Copywriting life hacks: conceptual structure of electronic gadget advertisements in English

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Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University

Copywriting life hacks: conceptual structure of electronic gadget advertisements in English

Pavkin D.M. Ph.D. in Linguistics, Associate professor



Abstract

In the consumerist society of the 21st century, advertisement has become an inalienable part of human life. To create it, copywriters apply various strategies and techniques in order to influence the mind of people urging them to buy the item they promote. The aim of the article is expose these mechanisms of influence by analyzing the conceptual structure that underlies English-language written texts advertising electronic devices. This structure is modeled via employing the notion of semantic roles and the methodology of semantics of lingual networks (namely, basic propositional schemas) and theory of conceptual metaphor. As the analyzed empirical data show, advertising texts contain three informational foci/roles: PRODUCT, CONSUMER, and MANUFACTURER. Each role can be described with the help of multiple characteristics that viewed as predicates of five basic propositional schemas. By highlighting these features advertisers showcase the fortes of the gadget thus attracting attention of potential buyers and triggering their desire acquire it. The article exposes the combination patterns of the roles and the frequency of usage of their features (some of which are described metaphorically) to deduce an ideal formula copywriters can apply in creating texts that advertise electronic gadgets. Such a perfect advertisement text must present a novel and user-friendly but affordable gizmo of small size and minimal weight that displays seamless performance because of its high-tech hardware and state-of-the-art software. It is increasingly human-like in its features and operations, which makes it a perfect companion for people both in work and in games enabling them to leverage the gadget in a whole gamut of functions.

Key words: advertisement, basic propositional schema, conceptual metaphor, consumer, copywriter, electronic device/gadget, manufacturer, product, role.



Анотація

Павкін Д. М. - Ph.D. in Linguistics, Associate professor, Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University

ПОРАДИ КОПІРАЙТЕРУ: КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНА СТРУКТУРА АНГЛОМОВНОЇ РЕКЛАМИ ЕЛЕКТРОННИХ ПРИСТРОЇВ

У суспільстві споживання початку 21 століття реклама супроводжує людину всюди. Для її створення копірайтери застосовують різноманітні техніки і способи впливу на потенційного споживача, аби змусити його придбати рекламований товар. Стаття має на меті виявити такі механізми впливу шляхом аналізу концептуального підґрунтя англомовної реклами електронних пристроїв. Моделювання цієї концептуальної структури здійснюється шляхом застосування запропонованих різними школами когнітивної лінгвістики понять семантичної ролі, базисних пропозиціональних схем та концептуальної метафори. Як свідчить проведений аналіз, досліджувані рекламні тексти містять три інформаційних фокуси (ролі): ВИРІБ, СПОЖИВАЧ та ВИРОБНИК. Кожна роль описується за допомогою від 10 до 23 характеристик, які розглядаються як предикати п'яти базисних пропозиціональних схем і покликані наголосити на перевагах рекламованого пристрою, які мають викликати в читача бажання купити цей гаджет. Виявлені в статті моделі комбінацій ролей та частота вживання певних їхніх характеристик дозволили вивести формулу ідеальної реклами електронних гаджетів. Вона має представляти потенційним покупцям інноваційний та зручний у користуванні пристрій, маленький і легкий, наповнений високоякісними деталями, які працюють на сучасному програмному забезпеченні. Рекламодавці повинні максимально «олюднити» свій гаджет, презентуючи його як чудового компаньйона для користувача під час роботи або дозвілля, здатного виконувати численні функції.

Ключові слова: базисна пропозиціональна схема, виріб, виробник, електронний пристрій/гаджет, концептуальна метафора, копірайтер, реклама, роль, споживач.



Introduction

In the early third millennium, advertisement has become part and parcel of our everyday life. Astute entrepreneurs bent on boosting sales and increasing their revenues utilize various communication channels trying to reach out to consumers via auditory, visual, and verbal means [20]. The latter ones largely rely on advertisement texts whose major goal is to attract the attention of potential buyers and offer arguments why they should acquire the advertised product or service.

Naturally, copywriters who create advertisement texts are professionally interested in the “textually determined ways” [26, p. 7642] to arrest the human intelligence long enough to get money from it [16, p. 316]. Such ways can be identified with the assistance of scholars who study different aspects of advertisement texts focusing on their structural elements [24], functions and pragmatic orientation [3; 7] as well as characteristic features of the language used in them [19; 22; 23].

The selling message in advertisement texts is meant to influence the mind of consumers and shape their model of the world [9] that is why it is expedient to approach the analysis of these texts from the vantage point of cognitive linguistics. Lately, such studies have been gathering momentum providing insights into the conceptual foundations of the organization of advertisement texts [2; 10; 12; 11; 25]. However, the scope of advertised in different languages products and services isn't totally covered by the existing research and leaves ample room for further studies in the field.

The topicality of the paper is stipulated by the methodology of conceptual analysis it relies on. I make use of basic propositional schemas that structure information about the components of еру advertisement texts under scrutiny. The prominence of their characteristics testifies to their importance in our mind making them must-haves for copywriters who should include them into the texts they create if they want average customers to buy gizmos featuring in such texts.

