An analysis on the use of figurative language and power relation in Oriflame advertisements.

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ABSTRACT
Wijayanti, Primandari. (2015). An analysis on the use of figurative language and
power relation in Oriflame advertisements. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Companies use advertisements to market their products. In order to attract and
persuade the readers to buy the advertised products, language plays an important role
in the advertising. The language of advertising can be more appealing and persuasive
by employing figurative language. The use of figurative language helps to create
persuasive messages. The persuasive messages delivered by the companies to the
consumers through the advertisements will build power relation between them.
Considering Oriflame’s successful marketing, the researcher had an interest to
analyze the language style of Oriflame advertisements.
This study attempted to solve two research problems related to the language
style of Oriflame advertisements. They were (1) How is figurative language used in
Oriflame advertisements? (2) What power relations are used in Oriflame’s

advertisements to build the company’s position upon the consumers?
To solve those research problems, the researcher employed a content analysis.
There were forty Oriflame advertisements used to collect the data. The first research
problem was solved by categorizing the words or the sentences in Oriflame
advertisements into some kinds of figurative language based on theories proposed by
Liberman and Foster (1968), Zhang (2005), and Pugsley (1990). The second problem
was solved by analyzing power relation in Oriflame advertisements according to
French’s and Raven’s theory (1959).
From the obtained data, the researcher found that Oriflame employed
figurative language in most of its advertisements. The figurative language included
figures of speech and figures of thought. The figures of speech were alliteration,
assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia. The figures of thought were metaphor,
metonymy, synecdoche, simile, and personification. The use of figures of speech in
Oriflame advertisements produced beautiful sounds and gave significant emphasis,
whereas figures of thought helped to enhance the perceived value of the advertised
products. As a result, the use of figurative language made the advertisements more
attractive. Besides, Oriflame also built five kinds of power relation through its
advertisements. Those power relations were legitimate power, reward power, referent
power, expert power, and coercive power.
Keywords: advertisement, figurative language, power relation, Oriflame

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ABSTRAK
Wijayanti, Primandari. (2015). An analysis on the use of figurative language and
power relation in Oriflame advertisements. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Iklan digunakan oleh perusahaan-perusahaan untuk memasarkan produkproduk mereka. Bahasa memainkan peranan penting dalam periklanan untuk
menarik perhatian serta mempengaruhi pembaca agar membeli produk-produk yang
diiklankan tersebut. Bahasa periklanan dapat menjadi lebih menarik dan persuasif
dengan menggunakan bahasa kiasan. Penggunaan bahasa kiasan menciptakan
pesan-pesan persuasif. Pesan-pesan persuasif yang disampaikan melalui iklan oleh
perusahaan-perusahaan kepada para konsumen tersebut akan membangun daya
relasi di antara mereka. Kesuksesan Oriflame dalam memasarkan produknya
menimbulkan ketertarikan tersendiri bagi peneliti untuk menganalisa gaya bahasa
pada iklannya.

Terdapat dua permasalahan mengenai gaya bahasa pada iklan Oriflame yang
akan dibahas dalam penelitian ini, yaitu (1) Bagaimana bahasa kiasan digunakan
dalam iklan Oriflame? (2) Daya relasi apa saja yang digunakan iklan Oriflame untuk
membangun posisi perusahan terhadap konsumennya?
Untuk menyelesaikan permasalahan tersebut, peneliti mengunakan analisis
isi. Sebanyak empat puluh iklan Oriflame digunakan untuk mengumpulkan data.
Permasalahan penelitian yang pertama diselesaikan dengan mengategorikan katakata atau kalimat-kalimat dalam iklan Oriflame ke beberapa bahasa kiasan
berdasarkan teori yang dikemukakan oleh Liberman dan Foster (1968), Zhang
(2005), serta Pugsley (1990). Permasalahan penelitian yang kedua diselesaikan
dengan menganalisa daya relasi dalam iklan Oriflame berdasarkan teori French dan
Raven (1959).
Dari data yang diperoleh, peneliti menemukan bahwa Oriflame menggunakan
bahasa kiasan di sebagian besar iklannya. Bahasa-bahasa kiasan itu meliputi
penyiasatan struktur (figures of speech) dan bentuk-bentuk pemajasan (figures of
thought). Terdapat aliterasi, asonansi, konsonansi, dan onomatope dalam
penyiasatan struktur serta metafora, metonimi, sinekdoke, simile, dan personifikasi
dalam bentuk-bentuk pemajasan. Penggunaan penyiasatan struktur menghasilkan
bunyi yang indah serta memberikan penekanan yang signifikan dalam iklan
Oriflame. Sementara itu, penggunaan bentuk-bentuk pemajasan membantu
meningkatkan nilai dari produk-produk yang diiklankan. Hasilnya, penggunaan

bahasa kiasan membuat iklan lebih menarik. Di samping itu, Oriflame juga
membangun lima macam daya relasi, yaitu kekuatan formal (legitimate power),
kemampuan untuk memberi imbalan (reward power), kekuasaan karena dijadikan
contoh (referent power), kekuasaan karena dianggap ahli (expert power), dan
kemampuan untuk memaksa (coercive power).
Kata kunci: advertisement, figurative language, power relation, Oriflame

