PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, Ph.D.
Katedra anglistiky a
amerikanistiky
Keywords: Australian English, media, advertising.
Annotation: The study looks at the language of personal advertisements submitted by
Australians and immigrants to Australia with the aim to determine the
differences which would indicate different understanding of societal values.
Great differences in collocations may explain for the different understanding
and usage of self- and partner’s
references(gentleman, lady, male, female, gent, etc.) i.e.
for different semantic validity not only
in Australians and immigrants, but also males and females.
Anotace: Studie se zabývá otázkou, zda
přistěhovalci, kteří inzerují v běžném australském tisku, se shodují ve
svém pojmů a hodnot s rodilými
Australany. Podstatná část je věnována
odlišnému použití identifikačních výrazů , jak pro inzerenta samého, tak i
partnera (gentleman, lady, female, gent, atd.), které je snad možno
vysvětlit odlišnými kolokacemi
ukazujícími na odlišné konotace. Byly
zjištěny rozdíly v inzerátech nejen mezi rodilými Australany a
přistěhovalci, ale i mezi muži a ženami.
Numerous magazines and newspapers currently
contain pages of personal advertisements. Self-advertising in various kinds of media, including the radio
and the internet, has become a popular way of
meeting prospective partners.
Some studies explain the increase in the
popularity of personal advertising by alienation and loneliness which stem from high
population density in urban areas. Other studies view personal advertising as ”a healthy and innovative adaptation to rapid social
change” (Bolig, Stein & McKenry in: Tither) and as ”relationally efficient and ‘natural‘
response” to the work centred,
time-pressured and mass-mediated circumstances of modern life (Coupland in:
Tither).
The
presented pilot study considered advertisements submitted by immigrants to
Australia with the aim of determining how these people align with
values and their linguistic manifestations in advertisements submitted by other
Australians. The integrity of a country largely depends on the degree to
which its people identify with the constituents of the nation by being - more
or less- united in the values they recognize.
It is even more important in a multicultural country like
The language people use is one such
constituent. This paper examines the language of advertisements in the personal
column, i.e. the language used by a large spectrum of people, not only the
specially trained. My focus is on different age groups and national backgrounds
of the writers.
As M.Merleau-Ponty says, ”I may speak many
languages, but there remains one in which I live.”At stake is their acculturation, i.e. whether they are
still in ”the ‘permanent immigrant ’ state, where one is always able to
understand the words but is never completely capable of comprehending all their
connotations” (in:Valdes 21), or whether
they passed beyond that threshold and became virtually ‘native’. The paper
discusses only statistically interesting differences between the two groups.
In spite of Australia’s being home to many ethnic
groups, Caucasians are in the majority, as recent statistics from 1999 show:
Anglo-Celt 70%
Indigenous 2%
Other 1%
The method applied in this
study draws on the observations that language can influence thought especially
through repeated codings which then constitute ‘semantic habits’ (Halliday’s
term in Stubbs 1996.235). The aim was to identify recurrent phrases which
encode culturally important concepts in corpora (collections of texts).The
process included summarizing concordance data and calculating the frequency and
the likelihood of association between words. The texts were excerpted from the
following Australian newspapers: The Age, which is a respectable paper;
then, a little tabloidy, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday
Telegraph; and The Weekly Southern Courier, which is almost entirely
dedicated to advertising. No restrictions were imposed as to the number of
advertisements taken from individual copies or the sex of the advertisers. The
study is part of the research project GAČR 405/02/0349.
It is known that individuals reveal their social identity in communication. When communicating, people unwittingly demonstrate how they feel about their position in society and how they want to be perceived and viewed by other people .As Kress puts it …”everything that has cultural significance enters into communication”, and “…communication never involves ‘just’ individuals expressing ‘their’ meanings. The meanings are produced and consumed by individuals who are already socially and culturally formed, and who draw on the meanings of their culture and social group.” (Kress 1988).
Personal advertisements are pieces of phatic communication, the main
goal of which is to establish social contact (Jakobson 1960). Personal
advertisements are habitually limited in space. The advertisers - in an attempt to conform to the
established requirements - put in their advertisements
the things and values they consider most important in life. They attempt to
give their devices
maximum efficiency, valid for an unlimited number of addressees with a
potential focus on a single reader. The writer is preoccupied with the way s/he
want his/her message be decoded by the reader so that not only the meaning but
the attitude to what is being conveyed is shared by the reader. This attempt
may not be successful because the authors of personal advertisements are not
expert at writing and are not always fully aware of the complexity of interplay
between mere communication and the expressive, affective and aesthetic
connotations.
