VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ----------o0o---------- HOÀNG THỊ MẬN A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF MEDICINE PRODUCTS ADVERTISEMENTS IN NEW ZEALAND PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN CÁC QUẢNG CÁO DƯỢC PHẨM Ở NEW ZEALAND M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.201 HANOI – 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ----------o0o---------- HOÀNG THỊ MẬN A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF MEDICINE PRODUCTS ADVERTISEMENTS IN NEW ZEALAND PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN CÁC QUẢNG CÁO DƯỢC PHẨM Ở NEW ZEALAND M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.201 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thi Thu ̣ Ha,̀ PhD HANOI – 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby declare that this Master‘s thesis entitled ―A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF MEDICINE PRODUCTS ADVERTISEMENTS IN NEW ZEALAND” is my own work. This study project report is conducted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.
Hanoi, 2014 Hoàng Thị Mận i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would have never been able to finish my thesis without the guidance of my supervisor, help from friends and support from my family. Foremost, I would like to express my deeply sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha for the continuous support of my thesis, for her enthusiasm, invaluably constructive criticism and friendly advice during the project work. Her hearty and aspiring guidance helped me in all the time of my work.
I could not have imagined having a better supervisor and mentor for my M. My thanks are also due to lecturers of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies for their knowledge and encouragement from that I have learned during 2 years of the course. My sincere thanks also go to my relative, who is living in New Zealand, Tran Thi Huyen for helping me collect the sample data. I especially thank all of my friends and my parents for all their love, support and encouragement which help me to finish one of important project works in my life.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study investigated medicine products advertisements in New Zealand under the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis. A qualitative research was conducted on total 50 advertisements chosen from 4 most popular websites for online medicine advertising in New Zealand. The ideologies hidden behind linguistic features and strategies employed by medicine advertisers are the main focus. The analysis is based on a combination framework of Fairclough and Systematic Function Grammar of Halliday.
It demonstrates how ideologies of a ―positive medicine product‖ are produced and reproduced in medicine products advertisements. The findings indicated that advertisers used various strategies to influence and manipulate their customer‘s perception and behavior. Thus, language in medicine advertising discourse is a means for people in power (advertisers) to control and exercise power over others. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Three dimensional framework of Fairclough, 2001 Figure 2: Aristotle‘s strategies of persuasion Table 1: Summary of Finding of the first step Table 2: Summary of Process, mood used Table 3: Discursive strategies used in medicine advertisements iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………….
iii FIGURES AND TABLES. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. vi PART A: INTRODUCTION. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Design of the study. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. An overview of CDA.
Summary of CDA development .2 CDA: Theory or method .1 Overview of advertising discourse .2 Approach to adverting discourse. 9 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES .2 Data selection and sampling.2 Halliday‘s systematic functional grammar .3 Method of analysis. 19 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION:. 20 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.1 Summary of the findings of the first step.
The main findings .1 Analysis in terms of word choices .2 Analysis in terms of grammar features .2 Discourse practice analysis .3 Social practice analysis. Limitations and suggestions for future studies. I APPENDIX 1: 50 brand-name medicine advertisements products in New Zealand. I APPENDIX 2: Extraction of Medicine Acts 1984: Advertisement for Medicine.IV vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale Since its appearance in humankind history, language has played a part as one of essentially important means of communication. Therefore, in accordance with the changes in human society, the function of language has been increasingly varied in numbers. It no longer confines in terms of describing, explaining or exchanging information but means to represent ideologies, to practice power and to influence others. ―Language connects with the society through ideologies and through being both a site of and a stake in, struggles for power‖ (Fairclough, 2001).
The relationship between language, ideologies and power, hence has instilled interest in linguistics. Power is presented through ideologies in language or language is employed with strategies to enact power. This figures out a very close relationship between them as ―exercise of power is increasingly achieved through ideology, particularly through the workings of language‖ (Fairclough, 2001). Concerning this issue, a wide range of studies were conducted in a field of applied linguistics: Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).
CDA is referred to as ―an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice and focuses on the ways social and political domination are reproduced in text and talk‖ (Fairclough, 1995). Among types of discourse, advertising discourse, in its nature could be regarded as one of the very interesting forms of language since ―advertising is the most influential institution of socialization in modern society‖ (Jhally, 1995). Although describing advertising as discourse is ―both more complex and more difficult than any of these approaches.‖ ( El-daly, 2011), advertising discourse still offers a very promising area for study due to vigorous and diversified language used. It involves the nature of social practices and the properties of language.
