STYLISTIC ANALYSIS ON LAPTOP ADVERTISEMENTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Lia Rindi Antika
112011107
ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2015
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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or
accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any
other person except where due references are made in the text.
Copyright@2015. Lia Rindi Antika and Maria Christina Eko Setyarini
All right reserved. No part of this thesis may be produced by any means without permission
of at least one of the copyright owner or the English Department, Faculty of Language and
Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga
Lia Rindi Antika:
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Table of Contents
APPROVAL PAGE .............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ................................................................................................................ iii
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION .............................................................................. iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS.........................................................................................................................v
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................ 1
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1
LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 3
Advertisement ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Stylistics .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Weasel Words ................................................................................................................................. 5
Personal Pronoun ............................................................................................................................ 5
Sentence Length .............................................................................................................................. 6
Types of Sentences ......................................................................................................................... 6
Figurative Language ....................................................................................................................... 7
Literal Language ............................................................................................................................. 8
METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................. 9
Research Method ................................................................................................................................ 9
Objects of Study .................................................................................................................................. 9
Data Collection Instruments ............................................................................................................. 10
Data Collection Procedures ............................................................................................................... 11
Data Analysis Procedures ................................................................................................................. 11
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS........................................................................................................ 11
Weasel Words ................................................................................................................................... 12
Personal Pronouns ............................................................................................................................. 14
Sentence Length ................................................................................................................................ 16
Types of Sentences ........................................................................................................................... 17
Figurative Language ......................................................................................................................... 17
Literal Language ............................................................................................................................... 19
CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 20
ACKNOWLEDGMENT.......................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................23
APPENDICES.......................................................................................................................................27
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1
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS ON LAPTOP ADVERTISEMENTS
Lia Rindi Antika
ABSTRACT
Advertising is done to promote a product that is produced by a company.
As most companies want to be successful in selling their products, they
usually make their advertisements attractive to get the reader’s attention by
working on the language of advertising. This study was conducted to
identify textual devices and its interpretation used by each advertiser of
different laptop brands but similar specifications, they were Lenovo
ThinkPad S440 Ultrabook, Fujitsu Lifebook U904, Dell Vostro 5470,
Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus. The four laptop advertisements were taken
from the internet.This was done as many people nowadays tend to look for
information about a product on the internet. The four advertisements were
then analyzed by looking at its three textual devices, they are lexis focusing
on weasel words and personal pronoun, grammar focusing on sentence
length and types of sentences and semantic focusing on figurative and
literal language.The findings showed that the advertiser of each brand used
different kinds of textual devices as their ways to deliver the message to
the readers. The meaning of textual devices used also varied and it could be
derived from the use of weasel words, personal pronouns and figurative
language. The findings of this study are expected to contribute to language
style learning that is used in advertisements. It is hoped to be one of
thereferences for those who want to study the same topic.
Keywords: stylistic, laptop, advertisement
INTRODUCTION
Globalization has influenced the way the advertisers promoting their products.
Therefore, they compete to improve their creativity toward the advertisements they design by
using textual devices. The advertisers compete to make their advertisements different from
others, especially when they have similar products to be promoted. Every brand of a product
has its own unique style to promote their products; it can be differentiated from the textual
devices that they use. The textual devices they use have a purpose to persuade readers about
their product since advertising is a “nonpersonal communication of information usually paid
for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors
through the various media.”(Bovee, 1992, p.7). It has been becoming powerful tool to
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influence people’s perspective on the product that is promoted (Lapsanska, 2006, p.11). It is
important to know how do the advertisements use different textual devices from other
advertisements to attract people’s attention. Therefore, it is interesting to analyze the textual
devices and its interpretation that each brand use and generate to make it attractive to the
readers by using stylistic analysis.