For the above reasons, the research also considered male and female advertisements separately, as there is a recognised ‘asymmetrical semantic filter’(Tannen in: Langsdorf 11). This means that words may be understood differently by men and by women and also bring different associations (e.g. ‘blonde‘ may be just a description of ‘fair hair’ but may bring up associations of ‘sex appeal’, or ‘a bearded man’ may be associated with ‘manliness’ but also with ‘neglected hygiene’). It is therefore important for the success of the advertisement that the message (and connotation) intended by the writer is understood in the same way by the reader (cf. Stolt & Trost 1976).
The usual structure of a personal advertisement consists of two parts, i.e. the writer’s self-description (SD) (attractive, outgoing, sincere…), including self-identification (SI )(guy, gent, male, lady…), a bridging verb (seeking, looking for…) and a partner’s description (PD) (slim, educated…) and identification (PI) (lady, girl, male..).This information is frequently complemented by ‘viewed relationship’, (for friendship, lasting relationship…):
Ex.1.: OUTGOING 24 Aust.guy, 5′8″, brown hair, blue
eyes, sense of humour, likes outdoor activities, movies, would like to meet
slim lady 21-26 years of age for friendship, view relationship if suited. (D. .T.)
This structure exhibits
numerous modifications, nevertheless, the first part of the advertisement is
most important as it should encourage the reader to read on. The detached form
of identification (male, gent, female…) and the verb in the cohesive
third person singular is often seen as plain and not attractive enough by
Australians. They try to be more interactive and informal, and therefore they
look for different ways of structuring the advertisement. Some of their ads start with a greeting “hi”,
sometimes followed by the advertiser’s first name:
Ex.2: Hi! My name is
Hi is mostly found in advertisements submitted by younger Australians, i.e. between twenty and forty years of age. It seems that these age groups are more open to new trends that come into the language with expanding American culture. Americanisms not only penetrate into the lexis but also in the style of address, such as the use of first names, due to TV programmes and other media. “Americans are inherently egalitarian… The British tend to be formal in their personal presentation, while the Yanks are notoriously informal”(Adler, 1982.56) Australian women, if they start their ad with a greeting, the greeting will also be a “hi!”. They will never give their name, indicating thus they do not want to be addressed so by the potential respondent, and signalling they want to observe a certain distance.
Even more formality can be seen in advertisements put by people from other ethnic backgrounds. None of them starts with a greeting. They usually follow the traditional detached form of the third person. This holds true without any exception for Asian advertisers. European men, not women, sometimes start the text by presenting themselves in the first person. This, however, is in advertisements where the foreign nationality is complemented by ‘Australian’
Ex.3: I am Greek/Australian, 29 yo….(W.S.C.)
Ex.3a): I am Scottish Australian gentleman….(D.T.)
Ads submitted by Australian men frequently refer to Australian
nationality (in 26%), less in women (6%). This is especially so among the
advertisers in
Reference to nationality can be found only in 14% of men who come from other ethnic backgrounds and 7% of women. To be able to say that a person is ‘Australian’ seems to be highly desirable when looking for a partner. For this reason, some advertisers from other ethnic backgrounds stress their Australian affiliation:
Ex.4: GREEK AUSTRALIAN 55yo, interested in going to movies…(W.S.C.)
The following table giving the most frequently
wished nationality in the prospective partners (if stated) indicates that
Australian partners are preferred by
females from other ethnic backgrounds and by Australian women while Australian
men prefer Asian partners.Only 2% of Australian men wish for an Australian partner. Rumour has it that this is the case because Asian
women are less assertive, more obedient and perhaps better homemakers. Men from
other ethnic backgrounds look for a European if they themselves come from a
European bacground, usually Greek or Italian.
|
MAU |
Moth.nationality |
FAU |
Foth.nationality |
|
Asian
(26%) |
European (16%) |
Australian (20%) |
Australian
(25%) |
|
Australian (10%) |
Asian (13%) |
British/Anglo-Saxon (20%) |
European (12%) |
|
European (3%) |
Australian (13%) |
European (10%) |
American/ Canadian (12%) |
MAU = male Australian; Moth.nationality = male
other nationality
FAU = female Australian; Foth.nationality = female
other nationality
‘Asian’ incl.Chinese, Thai, Japanese
Australians are known for their egalitarian
attitudes. Wierzbicka (1991,1992) even speaks of a super-egalitarian society.
But looking at the survey which shows how women and men identify themselves and
their prospective partners and at the powerplay in advertised relationships, we
have to question this proclaimed equality.
If we do not consider identifications related
to profession (e.g. businessman, nurse), status (mum), nationality, some
personal feature (blonde), then the gender indicators and their expected
counterparts would be:
lady – gentleman male – female
woman – man guy
– ?
girl – boy bachelor
– ?