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AN ANALYSIS ON THE USE OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
AND POWER RELATION IN ORIFLAME ADVERTISEMENTS

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By
Primandari Wijayanti
Student Number: 111214081

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2015

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AN ANALYSIS ON THE USE OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
AND POWER RELATION IN ORIFLAME ADVERTISEMENTS

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education

By
Primandari Wijayanti
Student Number: 111214081

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2015
i

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AND POWER RELAT10N IN

θ¨

ADVERTISEMENTS

By
PHmand“ W遍 可 anti
Studentlヾ 血 beri ll1214081

Approved by

20 November 2015

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I dedicate this thesis to
God, the Lord of majesty and bounty

My beloved parents, whose love will always live in me
My dear siblings, who always walk by my side

Everyone I love

Everyone who loves me

And they who are struggling in life,
remember that this too shall pass

Out of my greatest despair, was to come my greatest gift.
(Rhonda Byrne)
Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble.
Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountains.
(Anonymous)
iv

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STATEPIENT OFヽ VORK'S ORIGINALITY

I honestly

declare that this thesis, which

I have written.

does not contain the work

or parts of the work of other people. except those cited in the quotations and the
references. as a scientific paper should.

Yogyakarta, 1l December 2015
The Writer

Primandari Wijayanti
I 1 121408r

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LEPIBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILⅣ IIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEⅣ

IIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama

:P面 mandaH

Nomor Mahasisrva

:111214081

Wjayanti

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
An Analysis on the Use of Figurative Language and
Power Relation in Oriflame Advertisements
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan

kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan"
mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalarn bentuk pangkalan
data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau
media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa meminta ijin dari saya maupun
memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai
penulis.

Demikian pemyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: 1 1 Desember 2015
Yang menyatakan

Primandari Wijayanti

Vl

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ABSTRACT
Wijayanti, Primandari. (2015). An analysis on the use of figurative language and
power relation in Oriflame advertisements. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma
University.
Companies use advertisements to market their products. In order to attract
and persuade the readers to buy the advertised products, language plays an
important role in the advertising. The language of advertising can be more
appealing and persuasive by employing figurative language. The use of figurative
language helps to create persuasive messages. The persuasive messages delivered
by the companies to the consumers through the advertisements will build power
relation between them. Considering Oriflame’s successful marketing, the
researcher had an interest to analyze the language style of Oriflame
advertisements.
This study attempted to solve two research problems related to the
language style of Oriflame advertisements. They were (1) How is figurative
language used in Oriflame advertisements? (2) What power relations are used in
Oriflame’s advertisements to build the company’s position upon the consumers?
To solve those research problems, the researcher employed a content
analysis. There were forty Oriflame advertisements used to collect the data. The
first research problem was solved by categorizing the words or the sentences in
Oriflame advertisements into some kinds of figurative language based on theories
proposed by Liberman and Foster (1968), Zhang (2005), and Pugsley (1990). The
second problem was solved by analyzing power relation in Oriflame
advertisements according to French’s and Raven’s theory (1959).
From the obtained data, the researcher found that Oriflame employed
figurative language in most of its advertisements. The figurative language
included figures of speech and figures of thought. The figures of speech were
alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia. The figures of thought
were metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, simile, and personification. The use of
figures of speech in Oriflame advertisements produced beautiful sounds and gave
significant emphasis, whereas figures of thought helped to enhance the perceived
value of the advertised products. As a result, the use of figurative language made
the advertisements more attractive. Besides, Oriflame also built five kinds of
power relation through its advertisements. Those power relations were legitimate
power, reward power, referent power, expert power, and coercive power.
Keywords: advertisement, figurative language, power relation, Oriflame