This article a i m s to expose the conceptual structure of English-language texts advertising electronic devices. The achievement of this goal made it necessary to solve the following tasks:

to identification of the informational foci (roles) of advertisement texts;

to expose their combinations in the texts;

to determine the characteristics of these roles and the frequency of their usage;

to reveal the conceptual structure of metaphors detected in the advertisement texts under scrutiny.

The object of the study in the article is English-language texts advertising electronic devices (smartphones, tablets, cameras). The subject matter of the research is the conceptual structure of these texts. The empirical data under analysis consists of 218 gadget advertisements in English that contain texts and pictures obtained from 48 printed periodicals.

The analysis of the advertisement texts is grounded on the methodology of cognitive linguistics. The informational foci that advertisement texts contain are viewed as deep cases, or semantic roles, (terms of Charles Fillmore [17]), which are performed by actors involved in producing and using electronic gadgets. The arrangement of the detected roles, relations between them, and their characteristics are modeled via the usage of basic propositional schemas (BPS) suggested by S.A. Zhabotynska in her semantics of lingual networks [5; 6; 27]. As the author of the conception claims, BPS expose essential relations between a human/thing and its properties or between several humans/things, thus revealing universal tenets that determine categorization and organization of information about the world. The analysis of the metaphors detected in the advertisement texts was conducted by leveraging the basic tenets of the theory of conceptual metaphor founded by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson [21]. The analysis allowed to reveal dominant cross-mapping patterns utilized by copywriters who construe advertisements of electronic gadgets. The methodology of quantitative analysis enabled to determine the frequency of usage and the combinations of these roles and their characteristics in the analyzed texts to establish their typical patterns of organization.

Having its roots in the ancient times, advertisement in the initial period of its existence took the shape of oral announcements yelled out by hired callers to inform consumers about goods and services offered nearby. With the spread of literacy, written advertisements began to appear eventually turning this sphere domain into a separate communication domain with its specific language, set of terms, rules of creating messages, and criteria of efficiency. All of them serve as incentivizing tools whose ultimate goal is to make the addressee change its behavior (mostly, consumer behavior is targeted). Texts with incentivizing dominant are used in other social spheres as well (here also belong electoral speeches, programs of political parties, reviews in mass media, etc.) but advertisement texts differ from those chiefly by the circumstances they are used in.

Conventionally, advertising occurs under disadvantageous or even outright hostile conditions. There is no direct contact between stakeholders of the process. Addressees come under parallel influence of competitors' advertisement messages and other data pieces contemporary information society unleashes upon them. They are often distrustful or dismissive of the content of advertisement texts or are even negatively predisposed towards the imposition of this kind. Moreover, advertisement faces certain limitations both of legal and ethical nature as to the employment in it potentially effective manipulation techniques.

Thus, advertisement is defined as the usage of a wide scope of means of communicating to people consumer characteristics of products and benefits of services with an overarching purpose to create a strong demand for whatever is advertised and enhance sales. It is an entire system of policies and techniques aimed at consumers that is able to initiate and facilitate the promotion of goods on the market. Also, advertisement can focus on informing the public about momentous events in the political, economic, and cultural life of a community to encourage its members' participation in them.

Advertisement addresses groups (housewives, youth, sick people, parents, gamers, etc.) rather than individuals, which conditions its depersonified character. However different these social clusters might be, advertisement is meant to attract new customers that is why it must be persuasive in its message. Such trustworthiness is achieved through special strategies that fall into two broad categories.

The first type called rational advertisement relies on real practical value of the advertised product. In it, a verbal message (text) plays the crucial role. The second type underscores psychologically valid (very often imaginary) characteristics and is termed emotional/ projecting advertisement. This type leverages nonverbal channels such as music, images, general stylistic design to influence the consumer. However, there is no clearly defined boundary between the two types since texts can also carry a strong emotional charge as well as pictures can furnish factual evidence. Moreover, advertisements appealing both to the rational mind and emotional sphere of a person are considered to be most effective since they cause a multi-dimensional impact on potential buyers. Gadget advertisements analyzed in the article belong to this mixed type having a verbal text as its primary tool.

An advertisement comprises both a verbal message and a combination of extralinguistic constituents (graphics, sounds, photos, etc.). Although images engage consumers' attention showcasing the product, it is the textual component that lets people supply the essential elements missing in the picture according to the communicative intention of the advertiser. An efficient advertisement is the one marked by the perfect unity of all components, yet the verbal text plays a pivotal role.

An advertisement text is universally recognized a peculiar text type that differs from fiction, sociopolitical, and even outreach texts in two ways. Quantitywise, a small-size text of advertisement is charged with large-volume content following the principle “many thoughts housed in a few words”. Quality-wise, the verbal means selected for an advertisement message must not only inform and persuade but also shape attitude to the product or service. And when such a message sticks in mind of large audiences and becomes a byword in everyday communication it is a telltale sign of the workmanlike mastery of copywriters who created this text.

Being a philological product, advertisement text complies with the laws of poetics adjusted to the peculiarities of the language it is written in. Thus, its impact on the public is attained via sounds, words and sentences, i.e. phonetic, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, and stylistic means.

