Analysis of Ambiguous Expressions in Advertisement Slogans.

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Maranatha Christian University

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ABSTRACT

Tugas akhir saya membahas slogan yang memiliki makna lebih dari satu

makna. Saya memilih membahas topik ini karena saya ingin membantu pembaca

berpikir kritis. Slogan yang menggunakan kata yang memiliki arti lebih dari satu

seringkali menyebabkan salah pengertian. Hal pertama yang saya lakukan dalam

menganalisis adalah menemukan data berupa slogan dalam iklan yang

mempunyai ungkapan yang memiliki lebih dari satu arti dan mencari tahu jenis

kata yang memiliki arti lebih dari satu yang digunakan dalam slogan tersebut.

Setelah mengetahui jenis dari kata yang memiliki arti dari satu yang digunakan di

dalam iklan, saya mencari tahu beberapa interpretasi berdasarkan konteks,

gambar maupun latar belakang dari iklan tersebut. Untuk mengetahui arti

sebenarnya dari sebuah slogan dalam iklan, saya melihat seluruh aspek dalam

iklan tersebut, baik konteks, gambar maupun latar belakang iklan tersebut.

Hal yang membuat salah pengertian antara maksud pembuat iklan dan

pembaca adalah keterbatasan pengetahuan pembaca. Terkadang pembaca tidak

mencari tahu lebih lanjut tentang latar belakang dan arti lain dari kata dalam iklan

tersebut untuk mendapatkan kejelasaan. Untuk itu saya berharap dengan tugas

akhir yang saya buat dapat membantu pembaca untuk lebih kritis dalam

mengamati iklan. Karena dalam iklan terdapat aspek-aspek yang menarik seperti

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APPENDIX 1

NO SLOGAN TYPE OF

AMBIGUITY CAUSES

POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION REAL MEANING

1 2 CONTEXT PHYSICAL

CONTEXT

NIKE sneakers NIKE sneakers 2. Jazz goes to campus Lexical 3. Find your perfect match Lexical

ambiguity

polysemy “match”

a partner the readers can find the perfect product which

matches with the characteristic of

their skin

the readers can find the perfect foundation which forms

an attractive combination between their skin and the

colour of the foundation the face and the neck

anyone depends on the readers

Blistex Lip Tone an unclear

pronoun “I”

anyone who read the slogan

the model people who read the

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NO SLOGAN TYPE OF

AMBIGUITY

CAUSES POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION REAL MEANING

1 2 CONTEXT PHYSICAL something or to

eradicate any differences

the readers can get a similar condition, especially colour-wise, all through their faces by

using the product 6. Nothing soft comes out

no weak people but tough people came out from the Bronx

the fabric or material of the product (Jeans)

is durable or strong

the fabric or material of the product (Jeans) is durable or strong

7. Free to move Lexical ambiguity

polysemy “move”

the readers can make a step

the readers will feel comfortable to do lots of activities which included lots of

body movement by using Levi’s jeans 8. A fine work Lexical

ambiguity

polysemy “work”

the building is designed with a truly

artistic in order to make a architecture

pleasant place

work of art that is a very valuable

a building or apartment which has concepts as porcelain with Greek art decoration 9. A journey brings us face

to face with ourselves

Lexical ambiguity

an unclear pronoun

“us”

the readers and the LV’s product

Gorbachev who is travelling by using the LV’s bag especially the travel bag

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APPENDIX 2 THE

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Maranatha Christian University 1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Nowadays we can see a lot of advertisements in magazines, newspapers,

and on television. There are two kinds of advertisements. The first one is written

advertisements: we can find these advertisements in magazines, newspapers

and posters. The second one is electronic advertisements: we can find these

advertisements on television and radio. Advertisement can be a way of

communication; this means that through advertisements producers can deliver

the message to customers in order promote the product and the service so as to

get maximum selling.

Advertisement and advertising are ways to promote products or services.

Advertisement is a form of communication whose purpose is to inform customer

about products and services, and how to obtain and use the products or services.

Advertisements often contain both factual information and persuasive messages.

(www.wikipedia.com)

Advertisement functions as a means of communication. Advertisement is a way

to persuade people to do things, such as buying or using a product and voting for

someone. Advertisement can also be a way to inform of or launch products and

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products or services. The scriptwriters usually present their message briefly and

in an eye-catching way for the written advertisements, such as in magazines and

newspapers. They make it short and “jingly” for electronic advertisements, such

as on television and radio. (Aitchison 146) Thus, advertisements can also be

considered a form of entertainment through their pictures and language. Both

pictures and language can make advertisement fun and attractive.

