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各品牌标识及广告语
第二篇：英语化妆品广告语篇中名词化语法隐喻分析
题目：英语化妆品广告语篇中名词化语法隐喻分析
Analysis of Nominalization in English
Cosmetic Advertising Texts：The Perspective of Grammatical Metaphor
摘 要
【摘要】作为人类语言最普遍的特征之一，名词化一直是语言学家们关注的基本课题。名词化的使用一直被看作科技语篇的一个主要特点. 然而我们发现在广告语篇中名词化也是一个不容忽视的现象。因此，本文搜集了100篇英语化妆品广告语篇作为语料分析的对象，从系统功能语言学的语法隐喻角度出发，统计了名词化在这类语篇中的类型，并分析了名词化的概念功能，人际功能以及语篇功能。研究发现，在英语化妆品广告语篇中，名词化的主要类型为小句名词化，形容词名词化和动词名词化。在概念功能方面，名词化减少了广告的主观性，增强了消费者对产品的好感。在人际功能方面，名词化提高了产品的可信度。在语篇功能方面，名词化使广告语篇显得更加客观、简洁。
【关键词】名词化； 语法隐喻；语篇； 功能
Analysis of Nominalization in English
Cosmetic Advertising Texts: The Perspective of Grammatical Metaphor
Abstract
【ABSTRACT】 As a universal characteristic of human language,nominalization is always an interesting subject for the linguists. Nominalization has always been considered as one important feature of scientific text. We can also find much use of it in advertising text. Therefore, this paper takes 100 English cosmetic advertising texts as the corpus of analysis, making a statistics for the classification of nominalization in the texts and analyzing its ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function from the perspective of grammatical metaphor in systemic-functional linguistics. Through research, we find that the subordinate clause nominalization, adjective nominalization and verbal nominalization are the three main types of nominalization in English cosmetic advertising text. In the aspect of ideational function, nominalization reduces the advertising’s subjectivity and enhances consumer’s favorable impression. In the aspect of interpersonal function, nominalization improves the product’s credibility. In the aspect of textual function, nominalization makes the advertising text more concise and objective.
【KEYWORDS】nominalization; grammatical metaphor; text; function
Contents
1 Introduction. 1
1.1 The Background of the Present Study. 1
1.2 The Significance of the Present Study. 2
1.3 The overall structure of the thesis 2
2 Literature Review.. 3
2.1 The Definition of Nominalization. 3
2.2 Previous Studies on Nominalization. 3
2.2.1 Research directions on Nominalization. 3
2.2.2 Research Achievements on Nominalization. 4
2.3 Theoretical Framework for Present Study. 6
3 Analysis of Nominalization in English Cosmetic Advertising Texts 7
3.1 Classification of Nominalization. 7
3.2 Ideational Functions of Nominalization. 8
3.3 Interpersonal Functions of Nominalization. 10
3.4 Textual Functions of Nominalization. 12
3.4.1 The Function of Brevity. 12
3.4.2 The Function of Objectivity. 13
4 Conclusions and Limitations 15
4.1 Major Findings and Conclusions 15
4.2 Limitations and Suggestions 16
References 17
Acknowledgements 18
1 Introduction
1.1 The Background of the Present Study
In modern society, advertising plays an important role in people’s daily life. Every day hundreds of thousands advertisements make an impact on our lives. It is no exaggeration to say that our life is more or less influenced and changed by so much advertising around us. Advertising is a means of transmitting the information, and its ultimate purpose is to reach the effect of selling products to the consumers. It always uses every possible means to catch people’s attention and persuade them to purchase the advertised products, especially using the minimum time to make the greatest impact. In order to serve their purpose, they cannot afford to neglect the role of language in advertising.
The language of advertisements is very special and charming. It is carefully chosen in order to have special effects. Therefore, it can be seen that there are some distinct characteristics of the language of advertising that make it different from other languages. In view of its importance and uniqueness, it is worth researching the language features of advertising texts.
Advertising text has been studied from a variety of aspects, such as syntactical types, advertising modes, code switching, cohesion and coherence and so on. However, few scholars have studied the advertising texts from the aspect of nominalization though the research of nominalization and its relative problem has been the focus in the English linguistic study field.
The previous studies both at home and abroad are mainly based on scientific and technological texts. As a matter of fact, there is much use of nominalization in advertising texts. So it is necessary to have a further study into nominalization in advertising texts to make people better comprehend and master this universal phenomenon.
