Linguistic Features Of Advertising English Based On AIDA Model

Advertising English is paid great attention to by advertisers and linguistic workers because of its important role in social life. This thesis aims at studying the linguistic features of advertising English by using the fruits of previous studies on advertising English for reference and combining classic theory concerning advertisement writing in the field of advertising. At the same time, it aims to make suggestions to Chinese advertisers in the aspect of English advertisement writing so as to help improve the quality of English advertisements by Chinese advertisers. The thesis first reviews linguists' research methods and research results in this field of study. It not only learns from their scientific research methods but also points out their limitations in practicability. To solve this problem, the thesis introduces AIDA Model that is well known in the field of advertising. It explains the meaning of this model, that is the four steps for completing an advertisement (to get attention, to hold interest, to arouse desire and to obtain action), and its applicability as the framework of the present study. Then based on the 200 English advertisements collected, the thesis analyzes the linguistic features for achieving the functions of different steps. In the first step—to get attention, the author analyzes several important traditional linguistic features, and puts emphasis on the analysis of unconventional features which can be generalized into the two aspects of ambiguity and prosody. In Step 2—to hold interest, the coherence of the body copy should be guaranteed so that the readers are not distracted. The common practice in this step is lexical cohesion, ellipsis and the skilful use of information chain in the assumption that the readers share the same opinion with the advertisers. The function of Step 3—to arouse desire is mainly realized by vivid descriptive words, and in Step 4—to obtain action, different action words should be used more creatively. At last, comparing to the linguistic features of different steps, the thesis chooses to analyze several unqualified English advertisements written by Chinese advertisers and gives suggestions for their improvement.