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Linguistics  Armenian Folia Anglistika 
 

 
 
 

9 

 

The Phonetic Particulars of Modern  

English Advertising 

 

Svetlana Decheva 

Lomonosov Moscow State University 

  

Abstract  

This article is designed to give a sharper focus on the phonetic properties of 

advertising in the English speaking world. We come from the premise that 

globalization processes and the consumer culture of the so-called Net 

Generation make the marketers change their sales strategies and find new, no 

less effective promotional tactics, which would be more attractive to the young. 

To see how this language policy actually works an in-depth processing of the 

material is required, and cognitive syllabics happens to be a great help in this 

respect. 

 

Key words: code-switching, phonetic interference, cognitive syllabics, 

rhetoric. 

 

Introduction 

As is well known, the linguistic properties of advertising have concerned 

very many scholars both in this country and abroad since time immemorial. It 

transpires, however, that even these days quite a few aspects of this rather 

prolific sphere of knowledge are still open to interpretation and further 

elaboration in philological and, more specifically, phonetic terms. Thus, the 

sound form of the so-called ‘Global English Advertising’, meant for a potential 

clientele the world over appears to be one of them. 

The fact is that ad making, intrinsically, as it were, thrives on the 

ineluctable unity of the oral and the written forms of speech. That is why, 

unless one is fully aware of its present-day phonetic particulars some of the 

innovative marketing strategies and techniques which are cleverly exploited in 



Armenian Folia Anglistika  Linguistics 
 

 
 
 

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advertising will fail to work and become ineffective for the target-audience. To 

put it in a nutshell, reading and appreciating the advert presented in black and 

white implies that it is actually heard and reflected adequately in one's inner 

speech. 

This is by no means the whole story, for today the marketeer's language 

seems to abound in all kind of verbal tricks, as well as cases of play upon words, 

which not so long ago would have been unthinkable in the ad text. This makes 

us think that now being properly equipped with different social, cultural and 

psychological traits of ELF1 community will hardly suffice unless the 

copywriter also demonstrates a good working knowledge both of the buyer's 

national variety of English and the basic principles of Global English usage. To 

be more exact, it is the ELF speaker's code-switching (or code-mixing) skills 

(Gardner-Chloros 2009)2 that should be taken into account and examined in 

greater detail. 

In other words, it is people's ability to accommodate and change (or 

reorient) their habitual speaking-hearing stereotypes against the background of 

the two main - British and American - most influential variants of modern 

English that is indispensable for ELF communicative efficacy. Without 

exaggeration, it seems to form the central core of Global English speech. It is a 

kind of matrix, into which elements of other languages are embedded, and to 

succeed in promoting goods and services ad makers should be well acquainted 

with the underlying mechanisms of British - American phonetic interference 

(Decheva, Il’ina 2018).3  

  

The Highlights of the Present-Day Marketing Industry  

To this we have to add that the main factors which make for the changing 

landscape of the present-day sales and marketing industry can by no means be 

confined only to the globalization of the English Language. It has also very 

much to do with the unprecedented technological advances of our time and the 

digital expertise of the new, increasingly young and technology-oriented 

generation of buyers who are  impatient, easily bored and highly attuned to 

visual symbols. They are very particular about brands, that seem to add 



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authenticity to the marketplace and help them sift through the volume of 

options they face in the 'too much information' society. They are confident, 

communicative, connected and differ from their elders by their growing 

demand for retailers to bow to their needs and respect them. They are the force 

to be reckoned with because the speed and availability of new information in 

the digital world put more control over purchasing in their hands.  

It is only natural that the 'old-school', rather aggressive and excessive 

product-pushing should be unacceptable these days. It could only annoy the 

young customers who have been brought up under the influence of the 

Internet. Marketers or advertisers have to reinvent their policy and find new 

tools and persuasion methods that are more appealing to the young. Otherwise 

stated, it is the tastes and demands of the Net Gen (Millennials) and the so-

called Digital natives or Generation Y (also described in special literature as 

'Generation Buy') (Yarrow, O'Donnel 2009, Prensky 2001)4 that now seem to 

hold an incredible sway over almost every aspect of shopping and advertising 

respectively. 