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ABSTRAK
Wijayanti, Primandari. (2015). An analysis on the use of figurative language and
power relation in Oriflame advertisements. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata
Dharma.
Iklan digunakan oleh perusahaan-perusahaan untuk memasarkan produkproduk mereka. Bahasa memainkan peranan penting dalam periklanan untuk
menarik perhatian serta mempengaruhi pembaca agar membeli produk-produk
yang diiklankan tersebut. Bahasa periklanan dapat menjadi lebih menarik dan
persuasif dengan menggunakan bahasa kiasan. Penggunaan bahasa kiasan
menciptakan pesan-pesan persuasif. Pesan-pesan persuasif yang disampaikan
melalui iklan oleh perusahaan-perusahaan kepada para konsumen tersebut akan
membangun daya relasi di antara mereka. Kesuksesan Oriflame dalam
memasarkan produknya menimbulkan ketertarikan tersendiri bagi peneliti untuk
menganalisa gaya bahasa pada iklannya.
Terdapat dua permasalahan mengenai gaya bahasa pada iklan Oriflame
yang akan dibahas dalam penelitian ini, yaitu (1) Bagaimana bahasa kiasan
digunakan dalam iklan Oriflame? (2) Daya relasi apa saja yang digunakan iklan
Oriflame untuk membangun posisi perusahan terhadap konsumennya?
Untuk menyelesaikan permasalahan tersebut, peneliti mengunakan
analisis isi. Sebanyak empat puluh iklan Oriflame digunakan untuk
mengumpulkan data. Permasalahan penelitian yang pertama diselesaikan dengan
mengategorikan kata-kata atau kalimat-kalimat dalam iklan Oriflame ke
beberapa bahasa kiasan berdasarkan teori yang dikemukakan oleh Liberman dan
Foster (1968), Zhang (2005), serta Pugsley (1990). Permasalahan penelitian
yang kedua diselesaikan dengan menganalisa daya relasi dalam iklan Oriflame
berdasarkan teori French dan Raven (1959).
Dari data yang diperoleh, peneliti menemukan bahwa Oriflame
menggunakan bahasa kiasan di sebagian besar iklannya. Bahasa-bahasa kiasan
itu meliputi penyiasatan struktur (figures of speech) dan bentuk-bentuk pemajasan
(figures of thought). Terdapat aliterasi, asonansi, konsonansi, dan onomatope
dalam penyiasatan struktur serta metafora, metonimi, sinekdoke, simile, dan
personifikasi dalam bentuk-bentuk pemajasan. Penggunaan penyiasatan struktur
menghasilkan bunyi yang indah serta memberikan penekanan yang signifikan
dalam iklan Oriflame. Sementara itu, penggunaan bentuk-bentuk pemajasan
membantu meningkatkan nilai dari produk-produk yang diiklankan. Hasilnya,
penggunaan bahasa kiasan membuat iklan lebih menarik. Di samping itu,
Oriflame juga membangun lima macam daya relasi, yaitu kekuatan formal
(legitimate power), kemampuan untuk memberi imbalan (reward power),
kekuasaan karena dijadikan contoh (referent power), kekuasaan karena dianggap
ahli (expert power), dan kemampuan untuk memaksa (coercive power).
Kata kunci: advertisement, figurative language, power relation, Oriflame

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It had been a long journey I went on to finish my thesis. The obstacles I
faced, the hardship I endured, all of them filled my journey during the process of
finishing this thesis. Fortunately, I had never walked alone since there were many
people who always held my hands, gave me strength, and stood by my side
through thick and thin. I would like to sincerely express my gratitude to those
people.
My first ceaseless gratitude goes to the Almighty God for everything.
Even though life is not only about happiness, He always makes everything
beautiful and meaningful in His time. It is only by His help and love I could finish
my thesis.
My profound appreciation is addressed to my advisor, Made Frida Yulia,
S.Pd., M.Pd., for her excellent guidance and patience during the process of writing
this thesis. I truly thank her for spending her valuable time critically reading my
writing, guiding me, and giving me advices for my better writing.
I thank all the lecturers of the English Language Education Study Program
for their dedication in teaching, which always inspired me throughout my study
process. I also thank my academic advisor, Fidelis Chosa Kastuhandani, S.Pd.,
M.Hum., for his marvelous guidance and care. My gratitude goes for all the staff
of English Language Education Study Program, who helped me a lot during my
years of study.