The definitions of words which the advertisers use for self- and
partner’s identifications (SI and PI) as they are offered by the latest edition
of The Australian Macquarie National Dictionary show the possible
connotations that may come up in the reader’s mind. Vinay and Darbelnet (1995)
say about connotations of a word or phrase that they are always at the
background, in the reader’s subconscious, irrespective of the context. These
connotations project into the interpretation. “The message the utterance
carries is an individual entity which is completely surrounded by
metalinguistic information.” (ibid.95.29) To find out what connotations may occur, the words of self- and partner‘s
identification were examined for collocations in each of the group under
consideration. As Jones
and Sinclair (1974) observe there are a great many cases in English where
occurrence of one word predicts the occurrence of another, either following or
preceding it. Recurrent collocational patterns effectively distinguish
different senses of the same word, and consequently, collocational frequencies
can be used to disambiguate the meanings.The meanings of
words then provide evidence for the reality of cultural norms and shared
conceptions.
|
|
LADY |
FEMALE |
WOMAN |
OTHER |
|
|
Australian |
60% |
20% |
0 |
20% |
100% |
|
Other nation. |
74% |
4% |
0 |
22% |
100% |
As the statistics show,
the term lady in our sample is obviously considered suitable and
appropriate for self identification. Lady carries a connotation of a
middle-class speaker, i.e. of someone who is not somewhere low on the social
ladder: ”… women are expected to talk like ‘ladies’, that is, like
middle-class speakers” (Cameron 1990.62). Nevertheless, the younger generation
prefer some other description (other in our chart) to any of the listed
above. The acceptance of lady in self identification grows with age;
there are more occurrences in the older age groups, which would be in
correlation with Langsdorf’s interviewees (1994): lady = not modern.
Moreover, most members of the youngest generation are descendants of the
war and post-war immigration wave. The Anglo-Saxon heritage is not part of
their linguistic memory and therefore they are
more open to non-traditional, new ways of expressing oneself.
Other in SI includes girl.
Girl in SI is more frequent in women of European background (Italian).
The following table gives a picture of how men identify their prospective partners:
|
|
LADY |
FEMALE |
WOMAN |
YOU |
OTHER |
NO PI |
|
|
Australian |
65.6% |
14.3% |
8.7% |
1.4% |
10% |
|
100% |
|
Other nat. |
56.8% |
13.6% |
9% |
2.2% |
13.9% |
4.5% |
100% |
PI=partner’s
identification
The data suggest that in men, lady is
the preferred identification for their
prospective partners; this also applies to the youngest generation. Langsdorf
(1994.41) found in a field interrogation that using the term lady by men
had its roots in their childhood when their parents insisted on ‘a lady’ when
their children referred to a woman they did not know. The word woman was
considered rude.
This indicates to the
subconscious connotation of woman ¹ lady.
This paper will only
discuss the two most frequently used ‘identifications’, i.e lady and
female. There will also be a few notes on girl.
The Macquarie Dictionary gives the following definition of LADY:
1. (correlative of gentleman) a polite term for any a woman of
good family or social position, or of good breeding, refinement, etc. woman;
2.(ca) a less formal substitute, often used conversationally, for the specific
title or rank of a countess, marchiness, etc.; 3.a woman; 4.a wife; 5.a woman who
has proprietary rights of authority; 6.a woman who is the object of chivalrous
devotion.
Miller & Swift(1981) note that the term ‘lady’ is used most effectively to evoke a certain standard of propriety, correct behaviour, or elegance. They quote Jennie Churchill’s words: ”You may be a princess or the richest woman in the world. But you cannot be more than a lady”. It is because of these strong connotations, ‘lady’ is not a synonym for ‘woman’. ‘Lady’ can also suggest a certain éclat.
V. Langsdorf (1994) who
examined personal advertisements from ‘Australian magazines’ found that there
were very few women who identified themselves as ‘lady’. In my study, ‘lady’
is the prevailing word both in self – and the wished – for partner’s
descriptions. Taking the advertisers in The Age only, the findings are
similar to Langsdorf’s: only 25% of women describe themselves as ‘lady’
(these include women who do not describe themselves as ‘Australian’). Langsdorf
(1994.41) mentions an interview with Australian women which showed that should
they refer to themselves as a ‘lady’, they would consider the expression rather
pretentious and obsolete and would prefer to use the term ‘woman’.
