5.

News Style in the Quality and Popular Press

5.1 The beginnings of quality and popular press
As is known, in the past century, popular journalism has taken
over a market formerly monopolized by quality journalism.
Quality press emerged in the 18th century when there were oneman journals such as Steele's Tatler (1709-11), Addison and Steele's
Spectator (1711-12), Johnson's Rambler (1750-2) and Idler (1758) and
Goldsmith's Bee (1759).
The style of the 18th century quality journalism has not died out
entirely. For example, The Spectator (revised in 1828) still flourishes as a
literary periodical but forms a corner of the market.
Popular journalism has risen since the mid-eighteenth century.
The first popular papers were The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail (started
in 1896 by Northcliffe).
Popular press emerged as a consequence of Northcliffe's
realization that there was a new mass audience that had no interest in
society but would read anything which was simple and sufficiently
interesting. Therefore, Northcliffe, by the end of the 19 th century, set about
to change the whole face of British journalism.
At the beginning of the 20th century (1903), the first tabloid Daily
Mirror came out. The phrase "tabloid journalism" recorded as far back as
1901, originally denoted concentrated or compressed journalism, by
analogy with the pharmaceutical original drugs. It has since become
derogatory, implying that the journalism is superficial, sensationalist,
limited, bigoted and cheap in all senses. (Hughes,1988: 129)
In terms of range of information and responsibility of comment
The Times (founded in 1785) is considered a better newspaper than The
Sun... Definitely, each paper maintains its role and news style for strong
economic reasons. If either paper started to read and look like the other, it
would start to lose
readers and thus advertising revenue.
A comparison between tabloids and quality papers in market
terms reveals that tabloids are now dominant (with over 60 per cent of the
market) while quality papers have edged up to about 11 per cent. The fate
of the quality press could become better due to The Independent (founded

in 1986).
The popular and tabloid press therefore holds 90 per cent of the
market. The by-products generated by them are listed below:
gossip columns
comics (cartoon section of the paper)
cross-words puzzle (largely an American invention dating
only from 1914)
- pin- ups (pictures of attractive or famous persons, e.g. film stars, for
pinning on a wall)
kiss and tell (the euphemistic formula for exclusive sexual scandal)
the cartoon (amusing drawing in a newspaper or magazine especially
one that comments satirically on current events)
Newspapers, like radio and television are important advertising
vehicles. Not infrequently they may survive or fail not only because
people would not buy them but also because they cannot get advertising
revenue at a high rate. Since the press does not receive any financial
subsidies from the state, it is dependent for its^survival upon its
circulation figures; upon the advertising it can attract; and upon financial
help from its owners. Therefore, the fate of a paper mainly depends on its
efficiency as an advertising medium.
While in the beginning it was the social status that counted
(gutter press, i.e. newspapers printing sensational stories, scandals, the
alternative press, i.e. non-conventional, the underground press, the
yellow press, i.e. sensationalist press, the responsible press), today the
political affiliation of the paper has become more important.
The Morning Star is the Communist Party paper and follows a
particular political philosophy. Most of the other papers also have a
political bias and tend to support a particular political party. It is often
argued that the majority of British newspapers are right-of-centre, and tend
to sympathize in general terms with the Conservative Party. A few, like
those of the Mirror group and Sketch support the Labour Party, DailyMail is a pro-Tory newspaper, some like The_Times and The Independent
consider themselves to be independent, while others, like The Guardian,
favour a left-of-centre position.
But these political slants can vary and should not be considered
as absolutely fixed. It appears in practice that the British public receive a

reasonable variety of political views from their newspapers. There is no

state control or formal censorship of the press today, although it is subject
to stringent laws of publication and expression.
Outside London, a large number of regional papers are widely
published in the cities and smaller towns in the mornings and evenings.
They tend to contain a mixture of local and national news, and are
supported financially by local advertising. Some of the more famous daily
regional papers, such as The Scotsman (Edinburgh) and The Yorkshire
Post (Leeds), have considerable reputations and a wide circulation both in
and outside their particular regions.
5.2 The British press
There are over 7,000 different periodicals and magazines in
Britain, which are of a weekly, monthly or quarterly nature. They cover
the vast majority of trades, professions, sports, hobbies and interests, and
are aimed at different markets and levels of sophistication.
Among the many weekly journals are The New Statesman and
Society (a left-wing political commentary which also comments on social
affairs; The Economist (dealing with economic and political matters), The
Spectator (a conservative journal); and New Scientist. The Times
publishes several influential weekly magazines, such as The Educational
Supplement, The Higher Educational Supplement, and The Literary
Supplement.
The lighter part of the market is catered for by periodicals such
as Punch (a long-established humorous magazine) and Private Eye, which
satirizes and attacks what it considers to be the shortcomings of British
society.
5.3. The American press
Because of the size of USA, there are few national newspapers.
Apart from the popular paper USA Today, only the New York Times, the
Chicago Tribune and the Wall Street Journal have anything like a
nationwide readership, mainly thanks to satellite technology. The Times is
generally regarded as America's most prestigious paper. The Journal is
the leading and financial business newspaper, and currently has a
circulation of about 2 million, the highest in the country.
But there are influential regional newspapers, among them the

Washington Post, The New York'Daily News, the Philadelphia Enquirer,

the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Examiner,
and the Christian Science Monitor (not a religious paper, despite its title).
USA Today, founded in 1982, is the leading popular daily paper,
with short news reports, lively feature stories and items of practical
advice. The tabloid weekly newspapers, such as the National Enquirer
and the Star, with circulation around
4.5 and 3.5 million respectively, are sold in supermarkets throughout the
country. There are no separate Sunday papers, as there are in Britain, but
most dailies have special Sunday editions, with notable exception of the
Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Some of them are remarkable for
their size, particularly the New York Times, which can run 150 pages.
5.4 Characteristics of the 'heavies'
The news-style of the quality press can be contrasted to that of
the popular press in terms of certain broad generalizations. The qualities,
also known sometimes as the

heavies, are the serious and more expensive papers, with detailed
and extensive coverage of home and overseas news, and with a range of
additional features such as sports sections, financial reports, book
reviews, women's pages, arts summaries, travel news and usually a daily
topical feature, such as profile of someone in the news. All qualities are
broad sheet in format, that is with a large page size.
The quality paper attempts to give a more balanced and sober
spread of news with emphasis on world events presented in neutral
language with smaller, rectangular photograph intended to create interest
but not drama.
5.5 Characteristics of the tabloids
The populars, also known as the tabloids because of their smaller
page size) or, disparagingly as the gutter press, cater for the less
demanding reader, who is not interested in detailed news reports. They are
cheaper in price and are easily distinguishable by their large, bold
headlines, colloquial use of English and abundant photographs, often in
colour.
Their many short items and features usually concentrate the
personal aspects of the news, with reports of the latest scandals, sensations
and sexual liaisons, especially of celebrities, not excluding the royal
family. However, some of the populars also offer their readers news
coverage of a more conventional kind, and some of their scoops are
newsworthy and important.
In the popular press the news is treated sensationally, top priority
being given to "human interest" or rarity items. These are dramatized by
large headlines, powerful emotive language and close-up photos, cropped
out of their original shape.
5.6 Linguistic differences
Concerning the language used in the two types of press a
comparison reveals separation of registers, the quality press preferring
conservative, neutral diction as against the popular and tabloid news-style
which is characterized by idiomatic expressions, metaphors of violence
and sex. .
Metaphors of violence have proliferated in recent times. They are

