a register analysis of steven spielberg’s movie …

A REGISTER ANALYSIS OF STEVEN SPIELBERG’S

MOVIE ADVERTISEMENTS

THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

Stanislaus Ginanjar Widhi Hertanto 112006160

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

SALATIGA 2013

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ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

SALATIGA 2013

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Approved by:

Christian Rudianto, M. App.Ling. Dian Toar Y. G, Sumakul, M.A. Supervisor Examiner

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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.

Copyright@ 2013. Stanislaus Ginanjar Widhi Hertanto and Christian Rudianto, M. App.Ling.

All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University, Salatiga.

Stanislaus Ginanjar Widhi Hertanto :

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Kind of Work : Undergraduate Thesis

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A REGISTER ANALYSIS OF STEVEN SPIELBERG’S MOVIE ADVERTISEMENTS

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Date : January 23th

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Thesis Supervisor Thesis Examiner

Christian Rudianto, M. App.Ling. Dian Toar Y. G. Sumakul, M.A.


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Stanislaus Ginanjar Widhi Hertanto

Abstract

Register is described as the language of group of people with common interests or jobs, or the language used in situations associated with such groups. According to Trudgill (1974), register is a language variety that is created by the environment. It means that people who have the same social background, jobs or environment will use the same register. However, individuals may differ in styles in entering a register. When a movie director wants to release his/her new movie, he/she will make a movie advertisement to attract the movie consumers. This study aims to describe the register in Steven Spielberg’s movies advertisement. In this study, the writer will analyze how diction, style and figure of speech are employed in the register of Steven Spielberg’s movies advertisement. The qualitative method will be used to analyze the data in this study. The data for this study are collected from internet. The finding of this research shows that the use of noun, pronoun, or things which reflects the male gender as the diction, formal and simple sentence structures as the style and literal language play an important role in creating and characterizing the register of Steven Spielberg’s movies advertisement.

Keywords: Register, Diction, Style, Figure of Speech, Movie advertisement

Introduction

Every movie fans know who Steven Spielberg is and what famous movies he has

made. Steven Spielberg is one of Hollywood's best known directors. That is the reason why I

am always interested to watch all his movies. Saving Private Ryan is the first movie of

Steven Spielberg that I watched. I was interested to watch the movie because of its

advertisement’s tagline that writes “The mission is a man”. Somehow, I was curious about

the meaning of those words in the tagline and of course the story itself. And after watching

the movie, I concluded that the tagline of Saving Private Ryan movie is not only a sentence

which is used to sell the movie and attract the audience to watch it, but it also has a meaning

to describe the entire story that happens in this movie. Therefore, I noticed that an


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advertisement should be attractive and interesting because it will be an important part to

introduce a new product like movie. The use of diction in the taglines can also influence or

attract the viewers. When the movie advertisement is interesting and the dictions are

appealing for the viewers, it can cause curiosity to watch the movie. As a result, it can also

determine for the success of the movie.

Advertisement is identified as the text that does their best to get people’s attentions to

make them turn toward them (Goddard, 1998). Movie advertisement is the kind of

advertisement to promote a movie by using interesting and attractive languages so that the

viewers will be interested to watch the movie. So, it is a must that the language of movie

advertisement should have a special characteristic in order to get its purpose. The

characteristic itself can be influenced by the style used by the director of the movie. Chaika

(1994) argues “a style may be associated with a particular social occasion. Then it is called

register or functional variety of speech”. Movie advertisement certainly has a particular social

occasion, which is to attract the viewers and makes them want to watch the movie. Thus,

movie advertisement must have its specific register.

Register is a language variety for a specific purpose (Alwasilah, 1985). It indicates a

language variety which is based on the function. The patterns of register usually will follow

the existing ones, but they still develop, either by reduction or by addition. English movie

advertisements have a variety Standard English either words or sentence structure, depending

on the language use, which are discussed in the literature discussion section. It is interesting

to see how the register of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisements is created.

The register of movie advertisement is not created instantly. Many factors influence

and create this register. The register of movie advertisement is also created by considering

many factors. Movie advertisement has to attract the audience or the movie fans because it


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can influence the success of the movie. Therefore, diction and language variety, especially

the figure of speech and style, are influential in the register of movie advertisement. This

study will analyze how are diction, style and figure of speech employed in the register of

Steven Spielberg’s movies advertisement.

Theoretical/ Conceptual Framework

There are many languages which have many different styles. It is called language

variety. In general, language variety refers to a term for any characteristic form of a linguistic

or language expression (Nordquist, 2008). Moreover, a variety of language is as a set of

linguistic items with similar social distribution because what make one variety of language

different from another are the linguistic items (Hudson, 1996). Linguistic items are a

combination of linguistic expressions such as words and grammatical features, etc. It is for

sure that there are many kinds of language variety, for example are dialect, jargon, register,

etc. As the aim of this study is discussing about register in movie advertisement, register is

the only language variety that will be the main focus here.

Register represents a language variety that is based on its function. Wardaugh (1992)

stated “Register is another complicating factor in any study of language varieties. Registers

are sets of vocabulary items associated with discrete occupational or social group.” (p. 49).

Another similar idea of register is stated by Holmes (2001) who described register as the

language of groups of people with common interests or jobs. Thus, register is a linguistic

item and a particular vocabulary choices created by an individual or a social group to fulfill

the various functions in communication.

In discussing or analyzing a register, the characteristics of the register itself are also

necessary to understand. According to Biber (1994), register has four specific characteristics;


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first, register studies involve descriptive analysis of actually occurring discourse. The second

characteristics, register studies aim to characterize language varieties. The register is

considered to be a language variety along with dialect, argot, slang, jargon, for example:

register in the framework include aviation language, journalese, legalese, literacy, etc. Third,

register studies present formal linguistic characterizations of language varieties. Register can

range from high-level varieties such as spoken vs. written, formal vs. informal, and from low

level varieties such as methodology in psychology articles and newspaper headlines. The last

characteristics, register studies also analyze the situational characteristics of language

varieties, and functional or conventional relationships between form and situation are posited.

And the characteristic which is related in this study is the third characteristic as this study

discuss about the formal linguistic characterization of language varieties, which is formal vs.

informal.

In register, style is also a part of it. Keraf (2004) stated that language style or style is

considered as the way to explain the mind through particular language which expresses soul

and character. As stated previously, according to Chaika (1994) “a style may be associated

with a particular social occasion. Then it is called register or functional variety of speech”.

Therefore, in linguistic, different styles of language are technically called register. It means

language style can make a special characteristic in register which differentiate a register from

the other register. The difference can be seen from the use of language style and the sentence

structure. For that reason, it is a worth that language style and sentence structure are being

analyzed in order to understand the register.

The first thing that differentiates a register to one another is its language style. Chaer

& Agustina (2004) classify language style into three parts: formal, informal, and rhetorical (p.

