Linguistic features of recreation activities advertisements in english versus vietnamese

Abstract

Based on the related theories of syntactic features, speech acts and stylistic devices, this study makes an investigation into linguistic features in recreation activities advertisements in English versus Vietnamese. In order to achieve the goal, a combination of several research methods such as the descriptive method, the analytic method, the comparative method, the discourse analysis method and the data analysis method is used throughout the thesis. The data for analysis in this thesis are 120 samples ranging from 150 to 350 words (60 in English and 60 in Vietnamese) which were taken mainly from English – speaking countries namely the United State of America, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. In the analysis, the characteristics of ERAds and VRAds in terms of syntactic features, speech acts and stylistic devices clarified in the study show how the recreation activities can have a great impact on customers' feelings. The syntactic features with the passive voice, the conditional sentences and the imperative sentences not only present the requests and the advice from the advertisers, but also focus on the activities’ features and the benefits the customers can obtain from them. Besides, speech acts are used to describe the directives and the commissives in both ERAds and VRAds. In addition, repetition, personification, simile and hyperbole are also exploited in the stylistic devices to express the figurative features of ERAds and VRAds which successfully used to attract customers. Finally, the similarities and differences between ERAds and VRAds are clearly analyzed to provide an overall view of the thesis. The research is carried out with the hope of adding the beneficial information for teaching as well as learning of English and Vietnamese recreation activities advertisements. Besides, the study also suggests some implications for English learners who are interested in the field of recreation activities advertisements.