Multilingual Mix in Women Fashion Industry Advertising A Comparison between Hong Kong and China

1、Multilingual Mix in Women Fashion Industry Advertising A Comparison between Hong Kong and China【Abstract】ThispaperisaimedtocomparethelinguisticpracticeinadvertisementsofwomenfashionindustryinMainlandChinaandHongKong，intermsofthepatterns，formsandfunctionsoflanguagemixing.【Keywords】MultilingualMix；Wom

2、enFashionIndustryAdvertising；HongKong；China【作者簡(jiǎn)介】王騰飛，中國(guó)海洋大學(xué)。Nowadays，alotofresearchespaytheirattentiontolanguagemixingonwesternmedia.ButtheyhardlyeverfocusontheadsofEnglishmixedwithChineseinmainlandChina.Thereareactuallyseldomauthoritativedescriptionsaboutthesituationofadswithcode-mixinginthecontext

3、ofMainlandChina.While，HongKong，asaninternationalareaofAsian，agreatvarietyofmultilingualmixingadshasbeenresearchedbyscholarsfromthenationalfunctionalistperspective，thelocalandglobalpointofviewsWuChan，2020andsoon.ThispaperisaimedtocomparethelinguisticpracticeinadvertisementsofwomenfashionindustryinMai

4、nlandChinaandHongKong，attemptingtoapplyacomparativestudyofthetworegionsandtoexamtheup-to-datemulti-linguisticphenomena.ThelanguagefeaturesinadvertisementsThelanguageinadvertisements，haveitsparticularfeatures，exceptforborrowingsandloanwords，multiplecodesareprevalentconnectedtothetrendofglobalization.

5、MultilingualismhasstartedtobecomeamajorphenomenoninthelanguageofadvertisingandwillundoubtedlycontinuetoexpandPiller，2020.OneimportantreasonisthatEnglishhasbecomeanon-nationallanguageandhasbeenappliedinmanynon-English-speakingcountriestoindicateasocialstereotype.Piller2020summarized，nomatterwhetherth

6、etargetcustomercangraspthemeaningofaforeignformornot，peoplewillbeabletoidentifytheformasbelongingtoaparticularlanguage，andtheycantransfertheethno-culturalstereotypeaboutthegroupmostfrequentlyassociatedwiththatlanguageontotheproduct.MethodologyframeworkofAnalysisAcontentanalysisisconductedtostudythel

7、anguagemixfeaturesinadvertisementsinfashionmagazinesbasedonbothHongKongandmainlandChina.Thestudyaimstoresearchthepatternsoflanguagemix，theformorlevelofmixtureandthefunctionofeachlanguageorvarietywhenmixingwithothersinbothregions.ThemethodoflanguagefunctionclassificationfromWuandChan2020isborrowedint

8、hisstudy.Thefunctionoflanguageisclassifiedinto“informationalfunctionand“involvementfunction.AccordingtoWuandChan2020，“informationalfunctionreferstothefunctionoflanguageinprovidingorpresentinginformation.Languageusedforgenerallyproductintroductionoringredientstatementmaybeincludedinapplying“informati

9、onalfunction.And“Involvementfunctionreferstotheaffectivefunctionoflanguagewhichisbeyondprovidingorpresentinginformation.Languageusedforarousingemotionaleffectsoraskingforactionsmayapplythe“involvementfunction.Althoughthedesignofadvertisingtextortypefaceandproductpackagemayalsoaffectpeoplesminds，weon

10、lyfocusonthemeaningoflanguageandexamthefunctionoflanguagecontextinthisstudy.SamplingThestudyfocusesonadvertisementsinfashionmagazinesandselecstheHongKongversionandmainlandChinaversionofCosmopolitanmagazineasthesamplebase.Cosmopolitanisafamousinternationalfashionmagazineforwomen.Withtheauditedcircula

11、tionof42，100inHongKongand1670，000inmainlandChina，Cosmopolitanmagazineisregardedastheindustryleaderandoneofthemostinfluentialwomenmagazineinbothregions.Inordertoexamtheup-to-datesituation，theNov.issueofHongKongversionandmainlandChinaversionofCosmopolitanmagazinewereselected.Atotalof47adswerecollected

