The Discourse of Classified Advertising: Exploring the Nature of Linguistic Simplicity (Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics)

Linguists who have studied simplified varieties of a given language, such as pidgins or the language of care-givers, have tended to explain similarities in their structure by the fact that they use the same mechanisms of simplification. Bruthiaux tests this idea by looking at the structure of classified ads in American English, using a body of 800 ads from four categories: automobile sales, apartments for rent, help wanted, and personal ads. Bruthiaux's thesis is that strict, uniform constraints on space should result in uniformly simple texts, no matter which category they are in, and that any variation would be due to the particular needs of each category. To prove this he describes the linguistic structure of classified ads, and shows that they are characterized by a minimal degree of morphosyntactic elaboration. He then examines aspects of their conventions to highlight the role of pre-patterned and prefabricated segments whose collocational rigidity may force the inclusion of otherwise dispensable items. He finds that there is indeed significant variation across ad categories in terms of morphosyntactic elaboration, and concludes that this is due to a greater or lesser need to be explicit, as well as a greater or lesser anticipation of interaction. Finally, he examines the implications of these findings for the study of linguistic simplification and register variation. Contents......Page 14 1 Theoretical issues......Page 20 Linguistic simplicity and register variation......Page 23 Linguistic simplicity and linguistic theory......Page 25 Linguistic simplicity and the parameters of discourse......Page 28 Linguistic simplicity and innateness......Page 36 Register studies, linguistic simplicity, and classified ads register......Page 37 Aims and structure of the book......Page 38 The language of advertising and classified ads register......Page 40 Source and nature of the corpus......Page 48 Representativeness of the corpus......Page 53 3 Syntactic elaboration......Page 56 Definite articles......Page 58 Indefinite articles......Page 62 Pronouns......Page 66 Do auxiliaries......Page 69 Modals......Page 71 Negatives......Page 74 Be copulas......Page 76 Prepositions......Page 80 Relativization......Page 83 Lexical compounds......Page 87 Coordination......Page 89 Subordination......Page 94 Adjectival and nominal chains......Page 96 Economy language and ambiguity......Page 98 Classified ads register and syntactic elaboration......Page 101 Summary......Page 104 4 Conventionalization......Page 107 Idiomatic sequences......Page 110 Lexical collocation......Page 114 Structural collocation......Page 125 Conventionalization and discourse structure......Page 137 Auto ads......Page 138 Apartment ads......Page 141 Job ads......Page 142 Personal ads......Page 145 Summary......Page 147 5 Functional variation......Page 149 Definite articles......Page 151 First and second person pronouns......Page 154 Be copulas......Page 155 Patterns of distribution......Page 156 Functional analysis......Page 160 Definite articles......Page 161 Indefinite articles......Page 163 First and second person pronouns......Page 165 Relative pronouns......Page 166 Be copulas......Page 169 Prepositions......Page 171 Discussion and implications......Page 173 6 Classified advertising in its linguistic context......Page 177 Description......Page 178 Processing......Page 183 Linguistic simplicity and grammatical theory......Page 187 Suggestions for further research......Page 190 Appendix A: Summary of features of linguistic simplification......Page 194 Appendix B: Corpus selection criteria......Page 195 C......Page 197 N......Page 198 T......Page 199 Y......Page 200 Appendix D: Test of editorial interference in Recycler ads......Page 201 Notes......Page 204 References......Page 210 C......Page 221 F......Page 222 L......Page 223 R......Page 224 W......Page 225 9780195100327 Contents 14 1 Theoretical issues 20 Linguistic simplicity and register variation 23 Linguistic simplicity and linguistic theory 25 Linguistic simplicity and the parameters of discourse 28 Linguistic simplicity and innateness 36 Register studies, linguistic simplicity, and classified ads register 37 Aims and structure of the book 38 2 Situating the corpus 40 The language of advertising and classified ads register 40 Source and nature of the corpus 48 Representativeness of the corpus 53 3 Syntactic elaboration 56 Characteristics of syntactic elaboration in classified ads register 58 Definite articles 58 Indefinite articles 62 Pronouns 66 Do auxiliaries 69 Modals 71 Negatives 74 Be copulas 76 Prepositions 80 Relativization 83 Lexical compounds 87 Coordination 89 Subordination 94 Adjectival and nominal chains 96 Economy language and ambiguity 98 Classified ads register and syntactic elaboration 101 Summary 104 4 Conventionalization 107 Idiomatic sequences 110 Collocation 114 Lexical collocation 114 Structural collocation 125 Conventionalization and discourse structure 137 Auto ads 138 Apartment ads 141 Job ads 142 Personal ads 145 Summary 147 5 Functional variation 149 Cross-category analysis of features 151 Definite articles 151 Indefinite articles 154 First and second person pronouns 154 Relative pronouns 155 Be copulas 155 Prepositions 156 Patterns of distribution 156 Functional analysis 160 Definite articles 161 Indefinite articles 163 First and second person pronouns 165 Relative pronouns 166 Be copulas 169 Prepositions 171 Discussion and implications 173 6 Classified advertising in its linguistic context 177 Toward a multifunctional model of linguistic simplicity 178 Description 178 Processing 183 Linguistic simplicity and grammatical theory 187 Suggestions for further research 190 Appendix A: Summary of features of linguistic simplification 194 Appendix B: Corpus selection criteria 195 Appendix C: Glossary of abbreviations 197 A 197 B 197 C 197 D 198 E 198 F 198 G 198 H 198 I 198 K 198 L 198 M 198 N 198 O 199 P 199 R 199 S 199 T 199 U 200 V 200 W 200 X 200 Y 200 Appendix D: Test of editorial interference in Recycler ads 201 Notes 204 References 210 Index 221 A 221 B 221 C 221 D 222 E 222 F 222 G 223 H 223 I 223 J 223 L 223 M 224 N 224 P 224 R 224 S 225 T 225 V 225 W 225 # Publisher: Oxford University Press,USA # Number Of Pages: 224 # Publication Date: 1996-07-11 Linguists who have studied simplified varieties of a given language, such as pidgins or the language of caregivers, have tended to explain similarities in their structure by arguing that they use the same mechanisms of simplification. Bruthiaux tests this idea by looking at the structure of classified advertisements in American English, using a body of 800 ads from four categories: automobile sales, apartments for rent, jobs offered, and personal ads. Bruthiaux's thesis is that strict, uniform constraints on space should result in uniformly simple texts, no matter which category they are in, and that any variation would be due to the particular functional needs to each category. To prove this he describes the linguistic structure of classified ads, and shows that they are characterized by a minimal degree of syntactic elaboration. He then examines aspects of their conventions to highlight the role of prepatterned and prefabricated segments whose collocational rigidity may force the inclusion of otherwise dispensable items. He finds that there is indeed significant variation across ad categories in terms of syntactic elaboration, and links this to variation in the need to be explicit, as well as in anticipation of interaction between writer and reader. Finally, he examines the implications of these findings for the study of linguistic simplification and register variation. Bruthiaux examines the linguistic nature of classified advertising in English based on a broad corpus of advertisements. His study looks at variation in degree of syntactic elaboration and considers the role of conventionalization in this process.