71). Formal and informal style is related to the situation where the language is used.


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Meanwhile, rhetorical style is used for a rhetoric circumstances which have high aesthetic.

Formal language style is the standardization of sentence structure and diction (Chaer &

Agustina, ibid) (p. 72). The use of formal style in many movie advertisements is to build best

impression for the target consumers. In this case, the formal style used in the movie

advertisement signifies seriousness of the movie to the consumers. On the other hand,

informal language style is often used in casual situation. The character of informal style is

usually marked by the reduction of part of speech in a sentence to make a closer situation to

the consumers. This point is actually the realization of the third specific characteristic of

register that has been explained previously, where it is said that register studies formal

linguistic characterizations of language varieties. Thus, it is clearly required that language

style should be studied when analyzing a register.

Another thing to investigate in analyzing a register is its sentence structure. According

to Megginson (2007) sentence structures are classified into 4, they are simple sentence,

compound sentence, complex sentence, and compound-complex sentence. The simple

sentence structure is a sentence with only one independent clause. It contains one main

process which is explained by the use of verb and canbe as short as one word. The next type

is compound sentence, which contains at least two independent clauses and can be formed by

using coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet), the semicolon (either with or

without conjunctive adverbs), and on occasion, using colon. The third one is complex

sentence. It is a sentence that contains an independent clause and at least one dependent

clause. The last sentence structure is compound-complex sentence, which is a sentence with

two or more independent clauses and a least one dependent clause. The use of these kinds of

sentence structures in a movie advertisement is to create a connection to the viewers. When

the sentences in an advertisement are well-created, meaning that the sentences are simple but


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it has a deep meaning and can represent the story of the movie, it can gain the viewers’

curiosity and as a result they will be interested to watch the movie itself.

Furthermore, register is not only analyzed based on the style of the sentence

structures, but also analyzed based on the style of the meaning. It is called as figure of

speech. The use of figures of speech can also create a register in advertisement. When the

advertiser or the producer likes to use one kind of the figures of speech, it can give a special

characteristic in his/her advertisement. According to Leahy (1963), a figure of speech is an

expression in which the words are used in a non literal sense to present a figure, picture, or

image. It can be noticed that figure of speech contains the figurative language to express a

picture, image or figure. This research will also analyze the figures of speech that are usually

used in the language of advertisement. Those certain figures of speech are:

1. Hyperbole: Hyperbole is an exaggeration for the sake of emphasis and is not to be

taken literally (Leahy, 1963) (p. 20-21).

2. Synecdoche : Synecdoche is the technique of mentioning a part of something to

represent the whole (Leahy, ibid) (p. 20).

3. Metonymy : Metonymy is substitution of a word naming an object for another

word closely associated with it (Leahy, ibid) (p. 21).

4. Personification : Personification is the giving of human characteristics to

inanimate objects, idea or animals (Leahy, ibid) (p. 19).

5. Simile : A simile is a direct or explicit comparison between two usually unrelated

things indicating a likeness or similarity between some attribute found in both

things (Leahy, ibid) (p. 18).


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6. Climax and Anti-climax : Keraf (2004) said that climax arranged the idea from

general to specific. Meanwhile, Anti-climax is started with the meaningful idea

and finished with meaningless idea (p. 124-125)

7. Paradox : Paradox contains contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true

(Keraf, ibid) (p. 136).

8. Repetition : Repetition means the repetition of intonation, syllable, words or the

meaningful sentence (Keraf, ibid) (p. 127).

9. Parallelism : Parallelism is the quality or state of being alike of the use of words or

phrases having the equal function in the form of equal grammatical (Keraf, ibid)

(p. 126).

Based on the explanation above, I can summarize that register is a language that is

created by an individual or a social group to communicate each other inside that certain social

group. What makes a register is differ to one another is its language style and sentence

structure. Thus, it is a need to investigate both of them to understand a register. In addition,

the style of meaning is also a worth to be analyzed when it comes to a discussion about

register. It is whether there is a use of figure of speech or not. That can also be a way to

understand more about the hidden meaning behind that register. Besides explaining about

register and how it should be analyzed, language in written movie advertisement will also be

discussed as the aim of this study is to understand a register in written movie advertisement.

As explained earlier, what is meant by advertisement is that the text that does their

best to get people’s attentions to make them turn toward them (Goddard, 1998). Another

similar idea of advertisement comes from Arens (2002) who stated that advertisement is

usually paid for and persuasive in nature, it is about products (good, service, or ideas) by

famous sponsors through various media (p. 7). In addition, the form of advertisements is not


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only in visual as in television or cinema advertisement, but also audio as in radio

advertisement. From the definition above, it can be concluded that advertisement is one of a

tool in communication to promote ideas, products and services by an identified sponsors or

company through media which hopefully can persuade or convince the society about the

products or ideas. In brief, the aims of advertisement is to change prospective customers

become loyal consumer and an advertisement needs to develop positive attitude of them, so

they can be loyal consumers in the future (Kasali, 1992).

Language cannot be separated with communication as human beings use language to

communicate each other in their daily life. In communicating, someone will choose certain or

proper words to express his or her ideas because his or her utterance will affect what people

might think of him or her. This is the same thing when discussing about language in

advertisement. Therefore, in advertisement, the advertiser should know the consumers well. It

means the advertiser knows who the target consumer is. He or she should choose a proper

language and words according to the target consumers. For that reason, diction plays

important role in advertisement to attract the consumers since the purpose of advertisement is

to influence the consumers to buy or use the product (Sudiana, 1986). Furthermore, choice of

words or diction, according to Keraf (2004) refers to the ability to differentiate the meaning

of ideas and to find out word which is proper with the situation, condition and feeling of the

hearer (p. 24). From the explanations above, it can be noticed that movie advertisement needs

attractive and interesting dictions, because the success of a movie is mostly influenced by its

advertisement. The consumers who are curious toward the movie advertisement will go to the

cinema to ensure it by watching the movie.

Previously, it also has been stated that a movie advertisement is the kind of

advertisement to promote a movie by using interesting and attractive languages so that the


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viewers will be interested to watch the movie. It is a must that the language of movie

advertisement should have a special characteristic in order to get its purpose. The distinctive

characteristic of a movie advertisement can be seen if we compare it with the other kinds of

language. For example, the language of a doctor will be different from the language of

advertisement. That is why language cannot be separated from the speaker. Furthermore, the

language and the speaker are influenced by not only linguistic factors but also non-linguistic

ones. The linguistic factor is the language of the speaker, but the non-linguistic factors are

social, like gender, status, education, economic background, etc. and the situational factors,

which consist of setting of place, time, events, environment, etc (Chaer & Agustina, 2004) (p.

4). The linguistic factors and non-linguistic factors come out in different ways of speaking,

called language varieties.