Since audio perception is one of the benchmarks in human navigation in the environment, the acoustic organization of an advertisement text that comprises euphony, rhyming, and rhythmic pattern facilitates its comprehension and memorization of its content. In case the euphonic harmony of such a text is violated, its message becomes distorted and evokes inappropriate associations. Or a person simply has articulatory problems reading it.

The choice of suitable words is a real challenge for any copywriter who should convey the maximum amount of information utilizing as few words as possible. That is why each word in an advertisement text must be precise, relevant, and explicit. If any of them don't meet these requirements they must be removed from the text.

Grammatical categories of the words used in advertisement texts affect its perception as well. Typically, copywriters rely on nouns and verbs as highly semantically charged parts of speech to get their message through. The former are mostly concrete nouns that are called to conjure up an image in the consumer's mind. The latter are usually verbs in positive form of the present tense or in the imperative mood since they inform the potential buyer about the actions the manufacturer of the product wants them to perform. Also, the preference is given to the active voice because the passive voice is considered to slow down the advertising drive and hinder the comprehension.

Syntactically, advertisement texts abound in simple sentences. Sometimes, compound sentences are used but this happens when there is a need to enumerate the product's characteristics via employing homogeneous sentence parts.

The stylistic design of the advertisement text has a paramount importance since through it copywriters can achieve its expressivity and create an image that readers would remember. Such an image must activate associative reasoning of the consumer which conditions the narrative style used in the text.

The choice of stylistic coloring largely depends on the nature of the target audience but there are some expressive means universally favored by copywriters of most advertisement texts. Very often, they resort to neologisms related to the advertised object. If such words are well-placed and catchy, they are well remembered by the people thus building strong associative bonds with the advertised service or product. However, they should be made clear to the reader with the help of images or other auxiliary means, if necessary.

Among other stylistic devices that copywriters readily utilize are rhetoric question, periphrasis, antithesis, climax, and simile (very often implicit). The latter often takes the guise of a negative comparison where the promotion of a product relies not on highlighting its positive qualities. Instead, advertisers compare it to other products that consumers already know and have negative attitude to.

Another device frequently used by copywriters is pun grounded on polysemy and/or homonymy. To make it an efficient tool, advertisers must follow certain rules while creating it [23, p. 327]:

it should contain the word denoting the advertised object;

the new sense obtained as the result of pun should relate to the advertised object;

the target audience should be able to easily recognize pun.

One of the novel techniques leveraged by copywriters lately is stylistic discord which consists in using linguistic means unsymptomatic or even unacceptable in a certain communicative situation. Such violation of social conventions aims to project the desired influence upon the reader. Commonly, advertisers present an imaginary situation they wish to take place as the real- world one so the addressee is made to feel as if (s)he were a part of this situation.

The structure of written advertisement is a moot point among linguists. Some of them postulate the existence of six elements within it - title, subtitle, core text, caption, commentaries, and slogan. Others divide them into obligatory (title, core test, slogan) and auxiliary (subtitle, insertions and frames, caption, autograph). In this article, I will recognize the slogan, the title, the core text, and the echo-phrase as principal constituents of written advertisement.

The slogan is defined as a phrase that is easily remembered and embodies the essence of the advertised product's appeal [13]. Sometimes, the entire advertisement text consists of a brand name and a slogan that accompanies it. The slogan should trigger enduring association with the product and single it out among similar products of competitors. Its ultimate goal is to attract attention to the advertised object which is accomplished via the emotive charge created by dint of expressive vocabulary. The latter primarily encompasses words having a rich “connotative trail”, such as archaic and nonce words, as well as idioms and terms. Personal and possessive pronouns used in slogans and laconic syntactic structure of them (mostly, a simple sentence or even a phrase) generate an atmosphere of a friendly conversation. Communicative aim of such units is imperative, yet being encapsulated in the form of a statement or a question they are perceived as advice.

The title of the written advertisement contains the major sales pitch and chief advertising claim. It is the title that very often conditions the overall success of the entire message since it is located at the beginning of the text presenting the information that the viewer will read first. Thus, together with the images, the title draws the readers' attention becoming the principal driver of the message.

William F. Arens and Courtland Bove distinguish several types of titles [14, p. 28]:

promising ones, that promise high quality and value of the product;

provoking ones that attract the reader's attention and make them read the core test;

informative ones that furnish maximum information about the product;

inquiring ones that encourage readers to participate in the imaginary dialog hinting that the core text will contain an answer to the posed question;

imperative ones that urge into action.

The core text of the written advertisement “fulfills the promises” given in the title. Copywriters possess a certain degree of freedom in choosing its genre or style, presenting the information in the form of a narration or instruction, a monolog or a dialog. Yet, whatever its form, its content typically is divided into the introduction, the main body of the text, and the conclusion.

The introduction ushers the focal topic of the text. The main body enlarges on the sales pitch and showcases key benefits of the product or service appealing to the readers logic to persuade the that (s)he needs this very product. The purpose of the conclusion is to underpin the advertising message and dispel the reader's suspicions.

There are high demands placed on the main body of the core text. Any ambiguity or vagueness must be avoided. The idea should be conveyed to the reader in layman's terms. If it contains elliptical sentences, copywriters must take care to omit only irrelevant parts and preserve the essential information so that no obstacles for easy comprehension of the whole text would be created.

