Personification Rhetorical Devices in English Advertisement Headlines

65 [51] NEW green tea Haagen-Dazs, OCT14 [52] PRISTINE CUISINE ELLE Beauty Feature, NOV14 Headline [45] repeated vowel ə. This vowel was repeated in the stressed syllable of the word unbeatable ʌn′bi.tə.bl and the word performance p əf′ɔ.mənts. Besides, headline [57] repeated vowel i: in the word sweet swi:t and treat tri:t. The repetition of the same vowel also happened in headline [51]. The long vowel i: was repeated in word green gri:n and tea ti:. Conversely, the short vowel ɪ in headline [52] was repeated in the word pristine ′prɪs.tin and cuisine kw ɪ′zin. Further, headlines [46] and [48] made repetitions of vowel u: in the words truly tru:li, beauty bju:ti, neutral ′nju: trəl, and nuance ′ nju: ɑ:nts. Headline [49] repeated vowel æ in the word charity ′ t ʃær.ɪ.ti and clarity ′ klær. ɪ.ti. In headline [50], the repetition happened in vowel ei for the words great gre ɪt and plain pleɪn. The purpose of employing assonance in the headlines was to create rhythmic sounds which helped the readers to remember the words and the meanings of the advertisements. Moreover, based on its pattern, assonance had resembled to rhyme. This resemble could make assonance and rhyme connected sometimes. Therefore, it was possible that a headline could employ both assonance and rhyme since rhyme could be constructed by repeating syllable sound. This could be seen in the headline [46] which was written truly Asian beauty. The headline used assonance as described previously, and also used rhyme for the same words truly ′tru:li, and beauty ′bju:ti. The use of assonance aims to make mnemonic effects in the advertisements. The function is not only to dramatize the words but also to make 66 the readers easier to memorize the words. Moreover, assonance is able to make words in sentences have rhythmic patterns Corbett, 1990.

8. Aphaeresis

Based on the findings, there was only one English advertisement which used aphaeresis in the headline. Aphaeresis is a poetic device that focuses on subtracting a syllable from the beginning of a word. However, the subtracting does not change the meaning of the word Corbett, 1990; Leech, 1969. The following is the English advertisement headline which used aphaeresis. [53 ] „Tis the season to be naughty Bebe, FEB14 Literally, the word „tis stands for it is. Headline [53] omitted i form the words it is. Moreover, the advertisement also merged the word it and is into one and omitted the space between them. The omission did not change the meaning of the words “it is” themselves. Therefore, with or without i the meaning was still the same as “It is the right time to be naughty or having a new appearance with Bebe collection”. The use of aphaeresis could help the readers in reading the words, especially when the readers only read the advertisement at glance.

9. Hyperbole

Hyperbole is defined as a rhetorical device aims to create an exaggeration of emphasis or heightened effect. Corbett 1990 adds that the use of original and unique hyperbole in a sentence will produce right note of emphasis. Based on the findings, there were six ELLE magazines issued in 2014 hired hyperbole in order to grasp people‟s attention. The headlines which used hyperbole were mentioned as follows.