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Special thankfulness is dedicated to my beloved parents, Wagiman and
Jumiyati, for the endless love and care in their entire life for me. They are the best
present in my life. I also thank my siblings, Novita Primandani and Ridho
Primahandaru, for giving me unconditional love. They are the ones who always
understand me and give me a shoulder to cry on when things go bad. They also fill
my life with joys and happiness. Furthermore, I thank all of my big family for
their care and support in my life.
I am very grateful to my benevolent friends, Inka Ayu Henelawati, Anita
Yusticia Sari, Cicilia Dini Setia Ningrum, Valentina Intan Kusumadewi,
Catherina Apriliana Rosita, Herda Pramundito, Maria Vianney, Lucia Natalia
Rosari Ratri, Raras Ganita, and Yulia Dewi Kristianti. I also thank Class B
students and all of ELESP students of batch 2011. The unforgettable moments we
spent together for about four years long were so precious. Furthermore, I thank
my amiable friends, Pratiwi Ika Noviarti, Ananda Chastalia Asri, Asri Dzikrina
Istighfaroh, Desi Wulandari, Yunita Puspitaningrum, and Zuni Triyanti, for the
friendship and support in these ten years long. We spent our teens together and
created a lot of meaningful memories. Although we had to go on our own way to
achieve our dreams, but we always supported and cheered one another.
Finally, I give my gratitude to all of the people I could not mention here
one by one. I thank them for their support, prayer, and help. They really mean a
lot to me. Once again, I am really grateful for everything they have done for me.

Primandari Wijayanti
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ........................................................................................................ i
APPROVAL PAGES ............................................................................................ii
DEDICATION PAGE .......................................................................................... iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ................................................... v
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ..................................................... vi
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................vii
ABSTRAK ...........................................................................................................viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................... ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... xi
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................ xiv
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................ xv
LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................... xvi

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 1
A. Research Background ............................................................ 1
B. Research Questions ................................................................ 4
C. Problem Limitation ................................................................ 4
D. Research Objectives .............................................................. 5
E. Research Benefits .................................................................. 5
F. Definitions of Terms .............................................................. 6

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CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE .................................... 9
A. Theoretical Description ......................................................... 9
1. Advertisement and Advertising ..................................... 9
a. Definition of Advertisement and Advertising. ..... 9
b. Functions of Advertising ................................... 11
c. Classifications of Advertising ........................... 12
2. Figurative Language in Advertising ............................. 12
a. Figures of Speech .............................................. 14
b. Figures of Thought ............................................ 17
3. Power Relation ............................................................. 23
B. Theoretical Framework ........................................................ 25

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METODOLOGY .................................................. 27
A. Research Method ................................................................. 27
B. Research Setting .................................................................. 28
C. Research Subject .................................................................. 28
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ........................ 29
E. Data Analysis Technique ..................................................... 30
F. Research Procedure ............................................................. 33

CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ...................... 35
A. The Figurative Language of Oriflame Advertisements ........ 35
1. The Figures of Speech of Oriflame Advertisements ..... 35
2. The Figures of Thought of Oriflame Advertisements ... 40
B. The Power Relation of Oriflame Advertisements ............... 47
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND
RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................ 53
A. Conclusions ......................................................................... 53
B. Implications ......................................................................... 56
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C. Recommendations ............................................................... 56
1. For English Teachers .................................................... 57
2. For English Learners .................................................... 57
3. For Advertisers ............................................................. 58
4. For Future Researchers ................................................ 58

REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 59

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Figures of Speech of Oriflame Advertisements ............................. 31
Table 3.2 Figures of Thought of Oriflame Advertisements ........................... 31
Table 3.2 The Power Relation of Oriflame Advertisements .......................... 32

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1 The Figures of Speech of Oriflame Advertisements .................... 36
Figure 4.2 The Figures of Thought of Oriflame Advertisements ................. 40
Figure 4.3 The Power Relation of Oriflame Advertisements ........................ 48

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LIST OF APPENDICES

A. The Figures of Speech of Oriflame Advertisements .................................. 63
B. The Figures of Thought of Oriflame Advertisements ................................. 66
C. The Power Relation on Oriflame Advertisements ..................................... 75
D. The Distribution of Figurative Language on Oriflame Advertisements ... 85
E. The Distribution of Power Relation on Oriflame Advertisements ............. 88
F. The Frequency of Occurrence of Figurative Language on Oriflame
Advertisements ........................................................................................... 90
G. The Frequency of Occurrence of Power Relation on Oriflame
Advertisements ........................................................................................... 91

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the information about the nature and the content of
the research. It consists of six parts, namely research background, problem
formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and
definition of terms.

A. Research Background
Advertisements help to create the image of a product. It is used as a tool to
persuade the consumers to buy the products. Goddard (2001: 10) states that
advertising is not just about the commercial promotion of branded products, but
also can encompass the idea of texts whose intention is to enhance the image of an
individual, group or organization. In advertising the products, advertisements use
language as its device. Language plays a great role in our life (Bloomfield, 1935:
3). Since language is a means of communication, it is used as a device to deliver
messages from each other. Asher (1994) claims that advertising language is used
to persuade or to tempt people to buy company’s product. Therefore, language
plays an important role in attracting consumers to buy the products. Advertiser
should be able to determine what kind of persuasive language which is suitable to
build consumers’ trust upon the products.

