Language of advertising

Aims

Aims

This module investigates product naming and the design of advertising, with a focus on magazine advertisements, from a linguistic perspective. Almost all research on advertising has been conducted without any linguistic foundation and/or is entirely quantitative social science research. This module applies knowledge of linguistics (e.g., phonetics and sound symbolism, syntax and ellipsis, pragmatics) and concepts in linguistics (e.g., signifier and signified, given and new information, presupposition, relevance) to the study of advertising design and advertising language.

The content of the module will be a combination of lectures, seminars and practicals. In practicals, students will deconstruct and reconstruct advertisements, based on particular themes, of which there will be several during the module. Lectures will deliver the core linguistic content and will be part of the same sessions as seminars, which will be used for discussion and short student presentations.

By the end of the module, students will:

• have a good understanding of how knowledge of linguistics and concepts in linguistics can inform the study of advertising, in terms of advertising texts, advertising images, and the relations between the two
• be able to critically evaluate non-specialist writing on a cultural topic (advertising) and consider its value from an informed perspective
• have an understanding of the principles of product naming and of design (text, images) of magazine advertising, and be able to apply these to novel cases
• have created a visual project based on independent research

This module will be capped at 16.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites

Students should have successfully completed:

• E/L33H Pragmatics

(Students who apply to take Pragmatics, but who cannot take it due to the enrollment cap, are not subject to this prerequisite, and will be given extra reading before the module starts.)

Students should also have successfully completed:

• L09C Introduction to phonetics and phonology
• L11C Introduction to syntax
• L12C Introduction to semantics

Further study in these areas is desirable.

Programme

Programme

Contact hours

Two hours per week of seminar-style teaching and one hour per week of practical.

Teaching programme

TBA.

Teaching materials

Key texts:

• Leech, G.N. (1966) English in Advertising: A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain. London: Longmans.
• Vestergaard, T. and Schrøder, K. (1986) The Language of Advertising. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Important additional texts:

• Aitchison, J. (1999) Cutting Edge Advertising. Singapore: Prentice Hall.
• Colapinto, J. (2011) ‘Famous Names’, New Yorker, 3/10/11.
• Coleman, L. (1990) ‘The language of advertising’, Journal of Pragmatics, 14: 137-45.
• Cook, G. (2001) The Discourse of Advertising, 2nd edn. London and New York: Routledge.
• Crompton, A. (1987) The Craft of Copywriting. London: Hutchison.
• Geis, M. (1982) The Language of Television Advertising. New York: Academic Press.
• Goddard, A. (2002) The Language of Advertising: Written Texts, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.
• Grice, H.P. (1975) ‘Logic and conversation’, in P. Cole & J. Morgan (eds) Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press.
• Johnson, C. (2011) Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little. New York: Norton.
• Pateman, T. (1983) ‘How is understanding an advertisement possible?’, in H. Davis & P. Walton (eds) Language, Image, Media. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Simpson, P. (1993) Language, Ideology and Point of View. London: Routledge.
• Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (1986) Relevance: Communication and Cognition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Tanaka, K. (1994) Advertising Language: A Pragmatic Approach to Advertising in Britain and Japan. London and New York: Routledge.

Assessment and feedback

Assessment and feedback

Formative work and feedback

Comments on formative work will be provided throughout the teaching period.

Summative assessment and feedback

• 4 thematic essays
  • Due in weeks 3, 6, 8 and 10 of Spring Term
  • Weight: 40%
  • Length: 750 words

Written feedback on work within two teaching weeks of submission.

• Presentation
  • Weeks 5-7 of Summer Term
  • Weight: 10%
• Project
  • Due in week 5 of Summer Term
  • Weight: 50%
  • Length: 2500 words

Skills

Transferable skills developed in this module

All modules provide an opportunity to work on general oral/written communication skills (in class and in assessments) and general self management (organising your studies), alongside the specific skills in language or linguistics that the module teaches.

This is a very practical module, which will involve understanding and development of several additional skills in:

• social and intercultural awareness, through an analysis of the values implicit in advertisements
• application of data collection and analysis, through collection of advertisements for analysis, and the application of different linguistic methods of analysis
• problem solving, creativity and innovation, through working on the large practical project, and also developing a presentation for the final presentation
• team work, as much of the practical work during the teaching weeks will be in small groups

Follow this link to hear how past students use transferable skills from their degree in their current jobs.