VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES DO THI PHUONG MAI A CROSS-CULTURAL PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE MAGAZINES (Nghiên cứu dụng học giao văn hóa về quảng cáo thƣơng mại trên tạp chí Mĩ và Việt) Major: English Linguistics Code: 9220201.01 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Hanoi - 2018 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES DO THI PHUONG MAI A CROSS-CULTURAL PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE MAGAZINES (Nghiên cứu dụng học giao văn hóa về quảng cáo thƣơng mại trên tạp chí Mĩ và Việt) Major: English Linguistics Code: 9220201. Nguyen Quang Hanoi - 2018 DECLARATION I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the works of others. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made.
This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. Hanoi, 2018 Signature Do Thi Phuong Mai i ABSTRACT The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the use of politeness strategies, advertising appeals and the realization of politeness strategies in advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. The data for this study consist of 310 magazine advertisements collected within a period of six months at the end of 2014.
These advertisements are analyzed on the basis of Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory and Pollay’s (1983) advertising appeal system. The results reveal the preferences in the use of positive politeness strategies in both American and Vietnamese advertisements. Additionally, Effectiveness, Distinctive and Modern are the three most popular appeals in selected advertisements. Another similarity between American and Vietnamese magazine advertising is the realization of positive politeness strategies in Effectiveness appeal.
However, there exist the differences in the use of politeness strategies and advertising appeals between American and Vietnamese advertising. At the same time, the manifestation of some politeness strategies, advertising appeals, and the realization of certain politeness strategies in advertising appeals in American advertising is different from that of Vietnamese advertising. The findings of the study, therefore, suggest that appropriate advertising strategies be employed to achieve the goal of the advertisements. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like first and foremost to extend my most sincere thanks to Professor Nguyễn Quang, my supervisor, for his critical comments and valuable instructions without which this thesis could not have been completed.
I do appreciate his kind encouragement, astute advice and immeasurable guidance and support through every stage of my Ph. My indebtedness also goes to lecturers of University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their immensely helpful guidance and support during my time of study therein. I am also grateful to my colleagues at Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education for their support throughout the process of writing this thesis. Last but not least, I am especially indebted to my beloved family members whose help and encouragements contributed greatly to the completion of my study.
iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FTA: Fact Threatening Act H : Hearer(s) S : Speaker(s) iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Pollay’s appeal system, 1983. Classification of advertising appeals. American and Vietnamese magazines used in the study.
Research framework for politeness strategies in the study. Single bald-on record strategies in the study. Single positive politeness strategies in the study. Single negative politeness strategies in the study.
Single off-record politeness strategies in the study. Mixed politeness strategies in the study. Result of pilot test on Pollay’s system. Five newly-added advertising appeals (Shen, 2013).
Advertising appeals in the study. Elements in the research design. Frequency of politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Frequency of single positive politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements.
Frequency of single negative politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Bald-on record strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Similarities and differences in politeness strategies used in American and Vietnamese magazine advertisements. Advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements.
Similarities and differences in the use of advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Summary of the realization of politeness strategies in advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements .147 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Why Politeness?, adapted from Nguyễn Quang (2011). Lakoff (1973)’s rules of pragmatic competence.
Leech cost-benefit scale (1983). Possible strategies concerning the delivery of an FTA (Brown and Levinson, 1987: 69). Possible strategies concerning the delivery of an FTA, Nguyễn Quang (2012), adapted from Brown and Levinson (1987). Data analysis procedure .1: Proportion of politeness strategies realized in advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements .126 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.iv LIST OF TABLES. v LIST OF FIGURES. 1 CHAPTER 1 REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Approaches to politeness.
Politeness and advertising. Review of previous studies. Previous studies of advertising from cross-cultural pragmatic perspective. Previous studies of advertising appeals .44 CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
Selection of the magazines. Selection of advertisements.60 CHAPTER 3 POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE COMMERCIAL MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENTS. Frequency of politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Single positive politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements.
Frequency of single positive politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Linguistic realization of single positive politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Single negative politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Frequency of single negative politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements.
Linguistic realization of single negative politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Bald-on record strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Frequency of bald-on record strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Linguistic realization of bald-on record strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements.
The hybrid negative-positive politeness strategy in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements.97 viii CHAPTER 4 ADVERTISING APPEALS IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE COMMERCIAL MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENTS. Frequency of advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Linguistic realization of advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Linguistic realization of Effectiveness appeal in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements.
