A corpus-based study of Thai persuasive texts : a transitivity analysis of talisman advertisements

A Corpus-based Study of Thai Persuasive Texts: A Transitivity Analysis of Talisman Advertisements Pattama Jor Patpong, Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University This study aims to explore talisman advertisements as examples of persuasive discourse widely found in Thailand. In the Thai context, the advertising of talismans and Buddha images seems prevalent in a wide range of printed media  leaflets, newspapers, magazines, and books. Data for this paper are drawn from a corpus consisting of twenty talisman advertisements. All of them are taken from Thailand’s best selling-printed newspaper  Thairath. This talisman corpus is composed of 629 clause complexes and 2,565 clause simplexes (involving a little over 20,000 words). The study explores the talisman advertisements stratally by investigating three strata  context, semantics and lexicogrammar. Contextually, the generic structure of the persuasive discourse  Generic Structural Potential (Hasan, 1984b/1996)  is proposed. Semantically, some nuclear and elaborative semantic properties realizing each generic stage are discussed. Lexicogrammatically, an exploration of experiential resources is the main focus of this study: how talisman advertisements are construed grammatically in the transitivity system of Thai. K EYWORDS : corpus, persuasive discourse, talisman, advertisement, transitivity analysis 1 I NTRODUCTION 1 This research aims to extend Thai discourse studies based on narratives and news reports to persuasive discourse and to build up a corpus-based study of advertisement text type focusing on talisman advertisements. In particular, this study explores system of TRANSITIVITY  resources for construing human experiences. This research will report preliminary results of exploring advertising discourse. This study was based on a small corpus of talisman advertisements. The data were drawn from twenty talisman 1 I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Christian M.I.M Matthiessen for his continued supports and encouragement. I wish to express my appreciation to the organisers of the 19th European Systemic Functional Linguistics Conference and Workshop at Saarland University. I would like to thank participants at this Systemic Workshop for their comments on the material I presented. I would like to express my thankfulness to Mr Richard Hiam for his editing support. I am alone responsible for any errors or misunderstandings in its conception. 2 advertisements published in the best selling Thai newspaper  Thairath. This talisman corpus was composed of 615 clause complexes and 2,565 clause simplexes (involving a little over 20,000 words). In this paper I will report on how persuasive discourse is stratally explored by investigating patterning within each “content” stratum  context, semantics and lexicogrammar (focusing on TRANSITIVITY system). 2 T EXT TYPOLOGY AND TEXT TYPE A systemic collection of different text types is referred as a text typology  a continuous multidimensional space along the cline of instantiation. Over the last three decades, numerous studies have attempted to explore and classify naturally occurring texts. Several proposals have been made to set criteria and extend linguistic similarities and differences among various kinds of texts (Biber, 1989; Dijk, 1972; Eggins & Slade 1997; Feez, 1995; Longacre, 1974; Martin, 1992; Plum, 1998; Virtanen, 1992; Ure, 1989). Text types are systemic patterns of instantiation, located along the cline of instantiation at the intermediate region between the two poles of the cline  systemic potential and text instances (Matthiessen, Teruya, and Wu forthcoming: 1): see Figure 1. Text types have also been referred as “registers” and “genres”. In terms of text-based research, these terms are used interchangeably and are all based on the cline of instantiation. Figure 1: Location of text types (register) along the cline of instantiation (Halliday and Matthiessen 2004: 28) Figure 1 emphasises the power of the instantiation dimension in representing a continuum dimensionality of text instance and potential system. The cline of instantiation ranges from: (i) systemic patterns of text instances which are drawn from profiling of text samples; (ii) sub-potential or instance type; and (iii) overall systemic potential of a given language built up by generalization across a collection of text types. 3 At the level of context, the cline of instantiation extends from situations (instance) to context of culture (potential), with situation types and institutions occupying the region intermediate between these two poles. 