Introduction

Advertising has become the part and parcel of present-day life. From everywhere
around us, advertisements of diverse types attack our privacy. In spite of it, there is an
attractive power, which is able to manipulate the consumer; an invisible voice of
advertisement advocates, encourages, asks, announces and deeply embeds into peoples
minds. In last decades, the market glut of advertising caused the increased intention and
interest in linguistic aspect of advertising. Advertising has become a science. People began to
describe, analyze the linguistic means and evaluate the language trying to find out the
principles, create new kinds of relationship between elements of language and improve the
techniques, with the aim to be unique and maximize the effect at full blast.
Who might be interested in advertising language? Advertising texts are of great value
for the analyses from linguistic, sociologist, sociolinguistic, psychological, and ethnologic
but not least marketing point of view. Linguists are interested in language of advertising
because they want to know how particular language works in this type of discourse, which
linguistic means are used here and how advertising language is changing in the course time.
Sociologists may be interested in the fact, how advertising influences the values, attitudes and
behavior of the society. On the other hand, sociolinguists may study the effects of any aspect
of society on the way language is used in advertising in the course of time. Psychologists may
try to examine the effect of the advertising on human mind and motivation to fulfill material
and social needs. Ethnology may find in this field a good evidence of how the culture of the
nation has been developing. And marketing experts and advertising agencies are interested in
the language of advertising to find the tricks how to make advertising more effective. English
advertising exploits from the high adaptability of the English language. English enables the
creators of advertisements to use word puns, figurative language, and to mix individual styles
and types of texts. Advertising unifies language, pictures, music; it contains information,
invokes emotions and imaginations, it can capture all five senses and, besides it, it has social
and practical aim. As a genre, it seems very diversified. There is often an interference of
styles and registers; therefore, it is often very difficult to classify advertising stylistically. In
the diploma thesis, I will show various aspects and forms of advertising discourse.
The main aim of this graduate thesis is to investigate the language of cosmetic
advertisement and its translation. The main question is whether the translators of
advertisements use the same techniques in the target setting as used in the originals. We
therefore identify and discuss the translation strategies used by the translators of cosmetic

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advertisements and we discuss the impact of these translation strategies on the advertisements
in order to examine whether and how the strategies of the translators have changed over time.
As the advertisements analyzed all include visual elements, the symbolic and semiotic
meaning of these elements also needs to be examined. This research report therefore attempts
to answer the following questions: How do functionalist theories of translation apply to the
translation of advertisements? What is the relevance of semiotic analysis and symbolism in
the translation of advertisements? How is persuasion translated across cultures? By
answering these questions, we hope to develop conceptual insights into the translation of
advertisements.
To achieve the main aim the following objectives are presented:
1. To provide the basic definitions: language, advertisement and translation connected
with the issue.
2. To analyze language of cosmetic advertising from linguistic aspect, especially
phonological, lexical and morphological, syntactic and semantic aspect.
3. To provide examples and describe the most commonly used linguistic devices and
figures of speech in advertising printed text.
4. To examine how essential the role of translation is in the overall effectiveness of
advertising.

For the completing of this graduate thesis the following research methods has been
used:

1. The method of compact selection;

2. The method of examination;

3. The method of observation;

4. The method of analysis;

5. The compared method;

6. The method of description;

7. Statistic method;

The structure of the graduate thesis is as follows:

1. Introduction provides the information about the importance of advertising translation in

todays global world, the main aim, the objectives and the methods;

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2. Chapter I provides the literature review for this study. The literature review is divided
into several focus areas: the discourse of advertising, the specific concerns of advertising
translation, the ethics and loyalty of advertising translators and discussion. The translation
of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion of the concepts of
culture, ideology and sociology which affect the translation of advertisements. The last
section discusses issues of persuasion, symbolism and semiotics as they are critically
relevant for the analysis of translated advertisements
3. Chapter II presents the chosen data. This chapter provides the analysis of the
advertisements and identifies the different translation strategies uses by cosmetic
advertisement.
4. Conclusion provides the study and analysis of advartisment useful for familiarizing and
understanding the main issues connected with technique of writing advertising texts; the
concrete statements and data that provides information for those, who write advertising
texts in English.
5. Appendix

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Chapter I. DEFINING THE CONCEPT OF ADVERTISING
In this part of the work is give the reader an idea what advertising is, how it was
developed and which types of advertising exist. This part brings basic definitions necessary
for the reader to understand the whole issue. Advertising is an inevitable part of our modern
capitalist consumer society whose outstanding feature is its competitive fight. advertising
is not some external curiosity which we examine, from which we are separate and superior,
but something of which we are part, and which is part of us (Cook 1996: 182). It is
everywhere around us: in newspapers, in magazines, on billboards along the streets, on
television, in radio, in means of public transport and any place the sponsor pays to distribute
their message. The effects of the advertising influence us whether we like it or not.
1.1. Definitions of advertising and advertising slogan
Advertising, generally speaking, is the promotion of goods, services, companies and
ideas, usually performed by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of an
overall promotional strategy. (http://www.wikipedia.org/). This definition is according to the
free encyclopedia Wikipedia, but there are also other definitions of advertising, for example,
The American Heritage Dictionary says that the advertising is:
1. The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid
announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media.
2. The business of designing and writing advertisements.
3. Advertisements considered as a group: This paper takes no advertising.
Advertisement is a concrete manifestation of advertising; a paid public announcement
appearing in the media. (http://www.motto.com/glossary.html)
Another definition of advertising is according to the Investor words glossary:
Description or presentation of a product, idea, or organization, in order to induce individuals
to buy, support, or approve of it. (http://www.investorwords.com/129/advertising.html)
All these definitions have in common the fact, that advertising is a means of
promotion the product, idea, or organization on the market with the aim to give information
and to persuade people of the advantage of the product and induce them to take and action
(e.g. buy it). To consolidate the terminology, we must define the concept of slogan.
Advertising slogan has many definitions. Among the most : Slogan is a word or phrase that
is easy to remember, used for example by a political party or in advertising to attract peoples
attention or to suggest an idea quickly. (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary 2001).

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 The concept of slogan is used among authors of books about advertising in various
ways. Advertising layout is divided into several parts: headline, body copy (the main part of
the advertising message, often divided into subheads), signature line (a mention of a brand-
name, often accompanied by a price-tag, slogan or trade-mark) and standing details (e.g. the
address of the firm). (See Leech 1972: 59). In this understanding, slogan is not identified with
headline and vice versa and the term is used in narrow sense. However, Greg Myers (Myers
1997) uses the term slogan in larger sense - for any catchy phrase, what a headline definitely
is. In many cases, the boundaries between slogan and headline disappear. For that reason, we
will accept the second idea and will use the term slogan in broader sense.

1.2. History of advertising

Advertising traces its history back to ancient times. Wikipedia says that the first forms
of advertising messages were transferred by word of mouth, however, in the ruins of Pompeii
commercial messages and election campaign displays have been found. Egyptians used
Papyrus to create sales messages and wall posters, while in Greece and Rome lost-and-found
advertising on papyrus was common. Wall or rock painting for commercial advertising is
another manifestation of an ancient media advertising form, which is present to this day in
many parts of Asia, Africa and South America.
With the form of advertising, we could meet in the marketplaces, where the sellers
used to shout and extol their products. In the course of time, people more and more tried to
differentiate their products and began to find out new ways of presenting. They started to
accentuate the visual aspect of the advertisement. With the expansion of color printing and
colorful posters the streets began to revel in colors. These posters were ancestors to our
modern billboards.
As the economy and the trade were expanding during the 19th century, the need for
advertising grew. Gradually, advertising transformed into a modern, more scientific and
sophisticated conception. New visual techniques have been launched. Not only the content of
the message is important, but also the form. The creativity of copywriters, who are finding
new ways, leads to the richness of various forms of advertising.
1.3 Types of advertising
According to Geoffrey Leech (Leech 1972), most frequent and important type of the
advertising is commercial consumer advertising: advertising directed towards a mass
audience with the aim of promoting sales of a commercial product or service. It is the kind

5
which uses most money, professional skill, and advertising space in this country. (this
country, here: Great Britain).
Another type of commercial advertising is prestige advertising. Here the name and
the positive image of the company are advertised rather than a product or a service. Example:
The Americas Cup: the oldest and most coveted trophy in the world of sailing. Its
organizers have entrusted once again the vital timing of the races to Omega, a company
whose experience in watch making and sports timekeeping dates back over 150 yearsto the
very origins of the Americas Cup itself.
We may mention industrial or trade advertising, where a company advertises its products
or services to other firms, so the communication is between equals. They both (copywriter
and the reader) have as an interest as a particular knowledge about the product advertised.
Therefore, industrial advertising typically
lays greater emphasis on factual information than prestige and consumer advertising and less
emphasis on the persuasive elements. (Vestergaard and Schroder 1985: 2) Example:
You can trust Trenkwalder. We can search for and find the right professional
challenge for your career. We offer you:
1. Advice about the employment market
2. An analysis of your personal career opportunities, taking into account your
knowledge, your experience and your preferences
As an example of non-commercial advertising, we may mention appeals from associations
and societies whether their purposes are charity or political propaganda:
Thanks to the World Food Programmer, this little girl in Mozambique knows
she wont go hungry today.
We can classify the types of advertising also according to the type of medium: TV, radio,
brochures, leaflets, magazines, newspapers and other printed material advertising, the Internet
and Direct Mail advertising, outdoor advertising, etc.
1.4. Linguistics means used in advertising language
Leech in his book (Leech 1972: 25) writes, that the language of advertising belongs to
so called loaded language. Wikipedia defines it as the writing or speech, which implies an
accusation of demagoguery or of pandering to the audience. Leech says that loaded language
has the aim to change the will, opinions, or attitudes of its audience. He claims that
advertising differs from other types of loaded language (such as political journalism and

6
religious oratory) in having a very precise material goal changing the mental disposition to
reach the desired kind of behavior buying a particular kind of product.
To persuade people to buy the product is the main purpose of the advertising. Among
such great competition, the producer wants to demonstrate the uniqueness of his product. He
wants to differentiate it from the rest. He is trying to find new techniques of advertisement.
Also, the advertisement texts must be more attractive and more unexpected. They must catch
the attention of the audience and then identify the product. Copywriters create uncommon,
surprising, interesting texts with catchy slogans or phrases. The reader or listener must give it
some thought and the result is manipulation with him in order to buy the product. Leech sets
following principles of advertising texts: Attention value, Readability (by means of simple,
personal, and colloquial style), Memorability (most important in the process of advertising is
to remember the name of the product) and Selling power (Leech 1972: 27). The last principle
is crucial. David Ogilvy (Ogilvy 1985: 7) in his book says: I do not regard advertising as
entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement,
I dont want you to tell me that you find it creative. I want you to find it so interesting that
you buy the product.
We may identify the advertising as a type of discourse, because it can tell us a good
deal about our own society and our own psychology () Discourse is text and context
together. (Cook 1996: 2-5). We could analyze the whole discourse of advertising, it means
the interaction of all elements that participate in advertising discourse: participants, function,
substance, pictures, music, a society, paralanguage, language, a situation, other advertising
and other discourse. Although such analysis would be complete, it would be very difficult to
elaborate it in such limited space. For that reason, in this work we will analyze the language
of advertising from the linguistic, especially phonological, lexical and morphological,
syntactic and semantic point of view. We will provide examples and describe the most
commonly used linguistic devices and figures of speech in advertising printed text.
1.4.1. Phonological aspect
Advertising language often uses the techniques similar to those in poetic texts. The
advantage of so-called mnemonic devices (rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and assonance) is the
mnemotechnical effect. It guarantees that the receiver of the advertisement better remembers
the text and recalls it at the right moment.
a. Rhyme