The table below gives a list of the most frequent words
connected with lady both in male and female advertisements:
|
FAu–SD |
|
MAu–PD |
|
|
attractive |
20% |
slim |
30% |
|
slim |
20% |
attractive |
16% |
|
dining |
40% |
Asian |
14% |
|
music |
10% |
Australian |
2% |
|
soc. drinker |
20% |
affectionate |
7% |
|
dancing |
10% |
genuine |
7% |
|
FOth–SD |
|
MOth–PD |
|
|
attractive |
47% |
attractive |
35% |
|
slim |
35% |
slim |
20% |
|
dining |
11% |
fun |
15% |
|
music |
41% |
any nationality |
30% |
|
soc. drinker |
11% |
romantic |
20% |
|
dancing |
23% |
Asian |
10% |
The collocates suggest that lady in
female understanding is a ‘social companion’, perhaps someone her male partner
likes to be seen with. The expression slim in FAu seems to stand for attractive.
Female advertisers use only one of these
expressions to refer to their physical qualities. Ladies of other
nationalities on the other hand, frequently complement attractive with
slim: ‘attractive, slim Chinese lady…’ Apart from mentioning their physical
qualities FOth also mention that they are educated (20%). Dining is among their
priorities only in 11% ; ladies of Asian origin do not mention dining at
all. Men, on the other hand, see lady as someone who is not only
attractive but whose character qualities make her a good life partner. No lady, either Australian or of some other
nationality, describes herself as affectionate
and only a few say they are romantic (5%).
The dictionary definition says that a female (McQ Dict.) is
1.
a human being of the sex which conceives and brings forth
young; a woman or girl
2.
any animal of corresponding sex
Though
used by some 20% of ‘Australian’ women female
in SI does not enjoy much popularity. Women in the older age groups omit it
completely. The connotation they have, as well as men above 60, may be the one
given in The COD of 1964: as an adjective: 1. Of the offspring
bearing sex, (~ child, slave, dog) 2. Of inferior vigour etc. And as
a noun ~ person or animal; (vulg.) woman, girl. The Australian
Contemporary Dictionary of 1975 only gives: ‘one of the sex that bears
young’. It is the biological aspect that is stressed here. There may also
be a connotation mentioned above - there was the ‘Female Factory’ for convicted
women. Referring to a person as to a female
means putting her into a category. It denotes a kind here, an image. What it
means is that female is not a pure distinguisher here, as Wierzbicka
(1988.471) describes its usual usage ”… female or male are of entirely
different order from concepts such as man, woman and child. In particular, male
and ‘female’ are pure ‘distinguishers’, which are used to distinguish members
of two abstract sub-classes from one another rather than to identify certain
positive kinds…”. Then she continues, ”They are mostly used as nouns in
generic sentences, when a stereotype is made.
In my view, female
in personal advertisements gives an example of a term perceived through an
asymmetrical filter (Tannen 1993). Women over forty apparently understand it as
a category and therefore they do not use it in SI. The older generation men
treat the term not as a category but use it in its adjectival form, the
function of which is to refer to only one of the numerous features the
categorial word has, as in the following example:
Ex.5: AN AUSTRALIAN MAN 40’s
tall, dark &…, n/drinker, adventurous, passionate & caring, bored &
lonely, doesn’t live for TV & kids, looking for female companion
with similar interests.((D.T)
It is companion
here that carries the core (i.e. categorial) meaning.
Younger men usually pair female
with male in SD and PD and consider it equal in status. This claim is
supported by the definitions in the latest edition of The Macquarie
Dictionary which does not mention any negative reference to female,
unlike the (British) Concise Oxford Dictionary (1964) or Language
Activator (1993) which speak of a vulgar or an offensive way of referring
to a woman. We have two rather different, asymmetrical, perceptions: most
women, and some men, especially the older generations, apparently perceive female
with its negative connotations while the younger generations of women and some
other men in the older generations see it as a neutral, non-formal way of
reference to a woman.
|
FAu-SD |
|
MAu-PD |
|
|
movies |
10% |
slim |
20% |
|
sense of humour |
20% |
movies |
10% |
|
music |
10% |
attractive |
8% |
|
enjoy life |
10% |
sailing |
8% |
|
beach |
10% |
fun personality |
10% |
|
FOth |
* |
MOth |
|
|
financially secure |
|
romantic |
60% |
|
sense of humour |
|
honest |
20% |
|
|
|
feminine |
20% |
|
|
|
humour |
20% |
|
|
|
outgoing |
20% |
*statistical data irrelevant because
of the low number of occurences
The tables indicate that females
more often than ladies mention pleasure activities: movies, music,
beach, or say that they (like to ~) ‘enjoy life’, i.e. activities which
are popular with Australians. The most frequent words suggest that female
in women’s understanding is someone of common folk, perhaps a prototype of the
consumer of pop culture, a person whose job does not require university
education. This claim is supported by the fact that female is never
collocated with professional, i.e. there is no ‘professional female’.
