clarendon Press Kotler, P., and Keller, K (2006) Marketing Management 12th ed Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc Krzeszowski, T P (1997) Angels and Devils in Hell Elements of Axiology in Semantics Warszawa: Energegia Lakoff, G., and Johnson M (1980) Metaphor we live by Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press Leech, G N (1966) English in advertising A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain London: Longmans Jeffries, L McIntyre, D and Bousfield, D (2007) Stylistics and Social Cognition New York: Poetics and Linguistics Association Lule, J (2003) War and its Metaphors: News Language and the Prelude to War in Iraq, 2003 Journalism Studies, 5(2), pp 179-90 Mackey, A and Gass, S.M (2005) Second Language Research Methodology and Design New Jersey: Lawrencce Erlbaum Associates, Inc Mai, T H (2004) Linguistic features in English and Vietnamese advertising language (B.A thesis, University of Languages and International Studies, 2004) 46 Mio, J.S and Katz A.N (ed.) (1996) Metaphor Implications and Applications NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Messaris, P (1997) Visual persuasion: The role of images in advertising The United States of America: Sage Publication, Inc Nguyen, H (2004) Understanding English semantics Hanoi: Vietnam National University Publish House Ortony, A (ed.) (1993) Metaphor and Thought Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Richards, I.A (1936) The Philosophy of Rhetoric, New York: Oxford University Press Rodriguez, L and Dimitrova, D V (2011) The level of visual framing Journal of Visual Literacy, 30(1), p.57 Tanaka, K (1994) Advertising Language: A Pragmatic Approach to Advertisements in Britain and Japan London: Routledge Turner, M (1987) Death is the Mother of Beauty: Mind, Metaphor, Criticism Chicago: Chicago University Press Tomaszcyk, J and B Lewandoska- Tomaszcyk, B (ed.) (1990) Meaning and Lexicography Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company Vestergaard, T and Schrøder, K (1985) The language of Advertising Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher Ltd Williamson, J (1978) Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising London: Marion Boyars Zaltman, G and Coulter, R (1995) Seeing the voice of the consumer: Metaphor-based advertising research Journal of Advertising Research, 35(4), pp 35-50 47 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA KHẢO SÁT Tên Nguyễn Thị Hồng Ngọc, sinh viên lớp 08.1.E.20 Hiện thực nghiên cứu mang tên “Ẩn dụ hình ảnh quảng cáo tạp chí tiếng Anh” Bản thu thập câu hỏi thiết kế với mục đích thu thập liệu dựa thông tin khách quan để phục vụ nghiên cứu, mong bạn trả lời xác theo suy nghĩ Những thơng tin cần thiết cho việc phân tích liệu nên mong bạn dành thời gian điền xác đầy đủ thơng tin cho câu hỏi Nội dung câu trả lời bạn không tiết lộ trường hợp Rất cảm ơn giúp đỡ bạn! ============ QUẢNG CÁO (Nguồn: Tạp chí Food Network 5/2012) Câu hỏi 1: Theo bạn, câu mô tả nội dung quảng cáo kem FruitBars? A Kem FruitBars có hương vị đích thực hoa tươi B Trong kem FruitBars có hoa tươi C Kem FruitBars làm từ hoa tươi D Ý kiến khác, xin nêu rõ ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Câu hỏi 2: Theo bạn, nội dung quảng cáo truyền đạt đến người xem cách nào? 48 A Qua lời thích “Real fruit in every bite Now that‟s refreshing” B Qua hình ảnh dâu tây xuất kem, ngầm hiểu ăn kem FruitBars thưởng thức hương vị trái tươi C Cả A B D Ý kiến khác, xin nêu rõ ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… QUẢNG CÁO (Nguồn: Tạp chí Cosmopolitan US 2/2012) Câu hỏi 3: Theo bạn, câu mô tả nội dung quảng cáo nhẫn Tacori? A Sức quyến rũ cưỡng lại nhẫn Tacori B Vẻ đẹp ngào nhẫn Tacori C Hôn nhân mật D Ý kiến khác ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Câu hỏi 4: Theo bạn, nội dung quảng cáo truyền đạt đến người xem cách nào? A Qua hình ảnh mật ong gợi nên ngào B Qua hình ảnh nhẫn khiến người xem liên tưởng đến hôn nhân C Ý kiến khác xin nêu rõ ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… QUẢNG CÁO (Nguồn: Tạp chí Food Network 12/2011) Câu hỏi 5: Theo bạn, câu mô tả nội dung quảng cáo 3? 