Language in Use 65-66
This unit is concerned directly with the language of commercial advertising
as one of the most obvious ways in which messages are so devised that the impact
of their expressive content is immediate, and proof against rational argument.
Its aim is to focus specifically on the language of advertising and explore
the very wide range of styles employed. For session [2], the class need to have
made a collection of advertisements which strike them as in any way unusual
on account of the way they use language. As the material must be of the time
and place of the class doing the unit, examples are not given.
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[1] The aim of this session is for the class, working in small groups,
to produce an advertising display for a product that has appeal to a very limited
market. The displays should be circulated round the groups for comments on lay-out
and wording.
Suggested articles:
(a) a household cluster
(b) a pan-scrubber
(c) a waste-paper basket
(d) an india-rubber
(e) a battery-powered bicycle
(f) or a tape-measure
[2] The aim of this session is for the class to work out the function
of the language used in the advertisements collected. The class should
work in pairs or small groups, each one of which should prepare a brief report
on what they have discovered for presentation to the class in session [3]. The
following points may be useful if it is necessary to give some guide lines before
the work begins:
(a) what references in the language appeal directly to a particular social group?
(b) what references assume a particular body of knowledge in the reader?
(c) what elements in the language project a situation with which a reader can
identify?
(d) how do attitudes get expressed?
(e) are there any features of the language which they would be unlikely to use
in their own writing?
(f) what do they judge to be the total effect of the language on themselves?
[3] After the reports have been presented, the discussion should focus
upon those elements in the language of the advertisements which the class judge
to be most potent in conveying the expressive content of the message. They should
go on to consider the degree to which the force of the language comes not so
much from what is directly stated, but from what is only alluded to. Ask them
to pick out advertisements which seem to them to have virtually no impact, and
examine with them how far this is because they remain unaware of what references
are being made.
Points to consider include:
(a) the range of reference involved
(b) the connection between such reference and the reader's presumed membership
of a particular social group
(c) assumptions about the reader's particular interests and therefore his technical
understanding of a particular
field
(d) the degree to which the most allusive advertisements are relying for their
impact almost wholly upon creating in
the reader a sense of belonging to some exclusive group,
social or otherwise.