There have been many studies related to stylistic analysis of advertisement. Kostkova
(2008) conducted a study of advertising of food products that aimed to find out linguistic or
non-linguistic styles that were used by the advertiser from 23 printed advertisements in 10
different magazines. The analysis was focused on visualization, graphological/phonological
level, lexical level, grammatical and morphological level, and semantic level. His study found
out that advertisements used linguistic and non-linguistic feature to attract reader’s attention,
and each advertiser used eye-catching visual aspect which could give positive effect to the
readers. A similar study was conducted by Li (2009); his study aimed to find out general
stylistic characteristics of Atkins Chocolate Chip Granola Bar advertisement. He focused on
linguistic description especially in graphology, lexicology, syntax, grammar and semantics
whereas for textual analysis he focused on the layout and paragraph development and
cohesive devices. Meanwhile, for contextual analysis, he focused on the medium of
communication and role-relationship. His finding was the advertisement used many devices
in linguistic, textual and contextual aspects which made it attractive and eye-catching, thus
made it easy for the producer to promote it among the consumers. Three years later, Anh
(2012), conducted a study that was to find linguistic features found in English and
Vietnamese advertisement by focusing on the repetition and antithesis feature. The result of
his study was Vietnamese advertisements use fewer repetition aspects than English
advertisement, and there has not been English advertisement that can be discovered using
descriptive antithesis yet.
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Looking at the three previous studies mentioned before, this study was more or less
similar to Li (2009) study. However, this study focused on textual devices which were more
emphasized on its lexical, grammatical, and semantical styles. This study analyzed four
different laptop brands advertisement with similar specifications. The choice of laptop
advertisement was motivated by a phenomenon that nowadays almost all people, especially
students, use laptops to help their business or study. Therefore, many laptop products from
various brands are launched in the market, they appear to compete each other since many
people need to use laptops. The aim of this study was to find the textual devices used and the
meaning that the advertisers try to generate by using those textual devices in their
advertisements. This study focused on two questions as a guide for this study:
1. What are the textual devices used by the advertiser of Lenovo ThinkPad S440
Ultrabook, Fujitsu LifeBook U904, Dell Vostro 5470, and Samsung ATIV Book 9
Plus in their advertisements?
2. What are the possible meanings generated through those textual devices used by the
advertisers in their advertisements?
The findings of this study are expected to contribute to textual devices and its
meaning learning that are used in advertisements. It is hoped to be one of the references for
those who want to study the same topic.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Advertisement
There are many definitions about advertisement, one of them was stated by Knnitlova
(1990) which was cited in Kostkova (2008, p.7) that advertisement is a product of two sides
persuasive communication between a producer and customers. Leech (1972) as cited in
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Lapsanska (2006, p.15) stated that advertisement aims to promote a product or service to the
people. The same idea was stated by Wells et al (2007) as cited in Bari (2011, p.153) said that
advertisement is “an undirectional and paid form of communication that is used to
disseminate the product or services information”. Meanwhile, Mann (1993) cited in Kostkova
(2008, p.7) in Advertising Association defined, “advertisements are message paid by those
who send them, intended to inform or influence people who receive them”. Generally
speaking, advertisement is a two-way persuasive communication between producers and
customers to influence customer’s perspective about products or services owned by the
producer through mass media which is paid by the producer for using the media.
Stylistics
Stylistic was defined as a method to interpret the meaning of a language through
textual devices (Simpson 2004, p.2). He then added “various forms, patterns and levels that
constitute linguistic structure are an important index of the function of the text”.Whereas,
Leech and Short (2007, p.11) also defined stylistic as a linguistic approach that explains the
relation between language and its use as an artistic function by using questions “why” and
“how” rather than “what”.Meanwhile, Crystal (1989) as cited in Zyngier (2001, p.368)
defined a stylistic as a
Style is seen as the (conscious or unconscious) selection of a set of linguistic features from all
the possibilities in a language. The effects these features convey can be understood only by intuitively
sensing the choices that have been made … and it is usually enough simply to respond to the effect in
this way. But there are often occasions when we have developed a more analytical approach … Here
… our intuition needs to be supplemented by a more objective account of this style. It is this approach
which is known as stylistics.