The main body of the core text can be arranged according to various communicative models:

inverted pyramid (the weightiest arguments are given initially and then the power of argumentation ebbs);

comparison (an unknown or unfamiliar notion is explained through its comparison with the more conventional one);

drama (a conflict and its solution are in evidence);

instruction (the potential consumer is told what to do);

dialog (the text contains an imaginary conversation);

riddle (the text starts with a question);

Sometimes, the core text may be absent altogether (thus, the advertisement consists only of the slogan and/or title) or feature a couple of concise sentences.

The echo-phrase is typically placed at the end of the written advertisement but most people never fail to read it (similarly to the slogan and the title). It is called to reiterate the main idea of the text and give the advertisement a completed form. As a rule, the echophrase is identical with the brand name, the brand name plus the slogan, or the brand name plus an image.

On balance, the text is vital for the success of the written advertisement. Following the rules of creating its chief elements and ensuring its reliability and trustworthiness are crucial factors on which the efficiency of the entire advertising campaign rests. Harry Carter in his guidebook “Effective Advertising” formulated efficiency rules each copywriter must adhere to while creating an advertisement text [15, p. 18]:

be simple;

be interesting;

be straightforward;

be affirmative;

steer by common sense;

give facts;

be brief;

be honest;

be like others and original at the same time;

stress the most important commercial arguments;

tell the reader what to do;

don't mention other brands.

To reach out to the potential customer, a copywriter creating a written advertisement must make use of the whole gamut of language means drawing upon stylistic and rhetoric tools as well. Modern approach to advertisement augments this list with the techniques developed in other sciences, notably psychology.

An advertisement text (much like any text, for that matter) serves as a source of general information about the language and the world. Moreover, it evokes multiple associations and cognitive structures in our mind. Consequently, a text as a semiotic system triggers a creative process of its comprehension, understanding, and interpretation. These cognitive mechanisms relate to reviewing and assessing the experience of humankind embodied in the descriptions of the world and facilitates cognition of it. Being viewed from this standpoint, a text (and an advertisement text as its kind) becomes an object of study in cognitive linguistics whose methodological findings are used in this article.

As the analyzed data show, the conceptual structure of English-language texts advertising electronic devices contain three participants that - according to Fillmore's taxonomy [17] - perform the semantic roles of agent (the doer of the action) and patient (the thing acted upon). However, this classification is too general to expose the specifics of the participants that feature in the analyzed texts so it would be more appropriate to use more concrete terms of MANUFACTURER and CONSUMER describing two different types of agent and PRODUCT that is used as a patient.

The relations between these roles are modeled by applying basic propositional schemas featuring in semantics of lingual networks (see Figure 1).

The relations between the roles correspond to the relations between the predicates of two action BPS where MANUFACTURER as a causer makes PRODUCT- factitive (causation schema) and CONSUMER as an agent acts upon PRODUCT-patient (contact schema). The information about each role is further specified in descriptions that highlight their qualities (qualitative BPS), time of usage/existence/manufacturing (temporative BPS), place of usage (locative BPS), psychic state of the user (mode of being BPS), actions of the manufacturers, users, or gadgets (state/process and contact BPS), components of gadgets (part/whole and inclusive BPS), users or manufacturers who own the gadget (ownership BPS), class of devices the gadget belongs to (classification BPS), and comparison of manufacturers, users, and devices to other objects (identity, similarity, and likeness BPS).

As our study has revealed, the total number of role usages is 365 which is about 1.6 times greater than the number of analyzed texts (218). Evidently, one in two advertisements contain more than one role. Example 1 contains the roles of PRODUCT and CONSUMER.

With the brand new TouchTab Dual Core range, there's something for everyone (People Magazine, 2013, p. 124).

In such cases, the advertisement text is split into information zones: typically, information about PRODUCT and CONSUMER is located in one zone and about MANUFACTURER - in another (see Figure 2).

Among the three roles, PRODUCT turned out to be the most frequently used (218 usages). These numbers show that PRODUCT is mentioned in every advertisement which seems quite natural since it is impossible to promote a gadget without giving its name, characteristics, and possible use cases:

With its fantastic display, great battery life and nippy performance, the Moto G has redefined what you should expect from a budget phone (Computer Shopper, 2014, p. 67).

ASUS ZENBOOK Do you believe in love at the first sight? It looks like nothing you've ever seen. It feels like nothing you've ever felt. It's breathtakingly beautiful. It's ultrathin - with a minimum thickness of only 3mm. It's ultralight - the brushed aluminum body weights only 1.1 kg. It's ultrafast - powerful Intel Core i7 processor (Stuff Magazine September, 2012, p. 9).

CONSUMER takes the second place as to the frequency of usage (92). The majority of texts containing an appeal to the user are highly personalized addressing an individual rather that a group of consumers. Such a technique is called to immediately attract attention of the potential customer, make them read through the advertisement, and trigger a reaction to it:

Collaborate, socialize, create and play with a monitor so interactive you'll need both hands! (Computer Shopper, 2014, p. 156).

