RHETORICAL FIGURES IN TAGLINES: MCQUARRIE AND MICK’S CLASSIFICATION
Keywords:
Figurative Language, Advertisement Language, Figure of Speech, McQuarrie and Mick’s Classification of Rhetorical FiguresAbstract
The paper presents preliminary findings from an empirically-based investigation. Two main objectives of the study were to investigate how rhetorical figures are used in printed advertisements based on Classification of Rhetorical Figures by McQuarrie and Mick’s (1996) and to examine the frequencies of occurrences of each type. Eighty Taglines in advertisements from selected woman Malaysian edition magazines were analyzed to determine categories. Simple statistics as frequency and percentage were employed to examine the most to the least types used.
The findings revealed that there are thirteen types of rhetorical figures under the four levels of operational figures that were used to attract readers or consumers and help them to understand the concept and qualification of the product. The writing of the taglines mostly employed Substitution level and Destabilization level of operational figures. The most frequently used was Destabilization-Metaphor, followed by the occurrence of other top three styles, namely, Substitution-Hyperbole, Repetition-Alliteration and Destabilization-Pun, Substitution-Rhetorical Question, as well as Repetition-Assonance. The least frequently used types of rhetorical figures were Substitution-Metonymy, Repetition-Parison, and Destabilization-Paradox which were employed only once for each type.
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