There is every reason to believe that to adapt to these changing realia 

psychologists and advert makers have to sense the pulse of the time, so to speak, 

and undertake special studies of all the social, cultural and emotional factors 

behind the new consumers' buying tactics. To relinquish their former authority, 

they look for the ways and means that are more subtle and less straightforward 

in linguistic terms, so that their promotional strategies could slip past their 

young customers' vigilance. Thus, for example, brand techniques are widely 

exploited and most welcome today because, being devoid of any requisites for 

political correctness, they may not infrequently serve as a conversation starter. 

To be more exact, young people's awareness of brands  appears to be a new 

'weather' subject that not only can provide fodder for a free exchange of ideas 

but also make for the sense of connectedness Gen Buy always strive for 

(Yarrow, O'Donnel 2009:38). 

This being the case, to get to grips with the phonetic peculiarities of 

modern advertising, which will be efficient with the representatives of this 

target audience, their processing and perceptive characteristics should be 



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looked into and treated with utmost care. However reluctantly, we have to 

admit that the Net Gen mental capacities and the way they consume 

information seem to be mainly conditioned by their technological experience, 

as well as video games and so many other computer technologies, on which 

they have actually grown up. Therefore they expect gratification in everything 

they do, and shopping is no exception in this respect. 

 

Modern-Day Advertising as a Syllabic Proposition 

It follows from what has just been said that for us to gain a deeper insight 

into the peculiar sound form of modern ad text a highly comprehensive, 

cognitive approach to the material is required, when all its linguocultural and 

purely phonetic antecedents are studied in minute detail.  In view of this, the 

basic postulates of cognitive syllabics as a branch of anglistics, whose main focus 

is on the hidden dynamics of English phonation (Decheva 1997)6 may happen to 

be particularly problem-solving. It opens up new and so far unavailable vistas 

for an in-depth study of marketing techniques and helps to trace and reveal 

their underlying mechanisms. The concept of the syllable and those 

stereotypical speech movements which lie behind British-American phonetic 

dichotomy, as well as people's ability to code-switch come here to the fore and 

make our knowledge in the field really productive and operational. 

Our material demonstrates conclusively that the syllabifying capacities of 

the English language are now widely and most effectively exploited in 

advertising as a rhetorical device. They endow the advert with all kind of 

expressive-emotional-evaluative overtones, which otherwise are impossible to 

impart and are extremely appealing to the young audience. Thus, for example, 

in the following advertisement the brand name of one of the biggest clothes 

retailers in the US TJ Maxx is specially played upon in syllabic terms and 

happens to be a powerful attention getter: 

Fashion blogger: I'm always happy about TJ Maxx. TJ is a perfect place to 

find designer pieces for less. 

Voiceover: Fashion direct from designers. Saving direct to you. 

Fashion blogger: Born fashionista, self-made maxxinista. 



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Voiceover: TJ Maxx. Let us make a maxxinista out of you... Start shopping 

in a new way. Start maxximizing at the place where you always get more than 

you pay for – TJ Maxx. Brands you love, prices that work for you. Maxx style, 

Maxx savings. Keep your standards high and your spending low. Fashion, 

family, home – Maxx is what matters most to you. Maxx life at TJ Maxx. 

It does not require a close examination to see that in this case the brand 

name is not only repeatedly used, but also made particularly pronounced in 

articulatory terms to entertain the target audience and capture their buying 

power. To be more exact, the copywriters' awareness of the cognitive capacities 

of the Net Gen make for their special promotional tactics. It is the Gen Yers' 

flexibility and readiness to be involved into different kind of play upon words 

that are taken into consideration, and it does not matter what ways and means 

to achieve the impression of a big and competitive game are actually used. 

