An analysis of language features in english advertisements

3.4 Coinages

Coinage is a word or phrase recently invented (Longman: 263). Language is always developing with the passage of time. We are familiar with such words as “brunch”, “multiversity”, “babysitter” and so on. They are all coinages. New products and services are emerging in an endlessly stream. Advertisers are good at word invention. These factors influence the language of advertising. As a result, coinages are born continuously and endlessly.

There are many methods to create new words, such as compounding, derivation acronym, etc. A number of coinages in advertisements are names or brands of products. For example, cellophane refers to thin transparent material used for wrapping goods. It comes from cellulose and diaphane, two raw material names of cellophane. “Cellophane” is a compound word. ??? “Cellophane” is not a compound, but a clipped word. !!!A compound word is often a noun or an adjective made up of two or more words but it functions as a single word. Compound adjectives are often seen in advertisements. In the present study, ??? we found compound words turn up much more frequently in technical equipment advertisements with the rapid development of high-tech. For example:
The new four-wheeled servo-assisted disc brakes …
Compound words in technical equipment advertisements usually give an exact description of a certain feature or a certain function. Let’s examine such compounds as high-volume, full-color, multi-functional, non-stop, and water-cooled. Often numbers are employed in front of the hyphen, which is seldom seen in other advertisements, such as 64-bit, 24-valve, 4-wheel, 255-horsepower.
In comparison with daily consumer goods and services, technical equipment is much more complicated in function and structure. It is just the advantageous function or newly designed structure that the advertiser wants to highlight in technical equipment advertisements. The advertiser employs, even coins??, so many compound words that they can make the introduction of complicated technical equipment brief and precise. Grammatically, compound words help to avoid using clause, which enhance the readability of advertisements.
More examples:
Slimnastics means gymnastics that slim you down.
Housemaker is used instead of housewife in advertisements to avoid the meaning of tiring housework.
Weddingwhite is a reminder of a white wedding gown.
Powerpack accumulates huge amount of energy and power.
Another main method is using prefixes and suffixes to create new words in advertisements. Word choice in advertisements is flexible. In advertising language, a lot of words begin with super-. Most of these words are usually rhetorical. Some others end with –ex, which tends to be associated with the word excellent. For example, Kleenex (a brand of tissue) is a combination of clean and excellent. Windex (a kind of window detergents) conjoins window and excellent. More examples:
Washmatic and hydromatic comes from automatic. The suffix –matic associates with a machine or equipment.
Booketeria and valeteria (a place in a hotel offering pressing clothes service) come from cafeteria. –teria means places offering things or service.
Motorama comes from panorama. –rama means view.
Footique and bootique come from boutique, a French word, which means a small shop for women selling up-to-date clothes and other personal articles of the newest kind.
New words are created outright to fit some purpose. These coinages reflect the ability of advertising language to keep up with the changeable market. “Madison Avenue has added many new words to English, such as Kodak, nylon, Orlon, and Dacron. Specific brand names such as Xeron, Kleenex, Jell-o, Frigidaire, Brillo, and Vaseline are now sometimes used as the general name for different brands of these same types of products” (Victoria & Robert: 120).