An analysis of language features in english advertisements

4.1.3 Interrogative Sentences

Another heavily used sentence pattern in English advertisements is interrogative sentence. In the explanation of the high frequency of the use of interrogative sentences, Linguist G.N. Leech (方薇, 1997:77) discusses two main functions of interrogative sentences. Viewing from the perspective of psychology, interrogative sentences divided the process of information reception into two phases by first raising a question and then answering it. Thus it turns the passive receiving into active understanding. From the linguistic perspective, interrogative sentences decrease the grammatical difficulty, because they are usually short in advertisements. Take the following interrogative sentence as an example: if it is asked to condense to one sentence???, the condensed one will be complex and dull.

A What’s in Woman’s Realm this week? A wonderful beauty offers for you.
B There’s a wonderful beauty offer for you in Women’s Realm this week.
Apparently, the sentence A is much more attractive to the audience than the sentence B.