Besides linguistic and non-linguistic factors, an advertisement is also influenced by

social and situational factors. Some elements which belong to the social factors are producer,

advertiser, and consumer itself. The situational factor comprises with the advertisement

media and the goods and services factors. From those elements, the writer will only concern

to producer as the social and situational factor that influenced language in advertisement. A

producer is the creator of goods that will be produce for consumer or for a specific market. It

needs much money, time, and good ability in making attractive advertisement. Therefore the

producer will ask an advertiser to describe their idea into an advertisement. Thus, producer is

the main factor in an advertisement.

To conclude, language in advertisement needs to be interesting and attractive in order

to gain the viewers attention and curiosity. Producers should be as creative as possible in

making the taglines for the advertisement so that their promotion will result on a success.

Diction and language variety, especially the figure of speech and style influence the language

in advertisement which then composes its distinctiveness – the register. Thus, this study will


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analyze how diction, style and figure of speech are employed in the register on advertisement,

especially on Steven Spielberg’s movies advertisement.

The Study

Context of the study

This study is discussing register in movie advertisements. The focus is more on the

how Steven Spielberg uses diction, style and figure of speech the register in his movie

advertisements. Thus, the scope of this study is the advertisements which were produced for

the promotion of Steven Spielberg’s movies.

Data

There were 15 Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisements as the data in this research.

All the Steven Spielberg’s movie genre like war, kids, tragedy, adventure, romantic, etc. are

discussed in this study. Another reason for choosing all movie genres is to get various data

from the movie advertisements to support the discussion that movie register is not created

instantly, but by employing many factors which influence and create the register.

Methodology

This study is a qualitative study, which means that the study is to gather an in-depth

understanding of a problem or phenomena. Sutopo (2002) said that the collected data which

resulted in the form of words, sentences, and pictures, are more meaningful than in the

number or frequency/quantity. Thus, this research applies a qualitative research using

descriptive method. The purpose of this research is describing the language in the written

movie advertisement accurately. As this study is aiming to describe the facts, which is the

style of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisement, therefore the data collected will be in the

form of words and sentences.


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Procedures of data collection

The data were collected from the internet website, such as www.21-cineplex.com, etc.

They are advertisement for Steven Spielberg’s movie. Because the purpose is to describe the

register in his movie advertisement, the data is in the form of written sources as movie poster.

Then, the taglines of the movie advertisement were taken to be analyzed because it carries the

linguistics items, such as diction, figure of speech, style, and non-linguistic factors such as

the target consumer and the movie genre etc. that characterize the register of Steven

Spielberg’s movie advertisements.

Data Analysis

The collected data will be analyzed by conducting some steps. First, the context of

movie is presented by describing the movie performances, the movie summary/synopsis, and

the target consumer. Next, the characteristics of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisements are

profiled. In this part, the research explores something typical such as the register of the

director in making the advertisement tagline by looking at diction, figure of speech and style

in the advertisement. Third, the data will be interpreted based on the results of the first and

second steps analysis. It will be done by looking at all factors in Steven Spielberg’s movie

advertisements, including linguistic and non-linguistic factors. Then, he determines what kind

of diction, style and figure of speech used in Steven Spielberg’ movie advertisements. Lastly,

conclusion is drawn, which describes the register in Steven Spielberg’s movie

advertisements.


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Discussions

Based on the theory discussed, register is another complicating factor in any study of

language varieties. Register is a linguistic item and a particular vocabulary choices created by

an individual or a social group to fulfill the various functions in communication. There are

many factors which influence in creating a register of movie advertisement especially in the

register of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisements. To discuss the factors which influence

in creating the register of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisements, the writer will analyze

based on the linguistic factors like the director’s writing style. Therefore, the writer classified

the factors into three groups, which are diction, style and figures of speech:

Diction in the register of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisement

Diction is one of important points in the register of movie advertisement. Diction is

the choice and use of words in speech or writing. Keraf (2004) stated that choice of word or

diction is the ability to differentiate the meaning of ideas and to find out word which is proper

with the situation, condition and feeling of the hearer. Diction will be effective when the

words of the speaker or the writer’s choose is appropriate with the purpose and the reader can

get the message or the meaning accurately. Based on the findings, Steven Spielberg mostly

uses diction that is related to personification of the main character and object complement, in

addition to adjectives, to describe the main character in his movie advertisement.

For example, the tagline of ET - EXTRA TERRESTRIAL’s movie advertisement “He

is afraid. He is totally alone. He is 3 million light years from home” This advertisement tells

about a person who faces everything since he has to survive from the truth. The tagline of

advertisement is closed with the sentence of “He is 3 million light years from home”. It is

understood that the director use a phrase “he” and “million light years” as the diction. The


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pronoun “he” is used to represents the oddity which shows the character who is not a human

being, and the complement “million light years” represents a distance between the earth to

the character’s home. The use of diction “he” and “million light years” indicates to show the

story about the character of this movie is not came from the earth, but he came from the other

planet which is far from the earth.

In SAVING PRIVATE RYAN’s movie advertisement, the taglines “The mission is a

man” show the background of this movie story about war film. The choice of the word

“man” indicates that it is a personification of a soldier. The movie story shows about the

atmosphere of soldiers who get a difficult mission to save a soldier in a war. From the real

meaning, the word “man” has meaning a gender of human, but the director use the word “a

man” to symbolize a person specifically a soldier.

To personify the main character Steven Spielberg also employs noun in movie

advertisement. It can be seen from the taglines of INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST

CRUSADE’s movie advertisement “The man with the hat is back, and this time he’s bringing

his dad” The advertiser opens this movie advertisement by employing the diction “The man

with the hat” which depicts the mysterious character. By using “The man with the hat” as the

diction for his movie advertisement, the director seems to ask the readers to imagine who the

main character is. In general, people will guess “The man with the hat” that it can be a police,

a cowboy, etc. But, the director represents this diction is an adventurer named Indiana Jones

who always uses a hat. The writer concludes that Steven Spielberg using noun “the man” and

“ the hat” as the diction to symbolize a person who has his own fashion style by using a

cowboy hat.

The other examples of diction analysis can be seen in the appendix that is from Data

2, Data 6, and Data 10.


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From the analysis, the writer can conclude that Steven Spielberg is mostly using noun

and pronoun which are related to person or human being in his movie advertisements to

personify the main character, even if the main character is sometimes not human. These

dictions are chosen as the genre in most of Spielberg’s drama movies. It is because drama

movies are mostly fundamental with human. Spielberg also uses that kind of diction to

emphasize the movie genre itself. In addition, the distinctive characteristic of Steven

Spielberg’s dictions in his movie advertisements is that he mostly tends to use noun, pronoun,

or things which reflects the male gender to represent anything in his movies, for example

about jobs, things, or activities, which are related to males.