3 A DVERTISEMENT AND ITS LOCATION IN U RE ’ S TEXT TYPOLOGY (1989) Ure (1989) proposes a significant framework for classifying texts, widely known as text typology (see Table 1). The text typology is based on four dimensions (P.P. emphasises): specialization (specialized and non-specialized), medium (spoken and written), social purpose (expounding, reporting, recreating, sharing, recommending, enabling, exploring, and doing), and experiential domain (reflection and action). Table 1: Ure’s text typology (1989) written spoken dialogue monologue dialogue specialized 1 Letter Reference book Lecture Debate expounding reflection Menu Text book non-specialized 2 Questionnaire History Statement in evidence Cross examination reporting Biography News report 3 Comic strip Memoirs Radio commentary Drama recreating Novels Folk play Stories Collaborative narrative 4 Letter, personal Diary Reminiscence Conversation sharing 5 Letter, business   Co-operation doing action 6 Letter, agony aunt Advertisements Prayers Consultation recommending Blurb Advice Business messages Warnings 7 Open letter: exhortation Act of parliament Sermon Demonstration enabling Regulations Knowledge specialized 8 Letter to the editor Critical studies Speech (TV talks) Discussion exploring reflection Investigations 4 Based on Ure’s text typology, advertisements, as one of text types, are located in nonspecialized realm. They are classified as a written monologic text type. Their social purposes are concerned with recommending. They involve action rather than reflection. In addition, the notion of advertisement as a text type in the text typology framework resonates with the Cook’s characteristic of advertisements as a discourse type (Cook 1992: 5). The following section deals with literature review of language of advertisement. 4 L ANGUAGE OF ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement is an interesting research topic. It is studied in many disciplines namely mass media communication, fields related to business (i.e. economics, marketing, and management), and linguistics, In terms of linguistic exploration, language of advertising was thoroughly studied by Leech (1966), Dyer (1988), and Cook (1992). Leech provides preliminary exploration of English standard advertising. In his study, the study of advertising language is partly based on Halliday’s contribution (Halliday 1961). Based on Systemic Functional Linguistics, Leech’s study covers two main dimensions: STRATIFICATION (i.e. lexicogrammar, semantics, and context) and RANK (i.e. words (including compound words), groups / phrases (including nominal groups and verbal groups), and clauses) (P.P. emphasizes). Dyer examines advertising as a form of communication in contemporary societies and discuses it in its cultural and economic context. Some aspects of advertising language are also examined. Cook’s explores advertisements as a discourse type. That is, advertising is viewed as a prominent discourse type in all contemporary societies. He provides a comprehensive introduction to advertising discourse by investigating the language of complementary advertisements. Fourteen prototypical features of advertisements are also provided (Cook 1992: 214). The advertising is also explored in terms of its strategic goals. Vestergaard and SchrΟder (1985) elaborate a prototypical description of strategic goals of advertising copy proposed by Lund (1947: 83). Five strategic goals that should be achieved by advertisers are attracting prospective customer’s ATTENTION, arousing INTEREST, stimulating DESIRE, creating CONVICTION, and getting a positive ACTION (as cited in Vestergaard and SchrΟder 1985: 49). These strategic requirements go back to the beginning of the twentieth century and have lead to a number of variants (Ungerer, 2004). In their advertising exploration, attention has been heavily paid on advertisement for women’s luxury products appearing in expensive women’s magazines. The advertising language was later studied by Toolan (1988). Toolan proposes structural components of advertisements. He also provides a guideline of standard features of English advertisements. In addition, the study of advertising language was studied in terms of information prominence by Fries (1993). In his study, advertisements are investigated in terms of Theme – Rheme structure. A new term is coined  N-Rheme (for New Rheme) referring to the last constituent of clause simplexes or clause complexes. In this study, 63 English written advertisements are examined. N-Rhematic information and Thematic