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 Rhyme is a pattern of identity of sound between words or verse-lines extending from
the end to the last fully accented vowel and not further. (Concise Oxford English Dictionary
2004). Rhyme refers to sounds, not spelling. It is commonly found in jingles, slogans and
headlines, like in this one:
Eukanuba gives their teeth the strength they need.
b. Alteration
Alliteration can be defined as literary technique, in which successive words (more
strictly, stressed syllables) begin with the same consonant sound or letter.
(http://www.wikipedia.org/). It is widely used in advertising slogans. There are 20 consonant
sounds in English, but those that are made by stopping the air-stream completely (p, b, m, n, t,
d, k and g) are according to Greg Myers (Myers 1997) most used, because stand out more
than others.
Performance. Prestige. Passion for Innovation.
c. Assonance
Assonance is a linguistic device, in which the same vowel in successive stressed
syllables creates a vowel harmony. It is not so obvious type of scheme as alliteration.
How much reality can you handle?
d. Graphic aspect of the text
We will not devote ourselves to the graphic aspect of the advertising text into details,
but we will draw attention to the most important ways in which the letters can be presented. It
does not have anything with sounds. It deals only with graphic elaboration of the text. Almost
all printed advertisements exploit from the fact of being printed. Copywriters have to decide
how to make the layout. The selection of script, its color, type and size is the inevitable part of
making a good advertisement. However, not only this may contribute to the final effect. The
other possibilities are:
1. Unpredictable spelling of words (Beanz Meanz Heinz, 4ever,
Bar B Q, sper, etc.)
2. Higher frequency of low-frequent letters that produce
outstanding sounds (X is very popular: Xerox, Botox and use
of palato-alveolar consonants /t/, /d/).
3. Unexpected print of letters - whether the size or their shape is
similar to some object and this object replaces the letter.

8
4. Acronyms and initialisms with graphic exploitation the letters of abbreviation create
the first letters of words. The effect is highlighted by means of colour, size or layout:
XTROVERT. XPLOSIVE. LOVE THE COLOUR. COLOR XXL
e. Transliteration
Using of transliteration in advertisement is not so frequent, but when occurred, it makes a
positive result. It definitely attracts readers attention. Transliteration means the
transformation of foreign words into English. Usually the spelling of the foreign word is
different but the pronunciation in these special cases is the same as English:
BE COINTREAUVERSIAL. (here: COINTREAU is the name of French alcoholic
drink)
f. Homophones
In English, there are many words that sound the same but are spelled differently.
Linguists call them homophones. Copywriters use homophony to create puns in advertising
language. This kind of play works best in print. As the fantastic example we show following
example:
Sainsburys have discovered that the finest whisky is kept under loch and quay.
(Myers : 43).
Myers says: The spelling and pictures make us think of the relevant Scottish meanings first,
but we must also recall the idiomatic phrase that fits in the sentence, lock and key. () Each
of two interpretations as spelling or as sound has some support.
1.4.2 Lexical and morphological aspect
This part of the work will be concerned with typical characteristics of the vocabulary of
advertising and most commonly used figures of speech.
a. Verb phrase
There exist two types of structure of verb phrase: finite verb phrase and nonfinite
verb phrase. The first one is a verb phrase in which the first or only word is a finite verb (it
has the tense contrast, person and number concord with the subject), the rest of the phrase (if
any) consisting of nonfinite verbs. () The infinitive, the ing participle and the ed
participle are the non-finite forms of the verb. (Quirk et al. 1990: 41). In advertising, verbal
groups are mostly of maximum simplicity, consisting of only one word. (Leech 1972: 121).
It is obvious by a quick look through our advertising material in research part that the
majority of finite verb phrases are either simple present forms (to satisfy the customers desire
for the present state of the product and its implication of universality and timelessness) or else

9
simple imperatives. Phrasal verbs are also used. According to Leech, passive voice occurs
very sporadically and so does the application of auxiliary verbs. Two auxiliary verbs often
used in advertising are the future auxiliary will, because it evokes the impression of
promise and the modal auxiliary can. If an animate subject precedes the verb can, (in
most cases you = customer- you can), the consumer is told that the product gives him
or her the ability to do this or that. If an inanimate subject (in most cases the brand-name ,
e.g. Nivea peeling can) precedes can, the consumer is told what possibilities the
product offers. (See Leech 1972: 125).
b. Noun phrase
In general, noun phrases in advertisements are far more complex than verb phrases. In
advertising language, the interesting part of the noun phrase is the premodifying part, which is
usually very complex and is characterized by certain unusual structural features. The
complexity of pre-modification is based on the effort to catch, describe and specify the
properties of the product in attractive way:
First automatic chronograph with a 72-hour power-reserve and patented
compression push-buttons. Mechanical automatic movement 751, made inhouse.
Here the only verb is the verb make in passive voice. In many cases, whole advertising text
does not contain any verb; it consists only of noun phrases. Inside the noun phrase, clusters of
two, three or more adjectives are possible:
Gingery Fudgy Nutty Creamy Mischievous Mouthfuls.
A word fudgy is a neologism created by copywriters. Normally it is a noun and it does not
exist in form of an adjective. High number of genitives occurs in names of manufacturer,
names of time and names of towns.
Bighams gourmet canaps
Britains No.1
c. Adjectives
While reading the advertisement, the reader may notice the hyperbolic character of the
language. This exaggeration causes increased number of comparative and superlative
adjectives. The product is better, nicer, newer, and tighter and the customer is happier and
more satisfied. The product offers more information, more entertainment, more comfort, more
than any other product. We may observe in our list of advertisements that gradable
adjectives (they describe qualities that can be measured in degrees; they can be used in
comparative or superlative forms) outnumber non-gradable adjectives (they describe

10
qualities that are completely present or completely absent; they do not occur in comparative
and superlative forms, and cannot be used with adverbs such as very or extremely, because we
dont usually imagine degrees of more or less of the quality being described.
(http://www.onestopenglish.com/teacher_support/ask/Grammar/grammar15.htm),e.g.biologic
al,school,telephonic.)
.
d. Numerals
In many advertisements, we can see the use of numerals. It is necessary if the
copywriters want to define the characteristics of the product exactly. Numerals are used to
define quantity of various aspects, for example percentage of some substance in a product,
number of years in connection to the length of the tradition of the product, the number of
satisfied customers, etc.
e. Foreign words
Foreign words are used in advertisements to emphasize the origin of the product or
exclusiveness of the product in relation to particular country:
La crme de la crme of lipcolour.
French word crme evokes the impression of good-class French cosmetics. Even more, the
phrase crme de la crme is taken from French and it means the best people or things of
their kind (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary 2001).
f. Intertextuality
Intertextuality is the way in which one text echoes or refers to another text. It means
that, for example an advertisement:
To be in Florida in winter, or not to be in Florida in winter
would contain an intertextual reference to a key speech in Shakespeares Hamlet.
Intertextuality can operate at many different levels of language, from phonological and lexical
references in titles and slogans to visual aspects such as layouts and images. ()
Intertextuality can be an important component of and adverts meaning, in that the original
text being referred to establish a message, which the second text can then use and elaborate
on. () For intertextuality to work completely, readers have to be able to remember the
original advert and place the reference being established. But if they dont, it doesnt matter
too much, for the contemporary advert will simply be enigmatic (Goddard 1998: 124)

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In advertising, the intertextuality is used in such conditions, where there is justifiable
supposition that the original text is well-known among people. As example of intertextuality
in visual aspect, see the advertisement in the supplement A of the diploma thesis .
g. Formation of new words and phrases
In English, there exist many different ways of adding new words to the vocabulary.
Advertising texts take advantage of using made-up or adapted words and expressions in order
to support the creative aspect of advertisement and its attraction. In the text, of course, occur
words formed by affixation, compounding, conversion, shortening, blending, and back-
formation and by other ways of creating new words. The readers even neednt notice such
words, because they sound familiar and ordinary to them. However, if a new word is
deviated (it is accommodated somehow to the context of the advertising text), it becomes
striking and interesting for the reader. Let us introduce you a few examples:
We can find new words and phrases formed by compounding. Very striking feature of
advertising language is a variety of lexical units, where each unit is consisting of two or
more bases (roots) (Kvetko 2001: 40) They are called compound words. A compound word
may be characterized by its inseparability (it cannot be interrupted by another word), semantic
unity, morphological and syntactic functioning and certain phonetical and graphic features.
(See Kvetko 2001: 40).
Examples of compounds are: breakfast, hard-working, double-click, within, fine-tune,
airship, world-wide, etc. Compounds may be of two types: coordinative (south-west) and
subordinative. Subordinative compounds are divided into :
1. Germanic type = determinant + determinatum (e.g. highway) .
2. French type = determinatum + determinant (e.g. snow-white). (See Kvetko 2001: 43)
The creativity of copywriters goes beyond the normal frequency of compounds used in
other types of discourse. Because of the intentions to render in best possible way the product,
various compounds are used and created (e.g. good-as-homemade, Jus-Rol, pain-relieving,
state-of-the-art, hand-crafted, head-to-toe, one-of-a-kind, platinum-inlayed, all-new, front-
facing, touch-sensitive, built-in).
h. Idiomatic constructions
An idiom is an expression (i.e. term or phrase) whose meaning cannot be deduced
from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative
meaning that is known only through conventional use. In linguistics, idioms are figures of

