The Analysis of Substitution and Ellipsis in English Advertisement

刘红

【Abstract】English advertisement which can be traced back to the medieval times has played a very important role in human society to help companies and organizations to promote their products or services， so， to make an advertisement coherent， more attractive and easy to understand is necessary. The use of substitution and ellipsis in English advertisement solves the problem effectively.

【Key words】English advertisement； coherence； substitution and ellipsis

English advertisement can be traced back to the medieval times and has more than four hundred years in history. The English word “advertise” comes from the ancient Latin word “advertere”， which means “to turn ones attention to”. “Advertisement” in this meaning， is an activity to lead the publics attention to something thats promoted aggressively.

Today， the advertisement has become an inseparable vehicle for modern companies and organizations to publicize their products or services. It is of great importance to make the products or services publicized sink in and accepted agreeably by the receivers. To achieve this， coherence is unavoidable to make comprehension complete. The use of substitution and ellipsis in English advertisement solves the problem effectively.

Substitution is the usage of one item to replace another for the purpose of avoiding repetition. “The substitution serves as a place-holding device， showing where something has been omitted and whats grammatical function would be.” （Halliday， 2000： 316） Ellipsis is the process of omission of one item in a sentence to achieve conciseness and cohesion. Though there is no such item occurring in the discourse， we can presuppose easily what kind of information is left out， so to create a kind of link between the sentences. Ellipsis is the proper way in which people tend to communicate for the common knowledge may not be mentioned every time while the conversation goes on.

Ellipsis and substitution are variants of the same type of cohesive relation. （Halliday， 2000： 317） Unlike reference is itself a semantic relation， ellipsis and substitution set up a relationship that is not semantic but lexico-grammatical—a relationship in the wording rather than directly in the meaning. To know the meaning of the ellipsis or substitution， readers have to go back and retrieve the missing words. Hence the missing words must be grammatically appropriate， and they can be inserted in place， so， we consider the grammatical functions when we classify them. There are three main contexts for ellipsis and substitution in English. These are （1） the clause， （2） the verbal group， and （3） the nominal group. （ Halliday， 2000）

lets see some examples.

Example 1，

1.Control at your fingertips. 2.The immaculate performance， exhilarating power and precise handling of a Lexus are all within easy reach. 3.Taking you closer to the road via a highly ergonomic instrument panel designed to be understood and operated quickly and intuitively. 4.So， whatever lies ahead， straight or winding. 5. Youll be able to feel the road right under your fingertips. 6.Visit your authorized dealer for a guest drive. www.lexus-asia.com. （Newsweek， Dec. 27， 2004/ Jan. 3， 2005）

We can see the first sentence in the ad is an elliptical one， and we may offer the missing ones by adding the subject and part of the predicate—You can. Sentence 3 is also an elliptical sentence in which the object and model verb are omitted. Then in the same sentence， ‘designed to be understood and operated quickly and intuitively is supposed to replace a relative clause to save time and space. In sentence 4， a noun ‘road appearing both in the previous and the following sentence is omitted. ‘straight or winding here means ‘straight road or winding road， so to highlight the main part of the sentence as well as make the sentences coherent in nature. Sentence 6 is an elliptical sentence which intentionally remove the subject to give an imperative meaning to suggest strongly to the audience. So， with substitution and ellipsis， the advertisers make the text more concise， coherent and pleasing to convey their most important points to the readers.

Example 2，

1.In a world full of strife， discover serenity. 2.Come to India. 3.Walk with the Buddha. 4.The human mind is full of greed， hatred， and ignorance—the reason why we live in a sea of suffering. 5.But the true Buddhist learns to rise above this wheel of life. 6.So come to the land of the Buddha and discover the path to peace and serenity. 7. Incredible India. www.incredibleindia.org. （Newsweek， April 25， 2005）

Incredible India welcomes you. In this way， the text saves a lot of efforts and money while presenting a text in a more attractively and economically appropriate way， achieves coherence within itself in expressing a main idea and adds to its infinite attraction.

References：

[1]M.A.K.Halliday.2000.An Introduction to Functional Grammar.Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

[2]M.A.K.Halliday & Ruqaiya Hasan.1976.Cohesion in English.[M].London：Longman.