information are investigated and compared to see where 5 information which is directly relevant to the persuasive goals of the advertisements (e.g., company or product name, product features, product functions, product evaluations) is placed in the clause structure. The study reveals that those persuasive functions of advertising typically are placed at the N-Rheme position and given focal attention. These four main studies explore advertising language as it is embedded in context of situation. That is, we cannot study advertisement without a general picture of the relation between language and situation (Leech 1966: 4). Based in literature review, it can be seen that there are a number of studies of English advertisements. Moreover, researches on Thai advertisements are mainly focused on effects of advertising on mass media, marketing and advertising strategies. There is, however, no attempt to examine Thai advertisements in systemic functional terms. This research is the first attempt to explore Thai talisman advertisements. 5 T EXT SELECTION This study was a preliminary research. It aimed to explore a grammatical perspective on discourse and to build up a corpus-based analysis of advertisement text type (Ure 1989). In this current study, as an initial stage of the corpus-based analysis, twenty talisman advertisements were analysed. They were taken from the best selling Thai newspaper  Thairath. The twenty texts were collected from March 2005 to March 2007. There were 144 relative frequencies of printed copies of these twenty talisman advertisements (see Table 2). There are 615 clause complexes and 2,565 clause simplexes. The following section deals with a stratal analysis of the twenty talisman advertisements. It begins with context stratum. This is followed by a preliminary exploration of semantic stratum. Then the system of TRANSITIVITY of the twenty talisman advertisements are analysed. Table 2: Text selection and number of clauses analysed Text Title (in brief) ideology / symbol frequencies of print complexes simplexes total of words 1. Pho Pu Chu Chok Phoem Phun Sap creates miracles human: Jujaka 41 33 124 1,034 2. Nok Khum Ma Rum calling for prosperities animal: bird: Nok Khum 24 54 258 1,866 3. Cia Buay and holy power animal: reptile: dragon and turtle 18 28 90 818 4. “ Richly wealth ” of Luang Pho Phun, Phailom Temple animal: bird: namely Sarika plant: floral parasite namely Marum 9 23 79 620 5. Power of the Great Ruan Turtle animal: turtle 8 28 98 743 6. “ Luk Om Phayakmekha ” of Khru Ba Kritsana Inthawanno animal: tiger 5 39 108 986 7. The greatest supernatural power of miraculous Thep Nang Chan series 9 model “ Complete Success ” Goddess namely Thep Nang Chan 5 31 112 948 6 8. “ Yod Ket of Luang Pho Khun Paritsuttho ” Talisman is made of auspicious substances 4 46 230 1,913 9. “Kai Fa ” of Luang Pho Khun animal: pheasant 4 25 140 1,380 10. “ Fish calling for prosperities ” animal: fish 4 14 93 878 11. Luk Sawat plant 4 28 137 889 12. Nangkhwak KhwakSap (Nangkhwak calling for prosperity) Ma Rum Khwak Sap (Ma Rum calling for prosperity) plant 3 56 239 2,101 13. Ka Fak Ma Rum offers luck and fortune floral parasite 3 21 83 665 14. Kracapnguen Kracapthoung of Luang Pho Phet. Plant: a kind of water chestnut (Trapa bicornis) 3 27 127 992 15. “ Ngoknguen Ngokthoung ” of Khruba Khamkheunkaew non specified 3 18 69 750 16. Pla Taphiannguen Taphianthoung animal: fish 2 35 135 1,202 17. Phrasomdet Wat Rakhang series “ the most popular mold 150 years ”. Talisman is made of auspicious substances 1 32 131 1,264 18. Floating Takut non specified 1 17 101 766 19. Nang Khwak calling for prosperity – Great fortune house lizard of Luang Pho Phet Saithoungphattana Temple human: Nang Khwak animal: lizard, turtle 1 26 81 838 20. Phrasomdet Nangphraya So. Ko. Talisman is made of auspicious substances 1 34 130 1,106 Total 144 615 2,565 21,759 6 C ONTEXT OF ADVERTISEMENT DISCOURSE Language is viewed as one kind of a higher-order semiotic system  a complex and adaptive system for making meaning (Halliday 1985: 7; Matthiessen 2001). This means that language is explored “ecologically”, and it is always investigated in relation to, instead of being insulated from, its environment. In other words, language is investigated through naturally occurring texts functioning in its context. 