Neither
do Australian men look in female for spiritual or other qualities that would
indicate a profound
character.
Slim which is connected with the contemporary standard of beauty and
sometimes used as a synonym of attractive comes first. Apart from the
requirement of (sense of) humour, a female should enjoy fun,
have a fun personality, fun to be with, (enjoy to ~) have fun times, i.e.
qualities that are sensual. A female in the eyes of some men may be a woman
with ’life experience’ who may have children.
Sometimes men, especially
those of other than Australian background, may tone down the possible negative
tint in understanding and they put a positive premodifier, such as feminine
(> feminine female):
Ex.6: GOODLOOKING European/Australian
gent 31 y.o., sincere and elegant, sense of humour, likes dining out, film,
music, seeks feminine female European or Australian, 24–29, attractive,
intelligent for friendship/relationship (W.S.C.)
or add
another PI (lady) :
Ex.7: ROMANTIC good looking
financially secure Aust. male, with no ties who lives in the Hills District.
Looking for female to share my time with. I’m 38years old… Would like to
meet a slim career minded lady aged between 26 and 36, who likes keeping
it & who is exciting & fun to be with, also likes live bands, romantic
dinners, w’ends away & socialising with friends.(D.T.)
In western society women
have been taught to value youthfulness and many take the term ‘girl’ as a
compliment.” According to Dumond the terms
‘girl’ and ‘gal’ apply to females up to the age of mid- or late teens.
”Both ‘girl’ and ‘gal’ are demeaning when applied to adult women, whether or
not it often is thought ‘cute’ to refer to older women as such.” (1991.41).)
Our data below indicate that ‘girl’ is sometimes used as a counterpart of ‘guy’ in male
advertisements. Female advertisers who use ‘girl’ (or ‘gal’) in SI are not ‘Australian’.
One may
presume here that those of other than English speaking background are not fully
aware of the connotations, and under a possible influence of their ethnic
culture they describe themselves as girl to say that they have never been involved
in a serious relationship and are
‘inexperienced’.
Men, who use girl in
a partner’s description, are men of the younger age groups, i.e. between 20 and
39 years. A ‘girl’ in men’s eyes can be up to 40:
Ex.8: … looking for
intelligent girl aged between 30–40 for outings…
The finding that the older
male generations (50+…) in our study do not refer to their potential partners
as ‘girl(s)’ contradicts to the note on usage in the Macquarie Dictionary
(1998): ”Many women do not like to be referred to as ‘girls’ However, this
is a form of reference which has been common in the past and which survives
still particularly amongst males of an older generation.”
None of the men who
advertise for a ‘girl’ identify themselves as ‘gentleman’, ‘gent’
or ‘man’. The preferred SI is male, which seems to be seen
neutral in relation to girl. Girls usually look for gent/s or
partner/s. The greatest imbalance can be observed in Asian ‘girl’
advertisers, who look for professional
gents:
Ex.9: ASIAN girl, very
nice, 27 yrs, educated, seeks Aust. prof. gent, n/s, 28–37yrs, for marriage.(
W.S.C.)
The
advertisement corresponds to the common image of an Asian woman: submissive, kind and understanding
in exchange for lasting security (marriage). Nice may here also mean ‘pretty’, as some
non-native speakers of English use ‘nice’ in the meaning of beautiful, pretty
or attractive. By saying ‘educated’ she conveys a) she is not from a poor
background; b) may be able to match her partner’s intellectual standard.
And how do men identify
themselves, how do they feel “who they are”?
|
|
gentleman |
gent |
male |
guy |
man |
Other |
% |
|
AuSI |
1% |
11.% |
37% |
21% |
8% |
22% |
100 |
|
Oth.Nat.SI |
1% |
21% |
20% |
23% |
0 |
33% |
100 |
Women, on the other hand
identify their prospective partners as:
|
|
gentleman |
gent |
male |
guy |
man |
Other |
% |
|
AuPI |
10% |
30% |
10% |
20% |
20% |
10% |
100 |
|
Oth.Nat.PI |
25% |
17% |
4% |
8% |
25% |
21% |
100 |
The data indicate that there are possible
differences in understanding of the concepts by females and males. Because of
the limited space, this paper will only touch on gentleman/gent and man
The
reason why so few men use gentleman in
SI may be sought in the resentment of formality in Australian English. For most
men gentleman
as self-identification might sound rather ‘posh’. As the collocates
suggest, they do not wish to comply with the dictionary definitions of ‘a
man of good breeding, education and manner’ or ‘a man of good social standing
by birth, especially one who does not work for a living’(McQ.D.). The
most frequently used words accompanying gentleman are related to drinking
and smoking habits (non/social drinker, non/smoker (58%), and travelling (30%)). Women, on the other hand, especially those
from other ethnic backgrounds, expect a ‘gentleman’ to be someone in a
respected position with a good income:
Ex.9: Attractive, refined South
American lady… loves music, dancing, travelling, dining out. Seeks an
intelligent, educated, financially independent gentleman for friendship, view
perm.rel’ship (D.T.)
