The language of online bank advertisements in English

Abstract

The paper aims at presenting typical linguistic features of online bank advertisements in English. Based on the data which comprises advertisements on home web pages of the most prominent banks operating in the United Kingdom, which were continually followed throughout the period of four months (May- August 2012), the paper focuses on the characteristic linguistic elements of bank advertisements at different language levels (orthographic, lexical, grammatical and pragmatic), which will be identified, explained and illustrated. The idea to focus on bank advertisements stems from the fact that trust in banks has declined over the years due to the significant impact the global financial crisis has had on ordinary people's lives, with customers nowadays being more cautious when borrowing and spending money. The purpose of the paper is to gain a better understanding of the main linguistic strategies banks use to attract attention of their clients and make them choose bank services by affecting their emotions. It focuses, among other things, on typographical presentation, frequent words, ellipsis and speech acts. The further discussion includes pedagogical implications the results can have for ESP classes along with the ideas for exercises which can be used to help students learn and revise typical lexico-grammatical features of bank advertising.