In other words stylistic can be viewed as the study of meaning used in a written
language through textual devvices used to investigate how do the styles affect the readers and
how do they make them understand the message which is delivered. The stylistic analysis
includes visualization, graphology, semantic, syntax, grammar, lexis, morphology and
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phonology. In this research due to the limited time I had, then I analyzed three textual devices
in the advertisements. The first textual device was lexis especially on the use of weasel words
and the use of personal pronouns. The second textual device was grammar especially in the
use of short sentence and types of sentences in the advertisements. The last textual device
was semantic which focused on the use of figurative and literal sentences.
Weasel Words
Lexis style of an advertisement could be analyzed by the use of weasel words.
According to Lutz (1990, p.112) weasel words are used in an advertisement to make the
advertisement has the claim on their product which is in fact it does not have any claim.
Danciu (2014, p.26) similarly stated that advertisers use weasel words to make consumers
rely on the products qualities, weasel words that are usually used helps virtually, acts, can be,
up to, refreshes, comforts, fights, the feel of, the look of, fortified, enriched, strengthened.
Looking at the statement mentioned previously, weasel words are words used in an
advertisement to impress the readers, so it will encourage them to buy the products. Most
readers may not pay more attention while reading the claim on the product since weasel
words impress them to buy the products.
Personal Pronouns
Lexis used in advertisements can also be analyzed by the use of personal pronoun
since personal pronoun means “words that stand for expressing of individual persons”
(Krizkova, 2009, p.16). Words that express personal pronoun here may refer to the advertiser or
the reader. As Linghong (2006, p.74) stated that personal pronoun used in an advertisement
can show a friendly communication between the advertiser and the reader, in this case a
personal pronoun can refer to an individual or a group of readers. Personal pronoun can also
show the advertisers, to know if the advertiser works individually or with a team as said by
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Brown and Gilman in Fassold (1990) cited in Yu (2006, p.2) that “plural pronouns like “we”,
“us”, “our”, “they”, “them” and “their” for example, have the function of suggesting group or
institutional authority”. Personal pronoun is categorized into three classes; they are nominative,
objective and possessive (Yu, 2006, p.1). Nominative personal pronoun is used when it shows the
subject of a verb; it includes I, you, she, he, it, we, you and they. Meanwhile, objective personal
pronoun is used when it shows direct or indirect object of a verb or preposition; it includes me,
you, him, her, it, us, you, them. The last personal pronoun which is possessive personal pronoun
is used when it shows possession; it includes my, mine, your, yours, his, her, its, our, ours and
theirs.
Sentence Length
Most advertisements use short sentence since it is legible to the readers. Thus it makes
them want to read it. A similar idea was also stated by Linghong (2006, p.76) that “ a long
difficult sentence would drain readers interest in reading the text”. An advertisement also
aims to be remembered by people. Therefore, the sentences used should be short so people
can remember it easily. The finding of United Press International (UPI) and the Associated
Press as cited in Linghong (2006, p.76) supported it, that a sentence contains approximately 8
words or less is “very easy to read”. Meanwhile, a sentence contains approximately 29 or
more will be considered as “very difficult to read” and the total standard of words in a
sentence is 17 words.
Types of Sentences
Types of sentences used in the advertisement can also show the linguistic style of the
advertisement since linguistically, a statement has a role to bring information (Neuzilova,
2005, p.62). Therefore, every advertisement producer has their own way to convey the
message to the customers. According to Quirk and Greenbaum (1990, p.231) as cited in
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Neuzilova (2005, p.62) there are four types of sentences, they are declaratives,
interrogatives, imperatives, and exclamatives. Declarative is used to inform about something,
for example “the accident happened yesterday”. An interrogative asks a question, for
example “can you lift the chairs?”. Another type of a sentence is imperative in which shows a
command or polite request, for example “Please open the door”. The last type of sentence is
exclamative that shows excitement on something which is usually started by “what” and
“how”, for example “what a surprise!”.
In an advertisement, there might be one or two types of sentences used. Based on
Neuzilova finding (2005, p.64) that an advertisement that uses imperative sentence for the
headline will use declarative sentence for the body copies and accompanying information.
Every type of a sentence used in an advertisement conveys its own meaning to the readers.