A gentleman, in
women’s eyes, will be someone high on the social ladder. One may hypothesise
that women who identify their prospective partner as gentleman expect,
according to Trudgill’s findings, (In: Cameron 1992.63) that they will be
categorised with men: “… the husbands occupation defined the class of the wife
(along with other criteria such as what kind of housing they lived in).”
Trudgill came to the conclusion that “… women wished to identify themselves
with a higher social class, and thus that their status aspirations were higher
than men’s.” (Cameron ibid.).
The greater popularity of gent
may suggest to be fully in line with
the Australian love of abbreviations: ‘gent’ = (coll.) gentleman (McQ.D.)
In Wierzbicka’s theory of nouns and adjectives one may argue that the person
who perceives himself and is perceived as gent will be expected to
have informality reflected in his
behaviour.
Australian gents tend to provide rather detailed information on their appearance (hair, eyes) and interests :
Ex.10: Aust.gent, 40yrs,non-drinker, 189cms, auburn hair, brown
eyes, enjoys BBQs, picnics, beach…(S.T.),
while gents from other ethnic backgrounds inform about their character qualities (sincere) and interests (classical music, opera). Australian women, do not add any desired attribute to gent, while women from other ethnic backgrounds expect a gent to be sincere, honest, caring and financially secure. A gent in men’s eyes is more aware of his body than a gentleman. Women do not expect in gent such a high status as in gentleman, but still, they look for character qualities more than appearances:
Ex.11: …Italian born lady… I wish to meet a good, sincere,
honest, caring gent…(W.S.C.)
The definitions in The
Macquarie Dictionary put the meaning of man as a ‘representative of all
humanity’ before ‘male human being’. The number of possible meanings enable
various connotations to be at work. Man as a representative of the human race
without any reference to women has been strongly criticised and considered
sexist. The word does not have the charge of youth as guy, neither is it
neutral as male. All this can explain the relatively infrequent usage of
man in SI.
On the other hand, man
appears in all PIs. Except the 60+ age group where gentleman is
significantly preferred, man ranks relatively high among the
descriptions (identifications) in other age groups. Man for women seems
to mean someone who is able to be ‘a head or a leader’, a sensible person,
someone who does not have any hang-ups and therefore is stable and capable of
creating a lasting relationship, which is what mature women are usually looking
for irrespective of their ethnic background.
|
M-SD |
|
F-PD |
|
|
tall |
15% |
genuine |
40.% |
|
camping |
15% |
sincere |
40.% |
|
outdoor/s |
10% |
honest |
25.% |
|
fishing |
10% |
intelligent |
25.% |
|
touring |
10% |
energetic |
10% |
Unlike the most frequent
words that accompany guy and male, i.e. music, dining, movies,
the words that accompany man – camping, fishing, touring,
refer to activities connected with situations in which life may depend on an
immediate correct decision, especially in the Australian outback. The
activities the advertisers mention make them look as if they wanted to match
the model of Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) who was deliberately introduced as a
‘typical Australian’ character in the 80s to strengthen the sense of national
identity in Australians.
While there is not much difference between the groups as to the
described physical qualities both in self and partner’s descriptions, and therefore the issue is not
discussed here, the category of character qualities and skills offers a
different picture. Females of other nationalities stress their being
intelligent, educated and caring, while Australian women prefer having fun and
say they are romantic and warm. They value qualities of character rather than
intellect. Men do not consider education in their partners as being important,
nevertheless, some of them would like
their female partner to be intelligent, and they also would like their partner
to have a sense of humour, none of the qualities mentioned by Australian women.
Women from other ethnic backgrounds stress education in their partners, most
probably because they look for security and protection and consider an educated
partner to have a secure job with reasonable income. The same would apply to a
professional. Australian women, on the other hand, stress character
qualities which do not have a materialistic overtone.