12、fromthemainlandChinaversionwhileatotalof72adswerecollectedintheHongKongversion.ResultsSampleoriginsTable1belowshowsthebrandoriginsofoursamples.AlmostallthesamplesarefromforeignbrandsinbothmainlandChinaandHongKongversion.Thereareonly3localbrandsfrommainlandChinaandonly1localbrandfromHongKonginvestthe

13、iradsintheselecedmagazines.Andallthesebrandsofoursamplesarerelatedtofashionindustry，suchasbrandsofcosmetics，bags，clothing，watchesandaccessories.Languageusage，languagemixedpatternsandformsFromTable2，wecouldseethatSWCappearedin89.4%ofadsinmainlandChinasamplesandonly48.6%ofadsinHongKongsamples.Englisha

14、ppearedinmostsamples93.6%ofmainlandChinaandallthesamplesofHongKong.AndOtherlanguagesalmostallareFrenchappearedinabout20%samplesinbothregions.InthesamplesofChina，wefoundahigherproportionofappearanceinEnglishthanSWC，butthiscannotindicatethatEnglishusageismorecommonthanSWCusageinfashionads.Becausemosto

15、ftheEnglishappearedastheproductnamesandintheformofwords.SWCisstillthebaselanguageinadsinChinesesamples.AndinSWCshowsarelativelylowproportionofappearanceinHongKongbecausealotofsamplesareinpureEnglish.Therefore，fromTable3wecouldfindthatthe“Englishonlyadsoccupythehighestproportion41.7%amongalladspatter

16、nsinHongKong，followedbythepatternofSWCmixedwithEnglish38.9%.Asfortheformoflanguagemixing，Englishcouldbeembeddedintheformofaword，aphrase，and/orclauseinbothregions.MostoftheembeddedelementsisawordoraphrasemainlandChina：word=80.5%，phrase=68.3；HongKong：word=50.0%，phrase=59.5%.onlyafewclausesformisfoundi

17、nmainlandChina7.31%whilethereisamuchhigherproportionofclauseform21.4%inHongKongsamples.FunctionsofLanguagemixedinAdsInthesamplesofbothregions，bothEnglishandSWCcouldserveinformingand/orinvolvingfunctions.Inbothregions，SWC，asthebaselanguage，servesinformingandinvolvingfunctionstogetherinmostofthelangua

18、gemixedads，thereforewecouldfindacorrespondingstatisticsoftheinformingfunctionandinvolvingfunctionforSWC.AndthesmallerproportionsofSWCfunctionsinHongKongisresultedfromthebignumberofpureEnglishads.AndweneedtonoticethatalltheEnglishinpureEnglishadsofbothregionsserveonlyinformingfunction.Andwecouldconcl

19、udefromTable4thatmostEnglishareusingforinformingfunctionswhileafewproportionservetheinvolvingfunction.WhencomparingtheEnglishinvolvingfunctionbetweenthetworegions，mainlandChina23.4%evenholdtheslightlyhigherproportionthanHongKong20.8.AndthatismainlybecauseallthepureEnglishadsserveonlyinformingfunctio

20、nsinHongKong.Ifweonlylookatthoseadswithlanguagemixing，theproportionofEnglishinvolvingfunctioninHongKong35%wouldbehigherthanthatinmainlandChina27%.DiscussionandconclusionbasedonourresearchinChinasamples，Englishholdthehighestappearancerateandthepatternof“SWC-Englishholdthehighestproportioncanindicatet

21、hatEnglishhasbecomearegularlanguageinadsoffashionmagazineinmainlandChina.AccordingtoWuChan2020，theuseoflanguagefor“involvingfunctionandfor“informingfunctionatthesametimeprovidesindicatesahigherdegreeofculturalacceptabilityrelatedtothelanguageusedbypeople.Sowhenwetakethelevelsoflanguagemixandfunctionsoflanguageintoconsideration，wefindthatmostEnglishareembeddedinsimplewords，suchasproductnames，andtheyareserv