English Language And Its Uses

English is used to persuade in many areas of our lives, in public as well as private, to convince others to agree with our facts, to share our values, accept our argument or conform to our way ofthinking. In examining the process of persuasion it is evident that it is influenced by contextual factors such a mode and cultural understandings. For this reason, context is an essential factor as byisolating language used to persuade we are focusing on a particular social purpose in which case we must take into account the context of a text’s, or speech’s, production and reception (Beard, US,2007, p.43). 
In the field of advertising, English is used to persuade by playing upon the emotional idea that our lives are in some way lacking or imperfect, as McNair (cited in Graddol, US, p.62)suggests: ‘advertisements function by making commodities mean something to their prospective purchasers’. In analyzing a persuasive text it is important to consider its terms of production and receptionas well as its use of language; in written advertisements the idea of the narrator and the narrative point of view makes a significant contribution to the impact of an advertisement.   The audienceaddressed by the text is constructed as the ideal reader, a reader who both understands and agrees with the message that is being put forward (Beard, US, 2007, p.64). Although some advertisements appearto be directed at ‘you’ specifically, they do not offer ‘you’ the chance to respond; therefore the producers of these texts manipulate the apparent dialogic or dialogue-like structure of discoursewithin the text to their advantage, assuming shared opinions which may not actually be shared, as well as speaking in different voices that create an atmosphere of conversation.

Sounds, sights and otherstimuli activating our sensory organs result in physiological activity in our sensory organs and nerves which can arouse sensations such as warmth, seeing the colour red or feeling a touch on the...