For example, imperative sentence on the advertisement headline has a meaning to order the
readers to do something which seems inappropriate to order people to do something directly
(Bovee, 1992 as cited in Neuzilova, 2005, p.64).
Figurative Language
An advertiser always attempts to attract their readers to buy their product by
implementing some techniques on the words used in the advertisement. Types of sentences as
I have mentioned before is not the only technique that the advertisers can be creative in their
advertisement but also figurative speech they used. Figurative language means differently
from literal language and it “refers to words and groups of words that exaggerate or alter the
usual meanings of the component words” (Heller, 2011, p.62-63). Similarly, stated by Regel
(2008, p.1) that figurative utterance explains conditions by saying it over the literal meaning.
Therefore, figurative language means a language that goes beyond the actual meaning of a
sentence or utterance.
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Figurative language in an advertisement is used to convey meaning from the
advertiser in a creative way rather than to convey it directly (Stern as cited in Langrher, 2003
as cited in Lian, 2011, p.212). According to Spivey (2011) there are 7 types of figurative
languages which are simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, idiom and
cliches. Simile is used to compare two different things using the words “like” and “as”, for
example “the baby is cute as a doll”. Metaphor is similar to simile but it compares two
different things without “like” and “as”, for example “the cloud is white cotton”.
Personification is used to characterize animals or things to be as human’s, the example of
personification is “the sun rays of the morning hit my face”. Exaggerating the real meaning
of a sentence or utterance is categorized into hyperbole, for example “it was so cold, I saw
the ice become stone”.Simple words like “pow” and “crash” are included into onomatopoeia
because it is written as it sounds, the word crash is a result of the sound “crash” when two
objects collide. Idioms are used to say things which are completely different from the real
meaning, for example “deliver the good” which means do what is expected or promised. The
last figurative language that may be found in advertisement is cliches which are used to say a
thing using phrases or statements that have been used too often so, it becomes meaningless,
for example “all for one and one for all”.
Literal Language
Literal language has the opposite meaning of figurative language since literal
language acquires its meaning from syntactical and component pattern that the sentence is
used, component in this context points out to the sentence’s morpheme (Searle, 1987,
p.207).A similar idea was stated by Katz as cited in Itani (1996, p.40) “literal meaning of a
sentence is determined by the meanings of its component words and its structure.” Thus,
literal language means language that has meaning from the structure and word components
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used in the sentence. In the advertisement, figurative and literal language might be used
together, and it is interesting to analyze what the advertiser intends through figurative
language and what the advertiser really mean through literal language.
METHODOLOGY
Research Method
Since the main point of this study was to find the textual devices used and its meaning
by each advertiser, qualitative descriptive research was used as a general method of the study.
As Lans&Voordt (2002,p.53) stated that descriptive research focuses on objectivity, and it
describes how is the reality of a phenomenon. Similarly, Marshall and Rossman (2011,p.33)
stated that qualitative study means to explain, explore and describe. Thus it means to
understand, develop and discover the phenomenon happens in research. In line with Altheide
(1987) and Morgan (1993) as cited in Sandelowski (2000, p.338) that qualitative result is an
“analysis of verbal and visual data that is oriented toward summarizing the informational
content of data”. Generally speaking, qualitative research reports the finding of the research
by describing the result through analyzing the data. Therefore, this research was a qualitative
descriptive research since it described the findings in a form of words.
Objects of Study
This research analyzed four laptop advertisements of different brands, those brands
were the Lenovo ThinkPad S440 Ultrabook, Dell Vostro 5470, Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus,
Fujitsu Lifebook U904 Notebook. Those brands were chosen since they had similar
specifications from one to another. The similarity of the specifications of the product can be
seen in the table below.