Moreover in this channel of discourse, seemingly a huge number of receivers are aimed to influence as advertisers often use visual and linguistic features to persuade their audience. Thus, advertising language servers as a tool to influence people. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Also this scenario ―has brought into perspective on how people who are in control of advertisement manage to exercise their power‖ (Kuar Kuldip, 2013). Linguists and researchers in fact have conducted a noticeable number of studies related to advertising discourse.
However, studies on advertising discourse from perspective of CDA, to some extent seem to be minor in number. Following this trend of research, the researcher conducts a study which focuses on advertising discourse or in a more detail it is a critical discourse analysis of medicine products advertisements in one of the English-speaking countries. The aim is to examine the way language used in medicine products advertisements as a means to present some ideologies, practice power in order to influence customers. Also, there is another concern, among various types of advertisements; I merely take notice of medicine products advertisements.
In many countries all over the world, advertisement for medicine products is under extremely strict and limited control. According to WHO, New Zealand is one of the English-speaking countries that allows a direct-to-customer advertising for medicine products. However, all forms of medicine advertisements are limited in a strictly legitimate requirement which means advertising information will be displayed according to a prevailed frame. For this special situation, it is worth investigating how language is used in the medicine advertisements as a mean to influence people, to enact power and to present ideologies under those limitations of censorship.
Research question To be specific, the thesis aims to seek the answers to the following 2 questions: 1. What ideologies are represented through linguistic features used in medicine products advertisements? 2. What discursive strategies were employed by medicine advertisers to manipulate and influence their customers? 3. Scope of the study In this thesis, I aim to focus only on the verbal advertising – the written texts 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com of the advertisements.
However, under the scope of a minor thesis, there are 50 brand- names and full-text medicine advertisements chosen from 4 most popular websites for online medicine advertising in New Zealand. Also, I have no ambition to make an analysis from all aspects of language used. Rather, only word and grammatical choices are the main focuses. In other words, the research focuses on analyzing the linguistic features of medicine products advertisements in New Zealand and reveals how the use of language tends to manipulate and influence the consumers based on the content of the advertisements.
As its nature is a linguistic study, the thesis will be conducted for the academic purpose only which has no relation to discussion or analysis of marketing or commercial strategies which belong to the domain of economics. Significance of the study The thesis is conducted in the hope of making some contributions. Theoretically, this study provides a support to CDA theories as from analysis of selected medicine advertisements, ideologies and power hidden behind them could be explored. In addition, as the genre of discourse dealt with is advertising discourse which is not yet widely and fully explored from the perspective of CDA in Vietnam, thus the researcher holds an expectation to signal more future researchers who will have the same interest.
It is because topics for CDA should not only confine in politic argument but other sources of social practices in which advertising is an example. Design of the study Within 40 pages of a minor thesis, the study is divided into 3 main parts: Part A (Introduction) aims to give the background of the study. It mentions the rationale, aims of the study, the research questions, scope and the design of the thesis. Part B (Development) includes 3 chapters: 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chapter 1 (Literature review) presents a review on CDA and advertising discourse with a summary of development of CDA, the nature of CDA, overview of advertising discourse.
Chapter 2 (Methodology and procedures) offers a detailed explanation on the choice of database, analytical frameworks, and analysis tools for the thesis. Chapter 3 (Data analysis and discussion) is the analysis of data under frameworks of Fairclough and Halliday‘s SFG. The research questions are expected to reveal from the result of the analysis. Part C (Conclusion) summarizes the main findings from which some important conclusions have been drawn out.
Some limitations are also drawn out in this chapter. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Overview of CDA 1.1 Summary of CDA development Before ―emerging as a distinct theory of language, a radically different kinds of linguistics ―(Kress, 1990) by the 1990s, the history of CDA dated back to 1970s. At that time, there was an emergence of a discourse and text analysis form which was referred to as Critical Linguistics. This new form recognized the role of language in structuring power relation in society.
It is completely different from the Chomskian‘s former focus in that it aimed at ―describing and explaining language variation, language change and the structures of communication interaction with limited attention to issue of social hierarchy and power‖ (Labov, 1972). This new trend drew interest from a number of researchers whose names are: Kress and Hodge, Fowler, Van Dijk, Fairclough, Wodak, etc. Their works made a significant contribution to Critical Linguistics. The assumptions, principles, procedures were developed and this made ―CL is able to describe its aims, research interests chosen perspective and methods of analysis much more specifically and rigidly than hitherto‖ (Wodak, 2001).