and increase the intensity of the new information. For ads, the real effect of products can not be prepared with others?. In order to avoid being scolded for perform false information, the producers will use ellipsis in their ads which make consumers keep guessing.
Finally, ellipsis may violate the maxim of relevant. It is known that the ads do not apply full information, therefore, a consumer needs to read and understand at his first glance for getting the real intention of the ads. Ellipsis makes the ads less relevant because of the omitted elements, it may not reach the best relevancy. So the ads will be hard to understand, which make the consumers focus on the ads and make them more obvious.
3.3. Ellipsis in English Advertising Discourse
Brevity is the soul of English. English advertising is a functional style which emphasizes more on the conciseness and brevity. Conciseness is an important principle in ads writing. In English writing, ellipsis is always employed to avoid repetition, therefore, there are quite a lot ellipsis in English advertising discourse. We have discussed the types of ellipsis, which are nominal ellipsis, verbal ellipsis and clausal ellipsis. This paper will analyze some English Ads of each aspect. Now we will see a dating advertisement,
(6). California bachelor needs wife. Nice-looking 5'11\great job, but no family. Wants sweet, pretty, trim gal to share home in red woods, near Pacific, under sunny skies. Please write about yourself to: John Brown, 110Valhallaan Way, Felton, CA95018, U.S.A. Photo appreciated.
In the first sentence of this ad, a was omitted two times, this is belongs to the Epithet ellipsis of nominal ellipsis. In the second sentence, there are two places are verbal ellipsis, which are He is and he has. The third sentence are nominal ellipsis, which the Subjects are elliptical. In the last sentence, Your and is are omitted, which are nominal ellipsis.therefore, in this ad, the omitted parts are the Subject and the Predicate. In terms of the lexical words, the omitted parts are the Article, Pronoun, and Conjunction. If the ad was not wrote in elliptical form, it should be:
6
A California bachelor needs a wife. He is nice-looking, 5 feet 11 inches tall, and is in good shape. He is easy-going, and he has a great job, but no family. He wants a sweet, pretty, trim gal to share home in red woods, which near Pacific, under sunny skies. Please write about yourself to: John Brown, 110Valhallaan Way, Felton, CA95018, U.S.A. Your photo is appreciated. Here is an ad of a color rinse,
(7). How long have you been using a color rinse? Never ? Forever?
In this ad, there are verbal ellipsis and clausal ellipsis. The second question omitted Have you, and been using a color rinse. So as the third question. If we want to fill in the ad, it should be like this, How long have you been using a color rinse? Have you never been using a color rinse? Have you forever been using a color rinse?
If this ad present like this, it could not make a effect like its elliptical form. Consumers may not read it.
Next is an ad of a household appliances, it was written like the following, (8). Achieving the impossible? It?s always possible. Let?s make it better.
In the first interrogative sentence, the Subject was omitted in order to make the ad short and clear. The question will be filled out like this: Are you achieving the impossible? Here is a want ad,
(9). FLUENT IN FRENCH?
AN EXCELLENT COMMUNICATOR? A GOOD ORGANSIER?
THEN DEVELOP YOUR CAREER WITH THIS SALES SUPPORT ROLE. Here, this ad used capital form in order to make itself eye-catching. At the same
7
time, the Subject of the three questions are omitted in order to make the ad concise and clear. There is another want ad like this,
(10). FAMALE bodybuilder needed for sports&exercise TV show, must be very muscular & well defined, excellent pay 310-553-1234.
There are some ellipsis in this ad, firstly, is is omitted before needed, she is omitted before must. We can get she and is from the discourse, however, we can not get the full form of ?excellent pay 310-553-1234.? within the discourse. We can get the full form without the text by our judgment, its full form may be “ We will offer you an excellent. Please call 330-553-1234”. Next is an ad of house for rent,
(11). LOS ANGELES, 2+1, lrg lvg rm & dng rm, str, no refrig, space for w & d, $750 mo.
When we see this ad at the first sight, we may not understand. This ad is too much elliptical form, both in syntax and lexical. However, if you want to rent a house, you can get what you want in this ad, this ad may read like this, “ The apartment to let is in Los Angeles. It has two bedrooms and a living room. The living room and dining room are large. There is a stove but no refrigerator. There is space for your washing machine and drier. It rents for $750 a month”. Here is a travel ad,
(12). ALASKA! Brown Bears of Katmal
Alaska?s legendary giants close up! St. George, Proibilof Islands Huge fur seal & seabird colonies! S.E.Alaska Wilderness
Bears, glaciers, wilderness river! Alaska Spectacular
A slice of Alaska?s very best, from coast to mountains! Travel Wild INTERNATIONAL
This is an ad of traveling, we can see the place from the title. In the ad, just one
8
verbal component appeared, the left sentences were all nominal group with short form. We can feel the scene from the concise word, and the information about the place were huge in these short forms. Therefore, we can say this ad was successful in view of ellipsis, we can get all the information from the short noun words. Here is an ad of a concert,
(13). From Russia...and the Republics Tuesday 22 March and Tuesday 29 March Barbican Center 7.30pm.
Music by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Medtner, Kancheli and Karetnikov BBC Symphony Orchestra Conductor Alexander Lazarev Tickets: 071-7654714 One price L 9
BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
This is a ad of a concert, very elliptical without verbs. All the nominal sentences are short and clear, the consumers can get all information from the ad, the time, place, musician, price and the sale number. And it doesn?t need to write the full form of this ad. Similarly, there is another ad which just one sentence without verbs, “ Full details on 0823 3134 7879”. We can get what we want from the short form without a full form, and it meets the economical principle of ads.
Next is an ad about the image of one company, it goes like this,
(14). Rio Takegawa is a main board director of the Kenwood Corporation.
He is also an accomplished flamenco guitarist.
Why has a Tokyo--based electronics company executive devoted so much time and skill to an obscure Spanish music form?
At Kenwood, they didn?t ask why.
They asked: why should he not have devoted so much time and skill to it? KENWOOD
It?s the people who make it.
In this ad, there is a clausal ellipsis. We can infer its full form from the context, “ At Kenwood, they didn?t ask why he has devoted so much time and skill to an
9
obscure Spanish music form”.
4. Conclusion
Advertising discourse is a kind of persuasive writing. It is intense, concise and flexible. The elliptical elements of ads are obvious and compact, which can catch more attention from consumers and arouse readers? imagination, especially the English advertising discourse. Therefore, ellipsis is one of the most typical and attractive phenomenon of English ads. Using ellipsis in ads narrows the gap between the advertiser and consumer; at the same time, makes the main ideas of ads more prominent which intensify consumers? memories of the ads. In this way, it can reach the final intention of the ads. This paper just analyze the ellipsis in English advertising discourse from syntax and lexical pattern. So it still exists some problems in data collecting and discourse analysis. The author will improve the paper through the further study.
10
英语广告语篇中的省略探析