49 A Sốt cà chua Basilico Romeo mỳ ống Farfalle Juliet B Sốt cà chua Basilico mỳ ống Farfalle kết hợp hoàn hảo C Sốt cà chua Basilico dùng cho mỳ ống Farfalle D Ý kiến khác nêu rõ ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Câu hỏi 6: Theo bạn, nội dung quảng cáo truyền đạt đến người xem cách nào? A Qua lời thích sốt cà chua Basilico – Romeo mỳ ống Farfalle – Juliet B Qua liên tưởng mối tình Romeo – Juliet kết hợp sốt cà chua Basilico mỳ ống Farfalle C Cả A B D Ý kiến khác (xin nêu rõ đây) ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… QUẢNG CÁO (Nguồn: Tạp chí Cosmopolitan US 3/2012) Câu hỏi 7: Theo bạn, câu mô tả nội dung quảng cáo kem dưỡng da giảm nếp nhăn Olay? A Qua thời gian nếp nhăn dần xuất hiện, nên dùng Olay B Nếu thời gian đồng hồ bấm Olay nút bấm dừng để ngăn q trình lão hóa da C Olay giúp bạn đo thời gian lão hóa da D Ý kiến khác (xin nêu rõ đây) ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… 50 Câu hỏi 8: Theo bạn, nội dung quảng cáo truyền đạt đến người xem cách nào? A Qua hình ảnh đồng hồ bấm khiến người xem liên tưởng đến trình lão hóa da B Qua hình ảnh Olay đặt vị trí nút bấm dừng khiến người xem liên tưởng đến khả làm chậm q trình lão hóa C Cả A B D Ý kiến khác (xin nêu rõ) ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… QUẢNG CÁO (Nguồn: Tạp chí Food Network 3/2012) Câu hỏi 9: Theo bạn, câu mô tả nội dung quảng cáo 3? A Thịt hun khói Carving Board chất lượng tuyệt hảo B Thịt hun khói Carving Board ngon khơng thịt hun khói tự làm dịp lễ C Ý kiến khác (xin nêu rõ đây) ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Câu hỏi 10: Theo bạn, nội dung quảng cáo truyền đạt đến người xem cách nào? A Qua lời thích “Holiday ham without the holiday” B Qua hình ảnh vỏ hộp thịt hun khói Carving Board đặt vị trí miếng thịt khiến người xem liên tưởng thịt hun khói Carving Board sản phẩm tự làm C Cả A B D Ý kiến khác (xin nêu rõ đây) ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Xin cảm ơn giúp đỡ bạn! 51 APPENDIX 2: ADVERTISEMENTS Fruitbars ice cream advertisement (reproduced from from Food Network on May 2012, p.33) 52 Tacori Engagement ring advertisement (reproduced from Cosmopolitan US February 2012 p.12) 53 Basilico sauce and Farfelle pasta (reproduced from Food Network on December 2011 p.153) 54 Olay Wrinkle Revolution Complex advertisement (reproduced from Food Network Dec 2011 p.23) 55 Oscar Mayer Carving Board Ham (reproduced from Food Network September 2011 p 28) 56 ... GIA HÀ NỘI TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƢ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP ẨN DỤ HÌNH ẢNH TRONG QUẢNG CÁO THƢƠNG MẠI TRÊN TẠP CHÍ TIẾNG ANH Giáo viên hƣớng dẫn: Trần Thu Hà Sinh viên: Nguyễn... the participants‟ choice, the original interpretation (A) is still stronger and more reasonable In this case, it is counted as strong implicature – the implicature that is shared among majority... the ad by linking the image with the functions of Olay Wrinkle Revolution Complex, the ad will strongly impress them From now on, customers will associate Olay produc ts with firm skin and aging