This paper mainly analyses nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts from the perspective of grammatical metaphor in systemic-functional linguistics. The data of the study refers to 100 English cosmetic advertising texts which were collected from the famous English magazines of Vogue and Allure. The data will be analyzed by the way of theory elaboration and concrete analysis.
The major purpose of this paper is to solve the following three problems: the types of nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts; the meaning of nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts; the effect of nominalization in constructing the English cosmetic advertising texts.
1.2 The Significance of the Present Study
It is meaningful to make a research of nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts.
First of all, the analysis of the language of advertising texts can not only help the advertisers design and organize the advertisement better for their products, and enhance the attractiveness and persuasion, but also help the consumers’ understanding of advertisement.
Secondly, mastering the phenomenon of nominalization in English advertising texts of cosmetics is beneficial to us to analyze and interpret other texts of business English advertising. At the same time, it will make some contribution to the analysis of other type of texts.
1.3 The Overall Structure of the Thesis
The thesis consists of four parts:
Part one is intended to provide an introduction of the research, including the background of the study, the significance of the study and the overall structure of the thesis.
Part two is literature review. In this part it mainly provides the definition of nominalization, then a brief introduction to a variety of research directions on nominalization and the research achievements on nominalization. In the end comes a theoretical framework for the present study of nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts.
Part three is the body of the thesis. It focuses on the analysis of nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts from the perspective of grammatical metaphor in systemic-functional linguistics. In this part, ideational functions, interpersonal functions and textual functions are studied in English cosmetic advertising texts.
Part four is the conclusion. It summarizes the major findings of the study. It also puts forward the suggestion for future research.
2 Literature Review
This part gives an introduction to the definition of advertising and nominalization. Then the studies on nominalization will be reviewed before the introduction of the theoretical framework for the present study.
2.1 The Definition of Nominalization
The phenomenon of nominalization has been studied by many researchers. Scholars from different linguistic schools present different points of view towards nominalization. Therefore, there are different definitions of nominalization in linguistics.
According to A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics[1], nominalization refers to: “the process of changing words from other word classes into nouns，or the derivative process of transforming a clausal pattern into a noun phrase”.
Chomsky (1968) believes that nominalization is a process by which a stem, verb phrase, or sentence is transformed into a nominal.”
Thompson (1982:575) argues: “Nominalization is the grammatical processes by which a verb, a verb phrase, a sentence, or a portion of a sentence including the verb functions as a noun phrase.”
As the main emphasis of the study is different, researchers have different opinions about nominalization. But the definition has its own value and has something in common, that is, nominalization is the grammatical process which enables things to emerge as nouns.
2.2 Previous Studies on Nominalization
2.2.1 Research Directions on Nominalization
Nominalization is a universal characteristic of human language. The study on nominalization has a long history. To a certain extent，it can date back to the ancient Greek. At that time, Plato and Aristotle classified word classes into two parts: nominal element and verbal element, and discussed the transformation between these two elements (Liu Guohui, 2000:5). Jespersen (1937) was the first scholar who researched nominalization under grammatical frame and a set of problems caused by nominalization. He gave us a systematic explanation of nominalization. Chomsky (1968) focused his research on transformational-generative grammar. He pointed out that deep structure and surface structure are connected with each other by the way of grammatical change. In Language and Mind, Chomsky (1968:107) mentioned: Nominalization must reflect the features of deep structure. In systemic-functional linguistics, Halliday (1994) believed that nominal structure is a kind of grammatical metaphor. He thought noun ought to be used to reflect the process or character which should have been embodied by adjective and verb. In cognitive linguistics, Langacker (1991) pointed out three types of nominalization: lexical nominalization, factive nominalization and sentential nominalization.
2.2.2 Research Achievements on Nominalization
Diverse studies of nominalization have been made, and every perspective gets high achievements. The followings are some of their achievements.
Traditional grammar considered nominalization was the abstract noun. Nominal structure was the combination of “headword”+ “modifier”. They merely regard nominalization as the phenomenon of word class transformation, which is only restricted within verb and noun. In A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, Quirk (1985) discussed many problems concerning nominalization. He defined nominalization as “the systematic corresponding relationship between a noun phrase and a subordinate clause”. Quirk also pointed out that word class transformation should be distinguished from nominalization. “Word class transformation” is in the category of morphology, while nominalization is in the domain of syntax (Quirk, et al, 1985:1782-1783).
