Advertising and the Spanish Language
Item 8: Advertising
1. Communication:
Advertising communication is a type of persuasive communication. The text seeks to attract consumers to advertising, causing the desire to acquire the product.
Language/Communicative Functions in Marketing Communication:
- Conative Function: It aims to have an impact on the receiver’s behavior. There are plenty of imperatives and second-person verbs.
- Representative Function: Describes the characteristics of the product, highlighting its positive aspects.
- Aesthetic Function: The advertisement seeks to surprise and delight to achieve seduction.
- Phatic Function: The advertising message is redundant (repeated) to keep the recipient’s attention focused on the product.
Advertising is not always intended to attract consumers to a brand; sometimes, it seeks to promote one behavior or prevent others. This is the case with institutional advertising.
Another special type of advertising is propaganda. Propaganda seeks the adherence of receptors to particular ideological values (e.g., campaigns).
Any advertising communication is always terse (short) and impactful.
- The Slogan: A concise and witty phrase.
- The Brand: The proper name of a product. Some brands become generic (e.g., Aspirin, Pan Bimbo).
- The Logo: The visual representation of the brand.
2. Advertising and Publicity:
Publicity is one of the phenomena of our time.
Advertisers are the people responsible for designing marketing campaigns. They decide the strategies of consumer persuasion.
Campaign Phases:
- Market Research and Definition of Consumer Product Type.
- Development of the Advertising Message.
- Decision on the Right Time and Duration of the Campaign, and Selection of Media.
For advertisers, some products are easier to sell, while others that cost more to sell are called “hard selling” and require more complex sales strategies.
Levels of Campaign Effect:
- Cognitive: The consumer must receive product information.
- Affective
- Behavioral
3. The Advertising Message:
Here we distinguish three parts: verbal message, iconic message, and inferred message.
3.1 The Verbal Message:
The verbal message is the language of the ad. It consists of explanatory text (if present) and the slogan.
In written announcements, the iconic component is essential (e.g., Osborne bull, Michelin doll).
In TV spots (or commercials), the image is in motion. In these and in radio ads (or commercials), sound effects also matter, especially the melody (jingle).
The Spanish Language in the World
1. Unity in Diversity:
In Spain, as in the Middle Ages when Castilian began to spread throughout the Peninsula, differences began to emerge between geographical areas. This is how the Castilian dialects formed two large groups: Northern speech and Southern speech.
1.1 The Key Role of the Language Academies:
Currently, there are 22 Academies that oversee the proper use of Spanish:
- The oldest is the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE). Its motto is “cleanses, fixes, and gives splendor.” It was created in 1713. Its current director is José Manuel Blecua.
The Cervantes Institute is a public institution created by Spain in 1991 for the promotion and teaching of the Spanish language and the dissemination of Spanish and Hispanic culture worldwide.
Spanish Dictionaries:
- The Dictionary of the Spanish Language dates from 1739. It was called Diccionario de Autoridades.
- The Etymological Dictionary: Castilian and Hispanic, by Joan Corominas. This is the most comprehensive work on the origin of Spanish words.
- The Dictionary of the Use of Spanish, by María Moliner.
- The Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts, by the RAE and the Association of Spanish Language Academies.
2. Spanish in the World:
Castilian or Spanish is the fourth language in the number of speakers, behind Chinese, English, and Hindi. It is spoken by over 400 million people worldwide.
Increased migration has spread knowledge of the language.
Apart from English, Spanish is the only European language that continues to grow.
2.1 Spanish in the U.S.:
Spanish is the second language of the United States and is studied in schools as the first foreign language.
The media play an important role in maintaining and standardizing Castilian. Currently, there are more than 500 radio stations that broadcast at least some hours in Spanish.
2.2 Interference Between Spanish and English: Spanglish:
Although the media are trying to standardize the language and use standard Spanish, it is inevitable, especially in spoken language, that dialects or bilingualism occur.
In this way, forms of speech are emerging that mix English and Spanish, with expressions such as “parking the car,” “save this roppa in the closet”…
3. Spanish on the Web:
Although Spanish is the fourth most spoken language in the world, its situation on the Internet is not comparable because its impact on the network is still minimal.
The digital press has been experiencing remarkable development for years, and, in addition, each day more works are available through public domains, such as the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library.
4. Latin American Spanish
4.1 The Castellanization Process:
When, in 1492, the discovery of America led to Castilian settlers carrying a linguistic substratum formed by a large number of indigenous languages (Aztec, Maya, Quechua, Guarani).
This linguistic variety represented a barrier to colonization, and from the beginning, efforts were made to extend the use of Castilian.
4.3 Characteristics of Latin American Spanish:
Latin American Spanish is an extension of the Spanish spoken in Spain in the 16th century and had a first stage of adaptation and leveling in the West Indies, where the conquest and colonization of the continent began.
Phonic Features:
- Seseo: This phenomenon dates from the 16th century. Some countries say it is the unifying feature; it is present in all dialects.
- Yeísmo: Consists of the confusion between the phonemes represented by the letters (y) and (ll).
- Weakening of /s/ at the end of a syllable or word: In most cases, it is aspirated or even lost.
- Confusion of /r/ and /l/ in the final syllable position: E.g., arma (alma), algo (algu).
Grammatical Features:
- Voseo: This is the original and characteristic phenomenon of Latin American Spanish. The pronoun “vos” is used instead of “tú.”
- Regarding nouns, the tendency to form feminine analogs stands out.
- It is characteristic of Spanish in the Americas to employ redundant subject pronouns in the first and second person singular.
- There is also a greater tendency to postpone unstressed pronouns.
- Adverbialization in conjunction with adjectives.
- For verbs, the predominant form of the present perfect is the simple past (I came) which almost supersedes the present perfect (I have come).
- Finally, it should be noted that the use of “donde,” “cuando,” and “como” as relative pronouns is widespread.