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8. Inflection
According to Aronoff and Fudeman 2011: 47, inflection involves the formation of grammatical forms of a single lexeme, such as past, present, future,
singular, plural, masculine, feminine, neuter and other forms. In this study, the results of inflection cases are classified based on the inflection types proposed by
Aronoff and Fudeman 2011, such as affixation, apophony or internal change, suppletion and partial suppletion. On the other hand, root-and-pattern, stem
alternations and reduplication are not discovered in the data. a.
Affixation Affixation is the morphological process of adding affixes to the root or base
to make the new lexemes. There were 154 affixation cases discovered in the Coca- cola and Pepsi advertisements. The affixation cases used in the data were the
affixations of forming the third person singular present tense forms, past tense forms, progressive forms, comparative forms and superlative forms. The next parts are the
discussions and analyses of affixation used in the advertisements taken from selected samples.
1
“Thirst knows no season.” Coca-cola, 1952 and “It refreshes without
filling.” Pepsi, 1954 The words that undergo affixation are knows and calls. Knows is derived from
a root know [v] and a suffix –s to mark a third person singular present verb. The subject that precedes knows [v] is thirst. Calls is also derived from a root call [v] and
60
a suffix –s to mark a third person singular present verb. The verb knows is preceded by its subject, real life.
KNOW
[v] + -s = knows [v]
REFRESH
[v] + -s = refreshes [v] The affixation involves the process of marking third person singular present
in the simple present tense. Further, simple present tense is used for general statement of fact Azar, 1989: 11. In the advertisements, the use of simple present
tense can inform the readers that thirst always exists see sentence “Thirst knows no season” so that the readers should buy Coca-cola to inhale the thirst. Moreover, in
the sentence “It refreshes without filling”, it can be concluded that Pepsi intended to show that Pepsi always gives refreshment for the consumers.
2
“The Pepsi challenge showed who won.” Pepsi, 1975 and “We created
a “media first” in People, the hottest magazine in the U.S.” Pepsi, 2006 The words showed and created undergo affixation. Both of the words are
added with the suffix –ed that marks past tense verb.
SHOW
[v] + -ed = showed [v]
CREATE
[v] + -ed = created [v]
The meaning of showed and created does not change and the word class
remains the same as verb. The use of past tense in the Pepsi’s 1975 advertisement was to inform the readers that “Pepsi challenge” had already have the winner. On the
other hand, Pepsi’s 2006 advertisement used past tense to show their ideas of gaining the popularity of Diet Pepsi Jazz.
61 3
“We’re rushing to bring you the greatest Coca-cola.” Coca-cola, 1980 and “Pepsi is offering 5 rebates.” Pepsi, 1991
Rushing and offering are the inflected lexemes that undergo affixation. The affix that involves in the affixation is –ing that marks a progressive participle. In the
data, the lexeme
RUSH
and
OFFER
are attached to the affix –ing.
RUSH
[v] + -ing = rushing [v]
OFFER
[v] + -ing = offering [v]
This affixation that marks progressive participle points to present progressive
tense which aims to express an activity that is in progress at the moment of speaking or something generally in progress this week, this month, or this year Azar, 1989:
11. The advertisers used the progressive participle since they could inform the readers that they were in the progress on bringing the greatest Coca-cola refer to the
sentence “We’re rushing to bring you the greatest Coca-cola”. Therefore, the readers would be attracted to the Coca-cola’s attempt to perfect their products. Moreover, in
the sentence “Pepsi is offering 5 rebates”, the progressive participle is used in order to inform the readers that Pepsi was to offer 5 rebates at that moment.
4
“Coca-cola in cans.” Coca-cola, 1967 and “
Get two packs of Pepsi”.
Pepsi, 1970
Cans and packs are the inflected forms of lexeme
CAN
and
PACK
that undergo affixation. The affix that involves in the affixation is –s that marks a plural form.
CAN
[n] + -s = cans [n]
PACK
[n] + -s = packs [n] The plural form used in the sentence “Coca-cola in cans” aims to show the
readers that Coca-cola products are also available in the cans, not only in the bottles.
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Packs used in the sentence “
Get two packs of Pepsi”
follows the rule of plural form in a countable noun. Pack is a countable noun and its plural form is packs. Furthermore,
it is preceded by the word two, a number equivalent to the sum of one and one
Oxford Dictionaries, 2013
, which leads to the plural form to the noun succeeding it.
5
“Now enjoy that cold crisp taste longer.” Coca-cola, 1958 and “Smaller single-drink bottle.” Pepsi, 1953
The inflected forms are longer and smaller. Longer is the inflected form of the lexeme
LONG
. Smaller is the inflected form of the lexeme
SMALL
.
LONG
[adj] + -er = longer [adj]
SMALL
[adj] + -er = smaller [adj]
The suffix –er is added to the lexemes
LONG
and
SMALL.
Moreover, the suffix – er marks an adjective comparison. On the other hand, the suffix –er expresses the
comparative forms of
LONG
and
SMALL
into the words longer and smaller.