In the first half of the 20th century, Bloomfield, the representative of structural linguists, pointed out the standard of distinguishing word class from grammatical category. Structural linguists didn’t give a clearly definition of nominalization. They put forward to the method of classifying the word class—“immediate constituents analysis”. Structuralisms considered that nominalization was made up of the “the heads” and “the modifier”. The characteristic of nominalization was determined by the headwords. They mainly put research’s emphasis on the form rather than the meaning. Therefore, they only analyzed the surface structure, neglected the meaning and other elements’ functions in the structure.
In the transformational-generative grammar, Chomsky refers to the concepts of surface structure and deep structure. In his opinion, surface structure is transformed from deep structure by the way of transformational rules. He (1968:17) also pointed out that deep structure and surface structure were connected with each other through grammatical change. Chomsky (1968:107) considered that nominalization must reflect the characteristics of deep structure. So he thought that deep structure conveys the meaning and surface structure conveys the sound, and he also confined surface structure’s function of explaining the meaning. From Chomsky’s opinion, we knew that generative grammar’s study of nominalization was mainly about its internal structure at the level of syntax. They explained the deep structure of noun phrase by transformational rules. But Chomsky’s view also bears deficiency, that is, he only took the process of nominalization as the process of syntactic change, completely neglecting the connection between nominalization and context( Liu Guohui，2004).
In cognitive linguistics, Langacker (1991) put forward three forms of nominalization: lexical nominalization, factive nominalization and sentential nominalization. According to these three parts, Langacker (1991:22-50) had a specific discussion on nominalization. He discussed the problems as follows: the problem of meaning shift in the transformational process of nominalization, the problem of periphrasis, and the problem of patterning (also predictability). These three problems are the most significant problems of nominalization. Based on the discussion, Langacker wanted to find the basic rules of nominalization. Langacker also studied the regularity or patterning of nominalization. One morphological pattern may express several semantic relations. In a word, Langacker believed the existence of regulations within nominalization. Cognitive analysis can explain the difference and restriction of nominalization at the level of linguistic morphology and syntax.
To sum up, scholars from different linguistic schools have made a thorough research about nominalization. Their research achievement provided much inspiration and stimulated interest in the study of nominalization. For example, more scholars have diverted their attention into the nominalization in technological texts. Yet people seldom study nominalization in business English advertising texts. Therefore, in this paper, we will mainly study the nominalization in English advertising cosmetic texts.
2.3 Theoretical Framework for Present Study
In systemic-functional linguistics, grammatical metaphor is considered to connect with nominalization most closely.
Halliday explained nominalization from the perspective of grammatical metaphor. Halliday (1994:44) claims that human cognition is developing in the direction of thingness, that is, processes always incline to turning into entities until finally nouns appear to refer to these entities. He takes nominalization as the most powerful resource for creating grammatical metaphor (Halliday, 2000:352). In his opinion, nominalization is a kind of grammatical metaphor, and noun is used to indicate the process or attribute which should have been indicated by verb or adjective (1994:352).
Halliday (1994) also pointed out that nominalization inevitably can cause semantic changes, which include three aspects: semantic function, grammatical function and grammatical category. In the aspect of function, nominal metaphor occurs in the form of ‘thing’, while in the field of grammar it occurs in the form of ‘noun’, which makes it(nominal metaphor) have the attribute of noun.(Fan Wenfang，1999). He termed the semantic expression close to the situation’s change as “congruent form”, while the semantic expression indicating the situation’s change complicatedly is named as “metaphorical form”. In other words, he termed the nominal structure as “metaphorical form”, and the corresponding verb or adjective expression as the “congruent form”. In grammatical metaphor, the meaning expressed by a normal grammatical form (congruent form) is expressed by another grammatical form (metaphorical form).
There is also a great research on functions of nominalization from the systemic-functional perspective. Nominal groups with complex and multi-level modification can make the description more accurate. Nominalization can also add another semantic dimension to the original one. When a clause or prepositional phrase is condensed into a nominalized expression, the Subject may be lost, and thus, there is no component taking responsibility for the validity of the expression, and it becomes difficult to argue about the validity of the expression. That is to say, nominalization can exclude the reference to an Agent or external cause, so that the process is self-generated and the result is unbiased.
Halliday's theory of systemic-functional grammar is one of the most influential theories in the world. It contributes to the development of linguistics and provides a new perspective for the study of nominalization. Therefore, in this paper, we apply the theory of grammatical metaphor to analyze nominalization in English advertising texts of cosmetic.