MANUFACTURER is mentioned 55 times:

Over time, Sony has changed how you hear, capture and see the world around you. Now all our screen, camera and design xpertise has gone into our new smartphone, Xperia Z (Stuff Magazine September, 2013, p. 2).

If the manufacturer is a less popular brand than the one in Example 5, they try to give additional information about themselves:

Chillblast - the UK's most awarded PC Builder (Computeractive, 2014, p. 31).

Figure 1. Conceptual structure of the English-language advertisement of electronic devices

The analyzed advertisement texts display various patterns of role combination in them.

122 texts contain only one role, and that is PRODUCT:

Samsung Galaxy S4. White Frost. Black Mist (Stuff Magazine, August 2014, p. 134).

In the rest of the advertisements, several roles feature. The role combination models of such texts are:

* MANUFACTURER+PRODUCT+CONSUMER (49 texts):

We never mention Moore's Law, but 20 years is a long time in processors. The Novatech Ultrabook inspired by Intel, is powered by the latest 4th Generation Intel Core i7 processor, giving you amazing performance and stunning visuals at their best." (PC Pro November, 2014, p. 38);

PRODUCT+CONSUMER (43 texts):

LightWave enables you to do this without having to invest in a hodgepodge of expensive tools (3D World, 2014, p. 11);

MANUFACTURER+PRODUCT (6 texts):

ASUS. Inspiring innovation. ASUSfonepad - Fun & Call in One. Full 3G functions. Wide view HD Display (Maximum PC, 2014, p. 27).

Figure 2. Information zones in gadget advertisement

Now let's see what characteristics of each role are mentioned in the analyzed texts.

As for PRODUCT, its parameters are presented 622 times which is almost thrice as great as the number of the role usages (218). Typically, one advertisement features several characteristics of PRODUCT.

ASUS ZENBOOK. Do you believe in (a) love at the first sight? It (b) looks like nothing you've ever seen. It feels like nothing you've ever felt. It's breathtakingly

beautiful. It's (e) ultrathin - with a minimum thickness of only 3 mm. It's (f) ultralight - the brushed aluminum body weights only 1.1 kg. It's (g) ultrafast - powerful (h) Intel Core i7 processor (Stuff Magazine, September 2012, p. 9).

Viewed within the framework of semantics of lingual networks, the identified characteristics are the predicates of the five types of BPS. In Example 11, these are the qualitative subtype of the being schema (denoting user's emotions (a), (c), attractive appearance (b), (d), size (e), weight (f), and performance (g)) and the part-whole subtype of the possession schema (h).

The most frequently used characteristics of PRODUCT (48.7% of the total number) are those that belong to the being schemas. Over 93% of them represent the qualitative BPS, namely:

performance/power (40 usages):

High-end performance. High-end looks (Cosmopolitan, 2014, p. 111).

Ultrapowerful. Ultra fast. Ultra efficient (PC Pro, November 2014, p. 38).

size (34 usages):

Small camera with a big impact (Popular Science, 2014, p. 15).

Be your own label with the new ultra-slim Galaxy Alpha smartphone (Cosmopolitan, 2014, p. 111).

novelty (33 usages):

Lumix is the first camera of its type to shoot true-to-life 4К ultra HD stills and video (Stuff Magazine UK, 2014, p. 39).

With the brand new TouchTab Dual Core range, there's something for everyone (People Magazine, 2013, p. 124).

price/affordability (33 usages):

Google Nexus 7 offers a 7in screen, 32 GB of storage and an affordable price tag (Stuff Magazine, January 2013, p. 58).

Superb gaming performance for a sub-Јl,000 laptop (Stuff Magazine, September 2012, p. 9).

weight (30 usages):

It's ultralight - the brushed aluminum body weighs only 1.1 kg (Stuff Magazine, September 2012, P. 9).

user-friendliness, comprising convenience, reliability, portability, etc. (26 usages):

Tested. Reliable. Guaranteed (PC Pro, November 2014, p. 27).

Extremely easy to use, great solution for Backup, storage, and media sharing (Computeractive UK, 2014, p. 17).

A user-friendly interface that displays updates like news, Facebook newsfeed, trending tweets and weather information, all in one touch (Digit, September 2014, p. 15).

attractive appearance (24 usages):

Sleek, elegant and ultra light weight (PC Pro, January 2014, p. 39).

user's emotions (a desire to acquire, love, astonishment, satisfaction, etc.) the device triggers (15 usages):

Sturdy build, great looks and all-round design make the XPS12 to lust after (PC Pro, November 2014, p. 140).

This is easily the most pleasing gaming laptop (PC Pro, January 2014, p. 87).

high quality

Stunning picture and video quality (PC Pro, January 2014, p. 129).

Designed for the professional this machine doesn't skimp on quality or spec (Micro Mart, 2014, p. 25).

color (12 usages):

Where before there was just black or white, this fifth generation iPod gave us black, grey, pink, mustardy-green and blue (Mac Format UK, 2014, p. 111).

general evaluation based on the good :: bad opposition (naturally, stressing only the positive member) (10 usages):

A great e-reader with an easy-to-go lit touchscreen that can be tweaked extensively through its settings (Computeractive, October 2014, p. 30).

