Rhetorical structure and persuasive features of advertising: An intercultural analysis of English and Arabic online advertisements

封面

如何引用文章

全文:

详细

Nowadays, the bulk of e-commerce is carried out in English. At the same time, however, the emergence and growth of Arab e-commerce has attracted attention from e-commerce giants, such as AliBaba and Amazon. Acquiring a deeper understanding of culture-specific advertising practices is thus quickly becoming necessary for digital advertisers and marketers seeking to tap into both English- and Arabic-speaking consumer markets. Despite this, little has been written on online advertising discourse within the particular contexts. To address this, the present study reports on a pragmatic two-level rhetorical analysis of the macro-structure of the sub-genre of online advertisements in English and Arabic and focuses on the identification of the persuasive linguistic features employed to signal constituent moves. Drawing upon Swales’ move-step model of rhetorical analysis, the exploration of a comparable corpus of 100 online advertisements of skin care products per language introduced new layers in the rhetorical organisation of [online] advertisements. The results revealed that English and Arabic advertisements consisted of both common and culture-specific rhetorical moves. The persuasive strategies employed common lexico-grammatical features at syntactic, semantic, and discoursal level, albeit to a different extent. Overall, the results of this study illustrate that online advertisements of skin care products could be considered as a particular sub-genre with context-specific macro- and micro-structures. Through the investigation of the specific datasets, this study expands upon the existing analytical frameworks used for the study of advertising discourse and adds to the intercultural exploration of the rhetorical structures and persuasive strategies used in online advertisements.

作者简介

Mohsen Khedri

Sohar University

编辑信件的主要联系方式.
Email: mkhedri@su.edu.om
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9286-4230

Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Language Studies

Sohar, Oman

Eatidal Hasan

University of Gharyan

Email: eathasan@yahoo.com
Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Arts Gharyan, Libya

Konstantinos Kritsis

University of Cyprus

Email: kritsis.konstantinos@ucy.ac.cy
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8011-2138

Lecturer in Translation and Interpreting Studies at the Department of English Studies