Linguistic realization of Distinctive appeal in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements.122 CHAPTER 5 REALIZATION OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN ADVERTISING APPEALS IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE COMMERCIAL MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENTS. Realization of positive politeness strategies in advertising appeals. Realization of negative politeness strategies in advertising appeals. Realization of bald-on record politeness strategies in advertising appeals 139 5.
Realization of mixed politeness strategies in advertising appeals. Recapitulation of the study. Suggestions for further studies. I APPENDIX 1: POLITENESS STRATEGY FRAMEWORK.
I APPENDIX 2: ADVERTISING APPEAL FRAMEWORK. VIII APPENDIX 3: SELECTED ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE STUDY. XI ix INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study In today’s world of consumerism, advertising plays a significant role in that “it [advertising] creates needs, more needs and entices the consumer” (Jurgensen, 2006: 9).
The advertising market is so cunning that it transforms simple shirts, bags, shoes or sneakers into precious objects. In order to do so, ad- writers have used a variety of techniques to make their products more appealing to their consumers. They have applied both textual and non-textual methods, including all kinds of visual and linguistic tricks in order to persuade their audience. An ideal advertisement, as Chow (2010) explains, must draw attention, arouse interest, stimulate desire, create conviction, and above all, get action.
Shimp & Andrew (2013) argue that most consumer behaviors are swayed by emotions rather than rationality. As a result, when forming the language of advertising, ad-writers normally resort to two major advertising approaches, namely “soft-sell” appeal (or indirect advertising) and “hard-sell” appeal (or direct advertising) (Mueller, 1986). Additionally, with regard to other interlocutor’s emotions, rapport may be the most essential factor determining the attraction and sustainment of their involvement in communication. Advertisers, therefore, apply a variety of strategies to guarantee the rapport with their potential consumers, of which politeness strategies are one of the most popular ones.
The study of politeness in advertising text is of interest to many linguists as the language used by ad-writers must be careful in order not to offend the prospective customers and at the same time successfully in persuading these customers to buy the products or use the services advertised. There have been relatively few studies on politeness and advertising nationally and internationally. Such research includes studies by Mai Xuân Huy (2005), Hồ Vi Nữ Mỹ Linh (2011), Ngũ Thiện Hùng (2011), Hardin (1997; 2001), Escribano 1 (2006), Stehlik (2007), Wise (2011), to name a few. There are also certain studies comparing the expression of politeness in advertising in two languages, for example Koga and Pearson (1992), Gas & Neru (2006), Wise (2011) or Hermosilla (2012).
However, there have not been sufficient studies on politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese advertising. Furthermore, thanks to the globalization of the world marketplace, international advertising segment has been expanding (Tomkins, 2000). Therefore, it is significant that advertisers understand cultural universals and exclusions that tend to condition advertising appeals in different markets. Cultural difference is an important factor in understanding international advertising successfully (Keegan, 1989) because consumers growing up in a particular culture are accustomed to a specific culture (Zhang & Gelb, 1996).
In other words, advertising is culture-oriented discipline as it is based on language and other communication tools which are deeply rooted in the given culture of a society (Shutte & Ciarlante, 1998). Particularly, advertising communicates cultural values through advertising appeals (Pollay, 1983) because ad-writers often refer to cultural values when they have to select the primary advertising appeals. Based on this view, a larger number of cross-cultural studies have examined similarities or differences in cultural values embedded in advertising contents. Typical examples include Cheng and Schweitzer (1996), Albers-Miller and Stafford (1999), Lin (2009, Shen (2013), and Sar & Rodriguez (2014) who employ content analysis to see the cross-national differences in advertising strategy.
However, to the best of the author’s knowledge, virtually no study has focused on the potential relationship between politeness and advertising appeals. Consequently, this study employs Brown and Levinson (1987)’s politeness theory and Pollay (1983)’s advertising appeal conceptual framework to examine how American and Vietnamese advertising differ from each other in the use of politeness strategies and advertising appeals. Aim and objectives of the study The overall aim of the study is to pragmatically provide a study on politeness strategies, advertising appeals, as well as the realization of politeness strategies in advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. In order to achieve this aim, the objectives set out for the study are: to find out what politeness strategies and advertising appeals are used in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements; to examine how politeness strategies are realized in advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements; to discuss the similarities and differences in the use of politeness strategies, advertising appeals, and the realization of politeness strategies in advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements from cross-cultural pragmatic perspective.
Research questions In consideration of the aforementioned aim and objectives, the following research questions were posed: 1. What are politeness strategies employed in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements? 2. What are advertising appeals employed in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements? 3.