A variety of speech acts were employed in these advertisements, including announcements, guarantees, invitations, and reports. However, for the current study I choose directives and commissives as target speech acts to analyze their directness and indirectness. Because directives are defined by Searle as illocutionary acts in which the writer attempts to get the reader to do something, encourage future actions (1976: 11). They include actions such as commanding, suggesting, begging, ordering, pleading, and requesting. Furthermore, commissives are defined by Searle as illocutionary acts whose point is to commit the writer to some future course of action (1976: 11). Commissives include actions such as promising, offering, recommending, and advising. Conventionally, in commercial contexts, people tend to transfer explicit and precise information; as a result, direct communication style is favored. After analyzing directive and commissive speech acts, I found that both directness and indirectness used in collected data.
In terms of speech acts, directness could be explained as direct match of the communicative function and the grammatical structure it most naturally takes. For example,
Sử dụng trên mạng 3G và 4G. Soạn tên gói cước Gửi 191 (Exhibit 1.12) Quét mã QR để đăng ký và giữ chỗ cho con ! (Exhibit 1.39)
So switch to GEICO, because you could save 15%... (Exhibit 2.24) Enjoy contemporary style…Visit MasterSpas.com/ forbes (Exhibit 2.11)
The above speech acts are all directive speech acts that are presented under the structural form of imperative. In addition, direct speech acts are defined when the
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locutionary force is congruent with the illocutionary force. Here are some examples taken from the data.
Leadvisors Tower hứa hẹn đem lại không gian… (Exhibit 1.7) Mời Đón Đọc Các Ấn Phẩm Của Báo Phụ Nữ ( Exhibit 1.20) Mời quý bạn đọc đặt mua tại các bưu cục gần nhất” (Exhibit 1.20)
We offer our patients unrivaled expertise… (Exhibit 2.21)
We invite you to experience anew the eternal beauty … (Exhibit 2.14)
These are the direct speech acts that use performative verbs to make promise (hứa hẹn), invitation (Mời), offering (offer) and invitation (invite). According to these speech acts, direct communication style is often used in case of offering something good for the readers or promises that give the readers benefits.
Despite of application of direct speech act, indirect speech act are still common choice of the writers in print advertisements in both countries.
Chủ động chăm sóc sức khỏe từ hôm nay chính là cách bạn chuẩn bị tốt nhất cho một ngày mai vững vàng. (Exhibit 1.8)
In this advertisement, the writer use declarative structure to perform requesting or suggesting act.
MUA VÉ Ở ĐÂU? (Exhibit 1.23)
The writer use interrogative structure in speech act “MUA VÉ Ở ĐÂU?”, yet he/she doesn‟t aim to raise question, his/ her purpose should be suggesting the readers to book tickets.
Our team of experts sees more types of cancer in a day than many physicians treat in their careers… (Exhibit 2.21)
In this speech act, the locutionary act is simply a statement that describe the fact that their “experts sees more types of cancer in a day than many physicians treat in their careers”. However, what the writer means is not such an explicit message. The
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writer wants to declare that his/her team‟s experts are the most experienced and professional, so that patients should choose his/her center for treatment.
While you take care of yourself, let GEICO take care of you. (Exhibit 2.19) The writer want to request customers to buy product/ service but he/she doesn‟t say:
buy my products!, instead the writer use “ take care of you”, which seem to be more polite and persuasive. In this speech act, the locutionary act does not coincide with the illocutionary act.
Similarly, I analyzed all directive and commissive speech acts in collected documents in order to classify direct and indirect speech acts. The result demonstrates that indirect speech acts are used more regularly in both Vietnamese and APAs.
Table 5: The percentages of direct vs. indirect directive and commissive speech acts in VPAs and APAs
Speech Acts In VPAs In APAs
Direct 21 ( 37%) 64 (48%)
Indirect 35 (63%) 70 (52%)
Total 56 134
The data also reveals that by using indirect speech act, the writers avoid imposing on the readers. For instance, in exhibit 1.16, the writer intends to request the readers contact them right now and buy products. He/ she writes: “Thông tin chi tiết vui lòng truy cập Website www.vietcombank.com.vn. Hoặc liên hệ TT HTKH: 1900 54 54 13”. To mitigate his/ her request, the writer uses noun phrase “Thông tin chi tiết”
to give reasons for the next action, besides, the writer add “vui lòng” before the main verb to persuade the readers. Thus, the writers do not impose on any specific reader. In the same way, APAs soften requirement by indirect style: “see Chelsea’s story and more at hydroxycut.com/ultralean”. In this speech act, instead of
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requesting directly the writer only suggests the readers to find more about his/her customer‟s story, by the way see more information.
To sum up, American advertisers and Vietnamese advertisers use both direct and indirect communication styles in print advertisements. However, the findings reveal that, indirect style is applied more frequently in both countries‟ commercials, especially in Vietnam indirect speech acts accounts for 63%. In the U.S, the percentage of indirect speech acts is only 4% higher than that of direct speech acts.