3 Analysis of Nominalization in English Cosmetic Advertising Texts
In the following sections, nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts will be analyzed from the aspects of ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function.
3.1 Classification of Nominalization
The first step is to study the classification of nominalization. Generally speaking, there are three types of nominalization.
The first type is verbal nominalization, which refers to changing the central verb of the verb phrase into a corresponding noun. Meanwhile, other sentence elements should change accordingly.
The second one is adjective nominalization. It is also a means to enrich English expressing methods. Through nominalization, we generally transform the adjective into a noun which conveys abstract conception.
The last type is subordinate clause nominalization. It refers to the process of changing subordinate clause into noun phrase.
So in this paper, the type of nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts is classified according to such three types. It refers to 100 English cosmetic advertising texts which were collected from the famous English magazines of Vogue and Allure. The following diagram shows the statistical results.
Diagram 2 The Statistical Results of Nominalization in English Cosmetic Advertising Texts
(It only lists the types which can be found in the corpus.)
First, from the statistical results, it can be found that there are three types of nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts, that is, subordinate clause nominalization, adjective nominalization and verbal nominalization. It also shows that the phenomenon of nominalization from subordinate clause nominalization takes up 79%, adjective nominalization takes up 19% and verbal nominalization only takes up 2%. Obviously, the first type takes up the most parts and the third type takes up the least parts. Such result explains that subordinate clause nominalization is the main characteristic of English cosmetic advertising texts. Second, the statistical data shows that although the phenomenon of nominalization is considered the main feature of scientific texts, it is also common and significant in English cosmetic advertising texts. So it must receive an adequate attention.
3.2 Ideational Functions of Nominalization
There is more and more consensus between participants in the process of interaction in the texts. For further description, classification and description, we usually freeze some process, and the process may be expressed as a material process of a concrete kind. Sometimes it is also expressed as a ‘thing’ by nominalization for the transformation from one category to another category, such as transforming the language from oral to written. The following are the two examples:
(1) In order to argue that [this] is not so [he] simply points out that there are no synonyms in mental language. (Halliday; 1994: 352)
(2) The argument to the contrary is basically an appeal to the lack of synonymy in mental language. (Halliday; 1994: 352)
It can be seen that the process of (1) has been changed by (2) which transforms the original process into the entity and made them mismatch between the process and participants. It is the process of nominalization in grammatical metaphor.
In advertising texts, the phenomenon of nominalization is not the results which is agreed by the participants, but the advertisers’ strategy which make the consumers have favorable impression. The nominal elements are placed at the beginning of a sentence to be the subject, and then become the presupposition of a clause. Presupposition has the foundation of constancy under negation. In this way, consumers have favorable impression about the commodity’s quality without doubt. It has the same situation in English cosmetic advertising texts. In general, effects, quality, brand and product category usually become the subject in English cosmetic advertising texts. For examples:
(3) L’Oreal’s products for Penelope’s natural look. (Allure; March, 2009.)
(4) A new twist on anti – aging. (Allure; March, 2009.)
In the two examples above, the cosmetic’s brand is put on the position of subject in (3) and product’s effect becomes the subject in (4). First of all, L’Oreal as the subject gives consumers a deep impression of this brand, then the advertisement shows us the effect of such brand’s products, that is ‘nature look’. The success of this English cosmetic advertising lies in that it is in line with the consumers’ psychology of pursuing the brand. It expresses the effects of such brand’s products in metaphorical form by nominalization. Second, in (4), the most important information the advertisement expressing is ‘twist’. It wants to tell the consumers that if you hope to have a great change of anti-aging, you can choose our products. It uses a noun to express the progress of change.
Nominalization is one of the powerful resources for creating grammatical metaphor. The phenomenon of nominalization reconstructed the experience and reality and transforms the non-entity into entity. In the advertising texts, the behavioral characteristic is expressed as an entity by nominalization. It makes the abstract concept have the characteristic of a specific ‘thing’. In other words, abstract state, the behavioral process and sensation have entity’s attribute by nominalization. According to the collected corpus, we find that consumers’ sensation, products’ effects and the behavioral process are usually nominalised in English cosmetic advertising texts. For example, sensation is actually a psychological process. Nominalization reconstructed the sensation as an entity to make the abstract psychological sensation become more intuition and concretion, and thus improve the consumers’ pleasure sensation. For example:
(5) Shower your skin in the richness of Dove CreamOil. (Vogue; December, 2008.)