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2
The language of advertising belongs to loaded language, describing its
intention to influence and change the will and the attitude of its recipients (Leech,
1972: 25). Loaded language consists of words that strongly slant perceptions and
thus meaning (Wood, 2014: 105). Therefore, the language of advertising
frequently uses figures of speech and other stylistic devices that are considered
typical of poetic language, such as puns, metaphor, neologism, alliteration,
assonance or rhyme (Sternkopf, 2005: 206). By utilizing such figurative language,
the language of advertisement would be more captivating so that the
advertisements could attract consumers’ attention.
Figurative language is used in advertising as a creative device which
catches people’s attention and persuades them to buy products or services
(Pugsley, 1990: 3). According to Liberman and Foster (1968), the strength of
figurative language lies in an evocative rather than denotative power. Due to the
important use of figurative language in advertising, the researcher would like to
analyze the use of figurative language in advertisements.
Consumers sometimes stick with old, familiar brands for no apparent
reason other than the fact that they purchase it before, and it seems fine (Kardes,
Cronley & Cline, 2010: 184). It means that consumers are more familiar with the
brands rather than the products. Therefore, in advertising the products of a certain
brand, the company builds power relation upon the consumers through the
advertisements. There are five types of power relation proposed by French and
Raven (1959), namely reward power, expert power, legitimate power, referent
power, and coercive power. The companies utilize power relation based on their

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3
needs. For example, they use reward power by giving the consumers a prize if
they buy the advertised products to increase the consumers’ willingness to
purchase the products.
In this research, the researcher chooses Oriflame advertisements to be
analyzed. Oriflame Cosmetics is an international cosmetic company which began
operations in 1967 in Sweden and its products have spread in over sixty countries
worldwide (Bhujabal, 2002: 66). Besides its particular language style, the reasons
for choosing this brand are its attractiveness, accessibility, and wide circulation.
According to Direct Selling News Magazine, which was published in June 2014,
Oriflame ranked 10th as the top direct selling company in the world. It means that
this brand succeeds in attracting people to buy the products. Thus, this brand is so
popular around the world. In addition, Oriflame publishes a catalag every month
which contains the advertisements of the products. People can access the catalogs
through the internet and printing media. Therefore, Oriflame advertisements can
be accessed easily. The catalogs are also published in many countries. It means
that this brand has a tremendous circulation. Due to the success and existence of
this brand in so many countries, the researcher would like to analyze the use of
figurative language and power relation in Oriflame advertisements.
According to Liberman and Foster (1968), figurative language is divided
into figures of speech and figures of thought. Figures of thought are also called
tropes. In this research, the figures of speech are narrowed into alliteration,
assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia. Besides, the figures of thought are
limited into metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, simile, and personification. In

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addition, figurative language can be used to analyze the power relation which is
built by the advertiser upon the customers. Figurative language is one kind of
persuasive language in advertising which can be used as a device to build power
relation. In analyzing power relation, French and Raven’s theory about power
relation (1959) is employed.

B. Research Questions
The researcher formulates two research problems. They are:
1.

How is figurative language used in Oriflame advertisements?

2.

What kind of power relation does Oriflame use to build the company’s
position upon the customers?

C. Problem Limitation
This research attempts to identify the figurative language which appears in
Oriflame advertisements. In analyzing the use of figurative language, theories
proposed by Liberman and Foster (1968) and Zhang (1991) are employed. The
research is limited to figures of speech and figures of thought. Figures of speech
includes alliteration, assonance, consonace, and onomatopoeia; whereas figures of
thought includes metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, simile, and personification.
Then, the researcher also analyzes the types of power relation built by Oriflame’s
company upon the consumers through its advertisements. The analysis is based on
power relation theory proposed by French and Raven (1959). The analysis is
directed toward Oriflame advertisements which use English language.

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D. Research Objectives
Based on problem formulation, there are two research objectives addressed
in this research. They are:
1.

To analyze the figurative language of Oriflame advertisements.

2.

To identify power relation that Oriflame builds upon the customers.

E. Research Benefits
The researcher expects that this study will be beneficial for advertisers,
consumers, and future researchers.
1.

Advertisers
Due to the development of the advertising field which has been growing

rapidly nowadays, advertisers have to compete in order to attract consumers’
attention through the advertisements. This study is expected to help or inspire the
advertisers to create high quality advertisements by employing some linguistic
aspects.
2.