Style in the register of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisement

To analyze the style in the register of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisement, I limit

the discussion of this study into (1) formal language style, (2) simple sentence structure

because the result of the analysis mostly shows those two characteristics.

1. Formal language style

Formal language of the English written text consists of the formal form which

has grammar rules, no contractions and not deleting words (Chambers, 2010). Based on

the data analysis, the formal style is mostly applied in the Steven Spielberg’s movie

advertisement. The formal style of the Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisement can be

seen from the following taglines:

a) Correct Grammar

• Life is waiting (THE TERMINAL’s movie advertisement)


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• David is 11 years old. He weighs 60 pounds. He is 4 feet, and 6 inches

tall. He has brown hair. His love is real, but he is not. (ARTIFICIAL

INTELLIGENCE’s movie advertisement)

• Everybody runs (MINORITY REPORT’s movie advertisement)

• If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones. (INDIANA JONES

AND THE TEMPLE OF THE DOOM’s movie advertisement)

• He is afraid. He is totally alone. He is 3 million light years from home.

(ET - EXTRA TERRESTRIAL’s movie advertisement)

Looking at the taglines above, the language style employed by the

advertiser is formal. The director applies present tense which

grammatically correct in the taglines. The director does not create the

tagline as casual expression but seriousness which emphasizes on the story

themes. It is due to the movie story which tells about something that still

happens, or information what happens in the story.

b) No Contraction and not deleting words

• The mission is a man (SAVING PRIVAT RYAN’s movie

advertisement)

• He is afraid. He is totally alone. He is 3 million light years from home.

(ET - EXTRA TERRESTRIAL’s movie advertisement)

• Something has survived. (THE LOST WORLD JURASSIC PARK’s

movie advertisement)


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• The world was watching in 1972. As 11 Israeli athletes were murdered

at the Munich Olympics. This is the story of what happened next.

(MUNICH’s Movie Advertisement)

• If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones. (INDIANA JONES

AND THE TEMPLE OF THE DOOM’s movie advertisement)

From the taglines above, the writing style used by the advertiser is

complete sentence. Mostly, I did not find any contraction in the taglines.

The aim of using complete sentence is to build the formal situation

between the director and the reader. In addition, when the director does not

employ any contraction, it can support the seriousness of the taglines that

created by using correct grammar.

Additional examples of formal style are Data 2 and Data 7 and its analysis are

provided in the appendix.

Based on the interpretation above, it can be concluded that formal language can

be one of the one of the characteristic of the style in creating the register of Steven

Spielberg’s movie advertisements. The characteristic of Steven Spielberg’s formal

language style are mostly use present tense and no contraction in his advertisements.

2. Simple sentence structure

The written texts of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisement cover many terms

of language varieties in the form of sentences such as; simple, compound, complex, and

compound-complex sentence structures. In the data analysis, most data use simple

sentence structure more than the other types of sentence structure. The examples of


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simple sentence that is used in the Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisement’s tagline are

provided below:

The tagline of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN’s movie advertisement “The mission is

a man” is using simple sentence, consisting of a subject (The mission), a predicate (is),

and followed by an object (a man). The tagline represents a statement sentence which

indicates the conclusion of this movie advertisement.

In promoting THE LOST WORLD JURASSIC PARK’s movie advertisement, the

director represents simple sentences “Something has survived”. It consists of a subject

(Something), and a verb (has survived). The tagline is a statement sentence which

explains about the information of the main story.

In the taglines of ET - EXTRA TERRESTRIAL’s movie advertisement “He is

afraid. He is totally alone. He is 3 million light years from home”, it represents three

simple sentences; (He is afraid), (He is totally alone), and (He is 3 million light years

from home raid) All the simple statement sentences consist of subject, predicate, and

adjective or adverb. This tagline explains about the conclusion of the main story.

There are 8 more data of simple sentence analysis which are explained in the

appendix. They are data 3, data 7, data 8, data 9, data 11, data 14, and data 15.

From the analysis above, the director is likely to use simple sentence because he

wants to make a simple and clear advertisement. Mostly, the Steven Spielberg’s movie

advertisement represents a statement sentence which tells the conclusion of the movie

story. It also can be the characteristic of the style in creating the register of Steven

Spielberg’s movie advertisement.


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Figure of Speech in the register of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisement

In all movie advertisement, the director often employs certain figure of speech in his

language to attract the viewers to watch the movie. A figure of speech is an expression in

which the words are used in a non literal sense to present a figure, picture, or image (Leahy,

1963). From the findings, Steven Spielberg is mostly using a literal language in his movie

advertisement. Literal language is a language which does not deviate from the defined

meaning (Nordquist, 2008). The use of literal languge in these movie advertisement is to state

the facts such as; the message of the movie story, the summary of the movie story, or the

conclusion of the movie story.

For example in the tagline of INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE’s movie

advertisement “The man with the hat is back. And this time he’s bringing his dad.” The

director makes the taglines of his advertisements simple and the meaning is clear and

understandable that it just to describe the story tells about the return of Indiana Jones. It can

be known that the aims of the director in using literal words meaning and creating a simple

advertisement because he wants to get the viewers’ attention by telling the summary of the

movie story.

In the tagline of EMPIRE OF THE SUN’s movie advertisement “To survive in a

world at war, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him.” This

movie advertisement does not contain any figure of speech since all the meaning is clear and

no exaggeration of expression. The director only mentions literal words which are to explain

the summary of the movie story about the problem of the story.

The next example is the tagline in WAR OF THE WORLDS’s movie advertisement

“They’re already here”. In terms of figure of speech, the director also did not apply any figure


19

of speech and it contains literal language. If we see from the taglines, the meaning of this

advertisement is simple. The tagline tells about the conclusion of the movie story which tells

information about what happens in the story.

Data 5 and data 8 are two other examples of figure of speech analysis and it is

explained in the appendix.

Based on the data above, Steven Spielberg mostly employs literal meaning and does

not normally use any figure of speech in creating his movie advertisements. It can be seen

that he wants to make his advertisements simple and has a clear meaning without any

exaggeration of expression. By employing literal language, it can be one of the factors that

influence in creating the register of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisement.

From the discussions above, the writer concludes that the linguistic factors such as;

diction, style and figure of speech in Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisements are giving a

distinct characteristic in the register of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisements. The diction

plays important role in advertisement to attract the consumers since the purpose of

advertisement is to persuade the consumers to watch Steven Spielberg’s movies.

Furthermore, the diction can help to deliver the information of movie story and can raise the

consumers’ intention to watch the movie. By using noun and pronoun as the diction which

are related to person or human being especially male gender in the taglines, it can help the

director to represents the movie story and the movie genre in Steven Spielberg’s movies

advertisements.

Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisements are applying more formal style rather than

informal style in the taglines of his advertisements. The formal style, in the movie

advertisement, seems to build best impression to the target consumers through the taglines. In

this case, the director likes to use formal style in his movie advertisement because he wants to


20

show the story of movie seriously. It also can be seen that the use of simple sentences in the

register of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisement are more dominated than complex one. It

follows general rule that an advertisement should be simple & clear enough. In terms of

figure of speech, the director mostly employs literal language in the movie advertisements. It

shows that the director tries to attract the reader through a simple tagline which is telling the

fact or conclusion of the movie story without any figurative words.

Conclusion

Register is an interesting sociolinguistics topic to discuss. It is a language that usually

used by a certain group of people who have common interests or jobs especially to

communicate each other within the group. The characteristics of linguistic factors, such as

diction, style and figure of speech, in the register of movie advertisement have particular

point of views that is different from other types of register. The diction in advertisement is to

attract the consumers using the inviting choice of words. In the written texts of movie

advertisement, the sentence structures of the taglines are determined whether they are simple,

compound, complex, or compound-complex sentence structure. Moreover, formal style used

by the advertiser aims at building a best impression of movie story for the target consumers.

Meanwhile, the informal style tends to give an intimate and casual impression for the

consumers. The figures of speech factor applied in the register of movie advertisement, it

aims to expressing a figure, picture, or image.

Based on the findings, the characteristic of Steven Spielberg’s diction is mostly tends

to use noun, pronoun, or things which reflects the male gender to represent anything in his

movies, for example about jobs, things, or activities, which are related to males in the term of

sentence structure, Steven Spielberg mostly uses simple sentences structures in his taglines.


21

This is based on the principle that reveals an advertisement should be simple and clear

enough. The analysis also proves that most of language style employed by Steven Spielberg’s

movie advertisements is formal style. It is assumed that by applying formal styles in movie

advertisement, the director has a purpose to describe the movie story seriously to the target

consumers. In the data analysis, it is also found that the director did not use many figures of

speech and he is mostly applying a literal language in promoting his movies. It is based on

the director’s effort to attract the consumers through a simple advertisement that contains

clear and understandable taglines because he wants to get the viewers’ attention by telling the

information, the conclusion, or the summary of the movie story.

Acknowledgment

All praises and thanks are just for Jesus Christ who always blessings me so that I can

finish my thesis. Thank you so much to my parents especially my mom who always support

me to finish my thesis, I love you, mom! Million of thanks to my supervisor, Christian

Rudianto, M. Appling for all your help and guidance, thank you so much Mas Rudi. Then,

bapak Dian Toar Y. G, Sumakul, M.A. thanks for revising my thesis, I will miss all your

jokes, pak Toar. ☺ I would like to appreciate my girlfriend, Cynthia Niken P. for her love and

support, thanks for everything and trust me that ‘true love never runs smooth”. I would also

like to extend my appreciation to all of you who have helped me writing this thesis, and also

everyone who I cannot mention one by one. Thank you and I love you all.


22

References

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Arens, W. F. (2002). Contemporary Advertising. New York: Mc Graw-Hill Companies Inc.

Biber, D. &. (1994). Socioloinguistic Perspectives on Register. New York: Oxford University

Press.

Chaer, A. &. (2004). Sossiolinguistik: Perkenalan Awal. Jakarta: CV Aneka.

Chaika, E. (1994). Language: The Social Mirror. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

Chambers, N. (2010, May 24). Englishspark. Retrieved July 25, 2012, from Englishspark:

http://www.englishspark.com/en/students/453-informal-language

Goddard, A. (1998). The Language of Advertising: Written Texts. London: Routledge.

Holmes, J. (2001). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Hudson, R. (1996). Sociolinguistics. New York: Cambridge University Press

Kasali, R. (1992). Manajemen Periklanan: Konsep dan Aplikasinya di Indonesia. Jakarta:

Pustaka Utama Grafitti.

Keraf, G. (2004). Diksi dan Gaya Bahasa. Flores: Nusa Indah.

Leahy, W. (1963). Fundamentals Poetry. Chicago: Kenneth Publshing Company.

Megginson, D. (2007). uOttawa. Retrieved November 18, 2012, from The Writing Centre:

http://www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/hypergrammar/sntstrct.html

Nordquist, R. (2008). About.com. Retrieved June 28, 2012, from Grammar & Composition:

http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/Language-Variety.htm


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Sudiana, D. (1986). Komunikasi Periklanan Cetak. Bandung: CV Remaja Rosda Karya.

Sutopo, H. (2002). Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif: Dasar Toeri dan Penerapannya dalam

Penelitian. Surakarta: Sebelas Maret University Press.

Trudgill, P. (1974). Sociolinguistics: An Introduction. UK, Harmondsworth:

Penguin Book.

Wardaugh, R. (1992). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. UK: Blackwell Publisher Ltd.

Website visited:

www.21-cineplex.com

http://www.impawards.com/directors/steven_spielberg.html

www.imdb.com


24

APPENDIX

Findings

This study illustrates how the register in Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisements can

be integrated into linguistic phenomenon. Specifically, this study investigates the

characteristics for both linguistic and non-linguistic factors in the register of Steven

Spielberg’s movie advertisements. The data analysis consists of the Data description, the

Movie Classification, and Data Interpretation. The Data Description explains about the

tagline advertisement of Steven Spielberg’s movie advertisements. The Movie Classification

shows the movie summary, the target consumers and the movie genre as non-linguistic

factors. Meanwhile, the Data Interpretation will consist of the analysis of linguistic factor,

such as; diction, figure of speech and style. The analysis is described in the following pages:


25

Data 1

http://www.impawards.com/1982/e_t_the_extra_terrestrial_ver1.html

Data Description

He is afraid

He is totally alone

He is 3 million light years from home

(ET - EXTRA TERRESTRIAL’s Movie Advertisement)

Movie Classification

This movie depicts about a boy, Elliot, meets a little lost alien. Elliot decides to keep

the alien. He named the alien; E.T. Elliot helps E.T. to find him a way to get back home.

Elliot must make the difficult sacrifice because he must keep E.T. hidden from someone else

who looks for him. The genre of this movie belongs to adventure movie. Therefore, this

movie is for kids target consumers


26

Data Interpretation

With three sentences that show the setting of this movie story. Those three lines have

a close relationship each other. By using the word “He” , the director wants to give intention

to introduce the main characters of this movie to the target consumers. The main character is

described as a person who faces everything since he has to survive from the truth. Then, the

director makes the advertisement by adding the diction in the last sentence. It can be known

from the sentence “He is 3 million light years from home.” This sentence is to describe the

oddity which shows the character who is not a human which came from the earth. It seems

from the diction “he” which represents the main character is an alien. After the director

describes the main character seems like a human, he employs the diction “million light

years” that seems to strengthen the information about the main characters.

