A discourse analysis of English commercial advertisements

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN THI HOAI LINH

A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH

COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS

M.A THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8220201

THAI NGUYEN - 2021

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN THI HOAI LINH

A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH

COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS

M.A THESIS

(APPLICATION ORIENTATION)

Field: English Liguistic

Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Le Van Canh, Assoc. Prof.

THAI NGUYEN - 2021

ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN

TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ

TRẦN THỊ HOÀI LINH

PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN TIẾNG ANH

QUẢNG CÁO THƯƠNG MẠI

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ

(Định hướng ứng dụng)

Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh

Mã số: 8220201

Cán bộ hướng dẫn: PGS.TS Lê Văn Canh

THÁI NGUYÊN - 2021

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DECLARATION

I declare that this thesis entitled “A discourse analysis of English commercial

advertisements” is an original work done by me for the degree of Master of Arts in

School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University.

I also declare that this thesis has not been submitted for award of any degree,

diploma, title or recognition before.

Approved by Supervisor

Assoc. Prof. Le Van Canh

Thai Nguyen, April 2021

Signature

Tran Thi Hoai Linh

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my

supervisor Assoc. prof. Le Van Canh, who has guided me throughout the process of

the master thesis. He always creates the best conditions for me, allows me to express

my opinions, and at the same time gives comments, suggestions, guides me in the

right research direction.

Secondly, I would also like to thank the teachers in Thai Nguyen University

of Foreign Languages who imparted in-depth knowledge of their subjects during the

course of study so that I have a great foundation of knowledge to support the process

present thesis.

I also want to express my deep thanks to Dr. Nguyen Thi Hong Minh, who is

my sister as well as my boss for facilitating, encouraging me throughout the research

process.

Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for always supporting and

encouraging me throughout the years of studying and writing this thesis.

Limitations and shortcomings are indispensable in the thesis. I hope to receive

many valuable contributions from the teachers to further improve the topic and have

practical meaning to apply in real life.

Thank you very much!

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ABSTRACT

With the rapid development of the world economy, the diversification of

products in the same industry makes manufacturers think about how to make their

products stand out and be known to customers, thereby advertisement also

development and is associated with the development of the product. The purpose of

advertisement is to convince potential customers to buy their products with

impressive language, so advertisers are very careful in choosing words. In order to

compete with many other similar advertisement messages and achieve high

advertisement efficiency, advertisers always use a variety of language means to

attract the reader’s attention, spark desire and promote their actions. In this thesis,

advertising is analyzed from aspects of structural and lexical discourse according to

MAK Halliday’s approach to linguistic functions. Accordingly, the emphasis on the

social function of the language is an important factor for success in advertising. In

order to convey their ideas and product features, advertisers have used language as

the primary means of communication, connecting people with their products. We can

prove that advertisement is an art where advertisers must be very intelligent and

knowledgeable about the language. At the same time shows the diversity of

languages.

Key words: discourse analysis, commercial advertisements, discourse

strategies, linguistic features

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2. 1: The factors that make the text cohesion

Table 2. 2: The processes of empirical meaning

Table 2. 3: Criteria to classify advertisement

Table 2. 4: Types and characteristics of advertisement

Table 2. 5: The purposes of non – commercial advertisement

Table 4. 1: The rate of lexical features used in the English commercial advertisements

Table 4. 2: Verbs used in advertisements

Table 4. 3: Adjectives used in advertisements

Table 4. 4: Personal pronouns in advertisements

Table 4. 5: The imperative sentences in advertisements

Table 4. 6: The ellipses in advertisements

Table 4. 7: The Passive voice in advertisements

Table 4. 8: The affiliate methods are used in advertising templates

Table 4. 9: The reference in advertisements

Table 4. 10: The conjunction in advertisements

Table 4. 11: The lexical cohesion in English advertisements

Table 4. 12: The lexical cohesion in each English advertisement fields