Consumers
This research deals with the use of figurative language in advertisements

and power relation which are built through the advertisements. Therefore, the
researcher expects that this research can contribute to raising the awareness of
wise buying decision among the consumers.

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3.

Future Researchers
This research provides information on the language use in advertisements,

especially about figurative language. Therefore, it can be used as a reference by
future researchers who are going to conduct research on the related topic.

F. Definition of Terms
The researcher provides some definition of terms related to this study. It is
aimed to avoid misinterpretation so that the readers can follow this discussion
easily.
1.

Advertisements and Advertising
According to El-Daly (2011), advertisement aims to direct one’s attention

to the availability, qualities, and/or cost of specific commodities or services. The
act of advertisement is called advertising. Bovee and Arens (1986) define
advertising as the non-personal communication of information usually paid for
and usually persuasive in nature about products, services, or ideas by identified
sponsors through the various media. Advertisements utilize language to attract the
customers. Thus, in this reseach, the researcher analyzes the language use of
advertisements. The data are obtained from Oriflame advertisements. The
researcher chooses Oriflame advertisements because the advertisements have
particular language style and wide circulation. The main subject matters going to
be analyzed are the use of figurative language and power relation.

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2.

Figurative Language
According to Liberman and Foster (1968: 53), figurative language is a

language which clarifies the abstract by comparison with the concrete. Figurative
language is divided into two types, namely figures of speech and figures of
thought or tropes. Figures of speech are verbal or syntactic combination or sound
patterns and figures of thought are irregularities of content, usually analogical as
in metaphor, simile, personification, synecdoche, and metonymy (Liberman &
Foster, 1968: 53). In this research, the figurative language includes both figures of
speech and figures of thought used in Oriflame advertisements. Figures of speech
include alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia; whereas figures of
thought include metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, simile, and personification.
Figurative language is one kind of persuasive language used in advertising. It can
be used to analyze Oriflame advertisements’ power relation since language is one
of devices in building power relation. Peirce (1886) suggests that power relation
directs communication which is built by message senders and message receivers.
Thus, power relation can be obtained through communication act.
3.

Power Relation
Power relation is the power which is built from the message senders to the

message receivers through the communication act. Power relation in advertising
aims to build a brand image of the company in society. This research analyzes
what kind of relation which Oriflame Company has upon its customers. Thus,
power relation in this research refers to the relation that Oriflame Company wants
to have upon its customers through the advertisements.

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4.

Oriflame Company
Oriflame Company is an international cosmetic company which began

operations in 1967 in Sweden and its products have spread in over sixty countries
worldwide (Bhujabal, 2002: 66). Due to its widespread, Oriflame is a well-known
brand in the world. Its success in attracting customers involves the use of
advertisements. This research will focus on figurative language and power
relation of Oriflame advertisements.

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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this chapter, the researcher discusses the literature related to the
research. There are two main parts, namely the theoretical description and the
theoretical framework. The theoretical description presents the theories which are
related to and used for the research. The theoretical framework explains the
relevance of the theories to answer the research questions.

A. Theoretical Description
This section presents some theories which are directly relevant to the
matter of the research. It elaborates the theories of advertisement and advertising,
figurative language in advertising, and power relation.
1. Advertisement and Advertising
This part consists of the explanation of advertisement and advertising. It
discusses the definition of advertisement and advertising, the functions of
advertising, and the types of advertising.
a. Definition of Advertisement and Advertising
At the root of the word, advertisement is the Latin verb advertere, meaning
to run towards (Goddard, 2001: 6). As a form of discourses, advert aims to attract
the readers’ attention. However, not everything that people pay attention to is an
advert, for example the function of road signs about speed limit is trying to attract

9

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people’s attention, but the road signs do not advertise anything. Therefore, Angela
Goddard (2001) states that an advert appears to be the factor of conscious
intention behind the text, with the aim of benefiting the originator materially or
through some other less tangible gain, such as enhancement of status or image (p.
6).
Dattamajumdar (2006) defines advertisement as “an organization of text
that provides information about a product or service along with an anchorage of
image that suggests some cohesion or logical linkage leading to some relevance or
meaningful interpretation to the target consumers” (p. 222). Besides, Bovee and
Arens (1986) define advertising as “the non-personal communication of
information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products,
services, or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media” (p. 5). In
addition, according to Vestergaard and Schroder (1985), advertising is “a public
notice designed to spread information with a view to promoting the sales of
marketable goods and services” (p. 2).
From the definition above, it implies that advertisement is a means of
communication which connects the companies to their consumers. The companies
try to attract the consumers’ attention by providing information of their products
through the advertisement without having the role of marketing strategy. On the
other hand, advertising is the action of persuading people. It means that through
advertising, the companies try to attract the consumers’ attention and persuade
them to use the companies’ products. Therefore advertising has a role of
marketing strategy.