6.1 C ONTEXT OF SITUATION : R ECOMMENDING GOODS - OR - SERVICES The realization of situational context of a given language is based on the metafunctional spectrum: field is realized by the ideational metafunction, tenor by the interpersonal one, and mode by the textual one (Halliday 1978; Halliday and Hasan 1985; Martin 1992). Based on Halliday (1977: 200-201; 1978: 142-143; 1985: 12), the three contextual values are described as follows: Field as the social action is concerned with what is going on in the situation of recommending goods-or-services: the nature of the social processes that make up advertisements, and the nature of the domain of experience construed by particular text type. 7 Tenor as the role structure is concerned with who is taking part in the situation: the nature of the interactants’ roles in the situation they are operating in, the nature of speech roles enacted through the exchanges that making up the advertisements, and the relationship between the interactants in terms of social hierarchy and distance. Mode as the symbolic organization is concerned with the role that language is playing in the unfolding context: the division between language and other social processes, in creating situation, the channel assigned to language. It includes role of language, channel, and medium. In order to give a context of situation of the advertisements in general and talisman advertisements in particular, I characterize the contextual values of the advertisements represented in terms of field, tenor, and mode. Table 3 summarises the three contextual values of the advertising discourse. Table 3: The contextual values of advertisement discourse contextual values subtypes description Field social processes commercial recommendation; recommending goods-orservices to a prospective public through giving information strategy, mass media, newspaper (printed forms) social action persuade customers to purchase goods-or-services domain nature of information being given: information given with commercial transaction goal Tenor institutional role copy writer − customers hierarchy (i) unequal: copy writer as an expert – customers as novices in this particular information (cf. Wight 1972: 9 as cited in Vestergaard and SchrΟder (1985; 2)); (ii) equal: copy writer as an expert – prospective customers as talisman experts who seek for good talismans that meet their desires (cf. Vestergaard and SchrΟder (1985: 2)) interactant expert: copy writer / audience: interested public, especially talisman buyers, who are seeking for good luck and fortune, plus some groups of special concerns (whose actions many be affected by the information, e.g. talisman producers) distance no specific relationship between copy writers and customers speech role information giver − information receiver Mode medium Written, print, prose format with photographic presentation turn-taking monologue between unequal participants (Toolan 1988: 54) and equal participants 8 Mode rhetorical mode persuasive mode, the symbolic organization of the text involving the pragmatic purpose oriented to the field of public interest; it is accompanied by other visual modes, photos of successful individuals, talismans sold 6.2 C ONTEXT UAL REALIZATION : TEXT STRUCTURE As mentioned above, at the contextual stratum, advertisements can be viewed in terms of variables of field, tenor, and mode. These contextual values can be realized structurally by different stages unfolding through time. Leech (1966: 59) proposes a press advertisement structure. (as shown in Figure 2). This advertisement structure is further elaborated and discussed by Toolan (1988: 55) as illustrated in Figure 3. Figure 2: Leech’s press advertisement structure (Leech 1966) As illustrated in Figure 2, the standard components of press advertisements are organized into a series of ordered elements  from top to bottom. The headline and signature line are obligatory components of a press advertisement, while other components are optional and can be omitted (Leech 1966: 59). 9 Figure 3: Toolan’s advertisement components (Toolan 1988) Figure 3 illustrates the components that can be superimposed or integrated with other components by means of images, pictorial presentation, whereas the other five components are verbal expressions. They typically occur in the vertical sequence. In systemic functional linguistics, the structural stages mentioned above are known as “Generic Structure Potential” (GSP). The interest in generic (or schematic) structure of texts has been greatly influenced by Hasan (Halliday and Hasan 1985; Hasan 1978, 1984b/1996, and 1984c) and Martin (1992). Fahey (2005) proposes a Generic Structure Potential of magazine advertisements as presented in Figure 4. Figure 4: Fahey’s Generic Structural Potential of magazine advertisement (adapted from Fahey 2005) 16 Figure 8: Four primary process types and two intermediate process types 9.1 C ONSTRUING THE FLOW OF EVENTS In this section, I will illustrate how talisman advertisements are represented; that is, clauses are viewed as representations (Halliday and Matthiessen 2004; Matthiessen 1995, 1999). It is represented as the flow of events: how the talisman advertisements are presented through the clauses for construing human experiences (i.e. experiences of advertisement copy writers, talisman’s believers, general customers as well as potential / prospective customers). 