used especially in the field of finance and sport and include words such as:
battle, fight, massacre, slaughter, carnage, blitz. In soccer, for instance,
the older terms backs, forwards, inside-forwards have been replaced by
defenders, attackers, strikers.
Financial reporting in popular and tabloids press sometimes
describes increase in profits by using "sexual innuendo" terms (metaphors
of sex from the male field): to harden, to firm, to spurt ahead, to spill
over, to reach a selling climax.
Although the distinction drawn between the register employed in
quality and popular journalism is still valid nowadays there are also
exceptions: "The Bloke George Eliot Lived With" (The Times, 30 March,
1968)
Even coarse language, the register of common insult is
increasingly encountered in "quality papers": e.g. President Reagan is
written off in The Observer (1 March 1978) as "the Zombie President". In
the alternative or underground press (Oz) there are absolutely no taboos.
In conclusion we would say that the formal style of newspaper
reporting in the nineteenth century holds only to some extent for the
'quality ' (broadsheet) newspapers today. Quality papers today were
affected by the changes in size, layout and style brought about by the
popular newspapers in tabloid forms.
The changes were designed to make the papers more popular and
effective as advertising media. For instance, The Times, included the
introduction of a gossip column, cartoons, a woman's page and the placing
of advertisements on the main news page.
5.7 Study Questions and Activities
H. Answer these questions:
1. Which variety of English journalism is older?
2. When and why did popular journalism emerge?
3. What are the senses of 'tabloid journalism'?
4. Why cannot newspapers all look alike?
5. What variety of press is dominant nowadays?
6. Name the most common sections of a tabloid.
7. What does the survival of a paper depend on?
8. Was the political affiliation of British newspapers important in the
6

beginning?
9. Characterize and give examples of regional newspapers.
10. What periodical addresses to University students and teachers?
11. What kind of events are presented in the popular press and in the
quality papers?
12. How do the qualities differ from the tabloids in terms of size,
headlines, photographs, and use of colour? What sort of reader is each
type of paper appealing to?
13. How does the language used in the two types of press differ?
14. What are financial and sport reporting in popular press characterized
by?
15. Are the registers employed in quality and popular journalism always
distinct?
16. How did quality papers change today under the influence of tabloids?
II. Fill in the blanks'.
1. Reading a paper is a very popular ... in Britain.
2. The ... are the only nation in the world to buy more daily newspapers
than the British.
3. British newspapers can be grouped into national daily press and
national ... press that, in their turn, are popular papers or ... and quality
papers or ...
4. All the quality papers depend a great deal on ... to finance them. They
specialize in ... new books, the London ..., new films and music.
5. Among British readers there are people who prefer a paper published
in their own . . . . Some famous provincial papers include Birmingham
Evening, ... (Edinburgh) Yorkshire ... (Leeds), Western Mail (Cardiff),
Liverpool Echo, Manchester Evening ....
6. The competition between The Express, ... and ... continues today, with
each aiming for a bigger share of the mass daily market.
III. Group the following papers under these headings:
a. Popular Dailies b. Quality Dailies c. Popular Sundays d. Quality
Sundays:
Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, People, News of the World, Sunday
Express, Observer, Sunday Mirror, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, The
7

Times, The Sun, The Guardian, Daily Express, Daily Telegraph, The Star,
Today, Financial Times, The Independent.
IV. Consider a short, typical example of a very minor piece of news that
may be forgotten almost as soon as read. Pay attention to the features of
its style that make it clearly a piece of popular reporting.
Summer Spoonful "Rip Off"
Tennis fans were charged 1 GBP for half a dozen strawberries with cream
at Wimbledon yesterday. But at 16 p a mouthful, many fans boycotted
them. Seasoned Wimbledon-goer, Kay Demetriou, 17, took her own
punnet of 20 strawberries bought for 28 p at a greengrocer's up the road,
"said Kay, from Streathan, South London: 'I've been ripped off here
before'. I decided it wasn't going to happen this year'.
V. Match these terms with their corresponding meaning
1. innuendo
a. small basket made of very thin wood,
plastic, etc. and used as a container
2. punnet
b. indirect reference, usually suggesting
something bad or discreditable about
somebody
3. rip off
c. refuse to have social or commercial
relations with (a person, company,
country)
4. boycott
d. cheat somebody, especially financially
VI. Read through the extracts taken from 'The Independent' and 'The Sun'
and answer the following questions:
1. Which paper does each extract come from?
2. In what ways does the content of the two sets of abstracts vary?
3. What do you notice about the way individuals are described in the
popular paper?
4. What other differences in language are there between the two sets of
abstracts?
A
Weak Italian governments have habitually met budget deficits by
borrowing and permitting inflation. That .opinion is no longer open
because of the size of the deficit, the high cost of borrowing, and, until
recently, the belief that the Maastricht treaty would demand monetary
8

discipline.
B
Bar owner Wayne Lineker - 29-year old brother of soccer ace Gary
-cuddled his 15-year old girlfriend last night and vowed: "I'm no Bill
Wyman". Wayne is furious after being spotted kissing beautiful schoolgirl
Zoe Davey at an Essex nightclub. He said: "I'm absolutely crazy about
Zoe and think she is the most beautiful sexy girl I have ever met..
C
Mr. Ryder said young criminals often committed crimes because of
pressure to conform to the norms of their group or gang. That subculture,
he argued, was fostered by society's reliance upon machismo, a culture
which was also fostered in prisons.
D
BUDDY racket!
Linda McCartney grabbed hubby Paul and burst into song after a slap-up
launch to commemorate Buddy Holly. Linda, 49, and ex-Beatle Paul
joined showbiz pals at a Mexican restaurant in West London. Paul, 50,
who owns rights to many of the 50s rocker's hits, was toasting Buddy's
birthday in a tribute week to the star.
VII. Tabloid talk. Read the following editorial in a popular newspaper
criticizing a rival newspaper. Replace the underlined words with the most
appropriate expression from the list below.
Royal Scandal Fatigue. Super Snooper.
Cyril, who taped Princess Dis private conversation, is (1) too inquisitive.
Listening in on other people's phone calls is absolutely illegal. The police
ought to (2) prosecute him. And what's all the fuss about anyway?
Absolutely nothing. The Daily Sun is (3) exaggerating the importance of
the story. In a few months it will all look like (4) a short-lived furore.
We're fed up with hearing the same stories in the paper day after day.
I think it's time The Daily Sun changed its behaviour.
1. a. a dark horse
b. a nosey parker
c. an armchair critic.
d. a wet blanket
2. a. throw the book at
9