(6) Create brightness and clarity for all tehnicities. (Vogue; March, 2008.)
In the examples, ‘richness’, ‘brightness’ and ‘clarity’ are the consumers’ sensation which is caused by the products. Their congruent forms are adjectives ‘rich’, ‘bright’ and ‘clear’. Nominalization transforms the abstract characteristic into entity and makes consumers’ sensation intuit and concrete, and thus consumers’ feel, the pleasure sensation, is objective and realistic.
In English cosmetic advertising texts, the performance of merchandise is also expressed as metaphorical form by nominalization. The performance of merchandise means merchandise’s manifestation in the process of use. The manifestation may be the behavioral process or quality of the products, so its congruent is verb or adjective. Merchandise’s manifestation in the process of use is expressed as entities because of nominalization. Therefore, it is easy for advertisers to make a good evaluation to the products. It can enhance consumers’ impression. That is to say, the performance of merchandise is expressed as metaphorical entity through nominalization. For example:
(7) Introducing Our Most Luxurious Lipcolour Ever. Infused with Pure Serum Complex. For More Depth, More Moisture, More Smoothness. (Vogue; February, 2009.)
In the example, ‘depth’, ‘moisture’ and ‘smoothness’ are the performance of the cosmetic in the process of use. These three nouns are metaphorical form. They make the consumers’ sensation more objective.
3.3 Interpersonal Functions of Nominalization
The interpersonal function of nominalization in cosmetic advertising text lies in it can enhance product’s credibility. There is always commendatory evaluation among the process of nominalization. Commendatory evaluation or re-evaluation contributes to enhance consumers’ favorable impression to one specific brand.
First of all, because nominalization is non-negotiable, so the commendatory evaluation to the merchandise can be expressed through nominalization, which can make it appear more objective and factual, and at the same time it also strengthens the credibility of the merchandise. In the texts of science and technology, non-negotiability of nominalization makes the expression more objective. Similarly, in advertising texts, nominalization makes consumers’ sensation (the element of commendatory evaluation) objective. It can rule out consumers’ doubts. In example (5) above, ‘richness’ expresses a kind of condition; its congruent is “Dove CreamOil shower your skin in the state where it is rich.” The clause ‘it is rich’ can be converted to the disjunctive question, that is, “it is rich, isn’t it?” If we use such sentence to make advertisement for our cosmetics, it shows that there has some uncertain elements in our products. In other words, proposition is negotiable and debatable. Through nominalization, a clause can be condensed to nouns, then strengthen the non-negotiability of the clause and make the evaluation more objective and factual. All of these can enhance products’ credibility. The non-negotiability associated with nominalization can be a powerful weapon because it hides the evaluator’s intervention as well as reduces the subjectivity. Among the English cosmetic advertising texts, it can be found that the evaluated elements of nominalization are mainly nouns which are originally adjectives. For example:
(8) Now the John Fricda hair care experts have created the new Luxurious Volume line that gives you a boost of fullness, thickness and lift for noticeably thicker, luxurious hair and high style. (Vogue; November, 2008.)
Its congruent form is “Now the John Fricda hair care experts have created the new Luxurious Volume line that gives you a boost which is full and thick and lift for noticeably thicker, luxurious hair and high style.” Their original forms are ‘full’ and ‘thick’. It is obvious that the nouns ‘fullness’ and ‘thickness’ are the metaphorically expression. The clause ‘which is full and thick’ is condensed to two nouns. The Luxurious Volume’s cosmetic is evaluated with a metaphorical form by nominalization. Through using the metaphorical form, it can contribute to avoid the negotiation between the advertisers and consumers, making the evaluation objective.
Second, the interpersonal meanings of the advertising texts show the relationship between advertisers and consumers. Generally, advertisers are indirectly connected with consumers through the advertising texts. The former always want the latter to accept their viewpoint. In order to achieve the purpose of persuasion, advertisers must first try to reach a consensus with consumers. If they agree with each other, consumers can more easily accept the advertisers’ ideas. From the corpus we have collected, we find that in English cosmetic advertising texts, advertisers often make an invitation to potential consumers, and hope that these potential consumers come to a consensus with them. This type of ‘invitation’ in general is recessive. In other words, it is expressed in an indirect and implicit way with the use of evaluation strategy. Commendatory evaluation can enhance the consumers’ favorable impression so that they can reach a consensus with advertisers. In order to achieve these effects, advertisers have to express their ideas in metaphorical way by nominalization. Among the English cosmetic advertising texts, there are more than 90% nominal words which are modified by evaluated words. This result explains that nominalization make the evaluation more convenient in English cosmetic advertising texts. The following are two examples:
(9) The new choice for your skin. (Vogue; December, 2008.)