12
speech that contradict the principle of compositionality (the principle, which tells that the
meaning of a complex expression is determined by the
meanings of its constituent expressions and the rules used to combine them.).
(http://www.wikipedia.org/). Idioms have multiword character, they are fixed and they have
common figurative meaning. The phrase to be in the same boat has the literal meaning to be
in the same boat, and also the idiomatic figurative meaning to be in the same difficult
situation.
i. Collocations
A collocation is a combination of words in a language, that happens very often and more
frequently than would happen by chance. (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary 2001).
Collocations are used in advertisements, however often without any deviation or play on
words and for the reader it is often imperceptible.
1.4.3. Syntactic aspect
A proverb is a type of idiomatic construction. It is a well-known phrase or sentence
that gives advice or says something that is generally true. (Oxford Advanced Learners
Dictionary 2001), e.g.: Too many cooks spoil the broth. Means that if too many people are
involved in something, it will not be well done.
Copywriters use idioms and proverbs in advertisements, because these constructions
are familiar to most potential customers in a society. The idiom or a proverb in a text may be
used without formal changes, or in a creative way, where an element of a proverb or idiom is
slightly changed or replaced by another word to create a pun and, consequently, a connection
with a product. If the picture accompanies the text, the picture usually does not represent the
figurative - and, of course - correct and common meaning of the idiom, but it represents the
image and representation of the literal meanings of its constituents.
1.4.3 Syntactic aspect
In this part of the work, we shall focus our attention on the structure of sentences in
advertising language. We will mention the most important structural tendencies used by
copywriters.
a. Sentence types
We may distinguish four sentence types: declaratives, interrogatives, imperatives and
exclamatives. Following definitions of each of them are quoted from (Quirk et al. 1990: 231).
Declaratives are sentences in which it is normal for the subject to be present and to precede
the verb. Interrogatives are sentences, which are formally marked in one of two ways: yes-no

13
interrogatives (an operator is placed in front of the subject), and wh-interrogatives (an
interrogative wh-element is positioned initially and there is generally subject-operator
inversion). Imperatives are sentences, which normally have no overt grammatical subject,
and whose verb has the base form. Exclamatives are sentences which have an initial phrase
introduced by what or how, usually with subject-verb order.
To these types of sentences are normally associated four discourse functions:
statements, questions, directives and exclamations. Because most advertisements
approximate to every-day conversation, there is relatively free selection of sentence types.
Leech offers us the results of the research dealt with the frequency of sentence types in
English advertising: in the television sample, over one in thirty major independent clauses
were interrogative, and over one in four major independent clauses were imperative.
Therefore, according to the results of the research, we can say, that the second most widely
used sentence type after declarative type are the imperative clauses. However, this research
does not say anything about the frequency of direct and indirect commands. We cannot
identify the imperative sentence type with discourse function. Imperative is not the same as
directive. We may say that the imperative is always a directive but a directive need not
necessarily be an imperative. Copywriters use imperatives, because it creates a sense of one
person is talking to another () because all ads are urging us to some action. Leech
establishes certain groups of verbal items, which are especially frequent in imperative clauses:
1. Items, which have to do with the acquisition of the product: get, buy, ask for, choose,
etc. Items, which have to do with the consumption or use of the product: have, try,
use, enjoy, etc.
2. Items, which act as appeals for notice: look, see, watch, remember, make sure, etc.
Myers accentuates the absence of please in imperative sentences and lack of politeness.
One explanation may be that in our culture we cut out the politeness devices if we are asking
somebody to do something that benefits the hearer, not the speaker, like in phrase Take a
seat. (Myers 1997: 48)
Why do advertisements use questions? It is for the same reason as why they use
commands: it evokes the sense of personal communication in the reader. It causes that the
reader cooperates with the text having his own individual situation in mind. Although the
copywriters cannot expect the direct answer and feedback (as we have mentioned in section
about public communication above), they expect the readers to
answer themselves silently. Another reason is the presupposition. Presuppositions are present
in any communication and many questions presuppose something. Here comes an example of

14
it: Why do leading beauty experts and models use and recommend Perfectil? In this case,
we can deduce and belief from the content of this advertisement that beauty experts and
models use and recommend Perfectil.
In advertising language, presupposition is very frequent way of expressing the content.
Advertisers rather use presupposition than assertion because it is much easier to deny an
assertion than a presupposition: The statement Leading beauty experts and models use and
recommend Perfectil. one may oppose: I dont believe. No way. But in question mentioned
above, the receiver is unconsciously led to believe that the content is truthful and that there
are no doubts about the fact that they use and recommend it. Another example of
presupposition is following: Just the touch of the button gives you voice control of your
music, climate control and your Bluetooth hands-free phone. It presupposes that the car will
certainly have got a button, radio player, air-condition and hands-free set and that everything
will be able to be controlled by voice.
Angela Goddard writes that presupposition is all about reading between lines; since
this is, as it suggests, a hidden process, it is very interesting to advertisers, as we can be taking
in all sorts of assumptions without consciously paying attention to them. (Goddard 1998:
125)
In advertisements, there are often cases where the question is stated as kind of a problem
and then the text offers an answer a solution for the problem: Got wedding on the brain?
Time to visit our new website.
Another typical type of question used in advertising is rhetorical question.
There is one other sentence type plentifully presented in advertisements
exclamatives. The use of exclamation marks is very liberal and widespread. (We may notice
that exclamation marks are more frequently used in exclamations than in imperatives in
English; that is why it is called exclamation mark and not imperative mark; while in
Slovak the exclamation mark is more often used in imperatives than in English.)
Exclamations may have the sentence structure as simple statements, but the exclamation mark
tells us to read them emphatically.
b. Schematic pattering
The formal schemes can be represented in various ways. Parallelism is one of the
forms of schematic pattering. It can be defined as repetition of formal patterns (Leech 1972:
186). Parallelism means the parallel presentation of two or more than two similar or relevant

15
ideas in similar structural forms. It is a rhetorical device heightening the emotional tone of the
message and its importance. We offer here an
example of parallelism of clause with the same structural pattern:
Tips for a good nights sleep: - Drink less caffeine.
- Take warm baths.
- Arrange your insurance with NFU Mutual.
Each clause has the same idea and structure beginning with verb in imperative
following by direct object. The typography and layout often contributes to the text; in
this case, each clause is printed in separate line. The last clause makes up a semantic and
formal parallel to first two clauses. Parallelism is often accompanied by - anaphora the
repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of several consecutive
sentences or verses to emphasize an image or a concept (http://www.wikipedia.org/):
Explore the hills. Explore the rivers. Explore the mountains. Explore the sea.
- epiphora - the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases,
clauses or sentences. (http://www.wikipedia.org/)
See new. Hear new. Feel new.
We suppose that an antimetabole is another form of schematic pattering. It is defined as the
repetition of words in successive clauses, but in reverse grammatical order, e.g. I know what
I like, and I like what I know. (http://www.wikipedia.org/):
Instead of moving the furniture around, why not move around the furniture?
Schematic pattering occurs in all levels of language. Anaphora, epiphora, alliteration,
assonance and antithesis also belong to techniques of schematic pattering.
c. Ellipsis
Ellipsis belongs to cohesive devices and it is defined as the omission of part of a structure.
(Goddard 1998: 123). Guy Cook (Cook 1996: 170) gives following example of anaphoric
textual ellipsis:
When Lisa made a surprise visit, you didnt have time to worry about spotted glasses.
Fortunately, you didnt have to. Cascade. Because you dont have time for spots.
The ellipted elements correspond to the preceding sentence. Repetition of these elements
would be needless. There is ellipsis also in the last two orthographic sentences Cascade (a
single word) and Because of you dont have time for spots (a subordinate clause). Cook
suggests: In the latter case, a main clause seems to have been ellipted in entirety. But the
missing elements are by no means clear. The main clause we can only deduce.

16
1. To avoid drawing attention to features of the message which do not serve
the advertisers interest (Cook 1996: 169)
2. To create a sense of informality. Ellipsis is normally used in spoken language, in face-to-
face casual communication. Ellipsis in advertising creates an effect of closeness with the
reader and conversational tone;
sometimes suggests immediacy.
In advertising, we can find many examples of situational ellipsis of interrogative
clauses:
It creates proximity and intimacy. it is indicative of shared knowledge and interests, () it
suggests a trusting relationship, in which people assume a desire to understand on the part of
their interlocutor. (Cook
1996: 171). people who know each other well dont need to be all that explicit about their
meanings, because they know the other person will fill in the gap as a result of shared
knowledge and shared history. (Goddard 1998: 42):
This is the advertisement headline for a coffee. Everybody may recognize that the
person, who asks the question, is a waitress in a caf. The whole utterance may be Youll
take Nespresso. What else would you like to drink? It is clear to everybody that What else
means that they can order something more.
d. Incomplete sentences
In advertising text, one can read whole advertisement without coming across a main verb.
There is a widely spread tendency to punctuate phrases. One reason is, that the reader of the
advertisement turns to the visual layout, which provides him many clues to correct
interpretation, so the explicit structure of the sentence is not so important. A LOREAL
advertisement text says:
Revolutionary lift. Revolutionary results. REVITALIFT DOUBLE LIFTING. Intense
Re-Tightening Gel + Anti-Wrinkle Treatment. It is accompanied not only by the picture, but
also by the body copy explaining the phrases above. We can supply more possibilities in the
beginning of the phrases, for example:
If you /For those who want/need a revolutionary lift of your skin and to see
revolutionary results, try/buy Revitalift Double Lifting Intense Re-Tightening Gel and Anti-
Wrinkle Treatment.
The effect is to suggest that we already have these desires, that they are completing
our own thoughts. (Myers 1997: 56)
Following advertisement shows the lack of linking verb:

17
 The curls of your dreams. Now available when youre awake.
We may connect these two incomplete sentences with the linking verb are. In this
case, the verb can be clearly deduced from the context and integrated, but there are cases
where the tense and aspect are not so definite. Another reason for omitting verbs is that there
is no importance to define neither the tense nor the aspect of the verb or it would be
cumbersome.
1.4.4 Semantic aspect
Each linguistic expression has its literal meaning. Literal meaning denotes what it
means according to common or dictionary usage (or more exactly, what the reader is most
likely to assign to a word or phrase if he or she knows nothing about the context in which it is
to be used. (http://www.wikipedia.org/)). The same linguistic expression, however, may
have also its figurative meaning. It connotes additional layers of meaning and evokes
associations; for example, the word professional has connotations of skill and excellence. It
is not possible to give an exhaustive account of the connotations of the expression, because
connotative meanings, which have been evoked in an individual, depend on peoples entire
previous experiences and on conventions of community. Therefore, the connotations of the
same expression will differ slightly from person to person. Furthermore, the same denotations
can have different connotations in different context. Vestergaard and Schroder (Vestergaard
and Schroder 1985) believe that in advertising language, the most frequent word for
acquisition of product is get, and not buy, because buy has some unpleasant
connotations, like money and the parting with it. For people, associations are very powerful,
so the advertisers pay attention to this aspect of language. They play with colours, because
colours may have various positive or negative connotations: innocence / snow / ice / race, and
others for white; passion / blood / stop signal /fire for red; etc. They must be careful about the
target group, because each culture may have different connotations to the same expressions:
in Chinese and Indian tradition, white is the color of mourning, death, and ghosts. In India,
white also stands for peace and purity. Red colour in Eastern European countries may have
slightly negative connotation in relation to the identification of communism with "socialist"
red.
A trope is a word or phrase that is used in a way that is different from its usual
meaning in order to create a particular mental image or effect. (Oxford Advanced Learners
Dictionary 2001). It is a figurative expression. In this part, we give a list of most important
tropes used in advertising language: personification,