Slogan is a part of language that is used in an advertisement to make an

advertisement more interesting. Slogan is an important factor to make the

advertisement better known. Slogan uses simple language and allusion. Slogan

can help people to know about the product or service, so people who read or see

the slogan can remember the product or service in the advertisement. Slogan

can also attract consumers to buy the product: when the readers read or hear the

slogan, they can be curious about the slogan, especially if the slogan contains

ambiguous expressions. The use of particular words or expressions is meant to

make the product or service well remembered.

However, some slogans in advertisements contain words or expressions

that are ambiguous. I find that the use of ambiguous expressions in

advertisements is interesting and challenging. It is interesting because the

expressions can attract people to pay attention to the advertisement. Ambiguous

expressions can also be challenging, owing to the fact that interesting

expressions can make the readers want to know what the real meaning is.

Ambiguous expressions in the advertisement slogans can lead people to have

different interpretations about the real meaning. That is why I want to search for

the real meanings of the expressions, so as to avoid misinterpretation between

scriptwriter(s) and consumer.

Considering the above explanation, I am challenged to focus on analysing

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advertisement slogans. The reason why I choose this topic is that I am interested in advertisements. I am interested in advertisements because

advertisements are familiar to most people. In my opinion, advertisements use

pictures and language that make the product or service interesting. And through

advertisement we can know about the product or service.

I have two reasons why I choose ambiguous expressions in

advertisement slogans to be discussed as my topic. First, I want to know why

some scriptwriters use ambiguity in their advertisement slogans. And the second

reason is because some advertisements use words or expressions with double

meanings that make the readers confused. So I think it is important for the

readers to know what ambiguity is and to understand what the scriptwriters

mean.

The significance of my topic is to help the readers not take the expression

literally when they read an advertisement slogan, in other words, to have critical

thinking. In this way, there will be less different interpretations between the real

meaning of the expression and the reader’s interpretation.

The linguistic area of my topic belongs to Semantics. And the approach I

use is Pragmatics. The method of research in gathering the data that I use is

library research. I choose library research because I use written data and some

theories to analyze the data. The written data is advertisements which are taken

from magazines, newspapers and the Internet.

Statement of the Problem:

1. Which part of the advertisement slogan contains ambiguity ?

2. What kinds of ambiguity are found in the advertisement slogans ?

3. What are the possible interpretations of the ambiguities ?

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Purpose of the Study:

1. To show the part of the slogan that has an ambiguous expression.

2. To classify what kinds of ambiguity are found in the data.

3. To show the possible interpretations of the slogan.

4. To show the real meaning based on the context.

Methods of Research:

The data is taken from magazines, newspapers and Internet in the form of

written data. First of all, I find the advertisement slogans that have ambiguous

meanings in some magazines, newspapers and on the Internet based on the

Semantics theory then I analyze the possible interpretations, and, lastly, I find the

real meaning of the expressions.

Organization of the Thesis:

This thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter, the Introduction,

includes the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Methods of

Research and Organization of the Thesis. I present the theoretical framework,

which is the explanation about the theory that I use to explain and discuss the

data, in the second chapter. In the third chapter, I present the data, analysis and

interpretation of the data. In the fourth chapter, I present the conclusion, what is

obtained from the research and my opinions based on the analysis and

interpretation. There is also the Bibliography, which consists of the sources of

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter I would like to draw some conclusions based on my

findings after analyzing the data in Chapter Three. Furthermore, I would also like

to present my comments related to the use of ambiguous expressions in

advertisement slogans. After analyzing the data in the previous chapter, I find

that ambiguity is evident in advertisement slogans, and the type of the ambiguity

that appears in the advertisements is lexical ambiguity. Due to the ambiguous

expressions, it is possible for the readers to have different interpretations, which

can cause misinterpretation. However, I find that the real meaning of the

advertisement slogans can be revealed by analyzing the context, physical context

and the background knowledge. Therefore, I believe it is important to notice the

whole advertisement even know the details of the advertisement.