In terms of structure, this movie advertisement represents simple sentences.

Meanwhile, the language style of this advertisement use formal style. It can be seen from the

complete writing which is grammatically correct in this advertisement. However, the director

has intention to inform the movie story simpler toward the target consumers since it is kids’

story. The Repetition is applied in this movie advertisement. It can be from the subject

repetition of “He” in the first to third line which emphasize on the character of this movie.


27

Data 2

http://www.impawards.com/1987/empire_of_the_sun.html

Data Description

To survive in a world at war,

he must find a strength greater

than all the events that surround him.

(EMPIRE OF THE SUN’s Movie Advertisement)


Shortly, it tells about a boy who saved his own life by the Japanese invasion in

Shanghai. He is separated from his parents. Between the food shortages and sickness in the

camp, he tried to survive. This movie describes, a boy who struggles to save his life from a

war. Moreover, this movie is full of emotion and desire. The genre of this movie is epics film

that shows life story from a boy. Hence, the target consumer of this movie is for adult.


28

Data Interpretation

This advertisement begins with a certain issue that depicts about the issues of the

main characters which can be seen in the sentence “To survive in a world at war”. It

indicates that the big issues that might make the main characters to be different. Then, the

issue is more cleared in the next sentence, “he must find a strength greater than all the events

that surround him.” The advertisement has a powerful diction “strength” which describes as

something important that related to male gender. The meaning of the “strength” of this

tagline is not the same with the real meaning about power.

Language style used in this movie advertisement is formal style and compound-

complex sentence. The complex sentence can be seen from the use of conjunction “than”

which linking two subjects “he” and “all the events”. The formal style is used in this movie

advertisement by employing the complete writings. Moreover, this movie advertisement does

not contain the figure of speech since all the meaning is clear. It only mentions the literal

words which are telling the summary of the movie story.


29

Data 3

http://www.impawards.com/2002/catch_me_if_you_can.html

Data Description

The true story of a real fake

(CATCH ME IF YOU CAN’s Movie Advertisement)


In summary, this movie tells about an FBI agent tracks down and catches a young

artist who successfully impersonated as an airline pilot, doctor, assistant attorney and

professor. He only wants to cash more than $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in 26 countries.

This movie belongs to crime film that contains an adventure story of someone doing a crime.

Hence, this movie is categorized for adult target consumers.

Data Interpretation

In promoting this movie, the director only display a simple phrase which represents

the description of this movie story. This advertisement’s tagline seems very attractive. The


30

impression which appears from this advertisement is to show the setting of film story based

on the true story of a liar. The phrase “a real fake” indicates to emphasize on the story theme

of this movie that describe the real story. By using the word ”real” , short advertisement, the

director seems entirely to have intention to bring the target consumers into suspense

atmosphere that describes adventure suspense that will shows through the character’s act.

The informal style is used in this register of film advertisement by employing only a

phrase, not the complete writings. Simple sentence is applied in this advertisement which is

shows a statement. The tagline contains a figurative word that is “real” which characterize

the word “fake”. Moreover, the meaning senses of these advertisements are simple, so the

figure of speech applied by the director is Hyperbole. The excessive of meaning can be seen

on the expression of “real” which makes this movie like based on a true story.


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Data 4

http://www.impawards.com/1984/indiana_jones_and_the_temple_of_doom_ver1.html

Data Description

If adventure has a name…

It must be Indiana Jones.

(INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF THE DOOM’s Movie Advertisement)


The movie entitled Indiana Jones and The Temple of The Doom is an adventure

movie for adult which is about legendary hero by the name of Indiana Jones. He is back in

action in his newest adventure. He discovered the great mysterious terror surrounding a

booby-trapped temple known as the Temple of Doom. Based on the target movie consumer,

this movie belongs to adult movie which contains an adventure story. Therefore, this movie is

allowed for all consumers. The genre of this movie is categorized as an adventure film.


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Data Interpretation

This advertisement begins with a certain issue that the director makes two simple

sentences. The advertisement begins with a statement “If adventure has a name…” It

indicates as an issue appears in movie story that depicts the main story. It can be seen in the

expression of “adventure” for it emphasizes on the performers of this movie story.

Furthermore, by using the mark of “(…)” in the end of sentence, the director wants to tell the

viewers about there is an interesting story behind this movie. The issue is about how to the

character will begin his/her adventure story. The last sentence of this movie advertisement “It

must be Indiana Jones.”, it indicates that the director want to introduce the main character of

this movie.

In the point of view of language style, this movie advertisement employs a formal

style and complex sentence. The formal style shows from the complete writing and

grammatically correct. The conjunction “if” indicates that the tagline is complex sentence.

Meanwhile, in terms of figures of speech, the director employed Hyperbole figure. The

exaggeration of meaning is seen in “If adventure has a name”.


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Data 5

http://www.impawards.com/1998/saving_private_ryan_ver1.html

Data Description

The mission is a man

(SAVING PRIVAT RYAN’s Movie Advertisement)


Based on the story, the genre of this movie belongs to war film which is full of battle

situation scene. This movie tells about a group of soldier under Cpt. Miller which gets a

mission to save a soldier, Private James Ryan, and bring him back home. Hence, this, movie

genre is intended for the adult target consumers.

Data Interpretation

In promoting this movie, the director makes a simple sentence. It seems the director

has purpose to inform the movie story clearly without making the viewers feel difficult in

understanding the meaning. It can be seen from the tagline “the mission is a man”. This


34

sentence shows that the director seems to give information about this movie directly. The

tagline indicates that the director seems to use the word “man” as the diction. It is due to this

movie story which shows about the atmosphere of soldiers who get a difficult mission in a

war.

The language style employed by the director is formal style. In the terms of structure,

this advertisement is categorized as simple sentence. The director intends to give the

powerful impression to the target consumers by using the complete sentences which are

grammatically correct. In this movie advertisement, the figure of speech is not found because

the meaning of the sentence applied by the director is very clear.


35

Data 6

http://www.impawards.com/1989/always.html

Data Description

They couldn’t hear him

They couldn’t see him

But he was there when they need him…

Even after he was gone.

(ALWAYS’s Movie Advertisement)


“Always” is a 1989 American drama movie. In summary, it tells about Pete Sandich

and buddy Al Yackey are forest-fire fighters. Pete meets his true love with Dorinda, but he

won't give up the job. When he takes a risk, he was dead. Dorinda faces a big problem and

cannot put his life back together. Based on the story, the target consumers of this film genre

are for adult.


36

Data Interpretation

The opening of advertisement begins with the statements that signify the situation of

this movie story. The tagline gives feeling the reader to feel the message of the movie story.

From the word “him”, the reader will know guess the characters are the important person of

this movie. The advertiser employs the diction of movie advertisement by choosing a

pronoun “him”. If we see from the movie story, the diction “him” is tended to represent the

main character who is a ghost. By using this pronoun, the director seems to ask the readers to

imagine who the main character is.