Premium Gorilla Glass design (Stuff Magazine, March 2014, p. 64).

uniqueness/exclusiveness (9 usages):

Our unique, award-winning TrancentMirror (Stuff Magazine, November 2012, p. 18).

The only smartphone with PlayStation 4 gaming (T3 Magazine, 2014, p. 4).

material (2 usages):

The new lightweight, metal-framed Galaxy Alpha is here (Glamour, 2014, p. 141).

It's ultralight - the brushed aluminum body weighs only 1.1 kg (Stuff Magazine, September 2012, p. 9).

The number of usages of other being schemas is around 3% each.

The temporative BPS informing about the time of existence of the advertised devices is present in 11 texts:

Fit for the future (Stuff Magazine, August 2014, p. 115).

Coming soon to sprint (PC World USA, 2014, p. 36).

The locative BPS informing about the location of the product features in 9 texts: copywriter advertise electronic

At home or at work, this monitor is made for users who demand the best (Computer Shopper, November 2014, p. 2).

Vertu. Handmade in England (Harper's Bazaar, 2014, p. 106).

The possession schemas discovered in 23.9% of total usages manifest two types of relations.

part/whole relations where the electronic device is a whole that has some constinuents (103 usages):

Му new Lumia 930, with a 20MP OureView Camera and a 5" full HD display means I get the perfect shot every time (Stuff Magazine UK, October 2014, p. 27).

inclusive relations where the gadgets is a container that has some content (46 usages):

Samsung Galaxy S3. 600 minutes. Unlimited texts. 1GB data (Stuff Magazine, November 2012, p. 138).

The action schemas were registered in 17.04% of total usages where the device may be:

an agent that performs some action - typically takes pictures, works, or helps people in their activities (77 usages):

The Xperia Z1 captures all your unforgettable moments on the world's best camera in a waterproof smaptphone (Stuff Magazine, February 2014, p. 64).

Changes photography (Stuff Magazine, October 2014, p. 39).

a patient that is acted upon by humans who created or design it (29 usages):

The Iconia W511 is made for on the move productivity (TechSmart, 2014, p. 5).

The laptop has been designed, developed and manufactured by Toshiba to be more reliable for your business -- whatever size it is (PC Pro, November 2014, p. 87).

The comparison schemas were detected in 6.3% of the total number of usages where they are represented by:

identity BPS where the device is compared to itself in an another epitome (6 usages):

Sony Xperia Zl. Best CAMERAphone (Android Magazine, 2014, p. 32).

The Chromebook is a Netbook, a laptop and a tablet! (Micro Mart, 2014, p. 25).

similarity BPS where the device is likened to an entity from the same conceptual domain (1 usage):

Pocket powerhouse (Stuff Magazine UK, October 2014, p. 98).

likeness BPS that is based on metaphor (32 usages) will be dealt with further.

2023. Випуск/Issue 97

The journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

In the classification subtype of the identification schema (4.5 of total usages), the advertised device is represented as a variety of products of its class (28 usages):

ASUS Transformer Book Flip - ultra-portable laptop with rotating touchscreen (Digit, October 2014, P. 7).

Infinity Xplorer X6-7400. Gaming Laptop with 4th Generation Intel Core (PC Format, 2014, p. 3).

CONSUMER that the texts advertising gadgets appeal to is mostly implicit. They are urged to do something, typically in the slogan. Experienced copywriters opt for this type of addressing potential customers utilizing imperative sentences that are comprehended by readers as ones that appeal to them personally.

Break the boundaries of work and play! (Stuff Magazine, January 2013, p. 191).

Get closer and see clearly (Stuff Magazine, December 2013, p. 30).

The features of CONSUMER in the analyzed texts are mentioned 206 times in 92 advertisements where this role is represented testifying to the fact that most texts with CONSUMER contain at least two characteristics of them. These characteristics are viewed as predicates of the four types of BPS.

With this camera, the moments you could never (a) capture (b) before are (c) now all (d) yours (Stuff Magazine, March 2014, p. 2)

In Example 53, predicates belong to the contact subtype of the action schema (a), the temporative subtype of the being schema (b) and (c), and the ownership subtype of the possession schema (d).

Quite understandably, a lion's share of such characteristics refers to the action BPS (84%) where CONSUMER is presented as:

an agent who plays, works, finds solutions, or generally employs the advertised device (149 usages):

I wanted a phone for whatever life throws at me (Stuff Magazine, September 2012, c. 27).

You'll do well to find anything quicker than PC Specialist's Vortex GT (Computeractive, 2014, p. 15).

a causer who creates new things with the help of the gadget (12 usages):

Draw, sketch and make slick documents (Stuff Magazine, November 2012, p. 19).

The new way to create and produce with S-Pen (Stuff Magazine, November 2012, p. 19).

a beneficiary who receives boons after acquiring/ using the device (8 usages):

It delivers an image that is so incredibly sharp and crisp, it gives you the best view in the world (Stuff Magazine, February 2014, p. 13).

The most advanced camera in the LUMIX range, it's the one for those who demand absolute quality behind the lens (Stuff Magazine UK, October 2014, p. 39).

a patient who is influenced by the gadget (4 usages):

After a couple of hours I was firmly won over (PC Format, 2014, p. 99).

