A Stylistic Analysis Of English Advertising From A Feminist Perspective

This thesis is a tentative endeavor to conduct a stylistic analysis on English advertising at two levels, that is, lexis and discourse. The theory guiding this thesis is Critical Linguistics.The thesis gives general introduction of advertising as the beginning part. Before conducting analysis, the author elaborates stylistic analysis at three aspects: (1) the reason, (2) the theory, (3) the model of stylistic analysis from a feminist perspective. Firstly, by exploring and pursuing the relationship among language, sexuality and power the feminists try to develop 'non-phallocentric' ways of thinking, shaping 'what seems a common desire to nonbinary, nonoppositional thought.' Feminist Dale Spender spoke of the English language as being 'man-made' and being an important contributor to women's oppression. Thus the traditional stylistic analysis represents males' position and such stylisticians position themselves very much within the domain of the phallocentric stylistic criticism which feminist theory aims to criticize and displace. Therefore, what is needed is to develop a new way of conducting stylistic analysis from a feminist perspective (new analysis). Secondly, relating the language of texts to extra-textual political processes new analysis has a precursor in Critical Linguistics, an instrumental linguistic theory based on Halliday's Systemic-Functional Linguistics. Critical Linguistics is the study of texts from an avowedly political perspective which is developed by Fowler, Hodge and Kress. Language is seen very much as a social phenomenon and some linguists view Critical Linguistics a discipline associated with Sociolinguistics. The original core disciplines of Linguistics are Phonemics, Syntactics and Semantics. Later, some interdisciplines such as Psycholinguistics, Applied Linguistics and Sociolinguistics develop from the combination of Linguistics and other subjects. And new researches on intersecting fields of Sociolinguistics include Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis, Dialogue Analysis and Critical Linguistics. Centralto Critical Linguistic analysis is the notion of ideology and furthermore the prime focus of Critical Linguistics is to unmask those ideologies which seem to be hidden within language-use which poses itself as natural. Thirdly, by illustrating and comparing the traditional stylistic model and new model thoroughly, the author points out that it isn't easily discussing the extratextual processes with old one because it's gender-blind. Feminists are concerned not only to conduct stylistic analysis but also to change social relations through the analysis and through forms of action. The new model can develop into a form of consciousness-raising, force readers to re-examine the text in the light of a consideration of gender. It is not simply an academic exercise and it is primarily political.The clarification of all these theories paves the way for the practical part of the thesis: stylistic analysis on English advertising from a Feminist perspective. At the level of words, the author analyzes the generic pronouns, generic nouns, diminutives and endearments, euphemism and taboo, lexical gaps in the advertisements. The traditional argument is that the generic pronouns and nouns are used not sex-specifically, but generically; that is, although they refer grammatically to the singular male, they should be taken to refer to both male and female in general. But in linguistic reality, people tend to visualize male participants. Some female words with affixes '-ette', '-ess' are addressed as diminutives which have derogatory and trivializing connotations generally. Some endearments can be classified as insults which sound demeaning, being applied more frequently to women than to men and which in fact reproduce asymmetric patriarchal power relations. Some advertisements deal with women's private experience which generates euphemisms and taboos. Most of them employ negative metaphorical structure which depicts incorrect female's experience and embodies the unfair treatment towards female.