In terms of language style, this advertisement uses informal style. It can be seen from

the mark “(…)” in the third line. Besides, the contraction word of “couldn’t” in the opening

advertisement also seems the informal ones. In promoting this movie, the director also uses

compound sentence by using the conjunction “but”. The figure of speech of this movie

advertisement is Repetition. It can be seen on the phrase repetition on “they” and”him”.


37

Data 7

http://www.impawards.com/1974/sugarland_express.html

Data Description

A girl with great following

Every cop in the state was after her

Everybody else was behind her

(SUGARLAND EXPRESS’s Movie Advertisement)


The suspense actions are much showed in this movie. So, this movie belongs to a

suspense drama genre which is intended for adult target consumers. Shortly, this movie tells

about a woman, Lou-Jean, tells her husband who is imprisoned to escape. They make a plan

to kidnap their own child who was placed with foster parents. They need a hostage to make

the escape successful, and they are pursued through to Texas.


38

Data Interpretation

In this advertisement, the director only makes three simple sentences in promoting

this movie. The advertisement begins with “A girl with great following” that indicates to

introduce a suspense story setting to the consumer. The words great “great following”

indicates that the director try to convince the audience that this movie has a lot of suspense

scenes. In addition, the second and third sentence gives an explanation for the first sentence.

The language style applied by this advertisement is formal, as seen on the taglines.

The director does not make it as casual expression, but gives some seriousness which based

on the story themes. Therefore, simple sentence applied in this advertisement. The figure of

speech of this movie advertisement is Hyperbole which can be seen on the expression in the

first sentence “great following”. It represents the character is a bad guy who is pursued by

many police.


39

Data 8

http://www.impawards.com/2002/minority_report.html

Data Description

Everybody runs

(MINORITY REPORT’s Movie Advertisement)


Based on the theme of story, this movie belongs to crime movie because it tells about

a crime and suspense story. Hence, this movie is only for adult target consumers. Briefly, this

movie is about three gifted humans called "Pre-Cogs" who have special powers to see into the

future and predict crimes beforehand. They decide to solve the mystery's core by finding out

the “minority report”. They have to solve the prediction of the female Pre-Cog “Agatha”.

Data Interpretation

The director makes a short expression in making this movie advertisement. However,

these expressions are clearly describing about the essence of movie story. The advertisement

opens with a clear tagline “everybody runs”. It indicates that the setting of this movie

contains suspense situation. The impression of this expression is situation which makes


40

people have to escape from a bad condition. Furthermore, this advertisement has a purpose to

ask the viewers to get involved in this film indirectly. The advertisement’s tagline is very

effective. The short expression employed by the director contains the powerful meaning

which is directly related to the movie story. By making the short expressions, this movie

advertisement can increase the curiosity of audience to watch this movie

The style of this advertisement is formal and simple sentence. It can be known from

the complete sentence applied by the director to advertise this movie story. Furthermore, the

meaning of the advertisement is clear because the director only applied literal words to give

information about the movie.


41

Data 9

http://www.impawards.com/2004/terminal.html

Data description

Life is waiting.

(THE TERMINAL’s Movie Advertisement)


In brief, this movie tells about a character named Viktor Navorski, who is about to

come to New York. Unfortunately, a war broke out in his country when he was on the way to

New York. The war erased his country form the map and as a result U.S. cannot recognize

him, as a result he cannot enter U.S. but he also can’t be deported so he has to remain in the

airport until his status can be fixed. Slowly, he makes friends with the airport staffs and falls

in love with a flight attendant. The summary above shows that the movie belongs to a

romantic drama genre and as it contains love story between the characters then the target

consumers for this movie is the adult consumers.


42

Data Interpretation

In promoting the movie, the director just uses one single sentence “Life is waiting”. In

this statement, there is an impression that life is like freedom. People can feel freedom after

they escape from something. In other word, that single sentence can indicate there is

something that suspends someone’s life. Therefore, the director uses that kind of statement in

order to make the target consumers curious about what is actually happen in this movie as

they may think about what kind of thing or event which can suspend someone’s life or

freedom and to answer their curiosity they should watch the movie.

In terms of language style, this advertisement employs formal style. The tagline of the

advertisement is a complete sentence which is grammatically correct. Thus, the writer can

conclude that the advertisement uses a formal language style. In the terms of structure, this

advertisement use simple sentence. It can be identified by the “Life is waiting.”The advertiser

seems has a purpose to close with them by creating an impression statement. The

personification figure is seen in this movie advertisement. As seen on the statement “Life is

waiting”, “life” is actually inanimate objects, but in that statement it is given a human

characteristic which is “waiting”.


43

Data 10

http://www.impawards.com/2001/ai_artificial_intelligence.html

Data Description

David is 11 years old.

He weighs 60 pounds.

He is 4 feet, and 6 inches tall.

He has brown hair.

His love is real.

But he is not.

(ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE’s Movie Advertisement)


Overall, this movie is telling about David, an artificial kid which is the first to have

real feelings, especially a never-ending love for his "mother". Because David is not a real

human, what is meant by mother here is someone who adopted him as her child. Monica

adopted David as a substitute for her real son. David is living happily with Monica and her

husband, but when their real son returns home after a cure is discovered, David’s life changes

dramatically. From the summary, the writer concluded that the genre of this movie is tragedy


44

drama. Moreover, as it is performed by kid and adult as the actors, the movie is intended for

kid and adult target consumers.

Data interpretation

The advertisement of Artificial Intelligence begins with statements that indicate a

description of a character in this movie. In the first four statements, the director clearly

described how the character looks like, from his age, weight, height, and even his hair color.

If the target consumers just read until that part, it is obvious that they will think the character

is a human being. But when they continue to read until the last two sentence of the

advertisement, the target consumers will notice that actually David or the character is not a

real human being but a robot. The producer uses pronoun “he” as the diction to symbolize a

thing.

From the structure, this advertisement uses a formal style and compound sentence. It

can be seen from the statements which are complete sentences and grammatically correct.

Furthermore, figure of speech is hardly seen in this advertisement as it uses the statements to

describe a character in the movie at the beginning of the advertisement. But, actually there is

a paradox in the end of the advertisement, “His love is real”, “ But he is not.”


45

Data 11

http://www.impawards.com/2005/munich.html

Data description

The world was watching in 1972

As 11 Israeli athletes were murdered at the Munich Olympics

This is the story of

What happened next

(MUNICH’s Movie Advertisement)


In summary, this movie is telling about the time after an assassination of Israeli

athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. Prime Minister Golda Meir agrees an operation to

find and kill all people who were involved. A team of five gathers in Switzerland. It's an

expendable team, but depends on paid informants; they track and kill several in Europe and

Lebanon. They must constantly look over their shoulders for the CIA, KGB, PLO, and their

own sources. But, as the time goes by, their loyalties start to blur. According to the summary

above, the movie include killing actions and thrilling situations. It also include criminal act

performed by human being, therefore this movie is for adult target consumers.


