Stylistic Usages of English in Poetry, Journalese, and Advertising - Essay Example

Stylistic usages of English in poetry, journalese and advertising Language of advertising Ads are created to stimulate customers to spend their money. Thus, advertising appeals to hearts and wallets of the target audience. Ads should act instantaneously similar to lightning. Small words and phrases are often used as independent sentences; if clauses are often used to explain a logical bound of the ad (Example 1); a list of adjectives is another common stylistic device used in ads (good, free, fresh, wonderful etc) (Example 2); imperative clauses (Example ) are also relevant to this genre. Grammatical devices make ads closer to the audience, translating them from written into oral manner. In other words, written ads should be memorable for the audience as if they heard them every day. Grammatical simplicity (Example 4) and easy perception of ads is the right way to gain a wider audience (Bovee & Arens, 2006). Moreover, definite articles play an important semantic role in ads. They are widely used in ads and create ‘particularity of reference’ (Example 5). Of course, the usage of specific grammatical devices is not enough to reach success in advertising. Creative writing, such as usage of puns, polysemy, alliteration, metaphors etc is an integral part of a successful ad. For example, The flavour of a Quaver is never known to waver- rhyming American Home has an edifice complex- pun The more we progress, the better you advance- pun (Bovee & Arens, 2006). Aurally, the audience is attracted and thus memorizes ads. As a result, a vivid language of advertising can be also met in other social spheres of life. Political leaders use some methods of language of advertising in their promotional campaigns; journalists try to draw attention of the readers to their articles by the usage of creative writing and a high level of communication. Still, there are numerous techniques used by advertisers, but all of them are directed on showing perfectness and superiority of the advertised product. For example, the usage of ‘the weasel claim’ is directed on showing the audience superiority of the product. As it is known, “a weasel word is a modifier that practically negates the claim that follows. The expression "weasel word" is aptly named after the egg-eating habits of weasels”. This technique copies a weasel behavior inside an egg. It sucks out an egg from inside and casual observers can’t find anything inside. Therefore, “words or claims that appear substantial upon first look but disintegrate into hollow meaninglessness on analysis are weasels” (Example 6). Another apt technique used to show the superiority of an advertised product is to use ‘we are different and unique’ claim. This technique is the most known to the audience (Example 7). The uniqueness of the product is communicated to the audience by the usage of word combinations, such as ‘there is nothing else like…’, ‘there is no other…’ and words ‘unique’, ‘extraordinary’, ‘different’ etc (Schrank). Therefore, language of advertising can be named a language of ‘public-colloquial discourse’, as it is stated by Leech. If to summarize stylistic devices used in advertising, we can create ad phrase: employ creativity and reach perfectibility. The language of poetry The language of poetry is a interesting stylistic phenomenon. On the one hand, this literature genre is used to entertain and amuse readers, but on the other hand, poetry transfers through its form deep emotional senses. Poetic texts are created for pleasure and amusement, for thinking and joy. A great arsenal of stylistic devices is the right way for embodiment of poetic images. Therefore, such devices as inversion (‘Yet know I how the heather looks’, Emily Diskinson from Collected Poems), repetition (‘IT tossed and tossed’, Ibid.) parallelism (‘Are her voice, and her hair, and eyes, and the dear red curve of her lips’ from Appendix II) are widely used. A poem “Beauty” by John Mansfield is a romantic poem about happiness. A foreground of the poem implies a highly-emotional context reflected in metaphors (‘the lady April bringing in the daffodils’; ‘the dear red curve of her lips’), similes (windy hills; the soft warm April rain; slow old tunes of Spain) and onomatopoeia (‘the old chant of the sea’) (Appendix II). We can talk about usage of defamiliarization in this poem, when an imaginary voice of the author of the poem talks about his beloved woman. The language of the poem sounds like a song a man-in-love sings to her beloved lady. A deep emotional charge of the poem the author managed to transfer in a gradual, flowing and tender manner. This refers to the characteristics of a romantic poem. Moreover, Mansfield refers to the marine theme and this helps his poem to sound like the waves of the sea. A romantic spirit of his poem may be proven by the following lines: ‘I have seen the lady April bringing in the daffodils/ Bringing the springing grass and the soft warm April rain’. What can be more romantic than the Spring? Mansfield embodies her beloved woman in the image of the Spring. Unlike Elliot, who described April as ‘the cruellest month, breeding/ Lilacs out of the dead land’ (T. S. Eliot The Waste Land), Mansfield is more appealing for his readers and touch romantic strings of a reader’s soul. Therefore, poetry appeals to the inner world of readers by means of various stylistic devices usage. It is possible to claim that poetry is one of the genres, saturated with numerous stylistic devices. The most distinct feature of poetry is the usage of words with figurative meaning, such as metaphors, similes etc. Omission of words, conversion, parallelism, repetition, amplification and many other stylistic devices are used to create a poetic form (Semino, 1997). Poetry introduces numerous neologisms created in the result of coinages, using conversion etc. Poetry reflects the usage of the most vivid and expressive stylistic devices (Simpson, 2004). Nevertheless, not only the form in poetry is important, but the reflection of the most appealing issues to a human soul. The language of journalese The language of journalese has many features in common with the language of advertising, considered above. Ads and newspapers appeal to the customers in a mass market. A concise form of newspaper stories should be highly informative. As a rule, readers of newspapers do not have enough time