The physician keyboard will keep you productive (TechSmart, 2014, p. 5).

The possession schema detected in 13 usages which constitutes 6.3% of the total number presents CONSUMER as an owner whose property is the advertised device.

Life's good when your phone can handle anything (Stuff Magazine, November 2012, p. 98).

It belongs to everyone (Digit, October 2014, p. 111).

The being schema features in 5.8% of total usages displaying the following information about CONSUMER:

his/her being fashionable (qualitative PBS - 6 usages):

You're stoke on-trend (Digit, October 2014, p. 11).

his/her time of existence (temporative BPS - 5 usages):

Move into a New Age (Stuff Magazine, March 2014, p. 2).

his/her psychic state (mode of being BPS - 1 usage):

Are you ready to run Android on a desktop machine? (PC World USA, 2014, p. 28).

The comparison schemas are less numerous (3.9% of total usages) where CONSUMER is presented via:

exposing his alternative ego (identity BPS - 1 usage):

Unleash the gamer within you (PC Pro, January 2014, p. 87).

likening him/her to another person (similarity BPS - 1 usage):

It's easy to shoot like a pro (Stuff Magazine, December 2013, p. 30).

comparing him/her to other objects (likeness BPS - 6 usages that will be dealt with further).

MANUFACTURER doesn't appear in advertisement texts quite often which can be explained by the strategy of copywriters to focus more on the parameters of devices and the way users can interact with it. So mostly, MANUFACTURER is mentioned in slogans as a brand name. Its features are used 74 times which is slightly more than the number of advertisements where it is present (55). These characteristics relate to the predicates of five BPS.

Chillblast - (a) the UK's (b) most awarded (c) PC Builder (Computeractive, 2014, p. 31).

Example 69 reveals the presence of predicates of the locative subtype of the being schema(a), the contact subtype of the action schema (b), and the classification subtype of the identification schema (c).

The greatest number of predicates belongs to the action BPS (70.7% of total quantity) where MANUFACTURER is shown as:

an agent that has produced PRODUCT and presents it in different ways (48 usages):

Over time, Sony has changed how you hear, capture and see the world around you (Stuff Magazine, September 2013, p. 2).

ASUS recommends Windows (Digit, October 2014, p. 7).

a patient that is acted upon by experts or users (4 usages):

Trust us to build you a champion's PC (PC Pro, November 2014, p. 99).

The being BPS is represented by 13.5% of predicate usages where characteristics of MANUFACTURER belong to:

the temporative schema (5 usages):

In 1994 Windows was the first choice for work. 20 years later it still is (PC Pro, November 2014, p. 39).

Shaping the Future of IT (TechSmart, 2014, p. 18).

the locative schema (4 usages):

Refurb - that is one of a select few Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers in the UK (Micro Mart, 2014, p. 100).

the being schema (1 usage) where the reliability of MANUFACTURER is emphasized:

Powered by Trust (Micro Mart, 2014, p. 100).

The comparison BPS feature in 9.5% of total predicate usages and are represented by:

the similarity schema (3 usages):

By artists for artists (3D World, 2014, p. 11).

the identity schema (2 usages):

DGM - innovation that inspires (PC Pro, January 2014, p. 38).

the likeness schema (2 usages) - will be dealt with further.

The identification BPS schema (its classification subtype) puts the MANUFACTURER within a certain class (3 usages):

Sony. Official partner. FIFA World Cup (Stuff Magazine, February 2014, p. 64).

The two usages of the possession BPS show MANUFACTURER as the owner of the device they produce:

Now all our screen, camera and design expertise has gone into our new smartphone, Xperia Z (Stuff Magazine, September 2013, p. 2).

As our study has revealed, 40 times advertisers employed the likeness subtype of the comparison BPS that is based on metaphor, which is an evidence of its relevance and efficiency as a marketing tool.

The tradition of studying metaphor can be traced back to the treatises of ancient poeticians and rhetoricians, first of all Aristotle [see 18] who considered it a violation of language norms serving the purpose of embellishment of speech or persuasion of the addressee. When analyzed within the framework of classical linguistics, metaphor was viewed as one of the ways of semantic word-building based on the analogy between the signified entities, a sort of a condensed simile [8, p. 49].

With the appearance of the now iconic book “Metaphors We Live by” by Lakoff and Johnson

metaphor stopped being regarded as a purely linguistic event. The scholars laid foundations of the theory of conceptual metaphor arguing that metaphor is a mental phenomenon which plays a crucial role in the categorization of the experiential world by humans. In fact, cognitive system that conditions our thoughts and actions is largely metaphoric helping people to comprehend vague and abstract notions by dint of employing more palpable and concrete ones [4, p. 180]. In such cross-mapping activity, not separate concepts but rather entire conceptual domains are involved.

The constituents of conceptual metaphor are the target concept/domain (which is the signified entity), the source concept/domain (which the target is likened to), and the ground of metaphor (the parameter along which the likeness is established). Let us analyze the conceptual structure of metaphors used in texts advertising electronic devices.

When PRODUCT is the target of metaphor, its source concepts belong to the domains HUMAN, ANIMAL, NATURAL PHENOMENON, and ARTEFACT.