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Brands Processor Memory Hard Drive Operating
System
Display Graphic
Lenovo
Thinkpad
S440
Intel Core
i7 , i5 and
i3
Up to 8 GB Up to 500
GB
Microsoft
Windows 8
and 7
14.0 inch
1366 x 78
Intel HD
Graphics
4000
Fujitsu
Lifebook
U904
Intel Core
i5 and i7
14 GB 500 GB Microsoft
Windows
7, 8, and
8.1
14.0 inch
3200 x
1800
Intel HD
Graphics
4400
Dell Vostro
5470 Intel Core
i3 and i5
Up to 8 GB 128 GB Microsoft
Windows 8
and 8.1
14.0 inch
1366 x 78
Intel HD
Graphics
4400
Samsung
ATIV
Book 9
Plus
Intel Core
i5 and i7
8 GB 128 GB Microsoft
Windows
8.1
13.3 inch
3200 x
1800
Intel HD
Graphics
4400
Some of the brands were mostly used by workers and students to help with their
business. The advertisements were taken from Internet since many people tend to look for
information about things they are going to buy on the Internet nowadays.
Data Collection Instruments
The instruments I used to collect the objects of study were Internet and computer. The
Internet was used to get the objects of the study which are Internet advertisements.
Meanwhile, the computer was used to save the objects of the study.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4400.91979.0.htmlhttp://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4400.91979.0.htmlhttp://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4400.91979.0.htmlhttp://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4400.91979.0.htmlhttp://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4400.91979.0.htmlhttp://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4400.91979.0.html
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Data Collection Procedures
The advertisements collection procedures were started by browsing the Internet. After
got some advertisements, they were saved in the computer to be selected. Four
advertisements were selected based on the similarity of the product’s specifications, so it
would be easier to differentiate their linguistic styles since they had similar specifications.
After four advertisements had been selected, then they were saved to be analyzed further.
Data Analysis Procedures
The analysis of the advertisement was done right after four advertisements were
selected. Then, they were analyzed by its textual devices and its interpretation to know what
the advertiser intended to say the product. The first textual device to be analyzed was lexical
style; it focused on the use of weasel words and personal pronoun.The second textual device
was the grammatical style in which it focused on the use of short sentence and types of
sentence. At last, it came to semantic analyze which was focused on the use of figurative
language and literal language. The result of the finding was in a form of descriptive
qualitative research since it described what textual devices used by each advertiser and its
interpretation that may present in their advertisements
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
This section discusses the textual devices used in each advertisement and the
interpretation that might be generated by the advertiser. For this section, each advertisement
was given initial name, Lenovo ThinkPad S440 Ultrabook (LT) Dell Vostro 5470 (DV),
Fujitsu LifeBook U904 (FL) and Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus (SA).The textual devices of the
advertisements were identified in the use of weasel words, personal pronoun, short sentence,
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types of sentences, figurative language, and literal language. The study could find the textual
devices used and possible interpretation generated by the advertisers in their advertisements.
Weasel Words
Table 1. Weasel Words
Lenovo ThinkPad
S440Ultrabook
Fujitsu LifeBook
U904
Dell Vostro
5470
Samsung ATIV Book 9
Plus
- Designed
for
the
future
- Elegant
package.
- Immersive multimedia
experience
- Perform with brilliance.
- An attractively fully-featured.
- The outstanding
thin design.
- Faster performance
and built-in
security
solutions to
keep you
productive.
- Work smarter and look
sharp.
- The essential security and
support you
need to keep
you on the
winning path.
- You can boot up in seconds.
- A crystal clear collaboration
solution.
- The resolution so high, even
the details
have details.
- Incredible detail and ease
of use.
- Its incredible images are
viewable
indirect
sunlight.
- It looks so
gorgeous.
- Performs every bit as
impressively as
it looks.O
HIGH, EVEN
THE
DETAILS
HAVE
DETAILS.
RESOLUTIO
N
The result of the analysis of the weasel words used in each advertisement showed that
each advertisement used different combinations of weasel words. The first advertisement I
analyzed was DV that used the most weasel words among others. DV used these phrases as
weasel words, they were, “faster performance”, “look sharp”, “work smarter”, “a crystal
clear”, “keep you productive” and“keep you on the winning path”. From the phrase “a crystal
clear”, it could be implied that the advertiser of DV might want to present one of the strengths
of the product which is a very clear noiseless sound produced from the laptop to the readers.