46

Data Interpretation

The movie advertisement is started by a statement that describes the setting of the

movie. The director uses, “The world was watching in 1972”, “As 11 Israeli athletes were

murdered at the Munich Olympics” as the first statement. This represents the cause of the

story. Then, the director adds “This is the story of what happened next” which indicates the

continuity of the previous statement. The combination of those statements can arouse target

consumers’ curiosity about the movie as they may think what is actually happened after that

assassination. So, in order to answer the questions in their mind, the target consumers should

come to watch this movie.

In term of language, the advertisement uses a informal style which shows seriousness.

It is also supported by using a simple sentence. There is Personification seen in this

advertisement. It is because the advertisement uses statements “The world was watching”

which giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects.


47

Data 12

http://www.impawards.com/1989/indiana_jones_and_the_last_crusade_ver1.html

Data description

The man with the hat is back

And this time he’s bringing his dad

(INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE’s Movie Advertisement)


As we know, Indiana Jones and the last crusade is a sequel from the previous Indiana

Jones movie in 1984. It is obviously telling about another adventure of Indiana Jones, a well-

known adventurer and archaeologist. This time, he acquires a diary with no names that holds

clues and a map to find the mysterious Holy Grail, which was sent from his father, Dr. Henry

Jones, in Italy. With the diary as a vital key and the map with no names as a guide, Indiana

Jones once again finds himself in another death defying adventure of pure excitement. As

explained in the summary, this movie contains challenging adventure scenes performed by


48

men. Therefore, the genre of the movie is adventure movie which is proposed for the adult

target consumers.

Data Interpretation

In line, “The man with the hat is back” it seems like the director wants to inform the

return of someone. The advertiser opens this movie advertisement by employing the diction

“The man with the hat” which depicts the mysterious character. In general, people will guess

“The man with the hat” that it can be a police, a cowboy, etc. But, the director represents this

diction is an adventurer named Indiana Jones who always uses a hat. Thus, the director

actually wants to show that this movie is a sequel from the previous movie about Indiana

Jones by using that statement. While the line, “And this time he’s bringing his dad”

strengthens that this movie is a new story brought by Indiana Jones.

For the language style, the advertisement employs an informal style and compound

sentence. It can be seen from the use contraction words of “he’s” in the sentence “he’s

bringing his dad”. The complex sentence is marked by the use of conjunction “and”. Figure

of speech cannot be found in this advertisement because it has a clear meaning that is to

describe the return of Indiana Jones.


49

Data 13

http://www.impawards.com/1997/lost_world_jurassic_park_ver2.html

Data description

Something has survived

(THE LOST WORLD JURASSIC PARK’s Movie Advertisement)


In brief, this is a story of the discovery of an island full of dinosaurs. Dr. John

Hammond decides to send four adventurers to examine the dinosaur's lifestyle before a

certain party goes ahead in controlling the island. Ian Malcolm does not agree to Dr.

Hammond’s idea and wants to contact the other three members, but before he can contact

them, he finds out that his girlfriend, Sarah Harding is already on the island. Now, the

mission that was supposed to be a natural research of the incredible creatures in their habitats

has turned into a rescue mission with everyone’s life at danger. This movie contains a

thrilling scenes performed by men. It is included into adventure movie which is proposed for

all target consumers.


50

Data Interpretation

In promoting the movie, the director uses a clear statement, which seems to have

purpose to increase the target consumers’ curiosity. It can be seen from the statement of this

advertisement “something has survived”. The director wants to introduce a certain character

of this movie. The character itself is described as something which has survived and soon will

become the main story of the movie.

The style of this movie advertisement is formal. This movie advertisement represents

a simple sentence in promoting this movie. It can be traced from the complete sentence used

in the advertisement. Meanwhile, personification figure is found in this advertisement as in

the statement the word “something” which represents animals is given a human characteristic

of being “survived”.


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Data 14

http://www.impawards.com/2011/war_horse.html

Data description

Separated by war

Tested by battle

Bound by friendship

(WAR HORSE’s Movie Advertisement)


This movie is generally telling about the friendship of Albert and his horse, Joey. One

day, their family has to sell Joey to the British cavalry because their harvest fails. Joey is

shipped to France then and Albert enlists to the army to serve in World War I. They are

separated and meet again after a long time. As the settlement is declared Joey is set to be

sold, are finding a way to return home together. This movie contains war scenes that mostly


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performed by men, so it is included into war movie which is anticipated for the adult target

consumers.

Data Interpretation

The director seems to have purpose to illustrate the setting of the movie, including the

relationship between Joey and Albert. The first and second phrase, “Separated by war”,

“Tested by battle” indicate the time when Joey has to be sold to the British Cavalry and join a

war in France and Albert joins the army to serve in World War I. The last phrase “Bound by

friendship” represents the time when finally Joey meet Albert again.

This advertisement uses a informal style to make intimate and closer situation to the

target consumers. The advertiser employs a simple sentence that has general meaning in

promoting the movie. In addition, the Parallelism figure is seen on the parallel phrases on

“Separated by war”, “ Tested by battle”, and “Bound by friendship”. These terms also support

the description of the relationship between the horse and Albert.


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Data 15

http://www.impawards.com/2005/war_of_the_worlds.html

Data description

They’re already here.

(WAR OF THE WORLDS’s Movie Advertisement)


In brief, this movie is about Ray Ferrier who is fighting to survive and stay alive for

his son Robbie and his daughter Rachel. They have to reach Boston to meet the ex-wife/the

children’s mom and save their life. When they are in New York, a strange and powerful

lightning storm suddenly touches down. That lighting storm contains aliens which are sent

down to their buried robots. Soon, this is followed by the rise of the massive aliens’ robots

from the ground and they attack people around them. It becomes an extraordinary battle. This

movie contains thrilling and strained actions performed by men, so it is included into

suspense movie genre which is intended for the kid and adult target consumers.


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Data Interpretation

The advertisement contains a statement that indicates the setting of the movie story.

The statement is “They’re already here”. The use of the word “they” by the director seems to

have an impression to introduce a certain characters of the movie to the target consumers.

Those characters are described as being already in the same place with the humankind. And

as the title of the movie is War of the Worlds, it seems like those characters are ready to

attack humankind as they now are already in the same place.

The language style of this movie advertisement is informal style and simple sentence.

The use contraction words of “They’re” shows that the director wants to make simple

information about the story of the movies. As the statement is simple and the meaning is clear

and understandable, there is no figure of speech found in this movie advertisement.

a register analysis of steven spielberg’s movie …

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