The first point to be made here is that it is neither morphemes, nor 

phonemes in the words “fashionista” and “Maxxinista”, let alone their peculiar 

interplay in the extended forms of the brand name  “Maxximizing”, “Maxx 

savings”, “Maxx style” and “Maxx life” that make for the desirable effect of this 

advert. It is the syllabic properties of American phonation that are relied  upon 

and serve to convey the retailers' intention to perfection. 

 The fact is that the morphonological peculiarities of this advertisement are 

heavily dependent on a skilful treatment of identical syllables. The words 

containing them are brought together and made accented by the admen. 

Otherwise either phonetic or morphological repetitions which are made 

extensive use of in the ad text won't be perceived and will be merely beyond 

most of the young consumers' audience. As for the syllables, they are the 

ultimate units of speech that remain global in the process of encoding and 

decoding messages (Zhinkin 1958, Akhmanova 1957)7.  

They are most naturally isolated in the flow of speech and are 

psycholinguistic by nature. Bringing them out or, contrariwise, degrading them 

are the skills, which are innate or automatic and there is no need to develop 

them any further.       

 It is not difficult to surmise in this connection that the syllable-based 



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techniques of this kind have been familiar to the young generation of buyers 

since early childhood, and they are prepared to join in with the vendors and 

undergo an exhilarating experience of being a Maxxinista. The ad text under 

consideration happens to be extremely demonstrative insofar as marketers' 

tactics are concerned, and can serve as a beautiful illustration of play upon 

words in the English language or, at least, one of its manifestations, described in 

the literature as paronymic attraction (Nazarova 2003)8.  

Thus, first come the words “fashionista” and “Maxxinista” in “Born 

fashionista, self-made Maxxinista” that appear to be similar in morphological 

and syllabic terms. The Spanish suffix “-ista”, which today gets increasingly 

productive in American English is brought out to the utmost, so that the two 

syllables, which it comprises “-ist-” and  “-ta” and which are totally unstressed 

on the emic level become accented and are pronounced with clarity and 

intensification. In combination with “fashion-” it forms a peculiar American-

Spanish morphonological blend, which is frequently used and appreciated in 

the ELF community in general and the multi-ethnic, as well as multicultural 

American society in particular. 

To this we have to add that “Maxxinista” is a stretched or extended form of 

“Maxx” in “TJ Maxx”. Due to the repetition of the suffix “-ista” and the 

intrusion of the syllable “-sin-”, which is identical with “-shion-” in 

“fashionista” it undergoes an amazing expressive-evaluative transformation and 

acquires in this ad text a highly meliorative (positive or pleasant for most 

American Gen Yers) connotation. 

Almost the same is also true of the so-called nonce word “maxximizing” in 

“Start maxximizing”. In this case two suffixes “-iz-” and “-ing” are attached to 

the noun stem “maxx-”. As a result, “maxximizing” becomes homonymous with 

the word “maximizing”, which implies people's ability to use their shopping 

expertise to the maximum, spending less for the best possible quality. Here 

again it is a new metasemiotic and clearly meliorative connotation, which the 

use of the occasional word is meant to impart. No doubt it is addressed mainly 

to the young people who consider themselves to be particularly savvy and 

knowledgeable in their purchasing decisions. 



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The idea behind is enhanced by a further extension of “Maxx” in the 

unstable compounds “Maxx style”, “Maxx savings” and “Maxx life”, where the 

monosyllable “maxx-” is accented and made extra prominent. In other words, 

the typically American quantitative component of the syllable is played upon 

and made special use of. To be more exact, the effect of branding in this 

commercial, which invariably attracts young customers is based on the 

prolongation of the syllables with the American gliding vowel N5 and the 

continuants “m” and “n”: “fashionista”, “Maxxinista”, “Maxx”, “maxximizing”, 

“Maxx style”, “Maxx life”, “Maxx savings”, “brands”, “standards”, “fashion”, 

“family”, “home”. 