6
“We’re rushing to bring you the greatest Coca-cola.” Coca-cola, 1980 and “Scoop up a big helping and wash it down with Pepsi – the happiest
taste in Cola.” Pepsi, 1973 Greatest and happiest are the inflected forms of lexeme
GREAT
[adj] and
HAPPY
[adj].
GREAT
[adj] + -est = greatest [adj]
HAPPY
[adj] + -est = happiest [adj]
The lexemes are added to the suffix –est that marks superlative form. The superlative form expresses the highest or a very high degree of a quality Oxford
Dictionaries, 2013. Therefore, the use of superlative form in the advertisements can
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show the readers that the products have the highest quality in taste refer to the
sentence “We’re rushing to bring you the greatest Coca-cola”.
b. Apophony or Internal Change
Apophony or internal change is a vowel change within a root Aronoff Fudeman, 2011: 173. There were four apophony cases used in the Coca-cola
advertisements and nine apophony cases used in the Pepsi advertisements.
1
“And your friends will be extra glad they came.” Coca-cola, 1957
Came is the past tense form of lexeme
COME
k
ʌ
m
. The vowel [
ʌ
] is changed with the vowel [
e
ɪ
] in order to create the word came
ke
ɪ
m
. The change only occurs within the root, whereas phoneme k and phoneme m do not change.
2
“The Pepsi challenge showed who won.” Pepsi, 1975
Won w
ʌ
n is the past tense form of the lexeme
WIN
w
ɪ
n. The process of internal change involves the replacement of vowel [
ɪ
] in
WIN
with the vowel
ʌ
. Moreover, the use of past tense form in the Pepsi’s 1975 advertisement was to inform
the readers that “Pepsi challenge” had had the winner already. c.
Suppletion Suppletion occurs when “the syntax requires a form of a lexeme that is not
morphologically predictable” Aronoff Fudeman, 2011: 176. There were 8 suppletion cases discovered in the Coca-cola advertisements, whereas there was no
suppletion case discovered in the Pepsi advertisements. The suppletion cases discovered in the Coca-cola advertisements use the words best and better as
described in two sentences as follows:
64 1
“Our policy is to serve you the best products.” Coca-cola, 1972
2
“Better tasting.” Coca-cola, 1980
Best is the suppletion from good. Further, best is a superlative adjective form of good. On the other hand, better, the suppletion form of good, is the comparative
adjective form of good. Best and better are considered suppletion because the two words are not attached by particular affixes, but the forms have different pattern
which is not morphologically predictable from the neutral form good. d.
Partial Suppletion Partial suppletion involves the internal change process. However, the change
does not only occur within a root, but it changes to the end of the word Aronoff Fudeman, 2011: 177. The partial suppletion cases used in the advertisements
involve the change of present tense verb to past tense verb. Moreover, the partial suppletion cases discovered in the advertisements are described in the paragraphs as
follows: 1
“You could win 2 tickets to a Britney Spears concert closest to your
home.” Pepsi, 2001 Could k
əd, kd is the past form of
CAN
kæn and it is used to indicate a possibility Oxford Dictionaries, 2013. Could and
CAN
share the same phoneme k. The phoneme k in could and
CAN
does not change, but the vowel succeeding the phoneme changes until the end of the word. Moreover, the use of could in the
sentence refers to the possibility that the readers were given an opportunity to win two Britney Spears’ concert tickets.
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2 “You’ve never seen a taste like this.” Pepsi, 1993
Seen si:n is the past participle of
SEE
si:. The phoneme s that becomes the initial phoneme of seen and
SEE
does not change. The change occurs in the vowels succeeding the initial phoneme s until the end of the word. Moreover, in the
advertisement, the advertisers intended to convince the readers that the readers had not seen a product like Crystal Pepsi and Diet Crystal Pepsi that were clearly
different from other soft drinks. It was a strategy to promote the Pepsi’s new products, Crystal Pepsi and Diet Crystal Pepsi.
In order to know the occurrences of inflection cases, Table 4.8 on the page 66 depicts the number of inflection cases used in the advertisements.
66
Table 4.8 The Occurrences of Inflection
Soft drink Inflection Types
Number of inflection
cases Example
Coca-cola
Affixation 68
Thirst knows no season. 1952
Apophony 4
And your friends will be extra glad they came. 1957
Suppletion 8
No wonder Coke refreshes you best. 1961
Partial suppletion 4
The taste of coke has made it the world’s most popular soft drink.
1970 Root-and-pattern
- -
Stem alternations -
- Reduplication
- -
TOTAL 84
Pepsi
Affixation 86
Pepsi gives more bounce to the ounce. 1951
Apophony 9
The Pepsi Challenge showed who won.
1975 Suppletion
- -
Partial suppletion 12
Pepsi-cola has steadily kept pace. 1952
Root-and-pattern -
- Stem alternations
- -
Reduplication -
- TOTAL
107
Based on Table 4.8, Coca-cola has 84 inflection cases and Pepsi has 107 inflection cases. The total of inflection cases used in the Coca-cola and Pepsi
advertisements is 191.
B. The Frequency of the Word Formation Used in Coca-cola and Pepsi