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The phrase “work smarter” was presented to reassure the readers that the laptop could help
the readers to do their work with more advanced applications of the laptop since the word
“smarter” refers to the applications of the laptop which has meaning that it can do like
something that has brain does. The comparative “smarter” is used to compare the product
with other laptops which means that the laptop can do better than other laptops. Those weasel
words might affect the readers to buy the product since it tries to impress the readers,
especially on the performance of the laptop.
Whereas, SA used the phrases “the details have details”, “incredible details”,
“incredible images”, “so gorgeous”, and “impressively as it looks”. The advertiser of SA
might want to tell the readers that the laptop can produce very good images until the details
can be seen by saying “incredible images” and “incredible details”. The phrase “impressively
as it looks” is used to emphasize that the laptop can perform the work very good just like how
it looks. By using these weasel words, the advertiser of SA might want to tell the readers
about the capability of the product to perform some works in very good ways as the strength
of the product.
FL and LT used the same amount of weasel words and were the fewest use of weasel
words among the others. FL used “performs with brilliance”, “outstanding thin design” and
“attractively fully-featured”. The phrase “performs with brilliance” showed the readers that
the laptop can perform some works as brilliant as something that has a brain does. Whereas,
“outstanding thin design” told the readers that the laptop has an incredible thin body which
might be light to carry. Based on the weasel words used by FL advertiser, it could be said that
the advertiser wanted to present the good performance and appearance as the strengths of the
product.
The last advertisement, LT used “ designed for the future”, “elegant package” and
“immersive multimedia experience.” The phrase “designed for the future” refers to the
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applications that the laptop has. By saying that phrase, the advertiser of LT wanted to present
to the readers that the laptop has advanced applications since it is designed for the future
which means advanced technology time. Whereas, the phrase “elegant package” means that
the laptop is framed into a stylish appearance that may look attractive to see. Those weasel
words used by the LT advertiser show that the advertiser wanted to present the performance
and appearance as the strengths of the product. Based on the previous finding, it could be said
that two advertisements presented performance and appearance as the strengths whereas the
other two only presented the performance as the strength.
Personal Pronouns
Table 2. Personal Pronoun
Lenovo ThinkPad
S440 Ultrabook
Fujitsu LifeBook
U904
Dell Vostro
5470
Samsung ATIV Book
9 Plus
- And you have an unparalleled
computing
experience.
- Offer you the exceptional
mobility. - Enterprise-
grade security
to protect most
valuable asset-
your company
data.
- Be available wherever you
are.
- Keep you productive
everywhere
you go.
- The essential security and
support you
need to keep
you on the
wining path.
- You will appreciate the
performance
- Fit easily into your Dell
carrying case
and go
wherever your
business takes
you.
- You can type comfortably.
- When you do, you’ll
realize it’s
a
premium
touchscreen
that enables
you to tap
and
swipe your
way easily
through the
day.
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The table 2 shows that two advertisements used a different amount of personal
pronouns, except for two advertisements that used the same amount of personal pronouns.
DV had the most use of personal pronoun among other advertisements, followed by FL, SA
then the last one was LT since it only used one personal pronoun in the advertisement. The
difference was found in the use of personal pronoun from each advertisement that FL and DV
used more types of personal pronoun than LT and SA did.
LT and SA used one type of personal pronoun, which was nominative personal
pronoun “you”. The use of nominative personal pronoun in these advertisements show that
the readers are the subject of the sentence. By putting, nominative personal pronoun in those
advertisements, it means that the advertisers tried to communicate with the readers. The
nominative personal pronouns used in LT and SA advertisements also show what the readers
will get if they have the laptop as the tool to help them with their work.
Whereas, FL and DV advertisements used two types of personal pronouns which were
nominative personal pronoun “you” and possessive personal pronoun “your”. The use of
nominative personal pronoun “you” in these advertisements was similar to previous
advertisements which are to have a communication with the readers and to show what the
users will get if they have the laptop to help their work. Meanwhile, the use of possessive
personal pronoun used in FL try to show to the readers about what the most valuable asset is.
