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b. Grammatical Features
Language consists of several words that are formed into the composition of the sentence, clause, and phrase. Grammars define a sentence in such term as
„the complete expression of a single thought‟. A sentence has a „subject‟ = the topic and a „predicate‟ = what is being said about the topic Crystal David,
1987: 94. A clause is a syntactic unit consisting of subjct and predicate which alone
forms of a simple semtence and in combination with others forms of a compound sentence or complex sentence. Sometimes expressed as a unit lager than a phrase
but smaller than sentence. Asher, 1994: 5101 A phrase is a syntactic construction which typically contains more than
one word, but which lacks the subject-predicate structure usually found in a clause. Phrase are classified into types based on the most important word they
contain. Grammatical features in the advertisements consist of three elements; they
are sentence structure, types of sentence and ellipsis.
i. Sentence Structure
The first elements of grammatical features is sentence structure. A sentence has five elements; those are Subject S, Verb V, Object O,
Complement C, and Adverbial A Quirk and Greenbaum, 1972: 36. Sentences are divided according to their structure into three classes
– simple, compound and complex.
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Simple sentence is the most „simple‟ type of sentence structure, where the
sentence comprises just one independent clause Simpson, 2004: 59 Simple sentences only have one main clause. For example: She is obsessed with elephants
Wales, 2001: 356. Compound sentence, the term compound sentence is used to describe
structures which have more than one clause in them, and these clauses are of equal grammatical status Simpson, 2004: 60. A compound sentence contains two or
more independent propositions. The compound sentence consists of different independent propositions or members. These members may be two or more
simple sentences, or one member may be a simple sentence and the others complex sentences, or there may be any combination of simple and complex
sentences. In compound sentences, the clauses are linked by coordination such as and, or, but.
For example in the sequence from Hemingway‟s The Old Man and the Sea
: “They sat on the terrace and many of the fisherman made fun of the old
man and he was not angry” Hemingway, 1960: 3.
A complex sentence contains one independent proposition and one more subordinate clauses Curme, 1966: 74. Complex sentences consist of two clauses,
one main clause and one independent clause. In complex sentenc, the clauses are linked by subordination such as when, and since. For example: When he had eaten
his supper, he went to bed Simpson, 2004: 61.
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ii. Types of Sentences
The second elements of grammatical features is types of senteces. According to Linda Mcloughlin, in her “The Language of Magazine” there are
four types of sentence, here are the explanation Declarative sentence make a statement or assertion. Declarative sentences
make a statement to relay information or ideas. They are punctuated with a simple period. They can be about facts or opinions. Declarative sentences also can be in
any tense. For Example: 17 August is an Independence Day. Imperative sentence give orders or make a request. Imperatives sentences
issue commands or request or they can express a desire or wish. They are punctuated with a simple period or they can be exclamations requiring an
exclamation mark. . It all depends on the strength of emotion you want to express. Exclamatory sentences can consist of a single verb or they can be more lengthy
and complex. For example: Meet me at the library According to Mark Graham 2015 in his Boom English grammar made
easy : a simple and easy guide for English learners, imperative sentences always begin with a verb and they are always in simple present tense. Imperative
sentences do not have a stated subject, as the subject is always you; the person to whom the sentence is being said.
Interrogative sentences are ask question. Interrogative sentences are also easy to spot. That‟s because they always ask a question and end in a question
mark. For example: How old are you?
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Exclamative sentences are used to express surprised, alarm or a strong opinion and are accompanied by exclamation mark. Exclamatory sentences
express strong emotion. It doesn‟t really matter what the emotion is, an exclamatory sentence always end in an exclamation mark, so it‟s pretty easy to
spot them. Use exclamatory sentences to portray emotion but take care to use them sparingly. Otherwise, your writing will lack sincerity. For example: Nice
trick
iii. Ellipsis
The third elements of grammatical features is ellipsis. Ellipsis means that some words have been missed out. An ellipsis can give a direct and powerful
effect on the reader Verdonk, 2002: 4. Ellipsis is the omission of part of structures Goddard, 2002: 109.
For example, a person might say, “I went to the mall on Monday, and she on Sunday.” A contextually identical sentence would be “I went to the mall on
Monday, and she went to the mall on Sunday.” The words “to the mall” are omitted because they are understood from the context what the speaker is
referring to. Ellipsis creates a casual and informal effect. Advertising language
attempts to reproduce the elliptical nature of spoken language in order to create the closeness with the reader.
Based on the position where the ellipsis occurs within a constructive, ellipsis distinguished in three categories Greenbaum and Quirk, 1990: 256
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1. Initial ellipsis
For example: I hope he‟s there 2.
Medial ellipsis For example: Jill owns a Volvo and Fred owns a BMW
3. Final ellipsis
For example: I know that we haven‟t yet set the record straight, but we will set the record straight
There are some recoverability types of ellipsis, such as situational ellipsis, structural ellipsis, and textual ellipsis.
a. Situational ellipsis