An Analysis of Descriptive Features in the English used in an Advertising Text

The goal of advertising is the persuasion of a customer of the merits of a particular product or service. Whatever the strategy advertisers employ in order to influence the consumer, language is the main carrier of the message. Among the components of advertising (visual images, words, logos, brand names, graphic designs and so on), words play a key role since by them the audience is able to grasp the advertising message (Dyer, 1982; Nga, 210) . In advertising, copywriters use English words to project the product or service they are bringing to the audience’s attention in the most attractive fashion. Copywriters use English quite distinctively; they sometimes employ the descriptive style of writing to present their messages. The rationale is that description makes the information more intriguing and engaging for the audience. The primary objective of description in advertising is to frame an image of a product in the minds of the consumer through sufficient details and allow them to experience the product through their five senses. Description in advertising creates a dominant impression, an overall attitude, mood or feeling about a product or service. In the current paper, the writer has analyzed the descriptive elements in the English used in an advertising text in a newspaper in Ghana. The theoretical framework that was adopted was Fairclough’s (1992) Three-Dimensional Model Theory and the qualitative research design was employed for the study. The descriptive features that were realized in the selected advertisement (henceforth advert) were sensory details, figurative expressions, modifiers and picturesque vocabulary. The description of the advertising text was effective, in that, it left the reader with a clear impression: a craving for the Castle Milk Stout alcoholic beverage that was advertised. Keywords: Advertising, description, English, persuasion, Castle Milk Stout

Grammatical Attributes in the Language of Communication: Conceptualization of Time, Tense and Aspect in English

Time is a concept which is related to our perception of reality. A vast majority of languages have mechanisms which enable the speakers to express time. Many languages have grammatical means that   make it possible for users to express the time when an action or event occurs. Among these languages, most of them also express time with a verb, and more specifically, with various verbal tenses. The verbal tense, a grammatical category which differs significantly from one language to another, may also be considered a grammatical component of time. Verbal tense can provide us with a particular kind of insight into our perception of chronological time which is expressed with and within the tense of the verb. Tense is concerned about how events are located, perceived and referred to along the past-present-future timeline. Aspect is about the manner in which a verbal action is experienced or regarded.  In general linguistic approaches, tense and aspect are treated as complementary ways of encoding time. They relate the happening described by the verb to time in the past, present or future. However, tense differs from aspect in showing the time reference, while aspect shows how the action or state of the verb is envisaged or seen as happening or occurring. Time, tense and aspect are inter-related concepts; time is usually perceived in relation to tense and aspect.  In the current paper, it is the author’s conviction that knowledge in the distinction between the three concepts (time, tense, aspect) will enable English speakers to communicate better, grammatically. Keywords: Time, Tense, Aspect, Grammar, English, Communication. DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/92-03 Publication date:August 31st 2020

Aristotelian Rhetorical Theory as a Framework for Analyzing Advertising Texts in the Print Media in Ghana

Advertisements are fashioned in diverse forms, but in most of them, language is absolutely essential. Although visual images, graphic and color designs and other techniques constitute aspects of print advertising, it is the language of the advertisement that enables consumers to identify a product and remember it. Indeed, language has a powerful influence on readers and their behavioral patterns. The English Language is employed in the print media in Ghana as a means of communicating information about goods and services with the goal of persuading the consuming public to take purchasing decisions. In the current article, I applied Aristotle’s Rhetorical Theory to the analysis of persuasive elements in the English used in advertisements in Ghanaian newspapers. The qualitative research design was employed in the study as the corpus was solely from written documents. The findings of the study demonstrated that copywriters in the Ghanaian print media employed Aristotle’s three artistic proofs, namely, logos, pathos and ethos in the English of advertisements for persuasive effect

The Use of Grammatical Elements to Achieve Persuasion in Advertising in the Print Media in Ghana

Advertising is a type of communication whose ultimate goal is to persuade potential customers of the good qualities of products and services. There are various strategies that advertisers employ in order to persuade their customers to take purchasing decisions. One of them is the designing of an advertisement in which the pictorial images and other graphic designs are prominent. Another persuasive technique is the use of language to transmit the advertising message. In this regard, copywriters employ language in an attractive way to achieve persuasion in advertisements. It is worth postulating that although a number of persuasive strategies are available in advertising, language is integral in the communication of information. The focus of the current study was the use of grammatical elements in the English of advertisements by copywriters in the newspapers in Ghana for persuasive effect. The qualitative research design was employed and the study was underpinned by the Standard Theory of Generative Grammar. The current study proved that copywriters in the print media in Ghana employed imperative and declarative sentences, nominal phrases, the second person personal pronoun and modifiers such as adjectives and adverbs for persuasive effect. Keywords: Grammatical Units, Standard Theory, Advertising, Advertisement, Advertiser, Copywriter, English language, Print media, Persuasion, Communication. DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/85-05 Publication date: November 30th 201

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Composition of volatiles from fermenting pollen dough and attractiveness to the small hive beetle Aethina tumida, a parasite of the honeybee Apis mellifera

The response of the small hive beetle (SHB), Aethina tumida Murray, to volatiles from a pollen-based diet conditioned by the feeding of 100 adult virgin female or male SHBs (4–8 weeks old) for 1, 3, 7 or 14 days is described and compared to that of the same diet inoculated with the yeast Kodamaea ohmeri (NRRL Y-30722), isolated from the beetle. In a wind tunnel, volatiles from pollen dough conditioned by beetles of either sex for 3 or 7 days lured significantly more beetles into traps than volatiles from unconditioned dough. In contrast, trap captures with volatiles from dough conditioned for 1 and 14 days were weakly attractive. In cage bioassays, when naïve, unfed, virgin, SHBs (3–4 days old) were given a choice between yeast-inoculated pollen dough and non-inoculated dough, the responses were similar to those obtained in the wind tunnel with dough conditioned by SHBs for 3 and 7 days. Chemical analysis revealed high levels of fermentation-related products in volatiles that attracted the beetle