9.2 N UCLEAR TRANSITIVITY PROFILE OF THE TALISMAN ADVERTISEMENTS There are six process types instantiated in the talisman advertisements. The six process types are material, behavioural, mental, verbal, relational, and existential. The counts are presented in Table 7. 17 Table 7: Relative selections of process types with instantiation of Process type [N = 2,518] [N – number of simple clauses and embedded clauses] Process type Subtype Number of clauses Percentage happening material doing 1,073 42.61 % behavioural 10 0.40 % perceptive cognitive desiderative mental emotive 305 12.11 % verbal 264 10.48 % attribute relational identifying 707 28.08 existential 159 6.32 % Table 7 shows the frequency of selection of different process types averaged over the twenty talisman advertisements. This provides a profile of the frequency of instantiation of the system choices which constitute this particular advertising discourse. As Table 7 shows, the most frequent selection is material at around 42.61 % (the transitivity grammar of happening and doing). This is followed by relational at around 28.08 % (the transitivity grammar of being and having). It is in turn followed by mental at around 12.11 % (the transitivity grammar of sensing). The next selection is verbal at around 10.48 % (the transitivity grammar of saying). This is followed by existential at around 6.32 % (the transitivity grammar of existing). Behavioural is the minor process type in terms of frequency at around 0.40 % (the transitivity grammar of behaving). The high selection of material processes in this research is highly motivated, as the talisman advertisements are concerned with doing a commodity transaction  purchasing goods-or-services. Relational processes are the second most frequent process types. This relational selection is motivated since one of the strategic goals of advertisement copy writers is to gain the potential customer’s attention and interest by arousing the customer’s desire which leads to desirable action  leading the customer to purchase the advertised product. Arousing desire can be achieved by consistently describing product features, functions, evaluation, and advantages (Leech 1966; Fries 1993; Ungerer 2004). The mental processes are profiled as the third count in the process selection. This selection is strongly motivated as the talisman advertisements provide persuasive information in relation to a successful individual’s sensing processes related to the magic power of advertised talismans (e.g., belief, disbelief, respect, disrespect, knowing, thinking, and realizing). This persuasive message is achieved by continuously provoking the individual’s belief before and after becoming an owner and worshipping the advertised talisman. The mental processes (especially cognitive mental processes) are mainly found in the generic stage of Experience. They are elaborated in formula passages, for example: 18 (1) Text 2: “Nok Khum Ma Rum calling for prosperities” Whoever does believe on this kind of story (superstitious story), it is okay to believe that. Whoever does not believe, it is also okay. There is no one stopping you from belief or disbelief on that story. But my whole family does believe on this story. (2) Text 8: “Yod Ket of Luang Pho Khun Paritsuttho” Whoever does believe, it is okay. Whoever does not believe, it is does not matter or bother me (talisman’s believer). But, I do believe it. (3) Text 10: “Fish calling for prosperities” This kind of story is superstitious. Whoever does believe or disbelieve. It is up to individual’s belief. Whoever does not believe, one should not be disrespectful to the talisman. (4) Text 12: “Nangkhwak KhwakSap Ma Rum Khwak Sap” Whoever does not believe this story (story of an individual’s successful experience), one has to believe. One cannot be disrespectful to the superstitious story. Verbal processes are counted as the fourth rank of frequency. They are used by successful talisman believers who narrate their personal miracle experiences and are exploited by reporters who report and interview on the successful experiences. In exploring transitivity profile, it is interesting to explore relative frequencies of the intersection of simultaneous systems (both originating from the same and the different metafunctions) (See Matthiessen 1999). The following section deals with an intersection of two different metafunctions  interpersonal and experiential. 