b. get wind of
c. speak volumes about
d. short-change
3. a. making a mountain out of a molehill
b. doing the donkey work
c. taking it as is read
d. seeing the light
4. a. a drowned rat
b. a storm in a tea cup
c. a stuffed shirt
d. a big fish in a small pond
5. a. looked a gift horse in the mouth
b. went out like a light
c. picked up the pieces
d. turned over a new leaf
VIII. Write five sentences of your own to practise the other idioms
above. Leave a blank where the idiom should be. See if your partner
can guess the correct answer.
IX. Rewrite each of the following sentences using an idiomatic
expression that contains the word given.
He was so overcome with emotion that he didn't know what to say.
WORDS...
The police caught the burglar in the process of committing the crime.
RED...
I always try to be optimistic about things.
BRIGHT...
After my divorce, she helped me to recover.
PIECES...
My brother's not feeling terribly well these days.
WEATHER
They managed to get to the airport with only seconds to spare. NICK...
I resent the way that she clearly feels herself to be superior to me.
NOSE
The staff were upset not to have been informed about the company's
10

plans.
DARK...
X. April Fool. It is a common practice among newspapers to play jokes
on their readers on April Fool's Day and to print stories that are not true.
As you read through the following April Fool story, look for ten
grammatical mistakes.
CHANNEL TUNNEL WILL NOT MEET
Red-faced executives at Eurotunnel were trying making light of a
report that the two sides of the channel tunnel, which has been under
construction for the last five years, are not meeting in the middle.
Not until the latest surveyor's report was published they realized
the terrible truth: the two ends will be approximately 300 metres apart
when the digging is completed at the end of the year, that will cost an
additional 20 million pounds to put right.
The error thinks to have stemmed from the fact that while English
engineers have been doing calculations in feet and yards, the French have
been used to centimetres and metres.
A Eurotunnel spokesman denied this a serious matter and said:
"We never actually expected the two ends would meet, up exactly. It can
have been a lot worse, and we are absolutely pleased to have got so close.
All we need to do is putting in a few sharp corners and everything will be
all right.

11

6. The Language of Headlines

Headline language is not opaque provided that certain
linguistic rules and characteristics can be identified. Headline language
is elliptical and compressed and often the fractured grammar and
idiosyncratic vocabulary challenge' the understanding even of native
speakers. In dealing with headlines, the reader is always involved in
seeking out meaning. The most compelling argument for studying
headlines is that you need to be able to interpret them. A person who
cannot use headlines to grasp the gist of newspapers is at a big
disadvantage: he cannot brows newspapers so as to choose what to
read, skim or ignore.
Hughes (1988) rightly assumes that press is not simply a
mirror reflecting the world but a lens giving the reader the news
refracted and coloured ideologically from pink to blue. It is a matter of
fact that the press is a mediator between readers and events, from here
derives the general noun which unifies all the means of spreading
information: media. It is also a matter of general knowledge that
nowadays the public is either too busy or hasnt the mental application
to make an exact and detailed study of what is going on. Consequently,
the role to interpret, pre-digest or even better, to prepack public
events is to be acted by the press.
6.1 Functions and classification of headlines
Undoubtedly, one of the goals is to help the reader perform an
evaluation and grading of the news while skimming rapidly a
newspaper and get an image of the news highlights. Subsequent
headline writers have in mind to attract the readers attention to arise
his interest and thus to lead him to the story itself. By means of the
headline characteristic to epitomize the content of the article, the
selection of the news is easier to be made.
Due to the great range of purposes or roles headlines have, they
can be classified according to several criteria.
In terms of the topic a headline deals with, two types of
headlines can be distinguished. The first type is news headlines that usually
give a summary of the news story. These are not mere labels because the
66

content of news headlines is very often taken from the head of the story
that is the opening paragraph. In any case this type should not contain
anything that is not in the story. Many of these headlines are written in a
straightforward style not very difficult to understand, their function being
informative. The second type is feature headlines. This type usually
introduces stories that do not report major events, but may be highly
unusual or amusing. Accordingly, headline writers use certain strategies to
make them clever, to stimulate the readers interest. Editorial headlines
they, may pass personal comments, appeal to the reader or infuse a touch
of humour. Headlines that belong here are characterized by indirectness of
style. In terms of both vocabulary and syntax, headlinese has become a
sub-language in its own right.
6.2 Lexical characteristics of headlines.
Analysing the vocabulary of headlines a dominant characteristic
shows up: brevity. Fredrickson and Wedel (1984: 64) provide a list of 86
words from the headline vocabulary meant to give "a fast start in learning
it".
According to the rule that governs headline writing i.e. maximum
of information with minimum digression brevity is a clear condition.
Thus, short words are favoured not only by the reason of space but due to
their strong connotations that exaggerate things and make them more
dramatic. Words like axe, cut, slash are employed to report a decrease and
swoop, probe, blitz, replace the verb to investigate. Phrases with verbals
such as infinitives, gerunds, participles_are preferred due to their
concision, to their capacity of comprising the maximum of information.
The sensationalism of the news is induced by these short words
which turn a possibility into a threat, rivalry into a war, in other words,
they turn everything into a drama. There is also the opposite tendency.
Thus, the use of abstract or euphemistic terminology chiefly latinized
serves to cool emotions of fear or anger. Here headlines manifest an
interesting shifting from sensational to anaesthetic language. Unpleasant
realities are called by suggestive words. Dead are called casualties, a
bomb is referred to as an explosive device, a strike as a stay away and
67

rioters as demonstrators. We can notice that in this case the aim of

increasing sales by using highly emotive words does not function anymore
although popular journalism still trivialize thought or oversimplifies
situations considering that simplification is necessary to reach a mass
readership.
Lexical devices in headline writing have caused a grammatical
flexibility though no one can still determine which. Thus, instances of using
nouns as verbs e.g. boost, boom, axe, slash come to support this view.
Another case in point is the use of adjectives and verbs, as nouns e.g. great,
first, must, young marrieds.
Because press is like an open-air scene where events are to be seen
by a heterogeneous public, idiomatic exclamations and expressions are
employed for their both amusing and shocking effects. Daily Mirror reports
Mr. Wrushchev' s boorish behaviour in the United Nations - DON'T BE SO
BLOODY RUDE! and the financial crisis in 1974 was signed in a very
original way - IS EVERYBODY GOING BLOODY MAD? Another article
in Newsweek (February 4, 1991) reported the elector's' slogan: NO MORE
MR NICE GUY! In the same manner, Sunday Today does not hesitate, to
entitle one of its articles WE DON'T GIVE A DAMN According to the
well known principle that an action has as a response an equal and opposite
reaction, headline writers use ostentatiously rare synonyms as affluent for
prosperous and parley for meeting in the title REDUCED DIETS IN
AFFLUENT LANDS PROPOSED AT WORLD FOOD PARLEY.