to read everything thoroughly. They have time to grasp pieces of the required information and that’s all. A dualistic approach to the informative function of newspaper stories is an interesting issue for discussion. On the one hand readers want to have rest from severe realities, but on the other hand they want to have information about the horrors of our lives (Short and van Peer, 1989). Noun-phrases ‘squeezing’ as much information as possible are common: e.g. Larger- than- life comedienne Joe Brand (Saks, 2010). The structure of a newspaper story has a certain chronological structure. There are five main elements: abstract-setting-complicating action-resolution-coda. A special attention of readers is attracted by a newspaper story ‘abstract’. It combines the headline and the lead sentence. In the Appendix III on the example of the newspaper story it is clearly seen that in the first two sentences of the first paragraph the authors grasps attention of readers. Then he introduces a quotation to prove his claim and to underline that his story is important. A subhead used by the author organizes his story. Further on, the author describes the events, underlining their importance and finally prognosticates a future development of the story. Besides the structure of the story and author’s intention to grasp the readers’ attention, it is very important to write an apt headline. The headline plays even more important role than an abstract. Puns or alliteration are often used stylistic devices in headlines in order to attract attention of readers. For example, the headline Burning questions on tunnel safety unanswered belongs to the newspaper article about possible fires in the Channel tunnel (Saks, 2010). ‘Burning questions’ is the pun because the questions concern fires. From another perspective, ‘burning question’ has a meaning of an important question. Another headline, Science friction is assigned to the article about the polemics between British intellectuals and British government on the matter of mad cow disease (Saks, 2010). A word ‘friction’ means tension or disagreement among people; in this case ‘friction’ refers to science fiction. Therefore texts of newspaper play an informative function via variety of stylistic devices usage. Structural peculiarities of the newspaper stories combined with stylistic devices used communicate author’s intentions to the readers. Basically, an important role of a newspaper text is to entertain and amuse and at the same time provide readers with information. Appendix I Language of advertising Example 1: “You can be sure if it's Westinghouse." Example 2: “Great Lash greatly increases the diameter of every lash." Example 3 "Take a bite and you'll think you're eating on the Champs Elysees." Example 4 "Magnavox gives you more." Example 5 "The perfect little portable for all around viewing with all the features of higher priced sets." Example 6 "Helps control dandruff symptoms with regular use." The weasels include "helps control," and possibly even "symptoms" and "regular use." The claim is not "stops dandruff." "Leaves dishes virtually spotless." We have seen so many ad claims that we have learned to tune out weasels. You are supposed to think "spotless," rather than "virtually" spotless. Example 7 "There's no other mascara like it"; "Only Doral has this unique filter system." Appendix II Language of poetry Beauty By John Mansfield Have seen dawn and sunset on moors and windy hills Coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain: I have seen the lady April bringing in the daffodils, Bringing the springing grass and the soft warm April rain. I have heard the song of the blossoms and the old chant of the sea, And seen strange lands from under the arched white sails of ships; But the loveliest things of beauty God ever has showed to me Are her voice, and her hair, and eyes, and the dear red curve of her lips. Appendix III Language of journalese A Double Dinosaur Discovery Last December, two research teams working 2,000 miles apart in Antarctica made amazing discoveries. Each unearthed the fossilized remains of what is believed to be a new species of dinosaur. One is an herbivore, or plant eater, and the other is a carnivore, or meat eater. Working separately, the teams led by scientists James Martin and William Hammer found the fossils. “There we were, in the middle of Antarctica, talking to Bill about his find 2,000 miles away,” Martin told TFK. FROZEN IN TIME Near Beardmore Glacier, Hammer’s team found the bones of what they think is a plant-eating sauropod that lived 200 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. On the island off the Antarctica Peninsula, Martin and his team found the bones of a type of theropod, a group that includes the tyrannosaur. Each discovery will give scientists a new glimpse into the age of the dinosaurs. Any fossil find in Antarctica is rare, because bones and other remains are frozen and buried under many layers of ice. “We know very little about life in Antarctica from this particular time period,” said Martin. Excavating the fossils is just the beginning. The scientists will start a yearlong process to analyze the bits of teeth and bone. “It’s a detective story,” Martin says. “You take all these bits of evidence and reconstruct the past.” (Sample Newspaper Story) Works cited 1. Bovee, C.L & Arens, W. F., 2006. Contemporary advertising. Boston: Richard D. Irwin, Inc. 2. Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary, 2006. Glasgow: Harper & Collins Publishers. 3. Saks, K, 2010. Puns in newspaper articles. [online]. Available at: 4. Sample News Story. [online]. Available at: 5. Schrank, J. The Language of Advertising Claims. [online]. Available at: 6. Semino, Elena, 1997. Language and World Creation in Poems and Other Texts. London: Longman. 7. Short, Mick and Willie van Peer, 1989. Accident! Stylisticians evaluate: aims and methods of stylistic analysis. In Reading, Analysing and Teaching Literature. Ed. Mick Short, pp. 22-71. London: Longman. 8. Simpson, Paul, 2004. Stylistics: a resource book for students. [online]. Available from Web Google Books. 9. Wales, Katie, 1988. Back to the future: Bakhtin, stylistics and discourse. In The Taming of the Text: Explorations in Language, Literature and Culture. Ed. Willie van Peer, pp. 176-92. London: Routledge. 10. Wales, Katie, 2001. A dictionary of stylistics. [online]. Available from Web Google Books. Read More