Nicosia, Cyprus

参考

  1. Ahangar, Abbas Ali & Seddigheh Zeynali Dastuyi. 2017. Persuasive language in the subgenre of Persian sales e-mails. Language & Communication 53. 69-86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2016.08.010
  2. Al-Momani, Kawakib Radwan. 2014. Strategies of persuasion in letters of complaint in academic context: The case of Jordanian university students’ complaints. Discourse Studies 16 (6). 705-728. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1461445614546257
  3. Arroyo, Belén López, Martín J Fernández Antolín & Rosario de Felipe Boto. 2007. Contrasting the rhetoric of abstracts in medical discourse. Implications and applications for English Spanish translation. Languages in Contrast 7 (1). 1-28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/lic.7.1.02lop
  4. Bhatia, Vijay Kumar. 1993. Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman.
  5. Bhatia, Vijay Kumar. 2004. Worlds of Written Discourse: A Genre-Based View. London: A&C Black.
  6. Biber, Douglas, Ulla Connor & Thomas Upton. 2007. Discourse on the Move: Using Corpus Analysis to Describe Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  7. Brett, Paul. 1994. A genre analysis of the results sections of sociology articles. English for Specific Purposes 13 (1). 47-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/0889-4906(94)90024-8
  8. Crawford Camiciottoli, Belinda. 2011. Ethics and ethos in financial reporting: Analyzing persuasive language in earnings calls. Business Communication Quarterly 74 (3). 298-312. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1080569911413810
  9. Cheung, Ming. 2008. ‘Click Here’: The impact of new media on the encoding of persuasive messages in direct marketing. Discourse Studies 10 (2). 161-189. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1461445607087007
  10. Cheung, Ming. 2010. The globalization and localization of persuasive marketing communication: A cross-linguistic socio-cultural analysis. Journal of Pragmatics 42 (2). 354-376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.06.012
  11. Cook, Guy. 2001. The Discourse of Advertising. London: Routledge.
  12. Connor, Ulla & Anna Mauranen. 1999. Linguistic analysis of grant proposals: European union research grants. English for Specific Purposes 18. 47-62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(97)00026-4
  13. Cuddon, John Anthony. 2013. Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.
  14. Danesi, Marcel. 2015. Advertising Discourse. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  15. del Saz-Rubio, M. Milagros. 2011. A pragmatic approach to the macro-structure and metadiscoursal features of research article introductions in the field of Agricultural Sciences. English for Specific Purposes 30 (4). 258-271. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2011.03.002
  16. Díez-Fernández, Mercedes. 2009. English-Spanish Contrastive Analysis of Football Match Reports in Printed Press. From Description to Applications. PhD thesis. University of León, Spain.
  17. Dudley-Evans, Tony. 1994. Genre analysis: An approach for text analysis for ESP. In Malcolm Coulthard (ed.), Advances in written text analysis, 219-228. London: Routledge.
  18. Fairclough, Norman. 1989. Language and Power. London: Longman.
  19. Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  20. Fuertes-Olivera, Pedro A., Marisol Velasco-Sacristán, Ascensión Arribas-Baño & Eva Samaniego-Fernández. 2001. Persuasion and advertising English: Metadiscourse in slogans and headlines. Journal of Pragmatics 33 (8). 1291-1307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(01)80026-6
  21. Goering, Elizabeth, Ulla M. Connor, Ed Nagelhout & Richard Steinberg. 2011. Persuasion in fundraising letters: An interdisciplinary study. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 40 (2). 228-246. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0899764009339216
  22. Halliday, Michael, Alexander Kirkwood & Ruqaiya Hassan. 1976. Cohesion in English. London: Longman.
  23. Howe, Yuen Sen. 1995. A Genre-based Analysis of Car Advertisements in a Local Newspaper. PhD thesis. National University of Singapore, Singapore.
  24. Hunston, Susan & Geoff Thompson. 2000. Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  25. Janoschka, Anja. 2004. Web Advertising: New Forms of Communication on the Internet. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
  26. Kathpalia, Sujata Surinder. 1992. A Genre Analysis of Promotional Texts. PhD thesis. National University of Singapore, Singapore.
  27. Khedri, Mohsen & Konstantinos Kritsis. 2018. Metadiscourse in applied linguistics and chemistry research article introductions. Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics 9 (2). 47-73. https://dx.doi.org/10.22055/rals.2018.13793
  28. Labrador, Belén, Noelia Ramón, Héctor Alaiz-Moretón & Hugo Sanjurjo-González. 2014. Rhetorical structure and persuasive language in the subgenre of online advertisements. English for Specific Purposes 34. 38-47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2013.10.002
  29. Lapanská, Jana. 2006. The Language of Advertising with the Concentration on the Linguistic Means and the Analysis of Advertising Slogans. Diploma thesis. Komenskeho University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
  30. Larina, Tatiana, Vladimir Ozyumenko & Douglas Mark Ponton. 2020. Persuasion strategies in media discourse about Russia: Linguistic ambiguity and uncertainty. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 15 (1). 3-22. https://doi.org/10.1515/lpp-2019-0002
  31. Larson, Mildred L. 1998. Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross-language Equivalence. University Press of America.
  32. Leech, Geoffrey. 1966. English in Advertising: A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain. London: Longmans.
  33. Martin, James R. & Peter R. White. 2005. The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
  34. Martín, Pedro Martín. 2003. A genre analysis of English and Spanish research paper abstracts in experimental social sciences. English for Specific Purposes 22. 25-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(01)00033-3
  35. Martín, Pedro Martín. 2005. The Rhetoric of the Abstract in English and Spanish Scientific Discourse: A Cross-Cultural Genre-Analytic Approach. Bern: Peter Lang.
  36. Mauranen, Anna. 1993. Contrastive ESP rhetoric: Metatext in Finnish-English economics texts. English for Specific Purposes 12. 3-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/0889-4906(93)90024-I
  37. Ozturk, Ismet. 2007. The textual organization of research article introductions in applied linguistics: Variability within a single discipline. English for Specific Purposes 26. 25-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2005.12.003
  38. Pilatova, Adella. 2015. The Language of Advertising: Analysis of Advertising Slogans in Fast Food Industry. PhD thesis. Masarykova University, Brno, Czech.
  39. Popova, Ksenia. 2018. Persuasion strategy in online social advertising. Training, Language and Culture 2 (2). 55-65. https://doi.org/10.29366/2018tlc.2.2.4
  40. Precht, Kristen. 2000. Patterns of Stance in English. PhD thesis. Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, USA.
  41. Romanova, Irina & Irina Smirnova. 2019. Persuasive techniques in advertising. Training, Language and Culture 3 (2). 55-70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29366/2019tlc.3.2.4
  42. Rush, Susan. 1998. The noun phrase in advertising English. Journal of Pragmatics 29. 155-171. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(97)00053-2
  43. Sternkopf, Sylva-Michèle. 2005. English in Marketing: International Communication Strategies in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Berlin: Frank & Timme.
  44. Suárez Tejerina, Lorena & Ana Isabel Moreno Fernández. 2008. The rhetorical structure of academic book review of literature. An English-Spanish cross-linguistic approach. In Ulla Connor, Ed Nagelhout & William Rozycki (eds.), Contrastive rhetoric. Reaching to intercultural rhetoric, 147-167. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
  45. Suchan, Jim. 2014. Toward an understanding of Arabic persuasion: A Western Perspective. International Journal of Business Communication 51 (3). 279-303. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2329488414525401
  46. Swales, John. 1990. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  47. Swales, John & Christine B. Feak. 2004. Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
  48. Tanaka, Keiko. 1999. Advertising Language: A Pragmatic Approach to Advertisements in Britain and Japan. London: Routledge.
  49. Upton, Thomas A & Ulla Connor. 2001. Using computerized corpus analysis to investigate the textlinguistic discourse moves of a genre. English for Specific Purposes 20. 313-329. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(00)00022-3
  50. Vergaro, Carla. 2004. Discourse strategies of Italian and English sales promotion letters. English for Specific Purposes 23 (2). 181-207. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(03)00003-6
  51. Wales, Katie. 2001. A Dictionary of Stylistics. Harlow: Longman.
  52. Williams, Ian A. 2012. Cultural differences in academic discourse: Evidence from first-person verb use in the methods sections of medical research articles. In Stefania Marzo, Kris Heylen & Gert De Sutter (eds.), Corpus studies in contrastive linguistics, 63-88. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
  53. Zhu, Yunxia. 2001. Comparing English and Chinese persuasive strategies in trade fair invitations: A Sociocognitive Approach. Document Design 2 (1). 2-17. https://doi.org/10.1075/dd.2.1.02yun

版权所有 © Khedri M., Hasan E., Kritsis K., 2022

Creative Commons License
此作品已接受知识共享署名-非商业性使用 4.0国际许可协议的许可。

##common.cookie##