18
simile, hyperbole, metaphor and metonymy. In relation to semantic aspect of language, we
define also antithesis, polysemy, and homonymy.
a. Personification
Personification is a term used mainly in literature to name the figure of speech, which
involves directly speaking of an inanimate object, or an abstract concept, as if it were a
living entity, often one with specifically human attributes. These attributes may include
sensations, emotions, desires, physical gestures and expressions, and powers of speech,
among others. (http://www.wikipedia.org/). The readers of advertisements usually do not
register or realize that there is used personification in the text. It is used very widely in all
the expressions like (name of a facial crme) gives you silky skin, (name of a
product) fulfills your wishes or Dirty kitchen? Nothing cleans it up like (name of a
cleaner) are on the base of personification of a brand name: a cleaner cleans, but even
thought, cleaning is an activity proper to human beings.
b. Simile
Simile is defined as a direct, expressed comparison between two things essentially
unlike each other, but resembling each other in at least one way.
(http://home.cfl.rr.com/eghsap/apterms.html).
Usually, similes are marked by use of the words like, than, as or as if. We may
also find comparative constructions used when comparing two things or twosituations:
asas, soas.
Ibuleve gel as fast & effective as pills? Now theres clinical evidence.
c. Hyperbole

A hyperbole is the deliberate use of overstatement or exaggeration to achieve

emphasis. Businessmen and manufacturers use the figure of speech to advertise their goods in
as attractive a way as
possible.(http://www.languageinindia.com/march2005/advertisingenglishhongkong1.html).

d. Metaphor
A metaphor is very difficult issue to define and there are many ways how to define it.
We shall introduce here a definition of metaphor from Oxford Advanced Learners
Dictionary: it is a word or phrase used in an imaginative way to describe sb/sth else, in order
to show that the two things have the same qualities and to make the description more
powerful. Lakoff and Johnson in their book (Lakoff and Johnson 1980 : 34) define metaphor

19
as statements and/or pictures which cause a receiver to experience one thing in terms of
another., for example: Clearly, Mother Nature is a romantic.
A single metaphor may be worth of a hundred words of advertising text. It has an
interesting value and stimulates the curiosity of the reader about the product. In advertising, a
metaphor usually creates a comparison between the product or service and some other quality
the advertiser wishes to be associated with the product or service advertised: One touch. One
light, effortless touch and she realized freedom was something you feel.
This advertisement is for Revlon face powder. The sentence indicates that the freedom is
actually the powder, because when you put the powder on your face, you will feel free.
There are two types of metaphor: verbal and visual. Visual metaphors do not relate
only to words, but they depict relationships between a product or service and some object or
visual element with qualities that the advertiser wishes to attribute to the product or service. In
print advertising, visual metaphor is widely used, because it takes advantage from the
possibility to accompany the text by the image (or vice versa).
The simplest advertising phrase pattern is the pattern of a brand name (one element) and the
additional phrase in apposition (second element). It creates a metaphorical parallelism
between a product and a feature or quality to which is compared:
Infusium 23. A remedy for your hair.
e. Metonymy
A metonymy is the use of a single characteristic to identify a more complex entity. () It is
extremely common for people to take one well-understood or easy-toperceive aspect of
something and use that aspect to stand either for the thing as a whole or for some other aspect
or part of it. (http://www.wikipedia.org/)

f. Antithesis
Antithesis is a figure of speech, which uses the same or similar structure to express
two opposite ideas so as to achieve the effects of emphasizing the meaning and the contrast.
The figure has the characteristics of harmonious combination of sound and rhyme, balanced
syllables, sharp rhythm and compendiousness. The combination of pleasant senses of vision
and hearing often stimulates the goodfeelings of readers and arouses consumers' buying
desire.mmmmmmmmmmmm
(http://www.languageinindia.com/march2005/advertisingenglishhongkong1.html)

20
Antithesis relates to words, clauses or sentences. It is based on antonyms (words of opposite
meaning) or opposite ideas.
g. Polysemy and homonymy
According to Ladislav Trup, there is a difference between polysemy and homonymy from the
point of view of etymology. A homonym is a lexeme, which has the same pronunciation and
spelling as another lexeme, but a different meaning, so there is no semantic connection
between the two lexemes, only phonological one
(Trup 1999: 90
A polyseme is a lexeme with two or more multiple, related meanings, so the
connection is not only phonological, but also semantic. The additional meaning/-s are derived
from the original meaning of the lexeme. It is usually very difficult to define, which of the
meanings is original and which are derived. Often it is difficult even to define whether the
meanings are related or not.
1.5 Advertising translation and factors that influence it
Many translation skills which apply to advertising translation also apply to other types
of translation. These various skills include: a good knowledge of the terminology and a good
knowledge of the culture and the ideology of the target audience. However, advertising
translation is determined by the particular concerns of the discourse of advertising. The
translation of advertisements requires particular skills and marketers should be aware of the
advantage of translating their advertisements in order to reach a larger audience because
Advertising translation is the means of communication par excellence of a company
exporting its products (Guidre: 2005). Advertising materials should be well translated so
that the company or the institution that is launching a new product or that is attracting new
consumers achieves good results from their advertising campaign. According to Torresi
(2010: 8) agility, persuasiveness, creativity, knowledge of laws and restrictions and the
ability to be flexible in the relationships one has with agencies, editors, and the end client are
useful nonlinguistic skills for promotional translators [in this case advertising translators].
The knowledge of laws and restrictions is important in advertising because an advertisement
that does not respect the laws and restrictions of the country in which it is launched is liable to
be banned. For instance, in the United States, according to the courtesy of the American
Advertising Federation, bait advertising cannot deliberately lead consumers to buy more
expensive goods, guarantees and warranties should be explicit and contain sufficient
information, false or misleading price claims should be avoided; and good taste and public

21
decency should be respected. (Wells in Cui 2009: 14) Torresi (2010: 8) defines agility in this
context as the ability to recognize different functions and purposes embedded in the source
text, and approach them appropriately, without losing sight of the overall function of the text,
its coherence and cohesion. She (2010: 8) views persuasiveness as the mastery of an
emotional or evocative style that. The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics,
symbolism and persuasion helps lure the addressee into the desired course of action. She also
suggests that a component of persuasiveness is the ability to recognize and, where necessary
or advisable, to adapt culturespecific values in order to accommodate both the target
audiences expectations and taboos. Before translating an advertisement, translators should
first determine the function of the text according to the requirements of the sponsor. The
striking effect of translated advertisements can be produced through puns, neologisms and
other stylistic devices. More than anyone else, the translator of advertising will feel a special
predilection for creating neologisms, knowing not only that they will be well received by the
public who are always entertained by these formulations but will also serve to support the
objectives of a message that is full of novelty and able to attract the readers attention. (Bueno
Garcia in Munday 2004:203). This means that consumers should not have a sense of dj
vu while looking at translated advertisements. The words and images of the advertisements
must seem new and innovative to them. Moreover, in advertising translation, it is also
necessary that one knows how to correctly assess both the constraints and the opportunities of
the medium and channel being used for promotion (Torresi 2010: 7). This means that
translators should be aware of the fact that the translation of video advertisements is different
from the translation of website advertisements for example. There are elements that may be
included in website advertisements that may not be included in video advertisements. The
translator should also be familiar with the ideological and cultural background of the target
setting. This will give him insight into which translation strategies to use and which
expressions he should not use: some expressions having negative connotations for the target
audience. For example, in Arabic countries, it is not acceptable to talk about intimate matters
in advertising texts. Similarly, in Islamic regions, the use of the word pig in a food campaign
may weaken the campaign. The translator should choose emotive words that will suit the
target audience which should recognize itself in that advertisement. Marieke de Mooij (2004:
186) states that concepts and ideas are The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics,
symbolism and persuasion embedded in the culture in which they originate. Words and
sentences elaborated for one culture are not necessarily meaningful for another. Simon
Anholt argues that:

22
Translating advertising copy is like painting the tip of an iceberg and hoping the whole thing
will turn red. What makes copy work is not the words themselves, but subtle combinations of
those words, and most of all the echoes and repercussions of those words within the mind of
the reader. These are precisely the subtleties which translation fails to convey. Advertising is
not made of words, but made of culture. (In De Mooij 2004: 180)
Cultural, ideological and sociological factors therefore determine the success of
translated advertising copy and should be given special attention if the translator does not
want to produce a distorted message in the target setting. Before discussing these factors, we
will first mention some overall advertising strategies that are used by advertising translators
and we will discuss the translation of the brand name in advertising as well as the translation
of Business to Consumers advertisements (B2C).
When translating advertising material for international audiences, translators may either
decide to internationalize the advertisement or to localize it.
1.5.1 Internationalization
International advertising consists of using the same strategy of communication in all
targeted countries. The advantage of this approach lies mainly in the economies of scale
generated because of the standardization of the campaign (Mathieu Guidre 2003).
.
1.5.2. Localization
Pym defines localization as the processes by which a generic (international)
product is adapted to the requirements of a locale, a place with a specific union of cultural
linguistic features (In Maroto 2007: 4). According to Guidre, localization of international
advertising campaigns consists of adapting the company's communication to the specificities
of the local environment of the hosting countries targeted by the campaign (Guidre 2003).
This means that localization involves the adjustment of an advertising campaign to local
realities of a given place. Localization is a useful translation strategy in translating advertising
texts because the preferences and needs of people are not always the same. A given
advertisement that may work in a poor country may not work in a developed country.
Similarly advertising texts are highly cultureoriented, and linguistic and stylistic preferences
differ from one place to another. The translation of brand names is also an important issue
in advertising translation. The translation of brand names is very sensitive as there are names
through which a company is recognised everywhere. This is why a certain degree of ingenuity
is required when dealing with brand names. (Torresi 2010: 21) argues that brand names
convey the brands carefully constructed image and identity.

23
 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
untranslated when a product is marketed abroad (Torresi 2010: 21). However, there are
exceptions to this rule, which Torresi divides into three groups:
1. Phonetic/graphic adaptation
2. Changes introduced to avoid undesired associations
3. Translation to make the meaning or implications of the brand name transparent in the
language of the target market (reencoding of the names meaning): this encourages
the transcreation of meanings that best accommodate the conventions of the target
language and culture.
Graphic adaptation usually occurs between different alphabets or writing conventions. The
process of graphic adaptation may also carry phonetic adaptation if the phonetics and alphabet
of the target language do not include all the sounds that make up the original name (Torresi
2010: 21).
When a graphic or aural element of the brand name or logo generates undesired
associations or violates a taboo in the target language and culture, changes are normally made,
since the negative connotation would directly affect sales. (Torresi 2010: 22) For instance,
the Chevrolet Nova is reported to have sold poorly in Latin America, where no va means it
wont start (Torresi 2010: 22).
The brand names meaning can also be reencoded in order to fit the target setting.