Like HUMAN, a gadget may have certain mental characteristics (14 usages):

Effortlessly smart and intuitively simple (Stuff Magazine, November 2012, p. 141).

Samsung NX Mini. Smart Camera (Gadgets and Gizmos, 2014, p. 5).

or perform some typically human actions (5 usages):

Your eyewitness on the road! (Stuff Magazine, August 2014, p. 38).

Like ARTEFACT, a device can serve as a container of information (10 usages):

Your home multimedia storage (Computeractive UK, 2014, p. 17).

or become a weapon in cyberbattles (1 usage):

Choose your weapon (Maximum PC, 2014, p. 32).

Like lodgings of social ANIMALS, a gadget can incorporate assiduously working like bees elements (1 usage):

Hive inside (Digit, October 2014, p. 29).

Like a NATURAL PHENOMENON (air), a device can weigh almost nothing (1 usage):

Lighter than air (Stuff Magazine, August 2014, p. 15).

When CONSUMER serves as the target of metaphor, its source concepts are taken from the domains ARTEFACT and CITY.

Like ARTEFACT, a user can be a unique powered gizmo (3 usages):

You can take your PC with you wherever you go, and stay connected and powered all day long (PC Pro, November 2014, p. 39).

Be your own label with the new, ultra-slim Galaxy Alpha smartphone (Cosmopolitan, 2014, p. 111).

Like CITY, a user can become a center of style and fashion (3 usages):

You're Paris, Milan and Newcastle ^Cosmopolitan, 2014, p. 113).

MANUFACTURER as a source concept is compared to ANIMAL that can emerge victorious in the struggle for survival (2 usages):

The Winning Species (PC Pro, November 2014, p. 99).

Conclusions. The frequency and regularity of exposed patterns and numbers serve as a benchmark for determining the most efficient advertising strategies that can be further used as guidelines by copywriters who aim to successfully promote electronic devices.

Thus, the ideal advertising message shouldn't be overloaded with participants but focus on the advertised PRODUCT (56% of all analyzed texts). If the presence of several roles is found expedient, it is better to include the appeal to the CONSUMER and information about MANUFACTURER as well (22% of texts).

When describing PRODUCT, stressing its three key parameters in one text is most efficient. 23 such features were mentioned in the analyzed texts (see Table 1).

Table 1

Characteristics	Number of usages
	Absolute	Percentage
Constituent parts	103	16.6
Action (agent)	77	12.4
Content	46	7.4
Performance/power	40	6.4
Size	34	5.5
Novelty	33	5.3
Price/affordability	33	5.3
Likeness	32	5.2
Weight	30	4.8
Action (patient)	29	4.7
Classification	28	4.5
User-friendliness	26	4.2
Attractive appearance	24	3.9
User's emotions	15	2.4
High quality	12	1.9
Color	12	1.9
Time of existence	11	1.8
General evaluation	10	1.6
Uniqueness/exclusiveness	9	1.4
Location	9	1.4
Identity	6	0.9
material	2	0.3
Similarity	1	0.2
Total	622	100

Their frequency of usage allows for deriving a formula of a perfect text that would advertise an electronic device. To provoke the interest of potential customers, such a text should describe a state-of-the- art and user-friendly but affordable gadget of minimal size and weight that is powerful enough to seamlessly perform the expected functions (mostly, taking pictures or videos). The text should also inform about the components the device has (such as a display, camera, or keyboard) and underscore its useful “content” - apps or operating systems it supports.

If an advertisement text mentions CONSUMER, it should give at least two characteristics of his/hers. These should be selected out of the list of 11 parameters detected in the analyzed texts (see Table 2).



Table 2

Characteristics	Number of usages
	Absolute	Percentage
Action (agent)	149	72.3
Ownership	13	6.3
Action (causer)	12	5.8
Action (beneficiary)	8	3.9
Fashionability	6	2.9
Likeness	6	2.9
Time of existence	5	2.4
Action (patient)	4	2.0
Mode of existence	1	0.5
Identity	1	0.5
Similarity	1	0.5
Total	206	100

Judging from the frequency of the features, an ideal advertisement must urge CONSUMER to perform some action that presupposes interaction with the gadget that (s)he is going to obtain.

When MANUFACTURER appears in the advertisement, it is typically supplied with one chief characteristic out of the following roster (Table 3).

Table 3

Characteristics	Number of usages
	Absolute	Percentage
Action (agent)	48	64.9
Time of existence	5	6.7
Action (patient)	4	5.4
Location	4	5.4
Similarity	3	4.1
Classification	3	4.1
Likeness	2	2.7
Identity	2	2.7
Ownership	2	2.7
Reliability	1	1.3
Total	74	100

The displayed numbers show the necessity to mention active actions of MANUFACTURER related to PRODUCT. Such actions are typically producing the device or recommending certain software to make the most of it.

To make the advertising message more expressive, copywriters can resort to metaphors. The most efficient ones liken the electronic device to a person, imparting it with inherently human features and actions and thus turning it into a valuable companion for the user in his/ her working activities or leisure-time entertainments.

The prospects for further research pertaining to written advertisements lie in analyzing similar texts promoting other groups of products (for instance, vehicles) and comparing their conceptual structure with the ones examined in this article.



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