Of special interest in this connection are the specificities of the highly 

original 'paradoxical' timbre of voice, which accompanies the presentation of 

this ad text to the public. It is no longer didactic or authoritarian, unbending 

and indisputable, that most advertisements of the past have usually implied, but 

rather informal, friendly and consultative, as if you were asked to play a 

competitive game or were invited to a cocktail party just to enjoy yourself and 

have fun. It is more in the nature of a slapstick or humorous acting, where all 

the parameters of the performer's speaking voice are grossly exaggerated and 

reach (or even exceed) their maximum indexes. Thus, loudness is enormously 

increased (the speaker dwells on the vocal element of the syllable and his 

manner of speaking turns into shouting). Tempo is accelerated to such an extent 

that the better part of the utterance is engulfed by its phonetic environment 

and an extremely vociferous (extra long and intensive) pronunciation of the 

monosyllabic brand name “Maxx” and its numerous extensions. Pitch variation 

is realized within an incredibly wide diapason, which goes far beyond the 

confines of the unmarked American 'monotone' or 'levelled out' enunciation. 

Rhythm is stress-timed and clearly beaten ousting a much more involved 

rhythm pattern of American English, which sometimes starts to approximate 

syllable-timing. 

There is hardly any need to say here that when all these parameters are 

brought together, they no longer make for the imperative tone of voice, which 

ad texts have so far been associated with. It has nothing to do with 'patronizing' 



Armenian Folia Anglistika  Linguistics 
 

 
 
 

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and is merely used to entertain people and arouse their curiosity. Being 

grotesque by its nature, this manner of exposition is totally syllable bound and 

becomes operational only by means of cognitive processing of all its articulatory 

characteristics. 

 

British vs. American Phonetic Interference in Global English Advertising  

It should be noted here that quite a few of the present day ad texts are 

oriented mainly towards global English speaking Millennials. In syllabic terms 

it means that both British and American syllable stereotypes serve as a 

necessary background against which play upon words is realized. In the 

following commercial, for example, British-American phonetic interference is 

used as a rhetorical device, which enables the addressee to grasp the idea of 

advertisers: 

Voiceover: The finer things are like Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard. So fine, 

it's even made with white wine. 

1st Gentleman: Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon? 

2nd Gentleman: But of course. 

(1st Gentleman drives off). 

2nd Gentleman: Farnsworth, I do believe that well-groomed man has driven 

off with our Grey Poupon. 

2nd Gentleman's Driver: Shall I chase him down, sir? 

2nd Gentleman: Fine idea. 

The first point to be made here is that the final aim of the ad text is to show 

that the advertised product now seems to be growing in popularity the world 

over. The desirable effect is achieved by switching between British and 

American pronunciation, which English as a Lingua Franca is primarily 

centered upon. Thus, the slogan presented by the Voiceover, as well as the 1st 

Gentleman's speech are clearly American. Their task is to remind the potential 

consumers that this initially French mustard is now also made in the USA. It is 

their free and vowel-based syllable stereotype and the generally relaxed and 

unhurried manner of speech that makes this part of the ad text discernible 

American (Decheva 2012).9  



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As for the pronunciation of the 2nd Gentleman and his Driver, they clearly 

speak British variant. The syllables are checked and the consonants at the 

releasing and the arresting stages (or at the syllable onsets and its off glides) are 

relied upon and intensified. Moreover, the syllable stereotypes of British and 

American English are specially played upon here, and the voice parameters of 

the two speaking voices are not only opposed to each other but also deliberately 

enhanced and made additionally pronounced to entertain the public and 

correspond to the innovative spirit of the ELF and predominantly Net Gen 

consumer culture. 