(For explanation of abbreviations see above)
Females
|
FothSD |
FAUSD |
||
|
educated |
24% |
fun-loving |
20% |
|
intelligent |
24% |
warm (personality) |
10% |
|
caring |
20% |
active |
10% |
|
loving |
8% |
romantic |
10% |
|
sense of humour |
8% |
sense of humour |
0 |
|
FothPD |
FAUPD |
||
|
educated |
24% |
genuine |
20% |
|
intelligent |
20% |
sincere |
20% |
|
professional |
20% |
sense of humour |
20% |
|
caring |
16% |
secure |
10% |
|
honest |
16% |
educated |
0 |
|
sincere |
16% |
intelligent |
0 |
|
non-smoker |
16% |
caring |
0 |
Males
|
MothSD |
MAUSD |
||
|
non/social smoker |
12% |
non/social drinker |
23% |
|
sense of humour |
10% |
non/social smoker |
23% |
|
professional |
7% |
caring |
17% |
|
romantic |
7% |
secure |
17% |
|
caring |
0 |
educated |
8% |
|
MothPD |
MAUPD |
||
|
romantic |
20% |
intelligent |
10% |
|
sense of humour |
10% |
affectionate |
7% |
|
intelligent |
3% |
sincere |
7% |
|
affectionate |
3% |
sense of humour |
5% |
|
educated |
0 |
educated |
1.5% |
Hobbies/Interests
The
advertised hobbies and interests which
rank at the top among Australians are given little attention among the ‘other
nationalities’ groups. Apart from
travel, which is popular both among Australians and other ethnic groups
(MAu 23%, MOth 13%, FAu 20%, FOth 24%), and which may be a code for sufficient
means, ‘other nationality’groups would
rather be engaged in some sort of socializing, such as dining, movie going,
dancing, and cooking, than activities connected with Australian open spaces.
None of them mentions bush walking, camping or BBq, i.e. activities which are
popular among other Australians.
Viewed
Relationship
Though the purpose of personal advertising is clear to all involved, more than half of the advertisers mention the goal of their looking for a partner; they do so in describing the viewed relationship, whereby friendship and relationship occur most frequently (Au men 79 %, MOth 50%, FAu 30%, FOth 60%).
Wierzbicka (1997) includes ‘friendship’ in her study of key words that are culturally revealing. She looks at collocations with ‘friend’ and finds that they may be controversial, such as a ‘faithful friend’ but also a ‘false friend’, a ‘steadfast friend’ but also a ‘fair weather friend’ or a ‘summer friend’. ‘Friendship’ is viewed as something permanent, as reflected in collocations such as ‘eternal friendship’. Other collocations included the words ‘steady’ and ‘constant’.
The advertisers in our sample challenge Wierzbicka’s claim of ‘friendship as something permanent’ as they do not see ‘friendship’ as something ‘eternal’ or ‘steady’. ‘Friendship’ seems to have slipped into the same usage as Wierzbicka (51/52) describes in ‘friend’:”… in the old usage of the word friend, people were usually expected to ‘love’ their friends... (Now) there is a qualitative difference, which roughly speaking, can be linked with the contrast between ‘affection’ and ‘enjoyment’…. In the older English literature, people ‘loved’ their friends, or felt and thought of them as ‘dear’ and ‘dearest’. By contrast, in contemporary English ..., people are more likely to talk about ‘friends’ in terms of ‘enjoyment’ ‘pleasure’ and ‘fun’.” These terms can be observed in collocations such as fun & friendship. The collocation casual friendship even denies the fundamentals of the traditional concept of ‘friendship’: casual does not presume ‘commitment’ and ‘faithfulness’ to another person.
Ex.12: CHARMING AUSTRALIAN
BUSINESSMAN … seeks casual friendship… (W.S.C.)
Nor do the advertisers who leave friendship
unspecified bring any evidence to their understanding of the word in its traditional
meaning, as most of them see it as the ‘first stage’ which may develop into relationship.
Ex.13: AUSSIE MALE … female 18-20
with similar interests for friendship view permanent relationship. {D.T.)
Relationship thus seems to be understood as involving
more commitment, as being lasting or permanent, as a word that substitutes for
the ‘old fashioned’ ‘marriage’. And indeed, the most frequent collocate is permanent,
i.e. permanent relationship. One can thus presume that ‘relationship’
may, in some situations replace the traditional ‘friendship’. Western culture
sometimes denies the existence of lasting friendship between the opposite
sexes. This may be the reason why Australian women do not use the word ‘friendship’; they only say ‘relationship’
without any further attribute, i.e. ‘for r’ship’.
There are, however, also examples which contravene the hypothesis of stability and permanency of ‘relationship’. Some advertisers do not see ‘relationship’ be limited in the terms of time and/or commitment as most collocates suggest, but allow it a rather free course even allowing the interpretation of ‘an occasional date’:
Ex.14: AUSSIE 40, seeks Aussie or
Asian, 30-40, casual to permanent relationship. Sports, beaches, … (W.S.C.)