1.5.3. Ideology
Ideology can be defined as:
1. A system of social beliefs: a closely organized system of beliefs, values, and ideas forming
the basis of a social, economic, political philosophy or programme.
2. A meaningful belief system: a set of beliefs, values, and opinions that shapes the way a
person or a group such as a social class thinks, acts, and understands the world. (Microsoft:
Encarta 2009) Van Djik defines ideology as a basic system of shared social representations
that may control more specific group beliefs (Van Djik cited in Karoubi). The ideology of a
society controls the way in which the people of that society perceive things. This also means
that the legal jurisdictions of a given society are determined by their ideology. Translators of
advertisements need to know the legal jurisdictions of the market; they must know how
cultural differences affect marketing (Seguinot in Mary SnellHornby 2006: 136). Lefevere
describes ideology as the:Conceptual grid that consists of opinions and attitudes deemed

24
acceptable in a certain society at a certain time and through which readers and translators
approach texts and argues that
translation is governed above all by patronage, which consists of ideological, economic and
status components.(In Baker and Saldanha: 137)
Ideology represents the opinions and attitudes of people in given societies and these opinions
and attitudes affect the production and consumption of advertisements. Ideology therefore
determines what is taboo, immoral and unethical in a given society and it also determines
what is acceptable and favoured in a society. (In Venutis 1992:9) terms:
A text is a heterogeneous artifact, composed of disruptive forms of semiosis like polysemy
and intertextuality, but it is nonetheless constrained by the social institutions in which it is
produced and
consumed, and its constitutive materials, including the other texts that it assimilates and
transforms, link it to a particular historical moment.
A translated advertisement should reflect the ideology of the place where it is
produced. It should also reflect the ideology of the time when it is produced. Consumers
should recognise themselves in the advertisement. If they do not, they will assume that the
advertisements do not address them and they may not trust the brand. Christiane Nord
believes that almost any decision in translation is consciously or unconsciously guided by
ideological criteria (2003:111). The ideology of a given society affects the way translators
translate advertisements in that society. If the advertising campaign does not comply with the
ideological constraints of the milieu that it targets then the adverts may be banned and
consequently, the products will not be sold in that region. This is the reason for the translator
of advertising campaigns being aware of all the ideological constraints of the target culture
especially when the target audience has very different values from the source audience.
1.5.4 Culture
Contemporary studies on translation are aware of the need to examine in depth the
relationship between the production of knowledge in a given culture and its transmission,
relocation, and reinterpretation in the target culture (Alvarez and Vidal 1996: 2). Culture is a
crucial factor in translation. Torresi defines culture as: the set of values, traditions, beliefs,
and attitudes that are shared by the majority of people living in a country, or alternatively, in a
local community that is distinguished from the rest of the national society by major traits such
as language, religion or political and legal system. (Torresi 2010: 156)

25
 In order to persuade a target audience, it is important to understand and to respect its
culture. In other words, for an advertisement to be successful, the people that it targets should
recognise in it their cultural values. A translator needs to avoid taboo expressions or taboo
representations in the advertisements. For example, an advertisement for food produced in a
Muslim region must not contain allusion to the pig because the pig is an unclean animal
Islam. Advertisements also need to be adapted to cultures in terms of register. German
advertising, for instance, perhaps with the exception of ads targeted only at young audiences,
often uses formal register and the formal plural second person, while in English and Italian,
the standard is informal register, emotional language, and the second person singular. (Torresi
2010: 157)
Concepts and ideas in advertising are embedded in the culture in which they originate (De
Mooij 2004: 186). A good translated advertisement is one that adapts to the cultural
environment in which it is produced.
Lefevere views translation as a rewriting of the original. This means that the act of
translation is carried out under certain constraints that determine the purpose of the translated
text. The translator is like a rewriter that works under a certain set of norms determined by the
patron and he should comply with those norms. Translation is, of course, a rewriting of an
original text. All rewritings, whatever their intention, reflect a
certain ideology and poetics and as such manipulate literature to function in a given way
(Lefevere 1992: 13 26). This view applies to the philosophy of advertising translation in the
sense that advertising materials sometimes have to be rewritten in order to adapt to the
ideology and culture of the milieu in which it is targeted.
1.5.5. Sociology
Any translation is necessarily bound up within social contexts: on the one hand, the act
of translating, in all its various stages, is undeniably carried out by individuals who belong to
a social system; on the other, the translation phenomenon is inevitably implicated in social
institutions, which greatly determine the selection, production and distribution of translation,
and as a result the strategies adopted in the translation itself. (Michaela Wolf 2010: 33)
The translation strategies used by translators are determined by the environment in
which they find themselves and by the people and the way of life of the people that the
advertisements target. For instance, people speak differently. Women, men and children do
not speak in the same manner. Similarly, rich and poor speak differently. For this reason,
advertising translators should know how to appeal to these different categories in different

26
ways. This means that the translator should adapt his language use depending on the target,
using different words and styles for products and services targeted towards men than those
targeted towards women. Similarly, texts that target children may not have words that can
hurt the sensitivities of children; for instance, it should not contain words with sexual
connotations. Finally, translations that target wealthy people may have words like V.I.P
whereas in translations for less affluent people, this type of word may be omitted. Translators
should pay attention to the different expectations of the social age groups of the country or
region in which the company is launching a product. They should remember that their main
function is not to render the perfect copy of the source advertisement but to produce the same
effect or a better effect in the target setting. We have discussed the particular features of the
translation of advertisements and factors that influence it. Below we discuss skopos theory
and functional equivalence which are relevant in the translation of advertisements. We also
discuss relevance theory because an advertisement needs to be relevant to the public before it
can persuade consumers.

27
 CHAPTER II. ANALYSIS OF MAX FACTORS ADVERTISMENT
Advertising has been the center of attention for many discourse analysis studies such
as English in Advertising: a linguistic study of advertising in Great Britain (Leech, 1972), or
The Discourse of the Advertising (Cook, 1992) these last years because of its interesting and
persuading language. These researches have detected patterns belonging to the genre of
advertising that contribute to fulfill its objective. But, any of these studies have not focused on
comparing adverts from different years in order to observe the evolution of their language
which could be used for further investigations. This project will compare Max Factors
adverts from the last seventy years in order to determine their similarities and differences.
This project is structured into five main parts: the first one is the introduction which
will consist of the objectives, the research questions, the hypothesis, the approach to the topic
and the methodology used. The second one will be a linguistic and paralinguistic analysis of
each decade of Max Factors adverts textual analysis. The third part will consist of an
interpretation of the previous analysis processing analysis , a comparison of its results and
the possible causes of its evolution. The fourth one will attempt to explain the social
conditions behind the discourse social analysis. And the final part will be the conclusion of
the project.
2.1 Objectives, Research Questions and Hypothesis
The cosmetic adverts selected for this project belong to Max Factor that since its
beginning has been among the top cosmetic brands being, according to Byron (2009, para. 2),
the pioneer of Hollywood makeup artistry coexisting with many other ones. This project is
built according to two main objectives. The first aim is to analyze the discourse of each Max
Factors advertisement in order to identify the linguistic and paralinguistic features that aid to
achieve their function. The second one is to compare the results of each decade from 1940 to
2010 of Max Factors adverts in order to establish their linguistic and paralinguistic
similarities and differences. By doing this, it will attempt to answer to the following research
questions:

1. How do Max Factors adverts achieve their function? What are the discursive
strategies used by this brand?
2. What has been the linguistic development in Max Factors ads from 1940 to 2016?
Comparison.
3. Why? Causes or reasons for this development.

28
 Max Factor has had to be adapted to a competitive market by innovating its advertising
strategies including linguistic ones in order to remain a successful brand and to remain
attracting consumers attention. Thus, the initial hypothesis of this project is that the linguistic
strategies in Max Factors advertisements have changed over time in order to be innovative,
creative and consequently remain one of the leading brands.
2.2 Advertising as a Genre
Nowadays advertising is an important genre, it is everywhere and influences our culture
since its discourse deals with objects and the way in which these ones are related to different
aspects of our life (Jhally, 1990, p. 2). Advertising is a procedure within marketing the
process in which it is produced an exchange of goods and services between people to satisfy
consumers needs that develops strategies in order to involve people with a particular
product or service. Thus, advertising creates needs that people must meet in order to be
happy. Adverts can be multi-functional, they can have many other objectives, for instance, they
can describe and give information about a product or entertainment, attract consumers attention,
warm, worry, etc (Cook, 1992, p. 7). Despite the fact that the most of advertisements function is
to persuade people to buy a product called product ads , there are adverts that do not sell
products or services non-product ads as Cook (1992, p. 10) states. However, this project is
focused on product ads since the topic of interest is how this type of adverts, in particular
cosmetic ones, and how their discourse is able to persuade people.
2.3 Importance of the Topic
Firstly, as it is introduced at the beginning, there are many studies concerning the
discourse analysis of advertising but none of them is centered on comparing adverts of the
same brand from different decades in order to examine the development of their discursive
devices. So, the findings of this research can make a contribution in the studies dealing with
the discourse analysis of advertising. Secondly, analyzing the discourse of beauty adverts is
an interesting topic because of several reasons. First of all, cosmetics have early historical
antecedents and gain more importance every time. As a result, nowadays there is a huge and a
profitable market dealing with esthetic which is constantly growing. In the second place, as it
is explained by Aubert professor at the Universit Franois-Rabelais Department of
Neurosciences in France, and other researches at Harvard University such as Nancy Etcoff,
cosmetics is important to people and affects likeability, trustworthiness and competence
perception (Somosot, 2013, para. 13). Finally, several competences belonging to the English
Degree will be achieved by means of this project. The most remarkable ones, dealing with
linguistics, are:

29
1. The knowledge about linguistic theories and methodologies and their applications,
primarily applied to English language located within specific competences: disciplinary
and academic ones.

2. The ability to make the linguistic analysis of English discourses within professional
competences.

The first one will be reached by applying the theory and the methods learned in applied
linguistic courses. The second one will be attained by means of the knowledge provided by
the course Lingstica Aplicada I.
2.4 Materials
The material used to develop this study will be a corpus. A corpus is a collection of pieces of
language text in electronic form, selected according to external criteria to represent, as far as
possible, a language or language variety as a source of data for linguistic research. (Sinclair,
2005, p. 16)
The corpus employed is an English monolingual one which is composed of American and
British Max Factors adverts in printed form written language , so it is also a specialized
corpus since it comprises a certain type of texts beauty adverts. As it is explained in the
previous parts, the data analyzed are adverts from 1940 to 2000, so it is a synchronic corpus
because they belong to a particular moment of time 20th and 21st centuries. It comprises
seventy samples in total, ten ads per decade, in order to reach more homogeneous results;
texts were taken from the Internet.
2.5 Methodology
The methodology used to carry out this study will be Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
derived from the Functional Systematic Linguistics since it allows the analysis of texts and
their social context (Titscher et al, 2000, p. 50-51). Discourse analysis is interpretative and
explanatory. Critical analysis implies a systematic methodology and a relationship between
the text and its social conditions, ideologies and power-relations. Interpretations are always
dynamic and open to new contexts and new information (Wodak, 1996, p. 17-20). The
method employed to analyze Max Factors ads in order to know how they persuade women
will be Faircloughs analytical framework (Titscher et al, 2000, p. 150- 152); it assigns three
dimensions to every discursive event which Fairclough (1993, p. 138) defines as an
instance of language use, analyzed as text, discursive practice, social practice. This
framework is used to examine the relationship between these dimensions which are text,
discursive practice and social practice. In addition each of the dimensions is studied by means

30
of a different type of analysis: text, processing and social analysis or description,
interpretation and explanation as it is shown in the figure below.