68

Some linguists
headline language with a kind of pidgin
6.3 Grammatical
featuresassociate
of headlines
English with one basic tense - the Present, the most opague of the verbal
forms - the Past and Present Participle, and a few simple, general purpose
nouns which are frequently conversed into adjectives and verbs.
The use of tenses in headlines is undoubtedly determined by the
journalist's endeavour to sell his story as well as by this aim to achieve
brevity of style.
The Present Tense is used for past events in order to convey a
sense of reality, of closeness and to induce the feeling of immediacy to the
reader: CHINA SHOWS OFF WHO IS THE BOSS 0Newsweek, July 26,
1993)
More often than not the Infinitive is used with reference to future
events, though Future Tense can be used, too: QUEEN TO VISIT SAMOA
{Time, October 11, 1980]
The so-called most opaque of the verbal forms i.e. the past and present
participle have an important role in headline reporting. These verbal forms
are endowed with the quality of preserving the meaning in spite of the
usual omission of auxiliary verbs. What is really worth pointing out is that
while Past Participles convey a passive meaning, Present Participles render
a present active meaning; BATTERED BY MAN AND NATURE
(Newsweek, August 30, 1993) expresses a passive action. Present Participle
usually refers to something that is changing or developing - WALKING
OUT ON THE BOYS (Time, February, 11, 1991)
Imperatives and Infinitives are meant to achieve the headline
writer's intention of involving the reader in the problem dealt with. TO
GIVE PIECE A CHANCE (Time October 2, 1991) or LOOK FIRST TO BE
KLERK (Time, August, 17 1992) induce in the reader the feeling of
participation and involvement.
The constrictions of the headline contribute to flexibility of usage. Considering the
use of nouns in headlines, we have to mention that nouns take on an
adjectival function simply by being placed in a sequence. Here are some
examples: NEW PEACE MOVE (Sunday Time) and WOOD MURDER
CHARGE COURT SCENE {Daily Mirror)
69

It is interesting to notice that the growth of the all noun headline

was originally accentuated by a curious taboo in headline language, viz. the
avoidance of the -s form of the present tense of the verb. Here comes the
moment to consider a grammatical phenomenon which has a great
significance in headlinese. This is conversion, which takes headlinese to the
furthest limits of communication.
This can be achieved only through the flexible medium of an
uninflected language. As we mentioned earlier, a series of nouns are
conversed into verbs or adjectives such as: target in the TARGETTING
SAD AM (Time, November 9, 1992) inflation in SOUTH AMERICA'S
NEW INFLATION HEADACHES (Newsweek , February 11, 1991).
Adverbs are conversed into nouns as in a headline from a sports page (Time
August 12, 1992) - THE UPS AND DOWNS.
Other grammatical features of headline language consist in the
omission of articles - DAY OF RECKONING (Time August 26, 1990),
possessive determiners - JOHN MAJOR DECLINE AND NEAR FALL
(Newsweek, August 2, 1993), auxiliary verbs - NEW PRICE CURB
PROPOSED (Time, August 2, 1987). In 20,000 GEMS STOLEN (Time,
August 2, 1987) the auxiliary verbs have been are dropped. Even
adjectives and modifiers can be om-itted provided that a well-chosen verb is
able to dispense with modifiers, prepositions or conjunctions.
It is also useful to mention here space-saving punctuation.
Headlines, due to their conciseness, do not generally need punctuation. As s
a result, comma never occurs, a fact that generates ambiguity in many
situations. The only signs used are the question mark and exclamatory
70
mark. Also for reason of space, headline
writers use acronyms and

abbreviations in order to appeal to the elements called knowledge of the

world: EEC CHIEF SEES NO PLO ACTIONS in which EEC stands for
Economic European Community and PLO means Palestine Liberation
Organization and TOWN HALL MAN TURN TO D-I-Y where DIY stands
for do it yourself.
Syntactically, the following patterns are known: Declarative
statements classified into nominative sentence resembling labels such as A
SURVIVAL GUIDE (Newsweek, July 26, 1993) and verbal sentences like
PLAYNG THE ASYLUM GAME CNewsweek, aug 2, 1993). Another type
is elliptical sentences such as COLD BUT NOT DEAD {Newsweek,
September 23,
1988) and A NATIONAL
TREASURE IN DANGER (Time, August 26, 1990)
In the former example the subject and auxiliary are dropped
whereas in the latter the elliptic element is the predicate.
In order to appeal more to the readers thinking, headlines are often
disguised in interrogative sentences that can be questions proper- IS THIS
GETTING OUT OF HAND? (Newsweek, August 2,
1993)
or
questions resembling
statements- WHY THE DETAILS ARE STICKY? (Time, October 7, 1991)
Headlines in an interrogative form are sometimes used to report a
future possibility- OIL PRICE TO RISE? (Newsweek, October 21, 1989)
6.4 Stylistic devices used in headlines
Stylistically, headlines are interesting to approach since they are
mostly based on puns (some of them offering many possibilities of
interpretation, others being simple play upon words). Here are some
examples:
Time, November 9, 1992 wrote with respect to Perots claim to the
presidency of America - PEROT-NOIA, paranoia being a mental disease in
which a person is obsessed he is very important. WHATTS THIS? is the
title of an article reporting about the smallest battery in the world appealing
to the unity of electric power the Watt. (Time, September 7, 1992)
Another play upon words is a title such as A JUST CONFLICT OR
JUST A CONFLICT (Time, February 11, 1992) when just has the
meaning of righteous in its former occurrence and the meaning of only
in its latter occurrence. Alliteration is also favoured by headline writers in
71

order to produce even humorous effects - THE WIDE WORLD OF

WEAPONRY (Time, February 11, 1991). Another frequent device ussd by
headline writers as a trick is rhyme- ICE-THE NEW VICE? (International)
When talking about the euphemistic way of expressing things, we
cannot ignore metaphor as a means, of veiling unpleasant realities. Thus,
papers talk about ROCKS ON THE ROYAL ROAD (Time, August 17,
1992) regarding the troubled marriage of Princess Diana and about the
VALLEY OF THE SHADOW (Newsweek, February 11, 1991) concerning
anti- Semitism and poverty. The puzzling change in Woody Allens
marriage to Mia Farri has also been referred to by means of a pun - PAST
PERFECT, PRESENT TENSE where the auxiliary forms was and is are
omitted. (Time, aug 17, 1992).
Headline writers also use oxymorons though not regularly. Time
(July 8, 1991) advises HURRY UP AND RELAX when advertising a
tourism agency. Time, September
2, 1991 writes about THE SILENT GUNS OF AUGUST.
In conclusion, nobody can deny the semantic effects that press has
on everyday language and also on the vocabulary in general. One of the
semantic trends that journalism brought about is generalization and
weakening of meaning often to the point of verbicide (overused terms) of
many words as a result of their exaggerated use. Such words are drama,
madness, shock which nowadays no longer maintain their basic
meaning.
The other semantic tendency derived from journalistic language is
the grammatical flexibility of words, conversion, a much favoured means of
headline language displays all the possibilities of expression of an
uninflected language such as English.
When so many cliches and set phrases specixic to headline have
gained. enormous currency and force, when journalistic language has such a
strong impact upon our daily vocabulary who can still call headlinese - an
opaque language?
6.5 Study Questions and Activities
I.
1.
2.
3.