From the ten data of advertisement slogans that I have analyzed, I figure

out that all of them contain lexical ambiguity, with various causes. Lexical

ambiguity is any possible ambiguity of interpretation based on a word or

statement. The causes of lexical ambiguity are an unclear pronoun, polysemy,

and homonymy. There are four data containing lexical ambiguity which are

caused by an unclear pronoun, the unclear pronouns that I find in my data are

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by polysemy, for example: the word “match” which means “a partner” and

“something combines well with another”. Two data are included as lexical

ambiguity caused by homonymy for example: the word “get even” means “to take

revenge” and “to eradicate any differences”. From the three causes of lexical

ambiguity, the use of an unclear pronoun is more dominant than the use of

polysemy and homonymy. An unclear pronoun is often used because the readers

can directly connect the slogan and the physical context to find the real meaning.

In my data, the use of structural ambiguity is not evident. Actually, it is

difficult to find an advertisement slogan containing structural ambiguity. The use

of an incomplete comparison and the use of a phrase with variant possibilities of

meaning in advertisement slogan might not be suitable for advertisement slogan.

It is said that to have a strong selling idea the advertisement must be simple and

clear. (Lane, King and Russell 484) Meanwhile, the use of structural ambiguity in

advertisement slogan will make the message unclear. Therefore, it is not easy to

find advertisement slogan which has an incomplete comparison and a phrase

with variant possibilities of meaning.

Background knowledge, context and physical context can be used to find

the real meaning. I believe that Linguistics, particularly Semantics and

Pragmatics can be applied in analyzing advertisement slogan to find the types

and the causes as well as the meaning of a word or a phrase. Pragmatics which

includes context and physical context can be used to limit the real meaning in

order not to make the readers misinterpret the purpose of the advertisement.

To find the possible meaning and the real meaning of ambiguous

expression in advertisement slogan, the readers need certain background

knowledge. Background knowledge is important because background knowledge

is used to analyze the meaning of a word or the origin of a product related to the

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give the exact meaning of the slogan, so the readers can know the real meaning

through examining the background knowledge of the advertisement.

Besides background knowledge, there are context and physical context.

Both context and physical context are used not only to limit the possible

interpretations but to find the real meaning. If the readers do not have

background knowledge about the product, the context and the physical context

can help the readers to know what the advertisement refers to. The readers can

make the ambiguous expressions clearer from the context and physical context.

Through the context, the readers can know some information about the product

as well as the benefit or the function of the product. Through the physical context,

the readers know clearly what the product or service that is offered. Both context

and physical context have related senses to make the slogan clearer to

understand because the physical context can visualize the context.

I notice that from the ten data of advertisement slogans that I have

analyzed the use of context, physical context and background knowledge is

varied. In six advertisement slogans, the real meaning can be revealed through

the context and physical context. In three advertisement slogans, the real

meaning can be obtained by examining the context, physical context and

background knowledge. It is only in one data that the real meaning can be found

merely through analyzing the context. In order to find the real meaning of

advertisement, the use of context and physical context is the most dominant.

From my analysis, I learn that in analyzing advertisement slogan, the

readers must pay attention to the whole advertisement. I notice that a scriptwriter

can apply background knowledge in the slogan and usually the background

knowledge is related to the product and it is used to emphasize the image of the

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I believe that advertisement is entertaining and interesting. It is

entertaining because advertisement uses pictures and languages that sometimes

can be trade mark in society. Advertisement is also interesting because the

diction can attract people’s attention to read the advertisement. Slogan in

advertisement is useful to summarize the theme of the product’s benefit briefly.

(Lane, King and Russell 496) In using ambiguous expressions in advertisement

slogan, there must be brief information in advertisement; the information can be

delivered through the context or physical context. Ambiguous expressions in

advertisement slogan is challenging because in order to find the real meaning the

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27 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Oxford: Blackwell

Publishers Ltd, 1997.

Dumaine, Deborah. Vest-Pocket Guide to Business Writing. USA, 1997.

Goddard, Angela. The Language of Advertising. London: Routledge, 2002.

Hornby, A. S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University

Press. 1995.

Hurford, James R, and Brendan Heasley. Semantics A Course Book. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press. 1984.

Lane, Ronald W., Karen Whitehill King, and J Thomas Russell. Advertising

Procedure. New Jersey: Pearson Education Hall. 2005.

Longman. Advanced American Dictionary. England: Pearson Education Limited.

2000.

Longman. Dictionary of English Language and Culture. England: Longman Group

UK Limited. 1992.

McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1992.

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Yule, George. The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1996.

www.google.com/historyofHondaJazz.

www.plaza-senayan.com

www.louisvuitton.com.

http ://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ advertising.