The possessive personal pronoun used in DV tried to show the ownership of things of the
readers; they are reader’s carrying case and business. Based on the use of personal pronoun
explained previously, it could be said that the advertisers use nominative personal pronouns
to have a communication with the readers and to show what the readers will get if they get
and have the product whereas, possessive personal pronoun referred to what belong to the
readers.
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Sentence Length
Table 3. Sentence Length
Lenovo ThinkPad
S440 Ultrabook
Fujitsu LifeBook
U904
Dell Vostro 5470
Samsung ATIV
Book 9 Plus
Slogan = 8 words
Headline= 73 words
Slogan = 3 words
Headline= 85 words
Slogan= 4 words
Headline= 20 words
Slogan= 8 words
Headline= 113 words
The previous data showed how many words were in the slogan and headline of the
advertisement. There was no distinct difference in the length of the advertisement since all
the advertisements were categorized as very easy to read in their slogan. However, most
headlines were considered very difficult to read since they have above 17 words. Unless for
DV advertisement, it had 20 words which was close to the limit of standard words in the
advertisement which was 17 words. Therefore, the headline in DV advertisement was still
categorized as easy to read since it was not much more than 17 words.
From the finding, it could be meant that all advertisements used short sentences in the
slogan due to its attempt to attract the readers to read the headline of the advertisement. Three
words were categorized as very easy to read. Thus, it wouldn’t be difficult for the readers to
read the slogan at a glance then continue to the headline. The headlines of the advertisements
used long sentences since they declared the top specifications of each product. The use of
long sentences in the headlines might due to the need of the advertiser declare the top
specifications that the products had.
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Types of Sentences
After analyzing types of sentences in each advertisement, it could be said that three of
four advertisements used only declarative sentences from the slogan to the headline. The
advertisements used the declarative since it informed the readers about the top specifications
of the products itself. However, FL used two types of sentences in the advertisement’s
headline, the first type was the declarative sentences followed byan exclamative sentence.
The exclamative sentence of the advertisement was in a form of a question “what’s more?”
then, it was followed by the declarative sentences that answer the exclamative sentence of
“what’s more?”.
The change from the declarative sentence to the exclamative sentence was to make
the headline more interesting to read for the readers and to prevent a flat communication. By
inserting the exclamative sentence “what’s more?” inside the declarative sentences, it would
also help the readers to keep continue reading the advertisement if they get bored while they
read it since the exclamative sentence “what’s more?” was followed by the declarative
sentences which means that there are more information on the top specifications of the
product that should be read by the readers.
Figurative Language
Table 4. Figurative Language
Lenovo ThinkPad S440
Ultrabook
Fujitsu LifeBook U904 Dell Vostro 5470 Samsung ATIV Book 9
Plus
-Its super-crisp 35.6cm
(14-inch) frameless
WQHD+ IGZO display
also supports touch
input
With faster performance,
touch screen option, and
the essential security and
support you need to keep
you on the winning path.
Based on the data displayed previously, three of four advertisements used figurative
language except LT and SA. The figurative languages used by three advertisements were
18
different from one to another. FL used the word “super-crisp” and “frameless”, those words
were categorized into hyperbole since they exaggerated the qualities of the product. The word
“crisp” means firm, therefore “super-crisp” means very firm which referred to the physical
figure of the laptop. The word “frameless” literally means without frame, but in the use of
figurative language in this context, the word “frameless” could mean very thin which also
referred to the physical figure of the laptop. Thus, the advertiser of FL wanted to present the
strength of the product to the readers that the laptop has a very thin body figure which might
be light to carry and fit in any bag spaces without worrying about it being broken since the
laptop is also firm.
Meanwhile, DV used personification since the product said “the essential security and
support you need, to keep you on the winning path”, by looking at the figurative language
mentioned previously, it could be said that the advertiser used a human role on the strength of
the product. The essential security and support of the product could keep the user on the
winning path which is something that can only be done by a human. By using that figurative
language, the advertiser of DV wanted to present the strength of the product to the readers
that the laptop can keep the users success to do the work with the laptop since it can perform
very well with its essential security and support.