Answer these questions

What are the characteristics of headline language?
Wshy is the study of headlinese important?
How does Hughes characterise72
the press?

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

What are the roles acted by the press?

What are the functions of headlines?
How are headlines classified in terms of topic?
What are the differences between the two types of headlines?
What is the dominant feature of headlines from a lexical point of view?
Why are short words with strong connotations favoured by headlines?
How are the reader's emotions of fear or anger cooled by headline
writers?
11. What is one of the most frequent lexical devices used in headlines?
Give examples.
12. What role do idiomatic exclamations and expressions have in
headlines?
13. What are the most common tenses occurring in headlines?
14. What kind of events does the Present Tense refer to?
15. What meaning is associated with the use of the Infinitive and the Future
Tense?
16. Point out the difference in meaning between the Past Participle and the
Present Participle in headlines.
II. Match these verbs which are often found in newspaper headlines with
the more common verbs given below: axe/scrap, back, call, clash, curb,
grab, loom, oust, quit, slam, soar, swoop, vow/pledge.
Common verbs: be imminent, confiscate, criticise, disagree, promise, raid,
reduce/dismiss, replace, request, resign, restrict, rise, support.
III. Match these nouns which are often found in newspaper headlines with
the more common nouns given below: battle/clash/feud/row, bid, blaze,
chief, drama, fury/outrage, link, riddle, split, threat, war.
Common nouns', anger, attempt, connection, disagreement, division, fire,
happening, mystery, person in charge/leader, possibility, rivalry.'
IV. Headlines are shorter than normal sentences. List some words which
you think are omitted from these headlines. What kinds of words are
omitted? Why do you think they are omitted?
1. Power bills, spark revolt.
2. Charles, 32, seeks bride.
3. Fan kills wife.
73 law.
4. Montana housewife fights federal

5. Town council airs its objection.

6. Carter breaks collarbone.
V. Look at the following headlines. Discuss with ypur neighbour what
incidents they might describe.
A. Yard checks on 'sale' of A-level papers.
B. Gem vanishes from auction in pink nail polish switch.
C. Chips were downfall of computer conman.
D. Luggage tags invitation to burglars.
E. Sneeze traps a bungling burglar.
Now look at the extracts from the reports which followed th* headlines.
Can you match the headlines to the reports?
1. Late at night in a rowing boat, intending to break into ai 1 Islington
record warehouse and steal a haul of LP' S ^llt climbed into the
wrong building.
2. He was caught because he became homesick for Yorkshn e and
wanted "to taste some real fish and chips".
3. Crooks mingle with trippers at Heathrow and Gatwick an1 note
where they live. They watch traveller fly out then...
4. It appeared that despite tight security, the 9.58-caiat diamond was
stolen during the series of pre-sal e examinations in a specially
lighted...
5. About 5,500 pupils who sat A-level French yesterday 1,1 London and
at schools in the south-east may be asked to re-. '
VI. Make inferences about the meaning of the italicised word'' in the
following headlines
1. SIX DIE IN HOTEL BLAZE.
2. EXPORT FIGURES BOLSTER CITY CONFIDENCE
3. DOCTOR CLEARED OF DRUGS CHARGE
4. DEADLOCK IN PEACE TALKS
5. DOLE QUEUES LENGTHEN
6. GOVERNMENT FACES FLAK OVER VAT
7. RIOTS FLARE IN ULSTER
8. PM HAILS PEACE PLAN
9. LAST MINUTE HITCH DELAYS SATELLITE LAUNCH
10. MAN HELD AFTER STATION
74BLAST

VII. Some of these headlines refer to the past and some of then> refer to
the future. Which ones do you think refer to the pa s< and which refer to
the future?
1. Dinner to bar some reporters
2. Labour to debate 5-day week
3. Coffee prices soar
4. Republicans to push farm housing
5. Killer escapes from courtroom
6. Power bills spark revolt
VIII. Explain the meaning of the italicised verbal forms in these headlines
1. BISHOP LASHES TV SEX AND VIOLENCE
2. VAT ON FOOD. NEW ROW LOOMS
3. MODERATES OUSTED IN UNION ELECTIONS
4. BANKS PEG INTEREST RATES
5. MINISTER PRESSED TO ACT ON HOUSING
6. POLICE PROBE RACING SCANDAL
7. MINISTER TO QUIT GOVERNMENT
8. POLICE QUIZ MILLIONAIRE SUPERMARKET BOSS
9. JOBLESS FIGURES STUN CITY
10. HOSPITAL PROTEST SWAYS MINISTERS
IX. These headlines show a special way of expressing passives and the
present tense. Which headlines do you think are expressed passively and
which are expressed in the present tense?
1. Steel pay claim granted
2. Thames approaching danger level
3. Reporters barred from dinner
4. 3 injured in bomb attack
5. Bush winning battles of nerves
X. Comment on the stylistic devices used in these headlines
1. THE BRIDE AND THE GLOOM (Daily Mail, April, 15,
1999)
2. GIRLS WHO TEASE FOR E-MALES (The Mirror, December, 3, 1999)
3. GOATS SLAUGHTER (The Mirror, December, 3, 1999)
4. WHAT'S THE STORY, MOURNING OR GLORY? (The Times,
75

December, 3, 1999)
5. WHAT WE W.W.WANT (The Mirror, December, 3, 1999)
XI. Read the following newspaper headlines where puns have created
second meanings. Can you explain what the news stories are probably
about and what the othel interpretations might be ?
1. THUGS EAT THEN ROB PROPRIETOR
2. DRUNK GETS NINE MONTHS IN VlOEIN CASE
3. STOLEN PAINTING FOUND BY TREE
4. CARIBBEAN ISLANDS DRIFT TO LEFT
5. IRAQI HEAD SEEKS ARMS
6. MILK DRINKERS ARE TURNING TO POWDER
XU. Arrange these disorganised headlines ^nto l^eir ProPer word order:
A. tear, classes, California, teach, citizens, g&sto useB. hostages, free, Nigerians, riot
C. the, Rumpus, on, estate, Royal
D. attack, probes, experts, mosque
E. spark, power, revolt, bill
F. its, tower, airs, council, objections
G. blood, flimsy, lag, donation, excuses, cause
H. pay, delayed, sick, employers, plan
II.