Figure 1 Dimensions of discourse and discourse analysis (Titscher et al, 2000, p. 152)

The textual level concerns the description of content and form, so it involves a
linguistic and paralinguistic analysis. (Titscher et al, 2000, p. 150) The level of discursive
practice relates the connection between text and social practice, how the text is produced and
interpreted by participants and how discursive events are related to other discourses
intertextuality. According to Titscher et al (2000 p. 153), its analysis concerns the
interpretation of the relationship between the productive and interpretative processes of
discursive practice and the text. Finally, Janks (1997, p. 26) argues that the social practice
deals with the socio-historical conditions that govern the productive and interpretative
processes, so its analysis explains the relationship between the discursive and the social
practice.
Firstly Max Factors adverts of each decade will be described as a group. This refers
to a paralinguistic and a linguistic analysis of their common features which includes a
description of their higher texts structure and their lower elements
31
grammar, sounds, sentence structure, word choice, semantic strategies, grammatical and
lexical cohesion. Secondly, the decades will be compared in order to explain the development
of their linguistic and paralinguistic strategies. These devices will be interpreted in order to
understand how they aid to achieve adverts functions. Then, adverts will be related to their
context and their development will be observed. Finally, their power relations will be
explained.

32
Adverts from 1940

As it is explained before, every genre is defined by a series of moves and steps

(Swales, 1990, p. 140). According to Leech (1966, p. 59), adverts are structured into five
parts: headline, illustration, body copy, signature line and standing details this last part is
not presented in these adverts. Max Factors ads have been divided into moves and steps due
to Leechs organization. Thus, their composition is divided into four main moves the
previous ones and some of them are in turn divided into the following steps. The first move
is composed by headlines which are:
[1] Tru-Color Lipstick...the color stays on through every lipstick test.
Introducing a wonderful new kind of Lip Make-Up. In a new Rainbow of Lipstick
reds...for the first time Max Factor Hollywood incorporates these three amazing
features in one sensational new lipstick.
Loveliness... in just a few seconds with this modern make-up.
A new rainbow of Lipstick Reds... three shades for your type!
The New Lipstick from Hollywood.
Just a few seconds to make up with Pan-Cake and Youre Glamorous.
Make up in a few seconds...LOOK LOVELY FOR HOURS.
Glamour... in just a few seconds with this modern make-up.
Tru-Color Lipstick... the color stays on through every lipstick test.
Create flattering new beauty...IN JUST A FEW SECONDS.

33
 The second move is the body copy or the text of the advertisements. Some of these
include a list of the benefits of the product. The third move is composed by three steps. The
first one is an image of the product. The second step is a picture of a Hollywood actress who
wears the product in a film. The final one is the caption where the information of the image is
included, for instance:
[2] EVELYN KEYES in Columbias THERES SOMETHING ABOUT A SOLDIER.
Donna Reed IN METRO-GOLDWYN MAYERS FAITHFUL IN MY FASHION.
CLAUDETTE COLBERT IN NO TIME for LOVE A PARAMOUNT PICTURE.
Merle Oberon IN A TECHNICOLOR PICTURE THE LOVE OF MADAME SAND.
Rita Hayworth STAR OF DOWN TO EARTH A COLUMBIA PICTURE IN
TECHNICOLOR.

Grammatical cohesion
Reference: the most common is the personal pronoun it, which appears in the listing of
advantages and refers to the product.
Connectives: the addition connective and is the most frequently used (in 100% of the ads).

Lexical cohesion
Repeating words: Max Factor Hollywood, Make-up, new, exclusive, lovely, Pan-Cake Make-
Up, Tru-Color Lipstick, you, your, and, it, color.
Synonyms: amazing, wonderful, sensational; new, modern, original; lovely, alluring.
Related words: lipstick, color, red, shades; make-up, complexion.

Grammar
Sentences: simple combined with complex.
Direct/indirect reported speech: direct.
Verbs:
- Tense: in simple present and in future.
- Aspect: non progressive.
- Mood: indicative and imperative.
- Finite/ non-finite: both.
Examples:
[3] Try Pan-Cake Make-Up originated by Max Factor Hollywood, and discover the miracle
make-up that millions of girls and women are talking about.

34
[4] New original formula does not dry the lips.
[5] You can give your natural beauty the added appeal of entrancing loveliness.
[6] WATCH for a miracle of make-up when you first try Pan-Cake Make-Up because youll
see a lovely new complexion...soft, smooth and young-looking.
[7] Like millions of girls and women will be devoted to it forever.

Pronouns: the most common ones are you and it.

Demonstratives: this referring to the product.
Adjectives: in positive form and positive ones.

Word choice
Descriptive words: new, lovely, original and synonyms.
Hyperbole:
[8] Watch for a miracle of make-up when you first try Pan-Cake Make- Up. You will be
utterly amazed and thrilled with the transformation.
You will be utterly amazed and thrilled with the transformation.
Youll be thrilled with the touch of glamour Pan-Cake Make-Up gives to your natural
beauty.
Discover the make-up that millions of girls and women are talking about.
And you, like millions, will instantly approve this new make-up fashion.

Short/long: long and short sentences.

Passive/active/imperative: these adverts combine the three types as it can be shown

in the examples above.

Listing: almost of the adverts of this decade include a list of the advantages of the
product, for instance:
[9] *It creates a lovely new complexion.
*It helps conceal tiny complexion faults.
*It stays on for hours without re-powdering.

Non-traditional syntactic constructions: these ads use characteristics that belong to

spoken language but are used in written texts.
Semantic strategies
Personalization: use of the pronouns you or your:

35
[10] 3 Shades for you. Correct for your coloring...correct for your costume.
You can give your natural beauty the added appeal of entrancing loveliness...
No matter how critical your audience.
The headlines and the signature lines are written in a different font and sometimes in
different color. These, together with the body copy, are also separated by blank spaces. The
layout consists of an image of a famous actress in a film, a picture of the product, and a
background. The two first elements are colorful whereas the background color is white in
order to highlight these images and to obtain brightness.

36
Adverts from 1980

The composition of these ads is divided into four main moves and some of them are
divided into steps. The first move is composed by the headlines which are:
[11] So quick! So easy! And no other make-up looks and feels so naturally lovely!
MAX FACTOR gives you hi-fi Fluid Make-Up For you... a little girl complexion...
because this is the most natural-looking make-up of them all.
At Last! The make-up that keeps its promise! Only Creme Puff makes you look so pretty so
quickly... stay so pretty so long!
MAX FACTOR sets your lips aglow with IRIDESCENT MAGIC. New luminous lipstick
brings them excitingly alive with soft shimmering beauty. Blonde! Brunette! Brownette!
Redhead! NOW... each to you own TRUE RED! Clear Red by MAX FACTOR
HOLLYWOOD in the lipstick that really stays on.
7 reasons why youll look lovelier the instant Creme Puff kisses your skin.
MAX FACTOR CREATES PAN-CAKE* make-up perfection for the woman who meets
over 12 people a day.
Tru-Color Lipstick... the color stays on through every lipstick test.
Exciting, New, Easy Way for your to have that Fresh, Young, Natural Look. The Off-Stage
Beauty Secret of Hollywoods Loveliest Stars.
MAX FACTOR. YOU LOOK SO NATURAL... ONLY YOU KNOW YOURE
WEARING... CREME PUFF.

37
 The second move consists of the body copy. The third move generally includes two
steps: one is an image of an actress or a model and the other is a picture of the product. Some
adverts include information dealing with the actress and the film in which she participates as
in the example [2] from 1940. The fourth move is the signature line that is the name of Max
Factor in distinctive letters. In the most modern adverts it is included in the headline, but in
others it is kept the same format than adverts from 1940 which is the name of the product
followed by Max Factor Hollywood.

Grammatical cohesion
Reference: it is the most used referring to the product:

[12] It conceals every imperfection.

It seems to be your own complexion.
It veils tiny imperfections instantly.
Its different from any lipstick youve ever known!
Connectives: the addition connective and is the most frequently used (in 100% of the ads).

Lexical cohesion
Repeating words: make-up, you, and, your, it, so, lovely, Max Factor, look,
complexion and the names of the product such as Pan-Stik, Pan-Cake, Tru-Color, or
Hi-fi Fluid.

Synonyms: complexion, skin; smooth, soft, velvety, satin; shimmer, luminous,

iridescent, gleam; daring, bold; shade, nuance.

Related words: lovely, beauty, glamorous, fashion.

Grammar
Sentences: simple combined with complex ones.

Direct/indirect reported speech: direct.

Verbs: - Tense: in simple present.

- Aspect: non progressive.
- Mood: mostly indicative and imperative.

38
 - Finite/ non-finite: both.
Examples:

[13] Its a complete make-up!

[14] Max Factor reveals the technique.
[15] It cant absorb the natural skin moisture that causes other make-ups to streak or turn
orangey.
[16] Gide Hi-Fi over your face; Try Pan-Stik today.
[17] PAN-CAKE Make-Up gives you that inner assurance that your make-up is fashion-
right.
Pronouns: you is the one most frequently used.
Adverbs: the most common ones are so and only. So is used to intensify adjectives: so
quick! So easy!; so perfectly; so pretty; so naturally. Only is used to define the
uniqueness and the exclusiveness of the product: only Creme Puff by Max Factor
looks so lovely; only make-up for todays busy fashionable woman; only from MAX
FACTOR.

Adjectives: these ads use positive adjectives in positive and superlative form.
Word choice
Descriptive words: new, smooth, easy to apply, creamy, fresh, natural, lovely.

Hyperbole: they are common in these adverts, for instance:

[18] Max Factor, Hollywoods genius of Color Harmony make-up covers complexion
flaws like no other in the world.
Max Factors exclusive blend of ingredients gives you a new, more alluring,
natural loveliness with perfect results guaranteed.
No other make-up looks and feels so naturally lovely!
The one and only make-up for todays busy fashionable woman who must look
her very best hour after hour.
Sentence structure
Short/long: short and long sentences.

Passive/active/imperative: active voice is the most frequently used.

Non-traditional syntactic constructions: these ads use characteristics that belong to

spoken language but are used in written texts.