9.3 I NTERSECTION OF SIMULTANEOUS SYSTEMS : C LAUSE ( INTERPERSONAL AND EXPERIENTIAL ): POLARITY AND PROCESS TYPE POLARITY and PROCESS TYPE are systems originating from different metafunctions: the interpersonal and experiential metafunctions respectively. The relative frequencies of the instantiation of terms in POLARITY and PROCESS TYPE are shown in Figure 9. 19 Figure 9: System of interpersonal and experiential clauses: POLARITY and PROCESS TYPE [N = 2,518 instances] In general, the ratio of positive to negative polarity varies across the process types. This variation is predictable. This sample supports a skewed count of quantitative tendencies having a 0.9 to 0.1 ratio of the two-term system (Halliday 1999a, 1999b, 1992). In this skewed ratio, positive is the unmarked choice across different process types and negative is the marked one. The negative term is realized by a negative marker maj3. In a detailed investigation, negative varies from the lowest proportion of 0 % in behavioural clauses and a higher proportion of 35.2% in mental clauses. The highest negative selection of mental processes is motivated, as the negative mental choices are used to express the talisman believer’s negative attitude and hardship. The selection of negative mental processes is frequently found before the talisman believer purchases the advertised talisman. After purchasing and worshipping, the talisman believer’s attitude becomes positive. Their lives have changed in a positive way. That is, the hardship and life difficulties are relieved. The scale of negativity across process types is shown below. It ranges from the lowest negative attraction to the highest one. Low negative attraction High negation attraction behavioural [0 %] > existential [3.9%] > verbal [6.2%] > material [24.0%] > relational [30.7%] > mental [35.2%] 20 9.4 C IRCUMSTANTIAL TRANSITIVITY PROFILE OF THE TALISMAN ADVERTISEMENTS : PROCESS TYPE AND CIRCUMSTANTIATION The systems of AGENCY and PROCESS TYPE construe the nuclear domain of a quantum of change. This nucleus can be augmented by circumstantial TRANSITIVITY (CIRCUMSTANTIATION). Table 8 shows the intersection of PROCESS TYPE with CIRCUMSTANTIATION. Table 8: Intersection of PROCESS TYPE and CIRCUMSTANTIATION in the twenty talisman advertisements Doing Sensing Being # % Circumstance Type Circumstance sub-category material # behavioural # mental # verbal # relational # existential # time 76 0 14 11 33 10 144 21.40 locative place 131 0 15 6 36 11 199 29.57 duration 23 0 4 6 3 0 36 5.35 distance 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 extent frequency 10 0 1 1 1 1 14 2.08 means 8 0 0 0 1 0 9 1.34 quality 84 0 28 13 45 26 196 29.12 comparison 3 0 0 1 3 0 7 1.04 manner degree 3 0 1 0 1 0 5 0.74 reason 5 0 0 1 3 0 9 1.34 purpose 6 0 0 1 6 0 13 1.93 cause behalf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 condition 12 0 3 1 2 1 19 2.82 contingency concession 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 accompaniment comitative 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.30 guise 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 role product 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 source 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 angle view point 1 0 0 0 2 0 3 0.44 matter matter 0 0 13 4 0 0 17 2.53 Total # of circumstance 364 0 79 45 136 49 673 100% Total % of circumstance 54.09 0 11.74 6.68 20.21 7.28 100% 100% Table 8 shows that there are clearly favored and non-favored combinations of circumstantial types and process types. For example, the combination of material and temporal location and spatial location are clearly favoured. Matter is attracted to mental and verbal processes. Moreover, the distribution of some circumstantial types seems to vary across process type. For example, circumstance of qualitative Manner is more strongly attracted to material clauses (98 instances). This is followed by relational clauses (45 instances), which is in turn followed by mental clauses (28 instances), and existential clauses at about equal measure (26 instances). Verbal clause (13 instances) and “behavioural” clauses (0 instance) have minor counts in terms of frequency. 