I.
2.
3.

Match the headlines (1-3) with the parci^raP^s (a~c)a. Next month's Budget will be largely dietated by the International
Monetary Fund, trade uf>in leadei s were told yesterday.
b. A team of do-it-yourself councillors wih save about
2,0
GBP by clearing weeds from th^T town hall loof today.
c. The owner of a Citizen's Band radio v^ usec* an ihegal
transmitter from his Needham
home, was
ordered to forfeit the set by Stowmark61 magistrates on Wednesday.
CB radio enthusiast fined 50 GBP
IMF will have say
Town hall men turn to D-I-Y

7. Advertising: the Use of English for Commercial Purposes

7.1 The story of advertising in the USA
76

Advertising was already a well-established phenomenon by the

turn of the twentieth century. American newspapers had begun carrying ads
as far back as the early 1700s and magazines have soon followed. By the
1850, the country had its first advertising agency, the American Newspaper
Advertising Agency, though its function was to buy advertising space rather
than come up with creative campaigns.
To advertise originally carried the sense of broadcast or
disseminate news. Thus, a nineteenth century newspaper that called itself
The Advertiser meant that it has lots of news not lots of ads. By the early
1800s, the term had been stretched to accommodate the idea of spreading
the news of the availability of certain goods or services.
A newspaper notice that read, Jos. Parker, Hatter, was essentially
announcing that if anyone was in the market for a hat, Jos. Parker had them.
In the sense of persuading members of the public to acquire items they
might not otherwise think of buying - items they didnt know they needed advertising is a phenomenon of the modern age.
By the 1890s, advertising was appearing everywhere. Very early
on, advertisers discovered the importance of a good slogan. Sometimes
slogans took a little working on. Coca-Cola described itself as the drink
that makes a pause refreshing before realizing, in 1929, that the pause that
refreshes was rather more succinct and memorable.
A slogan could make all the difference to a success of a product.
After advertising its soap as an efficacious way of dealing with
conspicuous nose pores, Woodbury s facial soap came up with the slogan
the skin you love to touch and it won the hearts of millions. The great
thing about a slogan was that it did hot have to be accurate to be affective.
Heinz never actually had 57 varieties of anything. The catch
phrase arose simply because H. J. Heinz, the companys founder, decided he
liked the sound of the number. Undeterred by considerations of verity, he
had the slogan slapped on every one of the products he produced, which in
1896 was already far more than 57. For a time, the company tried to arrange
its products in arbitrary clusters, but in 1969 it gave up the ruse altogether
and abandoned the slogan in the USA.
Early in the 1900s, advertisers discovered another perennial feature
of marketing - the give-away. Consumers soon become acquainted with the
irresistibly tempting notion that if they bought a particular product they
77

could expect a reward - the chance to win prizes to receive a free book
(almost always ostensibly dedicated to the improvement of ones well-being
but invariably a thinly-disguised plug for the manufacturers range of
products), or to get a free sample.
Typical of the genre was the turn-of-the-century tome called The
Vital Question Cook Book, which was promoted as an aid to livelier meals,
but which proved upon receipt to contain 112 pages of recipes, all involving
the use of Shredded Wheat. Many of these had a certain air of desperation
about them, notably the Shredded Wheat Biscuit Jellied Apple Sandwich
and the Creamed Spinach on Shredded Wheat Biscuit Toast. Almost all in
fact involved nothing more than spooning some everyday food on to a piece
of shredded wheat and giving it an inflated name to eager consumers.

7. 2 Advertising in Britain
Although we may not consciously register every instance and every
circumstance in which we read or hear them, it is nonetheless true that, in
any single day, we will he bombarded from all sides by advertisements in a
welter of different circumstances and locations and in just about every
conceivable linguistic and graphic form.
A list of the most common media and locations for advertising,
each of which might be encountered before we even make it to work in the
morning, might include the following: on pillars and hoardings, on buses
and trains (and everi n bus tickets), in shops and on business premises, on
the radio* on television (including the teletext pages), in the newspaper, in
junk mail.
The range of items advertised is much broader than many might
imagine. Consumer products, ranging from day-to- day household items to
luxury cars, are the most common, closely followed by business and
personal services, from management training programmes to personal
insurance policies. However, British advertising includes many services,
products, and even institutions, which fall into neither of these categories,
some of which are detailed below.
Political parties advertise themselves in Britain through party
political broadcasts, which are usually, but not exclusively, held at election
time. Each of the main parties is given equal airtime: recent news reports
have shown this the case in some parts of the world.
Nowadays, there are even78religious adverts on hoardings and on

the radio, although there are those both within and without organised
religion who believe that this is an improper commercialisation of belief.
The radio adverts (some of which take the form of informative bulletins
rather than vulgar appeals for membership) have become known, somewhat
irreverently, as 'God slots'.
Some adverts are not designed to make a profit for the advertiser.
These include those put out by some government agencies (Citizens' Advice
Bureau) and by various helplines (Samaritans) as well as those whose
purpose is to persuade people to participate in something (joining the army,
donating blood, kidneys, etc.).
Some, by contrast, are designed to make money without explicitly
stating the fact. These include some phone-in competitions, chatlines etc.
The customer is advised what the call charge will be, but may be unaware
that a portion of this goes to the provider of the service or the company
running the competition. There is a body of opinion that holds that this is an
immoral form of advertising because much of it is aimed at, or used by
children.
Yet there are some constraints on what may he advertised and
where. Seymour-Ure (1991:121) informs us that, at various tines,
sponsorship, political parties, religious- organisations, charities and a
number of commercial products have been banned altogether from
television in the UK.
In 1965, the government banned the television advertising of
cigarettes (not cigars and pipe tobacco) and later banned strong' alcohol,
although fortified wines and beers remained permissible. Sceptics may
consider these to have been half-hearted measures, but there are also those
who consider that any form of restriction on advertising constitutes a form
of state-controlled censorship and is therefore unacceptable.
Of course adverts for cigarettes and alcohol still appear in
newspapers and magazines and on hoardings in the street, as do adverts for
sexual services, religious organisations and the like.There have been recent
accusations of favouritism towards the national lottery which is the only
form of betting currently allowed on television; the pools companies, who
take bets on the results of football matches, consider this to give an unfair
advantage to their main rival.
In some other cases, providers of services make their own decisions
79

to advertise locations in orderto reach a specialised clientele and thus get a

better percentage return on their investment: a maker of false teeth, for
example, is more likely to advertise at a dentist's surgery than on national
network television.
All adverts
are liable
to scrutiny from the Advertising
Standards Authority (ASA), whose job it is tosee that all adverts are 'legal,
decent, honest and truthful'. The 'decent' of their motto precludes the overt
advertising of sexual services in all but the most specialised publications.
However, those who provide such services have also find a way to avoid
falling foul of regulations: in the past, the use of 'French lessons' and names
such as '-Madame Fifi' served for individuals, with words such as 'discipline'
indicating particular specialisations, but the last twenty years have seen two
major changes: firstly, women are now much more likely to pay for such
services and tend to demand more discretion, and secondly, increased
personal mobility and the widespread use of the credit card have led to the
development of the agency, euphemistically referred to in newspaper and
magazine advertising as Escort services'.
These escort agencies advertise themselves as providing company
for businessmen women and, in doing so, are breaking no laws.
Furthermore, certain publications do not wish to carry adverts which,
although 'not offering a sexual service, might offend sections of their
readership and the euphemism once again serves to inform the client who
knows what he or she is looking for without the risk of alienating the more
sensitive members of the public.
Slogans gain hypnotic acceptance by repetition. Although we may
not register every instance and every circumstance in which we read or
hear them, it is nonetheless true that, in any single day we will be
bombarded from all sides by advertisements in a welter of different
circumstances and locations and in just about every conceivable and
graphic form.
A list of the most common media and locations for advertising
might include the following:
-on pillars and hoardings
-on buses and trains
-in shops and on business premises
-on the radio
80