(10) Classic elegance and modern fluidity in an exquisite crystal bud vase bottle. (Vogue; December, 2008.)
In example (9), ‘choice’ is a behavioral process, and its evaluation element is ‘new’. In example (10), ‘elegance’ and ‘fluidity’ are the product’s performance, and ‘classic’ and ‘modern’ are its evaluation elements. It is obvious that these two examples have used the evaluation strategy. All of the three nominal elements are modified by some commendatory words. It greatly enhances the consumers’ favorable impression. As a matter of fact, among the process of nominalization, advertisers imply the quality and performance of their products through the commendatory evaluation to the products. At the same time, they also make a persuasive to the potential consumers. In terms of interpersonal meanings, if there are not these three words of evaluation, they are unable to achieve any persuasive function.
3.4 Textual Functions of Nominalization
Halliday (2000) pointed out that nominalization makes the non-entity including attribute, condition and the behavioral process have the characteristic of ‘thingness’. In accordance with Halliday’s viewpoint, we know that a nominal process not only keeps the original meanings which used to be expressed as congruent form, but also added the metaphorical meanings as a ‘thing’. The nominal metaphor with double meanings is found in written texts. Nominalization metaphor can cause the change of a clause’s semantic structure and a text’s language form. Therefore, nominal metaphor, which owns double semantic character and can cause change of a clause both inside and outside, plays an significant role in constructing the texts. However, in different texts, nominalization’s construction functions are also different. In the text of science and technology, nominalization makes the text become more formal. In English cosmetic advertising texts, its function is mainly embodied in two aspects as follows.
3.4.1 The Function of Brevity
Information-intensity is one of the important features of nouns or noun groups. Nominal metaphor can make the texts more concise and more compact. Halliday compared the process of nominalization to ‘pack’. Verbs are usually used to express the process and adjectives are used to express the attribute. Once they are nominalised, then original simple clause is ‘packed’ into word groups, or two or three clauses are ‘packed’ into one single clause. In this way, the degree of vocabulary-intensity will greatly increase, and at the same time the number of words will greatly decrease. Therefore, the information expressed by metaphorical form is usually more concise than the way expressed by congruent form under the condition of having same information. In English cosmetic advertising texts, nominalization has such function that represents the information with concise words.
Advertising is a means of transmitting the information, and its ultimate purpose is to reach the effect of selling products to the consumers. It always uses every possible means to catch people’s attention and persuade them to purchase the advertised products, especially using the minimum time and space to make the greatest impact. Such character requires advertising language concise enough. Because of such function, nominalization is widely used in the advertisement. Its function is widely used by the advertisers. Nominalization has high generalization. The advertising text is rich in deep meaning for its feature of double semantic, meanwhile it greatly condenses the advertising text. This fully complies with advertisers’ requirements of concise language and good effect. Look at the English cosmetic advertisements:
(5a) Shower your skin in the richness of Dove CreamOil. (Vogue; December, 2008.)
(5b) If you shower you skin with Dove CreamOil, your skin will become richer after shower.
(6a) Create brightness and clarity for all tehnicities. (Vogue; March, 2008.)
(6b) We use all technicities make your skin more bright and clear.
From the four examples, we can see that they have the same information, but the length is obviously different. If we use the congruent form to express, the sentences’ structure become more complex. It is not conducive to carry out propaganda. In (5a) and (6a), the clauses are ‘packed’ and expressed as metaphorical phrases. ‘Richness’, ‘brightness’ and ‘clarity’ are the nouns which are ‘entities’ of metaphorical form. It condensed original complex sentence into a simple sentence. Visibly, nominal metaphor can use fewer words to transform more information, improving the text’s information- intensity.