21 The relative frequencies of circumstantial selections vary across process types. For example: material: place > time > quality > duration > condition > frequency > … behavioural: none > none > none > … mental: quality > place > time > matter > duration > condition > … verbal: quality > time > place / duration > matter > … relational: quality > place > time > purpose > duration / comparison > … existential: quality > place > time > frequency /condition > … 10 C ONCLUSION In this research, advertisements have been explored as a type of advertising discourse, based on the selected corpus of twenty talisman advertisements. Texts are constructed as an ongoing process of selection of features in simultaneous systems. These selections create patterns as the text unfolds  logogenetic patterns (Matthiessen 2002). By tracking the local selections, the pattern of lexicogrammar in talisman advertisements unfold in the texts. Within the dimension of STRATIFICATION, three strata of talisman advertisements are investigated  context, semantics, and lexicogrammar. At the contextual stratum, the contextual values (i.e., Field, Tenor, and Mode values) are discussed. Within this contextual level, the generic structure potential of the twenty talisman advertisements is investigated. Based on Hasan’s pioneering work on the contextual configuration, the twenty talisman advertisements are analysed into eighteen generic stages. At the semantics stratum, all eighteen generic stages are realized by semantic properties. The semantic properties comprise nuclear and elaborative semantic repertoires. The talisman advertisements realized as systems of meaning are in turn realized by systems of wordings  lexicogrammar. The lexicogrammar stratum is metafunctionally explored. The analysis is based on experiential clause grammar  the system of TRANSITIVITY. Experientially, human experience is construed by different process types involving different participant roles. The findings reveal that material processes are selected more frequently than any other process types (42.61 %). This suggests that these talisman advertisements are largely concerned with actions and events. Relational processes are selected in the second rank of frequency (28.08 %). They express product attributes, product production and habitude of believers. This current paper is concerned with the overall transitivity selections of talisman advertisements. There remain other avenues for further researches. Furthermore, within the corpus of talisman advertisements it is interesting to explore the transitivity profiles of different stages which make up this particular text type. It can be hypothesized that different stages are typically featured by different favourite process types (Matthiessen 1995: 360). 22 In terms of advertising strategies, advertising copy writers exploit some key principles to create and recommend goods-or-services to prospective customers. Some key principles of successful advertisements are recommended as follows (based on Leech 1966: 27; Toolan 1988: 53; Fries 1993): • Grab potential customers’ attention and interest by expressing in Capture, Hook and Showcase stages; • Sustain potential customers’ attention and interest by elaborating on product attributes, values, functions; • Reinforce memorability by using repetition strategy. The talisman-name is selected repeatedly as both in unmarked Theme position and New-Rheme position (Fries 1993); • Convey selling power by provoking potential customers towards the right reaction (i.e., buy, contact, find / phone for more information, and pay); • Carefully present product features, functions, and evaluations through Thematic information and N-Rhematic information (Fries 1993). This current study contributes to advertisement copy writing of this particular advertisement by suggesting writing strategies as follows: • Provide examples of successful experiences with specific details of the believers (at least one personal experience). Those experiences promote and provoke opportunities for believers to experience the magical power by buying, trying on, or worshipping the advertised talisman. • Emphasise on talisman attributes and functions both physical (how it is produced, its function) and spiritual (how its supernatural power changes one’s life: miraculous success). Advertising is an excellent example of the art of persuasion. In order to achieve the desired outcome, the key functions of advertising are to inform about a product’s characteristics, to influence reader/listener attitudes (to purchase the promoted product), and to attract and sustain reader/listener needs and attention in systemic ways (Toolan 1988). R EFERENCES Biber, Douglas. 1989. 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