Marriage is almost a ‘taboo’ word among the viewed relationships, used by only 5% MAu and 3% Moth. and 0% Fau and 12% FOth. ‘Marriage’ seems to be out of date: its place has been taken over by ‘permanent relationship’ and ‘lasting relationship’. ”‘Marriage’ is a legal union of a man with a woman for life”. (Macq.Dict.) Words suggesting life-long commitment are not popular today in that they suggest the loss of ‘personal freedom’. Unlike marriage, one can always walk out of a relationship as there are no documents, no authorities one would be liable to. ‘Relationship’ is not the final stage. Most (80%) advertisers who mention marriage see it as the culmination of some preceding phase, i.e., of companionship, friendship or relationship:
Ex. 15: ASIAN LADY good looking
…well educated, ...seeks educated man - preferably businessman 39-46 y/o with
similar interests for a long term rel/ship, marriage … (S.T.)
All the females who mention marriage are of foreign origin, usually Asian. We can presume that they are affected by their ethnic culture that is not so open to free cohabitation. Marriage may also ensure permanent residency and some income in case the marriage breaks up. On the other hand, men who advertise for marriage are looking for an Asian or a partner of any nationality. Thus they convey that they respect the traditions of other cultures and that they are ready to make the commitment. Other advertisers mention their Christian religion. The Church does not approve of cohabitation in a ‘relationship’ without marriage. By saying marriage the advertisers signal they are practising believers.
|
Friendship
–permanent relationship |
Relationship |
|
|
Mau |
32% |
47% |
|
Moth |
10% |
40%
/marriage 3%/ |
|
FOth |
20% |
40%
/permanent/ marriage 12% |
|
Fau |
|
30% |
Advertisements submitted by people from other cultures do not exhibit striking differences in vocabulary or structure . The collocates of ‘identifying’ words (such as gentleman, female, etc.) , however, indicate different associations in men and women of ‘Australian’ and ‘other’ origins. Also the offered and required qualities, such as education, intellectual activities, socializing and permanent commitment in relationships which point at the values recognized in their home cultures, thus contrasting with the easy-going, laid back attitudes which can be traced in advertisements submitted by other Australians. They tend to follow the traditional established ways of communication between men and women, which require keeping distance and are rather formal. Nevertheless, people from other cultures -though not ”fully in line” with Australians- enrich Australian society with traditional values
Works cited:
Adler,B.Ronald et al. (1982).:Interplay. The
Process of Interpersonal Communication. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.New
Cameron,Deborah (1992): Feminism and
Linguistic Theory.CEU
Jakobson, Roman (1960): Stylistics and
Psychology. Sebekok.T.E.(ed.)Lingusistics and Poetics. Selected Writings Ca CS.W.III Cambridge,
Jones &Sinclair (1974) In: Aston,Guy and
Burnard,Lou.(1998) The BNC Handbook.
Kress, Gunther (1988): Communication and
Culture.
Langsdorf,Virginia.(1994) The Language of
Personal Advertising. Unpubl. M.A.
thesis.
The
Stolt, Brigitte. (1976): Hier bin ich! – Wo bist
du? Kronberg: Skriptor Verlag
Stubbs, Michael. (1996). Text
and Corpus Analysis.
Miller,C.& Swift,K.: The Handbook of
Non-Sexist Writing. Barnes & Noble Books. Harper & Row Publ.,
Tither,
M.Jacqueline (2000): Selling yourself and procuring another: Investigating
gender differences in NZ dating advertisements.
Vlčková, Jitka (1999): Do They Mean What They
Say? Nationalism and Racial Coding in Australian Personal Advertisements. In:
Wimmer, A.(ed.): Australian Nationalism Reconsidered. Stauffenburg
Verlag.
Vlčková, Jitka (2002): Social values,
their lingusitic coding and changes through time: Australian
personal ads over the span of one hundred years.
Valdes, Joyce Merrill (1986): Culture Bound.
Bridging the cultural gap in language teaching. CUP
Wierzbicka, Anna (1991): Cross-cultural pragmatics:
the semantics of human interaction. Mouton de Gruyter.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1992): Semantics, Culture
and Cognition. Human Concepts in Culture-Specific Configurations. OUP
Wierzbicka, Anna (1997): Understanding
Cultures Through Their Key Words. OUP
Programs used:
Wordcruncher.(1989).
ETC
TACT/tact1.html
Bibliografický
údaj: VLČKOVÁ, J. Unity In
Diversity: Personal Advertisements Submitted by Immigrants to