Speech Acts on McDonald’s Slogans and/or Headlines in Written Advertisements

Stefany Juliwati

doi:10.9744/katakita.8.2.192-200

Speech Acts on McDonald’s Slogans and/or Headlines in Written Advertisements

Stefany Juliwati^(1*),

(1) Petra Christian University, Jl. Siwalankerto No.121-131, Siwalankerto, Wonocolo, Surabaya
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study of speech act was to find out about the illocutionary functions and the relationship between structural form and its communicative function. The source of the data is 24 written advertisements as published in the website Bored Panda. The data of this study are the 34 slogans and/or headlines found in the selected 24 McDonald’s’ written advertisements. The writer used qualitative approach. The theories applied consist of speech act, context and modes, body language, and copywriting. The findings reveal that regarding illocutionary functions, representatives serve as the most frequent type, followed by expressives and directives. The absence of comissives indicates that using promises/threats to promote is not a good promotional strategy. Meanwhile, the absence of declarations indicates the copywriters’ non-existent institutional roles to perform the act. All (34 out of 34) the speech acts have direct relationship between the structural form and communicative function.

Keywords: speech acts, slogans, headlines, advertisements.

Full Text:

PDF

References

Allan & Pease, B. (2004). The definitive book of body language: How to read others’ thoughts by their gestures. Australia: Pease International.

Chiappini, F (Ed.). (2009). The handbook of business discourse. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.

Glenn, C. & Gray, L. (2013). The hodges harbrace handbook (18th ed.). US: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Griffiths, P. (2006). An introduction to English semantics and pragmatics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.

Moriarty & Mitchell & Wells. (2012). Advertising & IMC: Principles and practice (9th ed.). Bergen County, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Paltridge, B. (2012). Discourse analysis: An introduction (2nd ed.). USA: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Schneider, S. McMarketing: McDonald’s marketing and advertising hits and pits. JotForm. JotForm.inc. Retrieved on 30 September 2019 from https://www.jotform.com/blog/mcmarketing-mcdonalds-marketing-and-advertising-hits-and-pits/.

Sibarani, I. (2017). Realization of speech functions in shampoo’s slogan in television advertisement. International Journal of Linguistics, 9(3), 37. doi:10.5296/ijl.v9i3.11123.

Tom. (2010). 31 Creative ads from McDonald's: Are you loving it?. Retrieved on 20 April 2020 from https://www.boredpanda.com/31-creative-ads-from-mcdonalds-are-you-loving-it/?utm_source=google.

Tortora, C. (2018). Understanding sentence structure: An introduction to English syntax. US: John Wiley & Sons.

Yule, G. (2008). Pragmatics. UK: Oxford University Press.

Yule, G. (2010). The study of language (4th ed., p. 133). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Yulianti, R. & Ardi, H. (2013). Types of illocutionary act used in slogan of home appliance advertisement. English Language and Literature E-Journal, 2(1), 231. Retrieved from http://ejournal.unp.ac.id/index.php/ell/article/view/2413.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.9744/katakita.8.2.192-200