My finding was similar to Ogungbe (2011, p.46) that he also found the figurative
language used in telecom sales promotion messages in Nigeria. He found hyperbole and
metaphor in telecom sales promotion, whereas I found hyperbole and personification in two
out of four laptop advertisements. The use of hyperbole and personification in the laptop
advertisements I analyzed were presented to the readers to create impression over the
product. The use of figurative language in these advertisements had a similar purpose to
weasel words which also create an impression on the product, so would be able to attract the
reader’s attention and encourage them to buy the product.
19
Literal Language
Table 5. Literal language
Lenovo ThinkPad S440
Ultrabook
Fujitsu LifeBook U904 Dell Vostro 5470 Samsung
ATIV Book 9
Plus
Describe the strengths of
the product by using
three passive sentences
of four sentences written
in the headline.
Describe the strengths of
the product by using
active sentences.
Describe the strengths of
the product by using
active sentences.
Describe the
strengths of
the product by
starting it with
common sense
that sharper
screen
resolution will
result in better
view. The
advertisement
also mostly
use active
sentences to
describe the
product’s
strengths.
The finding of the literal language used in advertisement showed that there were very
few differences on how the advertisements deliver their literal meaning. Two of four
advertisements used the distinct different style for delivering the literal meaning to the
readers.The table 5 showed that three of four advertisements used active sentences to deliver
the literal language to describe the products. It might be due to the readers that would be
easier to understand the advertisement using active sentences. The only advertisement that
used passive sentences was LT; the use of passive sentences in this advertisement might be
due to the length of the headline.
Based on my finding on the short sentences, DV had the shortest length of headline’s
sentence but it did not describe the specifications of the product. Even though LT did not
have the shortest sentence length on the headline, but it delivered a brief description of the
20
specifications of the product. Efficiency might be a reason for the LT’s advertiser to keep the
sentences short but still describe some important specifications of the product. SA used a
common sense that a sharper screen resolution would gain a better view. This common sense
could lead to reader’s interest to read further since most of them would agree that a sharper
resolution will gain a better view.
CONCLUSION
The study was conducted to find the textual devices and its interpretation used in four
laptop advertisements with different brands but similar product’s specifications. Based on the
finding of the study, each advertiser of each brand used different kinds of textual devices to
deliver the message to the readers. LT used weasel words, personal pronouns, long sentences,
declarative sentences, and passive sentences whereas FL used weasel words, personal
pronouns, long sentences, declarative and exclamative sentences, figurative language and
active sentences. Meanwhile, DV used weasel words, personal pronouns, short sentence,
declarative sentences, figurative language and active sentences whereas SA used weasel
words, personal pronouns, long sentences, declarative sentences and active sentences. The
message which can be derived from the meaning of the textual devices used by each
advertiser also varied, and it could be generated from the use of weasel words, personal
pronouns, and figurative language. I also found that the use of weasel words and figurative
language as textual devices has similar function which was to create impression over the
product to the readers.
The result might be different if the objects being researched were more than four and
the linguistic styles being researched were different. I did my research on four laptop
advertisements with three textual devices due to the limit of time I had. This research could
be implied in the study of advertisement language on what kind of textual devices are usually
21
used by the advertiser to make the advertisement language attractive and what messages are
the advertisers try to say by using those textual devices in their advertisements . Further
research of this study may involve a different kind of an advertisement such as a television
advertisement, a sales promotion or a youtube advertisement. The textual devices used as
investigation tools might be broader since linguistic has so many knowledge about language.
Thus, it can be the reference for those who want to study the same topic.
22
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First of all, I would like to express my thankfulness to the Heavenly Father who bless
my study from the beginning until the end of my thesis submission. I give my first
appreciation to my supervisor, Maria Christina Eko Setyarini, M. Hum for kindly giving
guidance to do my thesis. My second appreciation is for my thesis examiner, Athriana Santye
Pattiwael, M.Hum for reading and examining my thesis. I also thank to my mom who always
support me during my study until thesis submission. The last thank is for my brother who
always be there for me in all my conditions.
23
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