Semantic strategies
Personalization: they use the pronoun you or your:

39
[19] Shortens your make-up time to just second.
The very first time you use it.
For you... a little girl complexion.
You can never have a make-up mistake.
These ads use different types of font and blank spaces. The background colors
employed are light ones such as white or beige in order to contrast with the colors of the
images. The color that is highlighted in all the ads is the red of the womens lips.

40
Adverts from 2000

These adverts are structured into four moves. The first one is the headline of the adverts
which deals with catchy sentences such as:
[20] Pure Magic proclaims the Super Blushers.
Creme Puff is perfect for almost everyone.
From California Max Factor brings you the sunlit look of Creme Puff.
Max Factor turns on the DiscoTints. Pure Magic proclaims the Super Blusher!
Pick a California Orange. BAZAZZ AGE COLORS! The California look starts
with your eyes...
Cut up, cut out, cut loose with Max Factor's CALIFORNIA PIKA-PADES.
THIS SUMMERS FASHION SENSATION!
The second move is the text, the description of the product and its advantages. The
third move is divided into two steps, an image of a beautiful woman wearing the cosmetics
and a picture of the product. The final move is the signature line which is composed by the
name of the brand and sometimes includes the name of the product:
[21] HI-FI FLUID MAKE-UP by MAX FACTOR.
BAZAZZ AGE COLORS by MAX FACTOR.
No shine lipsticks by MAX FACTOR. California Pink-A-Pades by Max
Factor.
Grammatical cohesion
Reference: the element most frequently used is the personal pronoun it:

[22] The easy way it goes on.

It could only have been conceived in California.
Max Factor re-creates it.

41
 It defies color change.

Connectives: the most common element is the addition connective and (in 90% of the
ads).
Lexical cohesion
Repeating words: new, soft, look, color, and, it, you, your, Max factor, and the name
of the products.

Synonyms: slick, soft, velvety.

Related words: skin, foundation, eyes, make-up, lipstick, color.

Grammar
Sentences: simple mixed with complex ones.

Direct or indirect speech: direct.

Verbs:

- Tense: simple present.

- Aspect: non progressive.

- Mood: indicative.

- Finite/non finite: mostly finite.

Examples:
[23] It's the great new color adventure for summer.
[24] Its the go-going glitter of the Now generation.
[25] Makes your lips feel different.
[26] Its the California Look that begins with a glance through Max Factors youth-
fashioned eye make-ups.
[27] Its a look that leads all other her eyes to yours.
Pronouns: these adverts use the pronouns you and it.

Adjectives: the ads use positive adjectives in positive form.

Word choice
Descriptive words: new, soft are the most common.

42
 Hyperbole:

[28] Its the yummiest look in years!

Super Blusher, the first all-over blushing make-up.
Youd think it was done with mirrors
Nothing holds a candle to it.
Its a look born of sun and starlight.
Sentence structure
Sentences: short ones.

Direct or indirect speech: direct.

Passive/active/imperative: mostly active voice and some imperatives:

[29] Wear the sunlit look.
Try it in your colour and skin type.
Slip into a few.
Kick up your non-heels and come fly with us.
Non-traditional syntactic constructions: these ads use characteristics that belong to
spoken language but are used in written texts.
Semantic strategies
Personification:
A lipstick that knows no dryness. In twenty-one colors (eight in a sumptuous new
iridescent) that make fashion sit up and purr. It speaks the language of fashion!
[30] They make other blushers turn orange with envy.
Personalization:
[31] Makes your lips feel different.
From California Max Factor brings you the sunlit look of Creme Puff.
All velvety powder and creamy foundation you puff on at once.
The California look starts with your eyes...
These adverts use a bigger font in their headlines and blank spaces between their parts.
The background colors are beige or white and the pictures of women are in warm ones.

43
Adverts from 2005

These advertisements are divided into main four moves. The first move comprises the
headline:
[32] No more heavy lipstick. No more caked-on look. No more. No maam. YOUVE
GOT IT WHIPPED.
FINGER PAINT PRETTIER EYES WITH PURE MAGIC SUPER EYE GLOSS.
The Make-Up thats also a Beauty Treatment.
For the beautiful young, California is a beautiful state to be in.
Max Factor invents Colour-On waterproof eye shadow. Swim in it... sun in it... wear
it anywhere!
My skins a bit oily. Which make-up covers without looking shiny? SUPER UN-
SHINE MAKE-UP. My skins a bit dry. Which make-up moisturizes without looking greasy?
SUPER CLEAR MAKE-UP.
Get wet. Play hard. And still look great.
THE NEW WOMAN DISCOVERS THE NEW LOOK: Germinesse Enriched
Moisturizing Fluid Make-Up.
Moist, creamy luscious lips. Thats what Max Factor calls rich. With color that lasts
and lasts. Thats what Max Factor calls double-rich.
MAX FACTOR SIGHTS The Pales and the Braves. Nail colors blended with silver
and gold frost. Shades that go from pow to wow.
The second move is the body copy.
The third move is the signature line which usually involves the name of the brand and
the name of the product:
[33] UltraLucent Pure Moisture Fluid Make-Up from MAX FACTOR.

44
California by Max Factor.
MAX FACTOR WHIPPED CREME LIPSTICK.
California by Max Factor.
From the beautiful world of MAX FACTOR... naturally
PURE MAGIC FROM MAX FACTOR.
Ultralucent Waterproof Make-Up and Blush by MAX FACTOR
GEMINESSE MAX FACTOR.
MAX FACTOR UltraLucent Double-rich WHIPPED CREME LIPSTICK.
UltraLucent, the now and future nails colors only by MAX FACTOR.
The fourth move consists of two steps, one is the image of the product and the other is
the picture of a woman wearing it.
Grammatical cohesion
Reference: all the adverts use the personal pronoun it referring to the product:
[34] It looks every bit as delicious as it sounds!
Swim in it... sun in it... wear it anywhere!
Does it look terrific?
It makes your skin look good.
Connectives: the addition connective and is the most frequently used (in 90% of the
ads).
Lexical cohesion
Repeating words: Max Factor, and, make-up, your, it, and the names of the products.

Related words: face, nails, eyes, lips, skin, look.

Grammar
Sentences: mostly simple.

Direct or reported speech: direct.

Verbs:

- Tense: simple present.

- Aspect: non progressive.
- Mood: indicative.
- Finite/non finite: mostly finite.
Examples:

45
[35] This is one fashion uprising thats love not war.
[36] Theyre so incredibly natural.
[37] Pure Moisture Fluid Make-Up is rich and sheer.
[38] California is a whole new world of make-up for the beautiful young.
[39] Its the new look for the new woman: you.
Pronouns: mostly the pronoun you and it.

Adjectives: positive.
Word choice
Descriptive words: in lipstick ads rich and soft; in make-up ads, moisturized, sheer,
radiant and synonyms.

Hyperbole:
[40] Theres never been an eye shadow like it.
A veil of sheer perfection.
Richer than ever in long-lasting color.
Kiss your troubles goodbye with California Sunsticks.
Theres never been an eye shadow like it.
Sentence structure
Sentences: mostly short.

Direct/ indirect speech: direct.

Non-traditional syntactic structure: these ads use characteristics that belong to
spoken language but are used in written texts.
Semantic strategies
Personalization:
[41] Pure Magic Super Un-Shine is your make-up.
UltraLucent Pure Moisture Fluid Make-Up treats your skin beautifully.
In 5 wicked shades that make you look provocative while your eye make-up stays innocent.
Its blended with moisturizers and emollients to protect your skins own natural moisture.
These adverts employ different font and blank spaces between their parts. Some
background colors are light and others are intense.

46
Adverts from 2010

These advertisements are divided into four moves. The first move comprises the headline:
[42] I love what it does for my face! Max Factor, youre beautiful.
Maxi Colors-to-Go. 24 ways to make beautiful eyes.
YOUR PERFECT COLORS.
5 to 1, a more perfect complexion is on this page.
Max Factor did it. New Colorfast long lasting nail enamel. Were handing you days and
days of dazzle.
Not just moist. Not just more moist. But 83% moisturizers. For 100% terrific lips.
Maxi means more. Unshine means no shine.
Not just long. Not just lasting. But long lashes that Last 24 hours long.
Satin Shadows: They leave other powders in the dust.
If you have oily skin this is for you. New Stay- Fresh Eye Shadow. Crease resistant, color
true. The second move is the body copy, but it does not appear in some adverts so some of
them deal with three moves. The third move is the signature line which consists of the name
of the brand and/or the name of the product and/or a kind of slogan:
[43] Max Factor Cosmetics.
Whipped Creme Moisture Rich Fluid Make-Up by MAX FACTOR.
Maxi Max Factor makes your beauty come to life. MAX FACTOR... THE GLAMOUR
GOES ON.
MAX FACTOR.

47
DONT YOU LOVE BEING A WOMAN? MAX FACTOR.
Maxi MAX FACTOR makes your beauty come to life.
The fourth move is divided into two steps, the first is the image of a model, and the
second is the picture of the product.
Grammatical cohesion
Reference: it is the most common, but only appears in the adverts that have text:
[44] It moisturizes and pampers your face.
It glides on smoothly for medium to more sophisticated coverage.
Dont you love it?
It took Max Factor to break through the haze of eye shadows.
Connectives: the addition connective and is the most frequently used (in 70% of the
ads), but it does not appear in adverts without body copy.
Lexical cohesion
Repeating words: Max Factor, Maxi, and, you, your.

Synonyms: light, bright, shiny.

Related words: lips, lashes, nails, skin, eyes.

Grammar
Sentences: simple.

Direct /reported speech: direct.

Verbs:
- Tense: mostly in simple present.
- Aspect: non progressive.
- Mood: indicative and sometimes imperative.
- Finite/ non finite: both.
Examples:
[45] It moisturizes and pampers your face.
[46] With a unique formula that actually captures moisturizers and looks them in.
[47] A makeup and moisturizer combined in a portable stick glides on smoothly for medium
to more sophisticated coverage.
[48] That means instead of powdery flyaway.
[49] 30 custom colors you can pick and choose.
Pronouns: mostly you and it.
48
 Adjectives: positive ones in positive form.

Sounds
Alliteration: Maxi and Max Factor.
Word choice
Descriptive words: bright, light, and shiny.

Hyperbole:

[50] Its a beautiful feeling.

You wont believe how easily they glide across an eye.
They leave other powders in the dust.
Youll love the feeling of Whipped Creme.
Abbreviations: Maxi maximum.
Sentence structure
Sentences: short sentences.

Passive/active/imperative: active and sometimes in imperative.

Non-traditional syntactic constructions: these ads use characteristics that belong to

spoken language but are used in written texts.
Semantic strategies
Personalization: use of the pronoun you, or your:
[51] Designed to give you color.
Focused on your individual glamour.
Glosswear formula designed to give you color so unbelievably shiny and luscious you
neednt bother with a top coat.
Colorful, bright and focused on your individual glamour.
These ads use bigger font in headlines and in the signature line. In addition they
employ blank spaces to separate their parts. The background colors are mostly intense.

