Abbreviated Expressions in Catch Copy of Japanese Newspaper Advertisement

Abstract

In this study, catch copies (headlines) used in Japanese newspaper advertisement are analyzed and the abbreviations used in them are discussed. The results show that there are many forms of abbreviation used in catch copies (headlines) of newspaper advertisement. First and most broadly, the omission of subject and object and the omission of predicates was often found. Especially, predicates were omitted mostly in the form of postposition and the substantives, which seems to be because advertisers try to deliver maximum information to consumers in a limited space. Also, propositional particles, especially subjective and objective particles, were often abbreviated. Also, there were some abbreviations using a one-word sentence. The catch copies using a one-word sentence were mostly colloquial expressions. Also, in this study, grammatically inaccurate and deformed sentences were found as abbreviation, which seems to intend to attract consumers’ interest and attention. Furthermore, many abbreviated expressions using Chinese characters were found in catch copies of newspaper advertisement, especially those that used homonyms. Overall, the result of this study shows that advertisers use various abbreviated expressions in order to deliver maximum information to consumers in a limited space. Lastly, the syntactic research of catch copies in newspaper articles will be discussed in a future study.