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b. Functions of Advertising
According to Bovee and Arens (1986: 9), advertising has many functions.
The first function is marketing function. In order to increase profits, companies
will develop marketing strategies. Using various ways of marketing elements is
known as marketing mix, which consists of product, price, place, and promotion.
Advertising falls in the promotion category and is part of the promotional mix
along with personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations – all of which
are used to sell or win acceptance of the company’s products, services, or ideas
(Bovee & Arens, 1986: 9).
The second function is the communication function. Advertisement is the
tool to convey messages to a group of people. It is the basic function and also the
objectives of advertising. The examples of such advertisements are ads in
telephone directories, newspaper classified ads, and legal notices published by
various organizations and government bodies.
The third function is the educational function. As an educator, advertising
speeds the adoption of the new and untried and, so doing, accelerates
technological advances in industry and hastens the realization of a fuller life for
all (Ulanoff, 1977: 27). Bovee and Arens (1986) state that advertising can be
persuasive to move people into actions even though it usually has little in
common with the impartiality of education (p. 9).
The fourth function is the economic function. Advertising makes people
aware of the products, services, or ideas offered by the companies. It leads to
increase sales and commerce as well. The competition of marketing product

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through advertising will increase the productivity of good products and will make
the unsuccessful products disappear.
The last function is the social function. Advertising affects the social
changes in society since it is one of major forces which influence the standard of
living. The competition of marketing products makes the consumers have a lot of
options to choose the products that serve well their functional and social needs.
Some media such as television, newspaper, and magazines also receive most of
their incomes from advertising. Besides, public services such as Red Cross
receive financial support from the power of advertising.
c. Classifications of Advertising
There are many classifications of advertising. Bovee and Arens (1986: 13)
classify advertising into four categories. First, based on the target audience,
advertising is categorized for the consumer and business. Second is categorized by
the geographic area. They are the international advertising, national advertising,
regional advertising, and local advertising. The third classification is based on its
medium, such as newspapers, the Internet, and televisions. The last is based on its
functions and purposes. They are for product or non product, commercial or non
commercial, and direct action or indirect action.

2. Figurative Language in Advertising
Some authors use the word metaphor either to refer to figurative language
in general, including figures of speech and figures of thought, or to refer to just
one kind of thought in contrast with metonymy and synecdoche (Pugsley, 1990:

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41). The word metaphor derives from the Greek metapherein, which means
transfer (Glucksberg, 2001: 3). Liberman and Foster (1968) give a broad
definition of metaphor as “a special kind of comparison, usually of something
unknown to something known for the sake of clarification of the former” (p. 70).
Besides, Halliday (1985) explains the general term metaphor as “related figures
having to do with verbal transference of various kinds” (p. 5). The notions of
metaphor in those definitions do not refer specifically to a type of figure but refer
to figurative language. In this research, the broad definitions of metaphor are
applied to the figurative language, whereas metaphor refers to a specific variety of
figurative language.
According to Liberman and Foster (1968), figurative language is divided
into figures of speech and figures of thought. Figures of speech are verbal or
syntactic combinations or sound patterns, whereas figures of thought are
irregularities of content (Liberman & Foster, 1968: 53). However, some authors
use the term figures of speech to refer to all types of figurative language. Zhang
(2005) uses the term semantic figures of speech to refer to figures of thought and
the term phonetic figures of speech to refer to figures of speech. In this research,
the term figures of speech is applied to figurative language which is viewed from
phonological aspects; whereas the term figures of thought is applied to figurative
language which is viewed from semantics aspects.

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a. Figures of Speech
Figures of speech are verbal or syntactic combinations or sound patterns,
from alliteration to zeugma (Liberman & Foster, 1968: 53). The term figure of
speech was the synonym of scheme which was used in English in the sixteenth
century. At that time, schemes comprised the figures that arranged words into
schematized patterns of foregrounded regularity of form, syntactic or phonetic;
whereas today, figures of speech refer to all kinds of striking or unusual
configurations of words or phrases (Zhang, 2005: 87). The use of figures of
speech is essential to increase the vividness of language. Vivid language can
arouse the audience interest, hold their attention, enhance their comprehension
with imagery, and leave the audience with a fresh impression (Zhang, 2005: 88).
There are many types of figures of speech. However, some of them were
lost in the dark ages. Before that time or in Biblical times, there were as many as
240 different types of figures of speech known to exist (Powers, 2007: 47).
However, Zhang (2005) proposes seven types of figures of speech, namely
alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, aposiopesis, apostrophe, and
pun. Those figures of speech are viewed from the phonological aspect. However,
there are only four figures of speech employed in this research, namely alliteration,
assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia. The reason for choosing four figures
of speech out of seven figures of speech is those figures of speech are the most
dominant sound techniques used in English advertisements. According to
Dubovicience and Scorupa (2014), the sound techniques most often used in
English advertising slogans are rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance,