-on television (including the teletext pages)

-in the newspaper -in
junk mail
One of. the first people to use the term 'advertise' in something
relatively close to its modern sense was William Caxton who produced the
first printed advertisement in the language, offering spiritual handbooks for
sale.
Caxton employed an approach very similar to that used by agencies
today: the product is promoted as a status symbol, with prospective
purchase encouraged to feel that they are acquiring not just a book, but
'class' and 'culture1.
In recent years it has become quite difficult to distinguish news
from adverts. The term advertorial, a recent portmanteau word (made up of
advertising and editorial) refers to the practice-of a magazine or journal to
publicize particular goods and services in the form of a feature article, in
return for a stipulated amount of advertising sold. Consequently, the
difference between 'advertising' and 'news' becomes almost indistinctive.
7.3 The jargon of advertising
Much of the jargon of advertising is now generally current since
some of the terms were established decades ago. The most frequent of them
are discussed below.
Blurb means 'publisher's short description of contents of a book,
usually printed on the jacket or cover. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the
English Language is referred to as "A revolution in language publishing",
'superbly illustrated', 'a unique and innovative book', 'a prodigious
achievement', 'pervasively readable and understanding' (R. Quirk), 'a
delight and a treasure... A magnificent achievement' (Pinker, The Language
Instinct)
Slogan, originally meaning 'Scots or Irish war cry, was first used in
its advertising sense by Andrew Lang: "Printers and authors had their
emblems and private literary slogans". Slogan is recorded as 'word or
phrase that is easy to remember used as a motto in advertising or by a
political party. In slogans sentences tend to be short, with a strong rhythm."
Consider these examples from Crystal (1996: 180):
e. g. "It's fingerlicking good (Kentucky Fried Chicken)" "Make
love, not war!"
81

"When you need an aspirin, drink a Disprin!"

Plug is found.as far back as 1896 in the sense 'persuasive speech' or 'line'.
To plug (infml) means 'to mention something favourably in the media,
especially repeatedly'
e. g. They have been plugging his new show on the radio.
Spot is 'the place for an individual item of entertainment, especially a short
regular one, in a television, radio or theatre show; from 1926s it is
associated with the use of music and voice.
e. g. a ten-minute guest spot on a radio program Jingle is 'a short
simple rhyme or song that is designed to attract attention and be easily
remembered, especially one used in advertising on radio or television'. In
advertising jingles frequent use is made of rhyme and alliteration:
"Where Janola's been you know it's clean"
"Put a tiger in your tank You'll wonder where the yellow went
When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent"
Ads is a colloquial abbreviation, which seems first to have been used by
Thackeray in 1841, when he threatened: " I'll have my books properly
reviewed: or else, I'll withdraw my ads."
A close look at the components of an advertisement (i.e. appeal to
readers, account of the commodity / product and its benefits, invitation to
readers to follow up the ad) would make us aware of the illocutionary force
of the discourse of advertising summed up in Donald Watson's very brief
definition of an ad: "the words that sell." (Speak Up, June, 6, 1992)
In most advertisements there is a dangerous negative part identified
by Norman Fairclough (1992) as the colonizing (ideological) force of
advertising. Advertising may become powerful manipulative tools when
they meet real consumption's needs (but the product is not what the
consumer expects it to be) and when they create new, sometimes false
needs: "Most of the prevailing needs to relax, to have fun, to behave and
consume in accordance with the advertisements to love and hate what others
love and hate belong to the category of false needs"
(H. Marcuse, One Dimensional Man,
1968, p. 21-22)
7.4 Linguistic choices of advertisers
The appropriation of established terms for commercial purposes is
a fairly recently development and82can be seen as reflecting an advanced

stage of linguistic capitalism by advertisers (Hughes, 1988: 159). Words

have added advantage of being free for taking, unlike images and sounds,
which cost money to make.
This exploitation takes two obvious forms. The first is the familiar
process whereby emotively favourable words (,luxurious, craftsmanship,
fresh, pure, gentle and brilliant will suffice) are abstracted from their
familiar or contextual settings and forced into incongruous collocations:
'Such a blissful sink!' will serve as typically outrageous example.
More insidious, and therefore probably more effective, is the way
in which similar terms, like comfort, purity, emotion, pioneer, glad, agree,
good luck, shield, sharp, sunlight, and spring have been simply
appropriated as brand names for products. This amounts to buying their
favourable overtones cheap (in fact, free) and using them for the purpose of
'image building'.
A recent stage of 'linguistic exploitation' is to be seen in the
appropriation of the idiomatic resources in the language to reinforce a
slogan. These idiomatic reinforcements can be used in any sector of the
market. British examples include 'Every girl needs her Mum' (deodorant),
'Truth will in' (The Times), Digger, 'the down to earth garden tool', 'we have
your interest at heart' (a responsible bank) and this coy pun endorsing
breakfast sausages: 'Get off to a frying start!'
From the United States comes Hard as Nails ('America's number
one nail protection'), No Nonsense ('cotton- lined ventilated crotch panel'),
'Escape to Florida. Let national plot your jetway.', and ' I ' m head over heels
in DOVE' (soap), mentioned with pride by David Ogilvy in his Confessions
(1966, p. 132). Increasingly, brand names are chosen precisely so that they
can be used idiomatically, for example: 'Strong men come in a Jiffy'
(condom).
7.4.1 Key Words
The field of advertising is dominated by two significant notional
terms, luxury and prestige. Both words were originally 'bad' words,
both
are now 'good' words
expressive of a
particular ethos.
Luxury had
as its earliest, dominant
sense (from the
fourteenth century)
that of lasciviousness or
lust, and meant
generally sinful self-indulgence, usually sexual in nature, up to the time of
83

Shakespeare and Milton.

Luxury, in
its ameliorated sense,
has become a
dominant word endorsing the ethos of conspicuous consumption. It is no
longer even applied (in copy) to expensive items. The Kraft Corporation,
seeking to remove the associations of niggardliness surrounding margarine,
recently launched a brand called Luxury Blend, employing in the copy this
comic excess of idiomatic reinforcement:
'Pure
Unadulterated Luxury'.
Prestige carries in its semantic history a revealing witness of the
public relations industry. Today prestige is fabricated by wordsmiths and
image - builders, with much the same legerdemain as was used by the
conjurors who brought the word into being. This 'improper' sense is used of
luxury products or great corporations or even nations; the promotion, in
every sense of the word, of prestige has been a great success.
7.4.2 Stylistic preferences
Figurative language is a common feature of advertising in general
and of television adverts in particular. Crystal (1996: 390) supports this
idea with these examples:

84

puts springtime into your wash (fabric softener) a taste of

paradise (chocolate bar)
Puns are also used to try to help people remember names and policies:
Virgin, the fresh air line (when the company adopted a no-smoking
policy)
Visa's dealt a blow to.... (to advertise the Visa Delta
card)
7.4.3 Favoured parts of speech in TV advertising
The most notable feature of the language of advertising, however,
is the limited range of adjectives used to promote a product. Leech (reported
in Crystal, 1996:391) came up with a list of the top twenty most popular
adjectives and the twenty most popular verbs in television advertising.
His top five adjectives, in descending order, were new, good
(better, best), free, fresh and delicious, all of which are in regular use still.
One item missing from his list of verbs that would be highly placed today is
save, used as an imperative or with the modal auxiliary can. The word 'save'
is most often used with reference to money but is also used to refer to time
and energy.
Other adjectives not on Leech's list, which appeared three times, or
more for different products or services during a two-day period in
September 1995 (Townson, 1995: 84) include the following:
white (a very suiprising omission - almost nowadays as 'new' and used
mostly for toothpaste and washing powders) international (used a lot in
newspaper adverts, too: the MBA adverts in The SundayTimes use it
repeatedly) live/exclusive (used repeatedly by the television company to
promote its own coverage of events)
natural (used for food, hair products, fragrances, etc.: very common)
reliable (cars, insurance services, banks)
traditional (foodstuffs, mostly:
tends to collocate with

ingredients')
personal (building societies, insurance companies, perfume)
satisfying (beer, telephone company (!), food products)
effective (shampoo, pharmaceuticals, toothpaste)
fast (pharmaceuticals, car insurance [but not cars], delivery
service, plus several instances as an adverb)
successful (holiday company, washing powder, shampoo, plus
many instances as a noun [success])
smooth (beer, chocolate, soap, paint, cars, shampoo)
gold (golden (coffee, chocolate, holidays)
light (coffee, chocolate, shampoo, conditioner, yoghurt,
margarine, breakfast cereal, plus many uses meaning low in fat
or calories)
Compound adjectives are also used extensively in advertising in
ways which would be unusual in speech. This is partly in order to save
time (an expensive commodity on- television) and partly to use the
brand name in a manner which, it is hoped, will cause it to be
remembered along with the chosen adjective. Some versions of this type
of compound construction in current usage are:
Persil-whiteAriel-clean-country-fresh-crispy-light-soft
-and-gentle-morning-after-crisp-and-crunchy.
Advertising language can be considered a persuasive technique
which, however leaves itself open to critical analysis.
7.5 Study Questions and Activities
I. Look up the meanings of the following words in a dictionary. Use
the words in sentences of your own:
1. come up with
7. ruse
2. efficacious
8. give-away
3. conspicuous
9. perennial
4. catch phrase
10. ostensibly
5. undeterred
11. plug
6. slapped on
12. shredded
II. Answer these questions:
1. When can the beginning of advertising in USA be traced back?
2. What was the function of the American Newspaper Advertising Agency
by the mid 19th century?

3. What is the semantic development of the term "to advertise"?

4. How important is a slogan for a product's success? Give examples.
5. What new marketing feature did advertisers discover at the beginning of
the 20lh century?
6. Where can advertisements and slogans be found?
7. Why are people said to be bombarded from all sides by adverts?
8. Who was the first to produce a printed advertisement in language?
9. How did Caxton promote his spiritual handbooks?
10. Can we distinguish between news and adverts? Why? / Why not?
ID. Match the word and expressions (1-11) with the meanings (a-k)
1. welter
a. feature article advertising goods
or services
2. hoarding
b. building(s) where business is
carried on
3. legerdemain
c. pretending to be shy or modest
4. niggarliness.
d. say in an advert that one uses
and approves of a product
5. ethos
e. without sentiment or sympathy
6. plot
f. make a plan of something
7. hard as nails
g. characteristic spirit, moral values
of a group or community
8. coy
h. meanness
9. endorse
i. skilful performance of tricks using
the hands
10.
premises
j. general confusion
11.
advertorial
k. large board used
for displaying advertisements
IV. Read the following texts:
A
This dynamic and pioneering company, a member of a well- established
group, continues to expand significantly its market share, both through
emphasis on technical excellence and a professional business approach.
This new appointment is the corner-stone in the company's future
diversification program
87

B
If you've got an eye for detail, coupled with secretarial skills, then Bejam
the freezer people have just the job for you at their busy, lively offices in
Stanmore. You'll be responsible for checking that prices and spelling are
correct on our display material, liaising with the display company and store
managers. This involves a lot of telephone work and keeping to deadlines,
so you must be.capable of working efficiently under pressure.
C
The company is a successful independent operator with turnover now
exceeding G.B.P.30m. It provides a range of services from a number of
locations in the UK and on the Continent.
Reporting to the General Manager, responsibility is to mange the finance
and accounting functions. Developing controls and advising on financial
policy and planning will be major tasks. Success in the role should lead to
a Board appointment.
D
Mayfair-based public company is looking for the best sales people in
Britain. You must be money motivated, aggressive, hardworking and above
all, a good sales person. We sell ad space. If you can as well, you can move
to any of our offices all expenses paid.

88

Now say which advertisement the following statements refer to.

1. This advertisement emphasis the importance of the position in the
company's planned development.
A
B
C
D
2. This advertisement seems to issue a challenge.
A
B
C
D
3. This advertisement mentions the possibility of promotion.
A
B
C
D
4. This advertisement promises a special benefit to the successful
applicant.
A
B
C
D
5. This advertisement adopts an informal, almost chatty style.
A
B
C
D
V. Read the advertisement below and write a 150-word passage standing
for an advertisement for the product:
The Ansaiaxacopy^hone.
Full feature photocopier with automatic multi-sheet paper feeder
Answerphone with remote call checking via tone dial pad Other features:
telephone with 30 number memory fax
machine with 30 number memory free 12month warranty
Mind that good advertisements answer the basic question 'What can it do
for me?'. Write your text so as to answer this question directly. You can use
the word 'you' and keep to a relatively informal tone. Make sure sentences
are relatively short. Think of a good range of adjectives for the product so
that you do not have to repeat key words, but avoid pretentious adjectives
like 'expeditious'. You could organize your advertisement into three parts:
firstly, outline some of those moments when a machine like this would be
essential; secondly, give a brief but glowing description of the things this

machine can do; thirdly, encourage the reader to phone for more information or a demonstration.
VI. What do the following advertisements refer to?
1. If you are in Switzerland, you should try your Rolex.
2. Sea for yourself.
3. We'll give you food to think.
4. Make a snap decision.
Now say which advertisement the following statements refer to.
5. Try our glue once and you'll always stick to us.
6. Go up in the world.
7. We'll give you sound advice.
8. It's for you, naturally.
9. Go by air, it's plane common sense.
10. We'll give you red carpet treatment (or blue, or green, or brown, or yellow...)
11. When you decide to give her a ring, give us a ring.
12. For a few pounds you can lose a few today.
VII.How does ambiguity arise from these advertisements?
1. What beer drinkers drink when they are not drinking beer? (ad for beer without alcohol)
2. Annie: Hello, I'm Frieda Beidermeyer, your interior decorator.
Jerry: Oh, yes, come in. This is my apartment.
Annie: Don't apologize!
3. Antique table for sale by lady with unusual legs.
4. Green child's bicycle for sale.
5. Women's club meeting 7 p.m. Tuesday. An antique expert will give an opinion on any
unusual objects you have home. Bring your husbands.