A discourse analysis of the language used in direct mail communications. (Volumes I and II).

摘要

Language is an integral part of almost every attempt to persuade. Yet, how persuasive discourse works to induce voluntary changes in behavior, or how language is actually used to achieve persuasion in spoken and written contexts, remains dimensionally and conceptually complex and incompletely understood. Furthermore, although there have been many studies of similarities and differences between speech and writing, the linguistic relationship between these modes remains unclear, and controversial. This study extends our knowledge of how language functions in a persuasive context by applying discourse analysis procedures to a previously unresearched text genre: direct response marketing communications in the form of sales letters.; In order to achieve the study's objectives, the research was carried out in three stages, which comprise the three parts of the study. The Pilot Study, Part 1, is designed to confirm that some features consistent with previous studies of spoken language and advertising language are found in actual sales letters, and to describe their concentration and frequency of occurrence. In the Main Study, Part 2, four targeted linguistic features are investigated in detail, applying discourse analytic techniques. Finally, in Part 3, the Comparative Study, a control corpus of sales letters is compared to test whether 'speech-like' writing produces more effective sales messages, i.e., whether increased usage of certain conversational strategies and devices in this written mode are related to actual, persuasive, outcomes.; To demonstrate such a relationship between these written texts and spoken language features, the study draws on interactive and pragmatic models of language use, existing linguistic research on the language of sales and advertising, research which examines differences and similarities between written and spoken modes of communication, and studies which support the application of discourse and conversational analysis to written texts.; The sales letters examined bear out the predictions of the theoretical framework, and provide examples of specific manifestations of the general patterns predicted in the literature and previous research, that some text genres cut across written and spoken modes and that function, with regard to the strategic use of language, is relevant; it is shown that strategic use of 'speech-like' features are related to communicative effectiveness. The discourse analysis component of the evaluation provides insight into the nature of direct marketing communications, and extends our understanding of how language is used in persuasive contexts by providing an independent verification of previous proposals and investigating an unresearched area of discourse.