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rhythm, and onomatopoeia (p. 7). Since rhyme and rhythm are not included in
figures of speech proposed by Zhang (2005), this research only employs
alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia.
1) Alliteration
The word alliteration derives from Latin; it means repeating and playing
upon the same letter (Zhang, 2005: 91). Until the late middle ages, alliteration was
often used as an essential part of the metrical scheme. However, by the end of
fifteenth century, alliteration tended to be used in prose to create special musical
effects. Nowadays, alliteration is used not only in the prose and poetry but also in
the journalism and advertising. It is good for sound rhyme, musical effects and
significant emphasis.
Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant in two or more words, for
example safe and sound, bigger and better, happy and healthy, tit for tat, jump for
joy, with might and mind, fall flat, and sweet smell of success (Zhang, 2005: 91).
By using alliteration, the audience will memorize the words easily. Alliteration
catches the attention of the audience and makes the idea be impressed deeply on
the audience by highlighting the sound of words and thus easier for them to
remember (Zhang, 2005: 93). Therefore, alliteration is often used in the language
of advertising.
2) Assonance
Assonance is the repetition or resemblance of vowel sounds in the stressed
syllables of a sequence of words, preceded and followed by different consonants
as in late and make, fish and chips, and a deep green stream (Zhang, 1992: 93).

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Assonance is used in poetic language since it creates musical rhythm. However,
nowadays it can be found not only in poetry but also in speech, advertising, and
news report. Assonance tends to attract the listeners’ attention to the sound rather
than the meaning of the sentence (Zhang, 2005: 95). Thus, the aim of using
assonance in the language of advertising is to create beautiful sound.
3) Consonance
The word consonance comes from Latin, which means to harmonize.
Consonance refers to the repetition of the final and identical consonants whose
preceding vowels are different, such as sing – rang, won – ran, dash – fish, laugh
– tough, add – read, phrases like odds and ends, first and last, also stroke of luck
(Zhang, 2005: 95). Besides prose, consonance is commonly used in advertising,
slogans and newspaper headlines. Consonance sometimes is employed with other
figures of speech such as in the newspaper heading “Farms not Arms” (Zhang,
2005: 96). Farms is pronounced as /fɑːrmz/ and arms is pronounced as /ɑːrmz/.
Both of them use consonance /z/ and assonance /ɑ:/. The employment of all these
figures of speech at the same time can make a speech or writing become more
rhythmic and more appealing (Zhang, 2005: 96).
4) Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia comes from the Greek word onomatopoeia, which means
name-making (Denham & Lobeck, 2012: 294). It describes the phenomenon when
the language sounds like the thing it refers to. The name of the bird cuckoo
imitates its song; the word bang is created to imitate the sound of a shot or an
explosion, the word crash is a sound in imitation of a loud and sudden noise of

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something falling and shattering; and the word zoom is a sound in imitation of
loud, low-pitched buzzing or humming sound (Zhang, 2005: 97). Thus,
onomatopoeia evokes the sense which makes the description lifelike. In
descriptive writing, onomatopoeia gives auditory description to break up a little
the visual description that is often felt strenuous to understand so that it helps to
make the implied exquisiteness of the diction more directly to the readers in an
auditory way (Zhang, 2005: 97).
According to the sound marker, onomatopoeia can be categorized into
several kinds. The sounds may be made by human beings, by animals, and by
objects or may be associated with some actions or movements. Xiuguo Zhang
(2005: 97-99) gives some examples of each kind:
a) The examples of words made from the sound of human beings and movement
are Hey, Mm, Oh, mumble, whisper, clap, bang, ouch, and chuckle;
b) The examples of words made from the sound of animals are the crows caw,
mew-mew says the cat, flies buzz, mice squeak, and snakes hiss;
c) The examples of words made from the sound of natural objects are splash,
swish, murmur, plop, crack, snap, and click.

b. Figures of Thought
Figures of thought are irregularities of content, usually analogical as in
metaphor, simile, personification, synecdoche, and metonymy (Liberman &
Foster, 1968: 53). Figures of thought are also called tropes. Figure of thought is
more about the me