Dallin D. Oaks

Structural Ambiguities and Written Advertisements: An Inventory of Tools for More Resourceful Advertisements in English

Competent writers usually avoid ambiguity, but there are some types of writing tasks such as advertising in which a writer might actually want to create ambiguous wordplays. Among the most interesting of the wordplays are those which involve structural ambiguities. In the natural course of brainstorming, advertisers will occasionally generate structural ambiguities, but a more conscious understanding of the structure of a language could make the generation of such ambiguities easier. The English language contains some characteristics and patterns which contribute significantly toward creating structural ambiguities. And if ad writers know where to focus their attention, structurally ambiguous wordplays can be generated more from design than happenstance. This article examines some of the structural features of the language which could prove useful to advertisers who wish to create deliberate structural ambiguities.

Computer Corpora and Authentic Texts: Toward More Effective Language Teaching.

Abstract Teachers of language have turned to authentic texts to improve the communicative competence of their students. Traditional sources, including curriculum materials, categorical book lists, teachers’ prior knowledge of texts, and lists of graded texts using readability formulas, are incomplete in todays technological world. Computer corpora could provide additional sources of authentic texts. This article examines a variety of teaching implications in using existing corpora and explores the need to develop additional corpora and databases.

Rethinking the Role of Grammar in the Advertising and Marketing Curriculum

The role of grammar instruction in a university curriculum is commonly assumed to be a corrective one, helping prepare people to produce error-free writing. But grammatical knowledge can also serve a significant role in the creative language tasks commonly faced by those who work in advertising and marketing. Through a demonstration of several important ways in which grammatical knowledge can be usefully applied in the creative work of advertising and marketing professionals, the author intends to show the importance not only of introducing grammar instruction into advertising and marketing curricula where it is not currently taught, but also of revising the approach and content of such grammar instruction in those advertising and marketing curricula where it may currently exist.