3.4.2 The Function of Objectivity
The second function of nominalization in cosmetic advertising texts is that it is beneficial to represent the meaning in a more objective way, which can help the advertiser to publicize their products effectively. In congruent form, verbal sentence usually denote the process. It has own participants and circumstance. When a clause or prepositional phrase is condensed into a nominal expression, the process indicated by verb is transformed into the participant in another process. The original participant is omitted, and thus the text appears more objective. As a matter of fact, advertising text is the dialogue between advertiser and consumers. In order to make the content of advertisement in line with the truth, they have to improve the advertising texts’ objectivity. The use of nominalization just complies with this feature. It has greatly improved the objectivity of the advertisement so as to improve consumer’s reliability to the advertisement. There are two examples as follows:
(11a) The richest blend of cream and natural oil for ultra-moisturized, velvety skin – the ultimate moisture from Dove. (Vogue；December, 2008.)
(11b) If your skin are ultra- moisturized and velvety, you can use the richest blend of cream and natural which is the ultimate moisture from Dove.
The example (11b) denotes a behavioral process. The participant ‘you’ is full of subjectivity. But in example (11a), it adopts the metaphor form, omitting the participant which is more subjective. Through the nominalization, this advertising text become more objective and can be beneficial to help consumers become favorable towards their cosmetic products. That is to say, the subject is lost in example (11b) by nominal metaphor, thus there is no component taking responsibility for the validity of the expression. It becomes difficult to argue about the validity of the expression. In the clause ‘you can use the richest blend of cream and natural which is the ultimate moisture from the Dove’, we may question its validity with a tag question ‘can you?’. But in the clause ‘The richest blend of cream and natural oil for ultra-moisturized, velvety skin – the ultimate moisture from Dove’, the subject is concealed, we do not know who should take the responsibility for it. It appears that the effect of the cosmetic is already recognized by everyone.
4 Conclusions
4.1 Major Findings
The present study aims to make a scientific research on nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts from the perspective of grammatical metaphor in systemic-functional linguistics. Through analyzing, it can be found that nominalization is in common use in English cosmetic advertising texts. The major findings are summarized as follows:
Firstly, through statistical data and analysis, it can be found that there are three types of nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts. Each of them takes up different parts; the subordinate clause nominalization takes up the most parts. Such result explains that it is the main type of nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts. The statistical data also shows that although the phenomenon of nominalization is considered the main feature of texts of science and technology, it is common and significant in English cosmetic advertising texts as well. So it must receive an adequate attention.
Secondly, at the aspect of ideational function,the phenomenon of nominalization is not the result which is agreed by the participants, but the advertisers’ strategy which make the consumers have favorable impression. Moreover, consumers’ sensation, products’ effects, behavioral process and the performance of merchandise are usually nominalised in English cosmetic advertising texts. This is a means of grammatical metaphor. Through such way, it can improve the consumers’pleasure sensation as well as make the consumers’ sensation more objective.
Thirdly, the non-negotiability associated with nominalization can be a powerful weapon because among the process of nominalization, advertisers imply the quality and performance of their products through the commendatory evaluation to the products. And meanwhile, it hides the evaluator’s intervention as well as reduces the subjectivity. Therefore, the interpersonal function of nominalization in cosmetic advertising text lies in it can enhance product’s credibility. We also find that the evaluated elements of nominalization are mainly nouns which are originally adjectives.
Fourth, the textual function of nominalization is mainly embodied in two aspects in English cosmetic advertising texts. One is that for its feature of information-intensity, nominalization can make the cosmetic advertising texts more concise. The other is that using metaphorical form which is expressed as nouns or noun groups is beneficial to represent the meaning in a more objective way, which can help the advertiser to publicize their products effectively.
In accordance with the major findings, we can make a brief conclusion that there are three types of nominalization in English cosmetic advertising texts, that is, the subordinate clause nominalization, adjective nominalization and verbal nominalization. In the aspect of ideational function, nominalization reduces the advertising’s subjectivity and makes the consumers have favorable impression about the products. In the aspect of interpersonal function, nominalization enhances the product’s credibility. In the aspect of textual function, nominalization improves the text’s brevity and objectivity.
4.2 Suggestions
Despite the writer’s efforts to make the present study as scientific as possible, there are limitations that cannot be denied. Obviously, the analysis of the material and the demonstration of the theory are provided from personal point of view. Therefore, some aspects of the research might have been neglected. Meanwhile, the study is only based on the text of English cosmetic advertising, and only 100 pieces of advertising texts are collected. Therefore, it cannot explain the phenomenon of nominalization accurately and comprehensively. The further study can analyze different texts so as to fulfill the integrality of the research. We can make a contrastive study of the nominalization between the English advertising texts and Chinese advertising texts.
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