Be touched

by the fragrance

that touches

the woman.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S

PASSON

Graphology[ɡræ'fɔlədʒi] n. 笔迹学；笔迹相法；图表法

in this way, the advertisement makes use of a graphological device which is occasionally—though sporadically—used in poetry (van Peer 1993)

Phonology音位学；音韵学；语音学

In a Jakobsonian view, the patterning of stressed and unstressed syllables to create rhythm, and of phonemes音位 to create rythme, alliteration, consonance, assonance, and the other sound effects of verse, 诗，诗篇；韵文；诗节 is at once both a deviation from the code and an imposition of order upon it. It is a deviation—the argument goes—because in other more ‘normal’ uses of the code, where the focus is on meaning rather than form, such sound effects occur at random.

the stress patterns of the advertisement are as follows:

︶      /         ︶  ︶  /   ︶    ︶   /  ︶   ︶

Be touched by∣the fragrance∣that touches∣the

/  ︶

woman.

 

︶/ ︶   ︶    /   ︶     [/  ︶]

ELIZA∣BETH TAYLOR’S PASSON

Lexis

Noun

Proper noun

General noun

Verb

Repetition

Touch[to arouse positive emotion]

Woman[cf. it brings out the woman in you][your woman]

fragrance [cf. perfume]

passion

?The second person pronoun

Interestingly, these latter discoursal ambiguities are only present when the text is read as an advertisement. They are not formal features of text, in the Jakobsonian sense.

Grammar

1.       Parallelism:

      [○                 (be touched)            (by (the fragrance

 

 

 

 

 

 

      [(that)               (touches)              (the woman)])]

Figure 6.2: Grammatical parallelism in Text Three

[from Cook, G 1994, pp165]

Deep structure:

①You will be touched by the fragrance…the fragrance touches the woman.

②The fragrance [that touches the woman] should touch you.

l         You as the buyer are touched by it.

l         A woman as the user is touched by it.

l         The perfume that you buy touches you as woman physically/emotionally

l         The perfume that you buy touches the woman, physically/emotionally.

2.       Imperative祈使语气

3.       Clause

4.       Noun phrase[possessive case]

Representation

The language of this advertisement, then, reveals regularities, similarities, and polysemies of the kind revealed by classic Jakobsonian analysis. The point is, however, that it is not difficult, in the traditions of stylistics, to go further than mere formal analysis and suggest ways in which these exploitations of the code reinforce, amplify and add to the meaning in ways which would be lost if paraphrased. Taking this even further, the specific linguistic choices of the advertisement may be seen as creating a unique meaning which can not be separated from its form. The reader is invited to become like Elizabeth Taylor through the use of a bottle of perfume. Perfume as a substance which, when used for seduction, enables the wearer, after the initial adornment, to attract by doing nothing more, is concerned with an unusual relationship of passivity and activity. It is also, as something used before the mirror in the privacy of the bathroom or bedroom, concerned with narcissism, reflection, and contemplation of the self. It is also, being bodiless and verbally indefinable, akin to an abstract concept, while being simultaneously, as something sexually attractive and perceptible at the most intimate distances, inherently sensual and physical, concerned both with romantic and sexual love. In this perfume advertisement, as in many others, the perfume is seen, not as attractive itself, but as something which releases a dormant attractiveness in the wearer. All of the features may be related to the linguistic features described above: the imitation of the bottle’s shape by the graphic form and of the filmstar’s name by the prosodic unit, the reversible rhythm and grammatical structure, the ambiguous lexis denoting both the physical and abstract, the confusion of the referents, the embedding of the active within the passive, the redundancy of meaning.

Schemata 图解刚要

l         [A] Sell product

l         [A] Attractive attention

l         [A] Suggest perfume fulfills

l         [C] Be attractive [Liz Taylor]

l         [C] Be successful [Liz Taylor]

l         [C] Wear passion perfume [Liz Taylor]

l         [R] Be attractive [female]

l         [R] Be feminine [female]

l         [R] Obtain sexual satisfaction [female]

l         [R] Imitate attractive women [female]

l         [R] Wearing perfume [female]

l         [R] Obtain sexual satisfaction [male]

l         [R] Touch women [male]

l         [R] Buy perfume [male]

l         [R] Give perfume [male]