49
 Adverts from 2015

These ads share four moves. The first one is the headline:
[52] Get even New Balancing Act
Beauty is as timeless as the legends that create it.
Now! They can never be too rich or too thick. 2000 calorie mascara.
Define and conquer. Impact.
Beautiful Skin Make up. NON STOP MOISTURE. NON STOP FRESH LOOK.
LIP SILKS. More moisturizing than a lip balm.
JUICY MOUTH-WATERING COLOR.
Get a grip on color. Impact.
Intensify to last impact.
JUICY MOUTH-WATERING COLOR.
The second move consists of the body copy where the advantages and the results of
the product are described. The third move is the signature line which is mainly composed by
the name of the brand. In some adverts it is added a slogan or the name of the product, for
instance: MAX FACTOR INTERNATIONAL Name of the brand. MAX FACTOR
WATERMELON Name of the brand and name of the product. MAX FACTOR the make-up
of make-up artists Name of the brand and its slogan. The fourth move is an image of a
woman or a part of her body wearing the product.
Grammatical cohesion
References: these are rarely used since the body copy of the adverts is reduced to two
or three lines. A minority of adverts still use it.

50
 Connectives: the addition connective and is the most frequently used (in 80% of the
ads).
Lexical cohesion
Repeating words: Max Factor.

Related words: lips, nails, lashes, skin, make-up.

Grammar
Sentences: simple.

Direct or reported speech: direct.

Verbs:
- Tense: simple present.
- Aspect: non progressive.
- Mood: indicative and sometimes imperative.
- Finite non finite: both.
Examples:
[54] Oil absorbing powders subtract shine, while oil free hydrators add moisture.
[55] The diamond hard formula keeps the color on.
[56] Colour-rich formula deepens lashes with new intensity.
[57] Define and conquer.
[58] This specially designed lashes with new precision.
Adjectives: they are positive and in positive form.
Word choice
Descriptive words: the most repeated is new but the ads do not have common
descriptive words.

Hyperbole:
[59] Legends who made them great.
Nails finished diamond hard.
Lips never thirst.
Beautiful Skin Make up.
Sentence structure
Sentences: short

51
 Passive/active/imperative: active.

Non-traditional syntactic constructions: these ads use characteristics that belong to

spoken language but are used in written texts.

They employ different font for the headline, the text and the slogan or the name of the
brand and also blank spaces to separate them. The background colors are intense.

52
Adverts from 2016

These advertisements are structured into four moves. The first move is the headline:
[60] Lipglamourous. New MAXwear lipcolor.
Lashonista. Introducing volume couture mascara.
Pro tip n 52: the secret to a perfect blush? Start with perfect canvas. New ColorGenius
Liquid Foundation.
Eye candy. Feast your eyes on the new Maxeye collection.
Splash perfection. Introducing lash perfection waterproof mascara.
Lashtrovert. New lash perfection mascara.
Its not a mascara. Its a lash plumper. New 2000 Calorie Extreme Lash Plumper.
New Masterpiece Eyeshadow Precision Framing.
Wild thing. New volume couture and Maxeye collection.
The second move is the body copy. The third move consists of the name of the brand
and its slogan two steps which are Max Factor makeup maximized and Max Factor the
make-up of make-up artists. The final move is made up of two steps. One is the image of a
model wearing the cosmetic and the other is a picture of the product.
Grammatical cohesion
Connectives: the most frequently used is and (in 60% of the ads) or directly full stops.

53
Lexical cohesion
Repeating words: new, look, color, Max Factor, mascara, lashes and the name of the
products.

Synonyms: flawless and perfect; bristle and brush.

Related words: mascara, bristle, lashes, brush.

Grammar
Sentences: simple.

Direct/ reported speech: direct.

Verbs:
- Tense: in simple present.
- Aspect: non progressive.
- Mood: indicative and some in imperative.
- Finite/non finite: both. Examples:
[61] Rich, saturated color meets the makeup artistry of Max Factor.
[62] New Volume Couture Mascara takes lashes to the limit.
[63] Complete your framed eye look.
[64] Lashes like these dont happen with traditional mascara.
[65] An advanced, flexible iFX brush reaches out to every-little lash.
Pronouns: the most frequently used are you and your.

Adjectives: positive adjectives in positive form.

Sounds
Alliteration: Max Factor makeup, maximized or Max Factor the make-up of make-up
artists.
Word choice
Descriptive words: new.

Hyperbole:
[66] Its a new dimension in lip glamour.
Creating a flawless base.
Mascara takes lashes to the limit.
Lashes like these dont happen with traditional mascara.
Sentence structure
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 Short/long sentences: short.

Active/ passive/ imperative: active.

Non-traditional syntactic constructions: these ads use characteristics that belong to

spoken language but are used in written texts.

Semantic strategies
Personalization: use of the pronoun you, or your:

[67] What will your lashes be wearing this season?

New Vivid Impact Eyeshadow Duos let you create subtle lash highlights.
Perfect your look with ColorGenius Mineral Blish.
You wont believe the look.
These ads use different types of font in their parts and blank spaces to separate them.
Their background colors are black what contrast with the image of the model and the product.

RESULTS: PROCESSING ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON

This analysis will answer to the remaining part of the first research question and to the
second research question. Before comparing the linguistic and the paralinguistic features of
the groups of adverts, it is necessary to indicate the functions of advertising intentionality
and the modes which are combined in these ads in order to interpret these characteristics. As it
is pointed out in the introduction, every genre deals with several functions that govern
particular characteristics which aid to achieve them. The objectives of advertising are to catch
attention, to provide information about the product and to persuade people to buy it in
product ads. According to these objectives the modes that advertising employs are:
expository, to give information; description; and argumentative, to convince the audience.

55
Besides that, Leech argues that ads follow four principles: Attention value, Readability,
Memorability, and Selling Power.
With reference to their structure, all of these adverts consist of four parts: the headline,
the first thing read; the body copy, the description of the product and its advantages; the
signature line, which is compounded by slogans, logos or the name of the brand; and the
illustration, which comprises the pictures of the product and a celebrity. The structure and its
elements are also part of the paralanguage which is explained below and they aid to catch
the readers attention so it contributes to the Attention Value.

Concerning syntax, the language of advertising should be clear, precise and popular in
order to be comprehensible to the readers. Thus, all these ads use non-traditional syntactic
constructions mixing characteristics of spoken and written language. Speech employs: as it is
explained before, many repetitions; short and simple sentences connected by and which deal
with Readability since they keep readers interested in the advert and do not bore them (Leech,
1972, p.27); verbs in short form or slang vocabulary. These informal features are concerned to
Selling Power because oral language creates a closer relation to the readers giving them an
impression of friendliness (Leech, 1972, p.27). In addition, it is common the use of the simple
present and the indicative mood in Max Factors ads in order to satisfy the customers desire

56
for the present state of the product and its implication of universality and timelessness
(Lapank, 2006, p. 30).

All the adjectives presented in Max Factors adverts are in positive form and have
positive connotations that reflect the optimistic attributes of the product and make it desirable.
This is also related to Selling Power. 41
Within word choice, Max Factors ads utilize hyperboles in order to make the product
more attractive (Lapank, 2006, p. 45). This device contributes to Selling Power.

57
 Regarding the paralanguage, all the parts of the ads are divided into blank spaces, and
they are in different font size or color for instance, the headlines and the signature lines
are more highlighted than the body copy and they catch the attention together with the
illustrations. These last ones are pictures in which appear Max Factors cosmetics and
celebrities promoting them. The image of the celebrities is always bigger than the product
because of their influence: if a celebrity wears or has a product, consumers feel that they must
have it too. Therefore, all these elements are related to Readability, Attention Value and
Selling Power.
Concerning lexical and grammatical cohesion, it has been the most frequent reference
pronoun to connect sentences. However, its use is reduced in the ads from 1980 where only
appears in adverts with body copy, and in the following decades it 42 does not appear. As
Lapank (2006) argues, this cohesion device follows the principle of Readability because it
is used for prevent unnecessary repetitions in the text

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CONCLUSION
In the theoretical part, is approach advertising as a type of communication between
producer and consumer of the product. We analyzed and described basic principles of
advertising printed texts. The theoretical part of the diploma thesis provided an analysis of
language of advertising and served as a basis for the research part. To be able to make
analysis of slogans in such extent, we had to include all the aspects of language from
phonological to semantic aspect.
The results of the research:
By the research was discovered that the writers of advertising texts often use words like
new (+ words containing new: anew, renew) (16 times/sample), just (12), perfect (+
perfection, perfectly) (8), real (+ really) (8), better (7), best (7), first (7), right (6),
only (5), complete (+ completely) (5).
The values, which express the use of pronoun you (27 times) and possessive form
your (57 times) in research sample confirm the intention of the copywriters to come closer
to the consumer and evoke the feeling of intimacy.
The correctness of the theory of Vestergaard and Schroder (p. 44) has been in our
research certified. We have found 11 cases of using the verb get, but any case of a verb
buy.

After comparing Max Factors adverts it can be concluded that they achieve their
function by using, a series of paralinguistic and linguistic elements: firstly, those which catch
readers attention; secondly, those which facilitate their reading and comprehension; thirdly,
those which aid to memorize the adverts; and finally those which persuade readers to buy the
product. Contrary to the expectations established in the hypothesis, Max Factors discursive
strategies have not changed much and the most noticeable variation has been the length of
their text which has been reduced together with some of the discursive devices previously
mentioned in the processing analysis. This reduction and simplification of the ads can be due
to technological advances such as television or the Internet and a greater investment in these
media which began to be very used. Despite the fact that the results do not coincide with the
initial hypothesis, this project provides much data which contribute to the study of discourse
analysis in cosmetic advertising. Further investigations could be developed by increasing the
samples in size or by comparing the results presented in this project with the evolution of the
printed ads from other brands. Furthermore, Max Factors advertisements reproduce the
ideology of femininity how a desirable woman is using pictures of influential celebrities

59
who portray the predominant beauty canon since 1940. Therefore, the discourse analysis is a
useful tool to study the power of language. It shows how language affects society, in the case
of this project, through media by creating beauty standards in order to persuade audience to
buy cosmetics.
I observed that the informal style of advertising language predominates over the
formal style. We found the formal style of writing only in scientific and business types of
magazines. In scientific magazines, there occurred advertisements for a specific group of
people scientists, doctors, physicists; the vocabulary was technical and incomprehensible for
common people. The linguistic means were the same in all types of magazines.
I hope that the diploma thesis will contribute to the present knowledge about
advertising language and will introduce new facts, findings and observations on such creative
and extremely interesting discourse. We believe that it will be useful and contributing for all
who are interested in English language and its multiplicity.

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1. http://home.cfl.rr.com/eghsap/apterms.html
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Appendix 1.

Appendix 2.

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Appendix 3.

Appendix 4.

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Appendix 5.

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Appendix 6.

Appendix 7.

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