 

Conclusions 

Summing up our research into the phonetic properties of Modern English 

advertising, we would like to reiterate that the role of syllable dynamics in the 

design of the Millennial-oriented ad texts can by no means be overestimated. It 

enables us to trace the metacontent, which each advertisement invariably 

conveys and to get to grips with the new marketing strategies that affect, attract 

and appeal to the young generation of buyers. They are meant, first and 

foremost, to slip past one's shopping vigilance and produce the impression of a 

totally unbiased and unaffected choice of an advertised product. In this sense 

English syllabics happens to be an inexhaustible rhetorical reservoir, from 

which ad makers readily borrow quite a few most cunning and highly 

expressive techniques that suit their intention and help to promote goods and 

services in a peculiar inoffensive and unobtrusive fashion. 

 

 Notes:  

1.  In this article the abbreviation ELF suggested by J. Jenkins stands for 

English as a Lingua Franca (Cf. Jenkins 2000).  

2.  By phonetic interference we mean numerous cases of rhetorical interplay 

of the two British and American Englishes, which enables the speaker to 

establish a close contact with the target-audience (See about it in greater 

detail in Decheva, Il’ina 2018). 

3.  It is an opposition of free vs. checked syllable stereotypes that makes it 



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possible to tell British and American Pronunciation from one another in 

speech intercourse (Decheva 2012). 

 

References: 

1.  Akhmanova, O.S. (1957) O psikholinguistike. Moskva: MSU Press. 

2.  Decheva, S. (1997) Cognitive Syllabics. // Folia Anglistica. Language: 

Structure and Variation, N2, Мoscow, pp. 89-107. 

3.  Decheva, S.V. (2012) Sovremennoe angliyskoe zvuchanie: problemy i 

napravleniya issledovaniya. // Aktual’nye problemy angliysogo 

yazykoznaniya. / Sbornik statey. K yubileyu prof. O.V. Aleksandrovoy.  

Moskva: MAKS Press, pp.29-37. 

4.  Decheva, S.V.; Il’ina K.A. (2018) Phoneticheskaya interferentsiya v 

diktorskoy rechi BBC. Moskva: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya. 

5.  Gardner-Chloros, P. (2009) Code-switching.  Cambridge: CUP. 

6.  Jenkins, J. (2000) The Phonology of English as an International Language. 

Oxford: OUP. 

7.  Nazarova, T.B. (2003) Philologia i semiotika. Sovremenniy angliyskiy 

yazyk. Moskva: Visshaya Shkola. 

8.  Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. // On the Horizon. 

Vol. 9, N 5, NCB University Press. 

9.  Yarrow, K.; O'Donnel, J. (2009) Gen Buy: How Teens, Tweens and 

Twenty-Somethings are Revolutionizing Retail. San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  

10. Zhinkin, N.I. (1958) Mekhanizmy rechi. Moscow: Academy of Pedagogical 

Sciences Press.  

 

 

Գովազդի հնչյունաբանական առանձնահատկությունները  

ժամանակակից անգլերենում 

  

Սույն հոդվածում առանձնակի ուշադրության են արժանանում 

անգլախոս աշխարհում գովազդի հնչյունաբանական առանձնահատկու-

թյունները: Մենք ելնում ենք այն դրույթից, որ համաշխարհայնացումն ու 



Linguistics  Armenian Folia Anglistika 
 

 
 
 

19 

 

այսպես կոչված համացանցային սերնդի սպառողական մշակույթը 

ստիպում է վաճառողներին վերանայել վաճառքի՝ իրենց ռազմավարու-

թյունը և գտնել նոր, գովազդի ոչ պակաս արդյունավետ մարտավարա-

կան հնարներ, որոնք կարող են ավելի գրավիչ թվալ երիտասարդներին: 

Սույն լեզվի գործնական կիրառությունը ստուգելու համար անհրաժեշտ է 

մանրամասն ուսումնասիրել առկա նյութը: Այս առումով ճանաչողական 

վանկատումը կարող է շատ օգտակար լինել:  

 

 

Received by Editorial Board 23.08.2019 

Recommended for publication by Reviewers 15.10.2019 

Accepted for Print 01.11.2019