English-Russian code- mixing in Russian ads, TV commercials and mass -

media

English-Russian code- mixing in Russian ads, TV commercials and mass -

media

Dr. Irina UstinovaSoutheast Missouri State

Universityiustinova@semo.edu

http://cstl-cla.semo.edu/iustinova

Data More than 500 commercials broadcast

by seven TV channels in Russia between 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2011 and 2013 and 300 ads from Russian magazines.

Nearly 80% Russian TV commercials integrate two or more linguistic systems. 95% of these multilingual samples are in English- Russian mix.

ENGLISH- RUSSIAN MIX IN STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS

English- Russian mix is utilized in nearly all structural components in the layout of Russian ads. English dominates in 4 components: labeling products, company name,

wrapper and logo: Samsung, Sony, Phillips; Pepsi- Пепси, Toshiba-Тошиба;

Brand Names of Multinational Companies

• Corporations, such as Ford Mondeo, Land Rover, Chevrolet, Samsung, Colgate, Lipton, Secret Safeguard, Venus, Old Spice, Tampax, Gloria Jeans, or Orbit do not customize their messages and send them to Russian customers unchanged, using English and a familiar graphic form of their company and product names.

• Allow product-name and company-name extensions in Russian as a national language together with two scripts, Roman and Cyrillic: Mountain Dew-Маунтинг Дью, Coca-Cola- Кока Кола, Pepsi- Пепси, Toshiba-Тошиба, Brook Bond-Брук-Бонд.

Brand Names of Russian Companies

• Use English or Anglophone – sounding and looking words and Roman script for the names of their products, companies or labels: Proma ( for window frames) , Botchkarev ( for beer).

• They use Cyrillic script for the names of their products, companies or labels: Лукойл (= LukOil = LookOil; gas company).

•

Name of the Company and Label in English

ENGLISH-RUSSIAN MIX in Headers, Body-text, Slogans,

and Attention getters • Identifies the product • Makes the point of the message• Reinforces the advertising

message

English-Russian Mix

Russian-English Mix in the Body Text

In most ads, body texts are made in Russian with a few words , such as product names, function terms, etc inserted in English as in TV ad: «плазменные и LCD телевизоры LG с функцией Time Machine» (plasma and LCD TV sets LG with the function of Time Machine).

Компания Trust начала продажи на российском рынке веб- камеры Megapixel USB2 Webcam Live WB-5400.

Kompania Trust nachala prodazhi na Rossiiskom rynke VEB-kamery Megapixel US B2 Webcam Life WB05400.

Company Trust started selling on the Russian market Web-camcorders Megapixel USB2 Webcam Live WB-5400.

Russian-English Mix in the Body

Transplanted (Romanized) English names of this type, without translation, can make a considerable part of a Russian text:

Из новых разработок компании Wynn’s следует выделить также специальный продукт DIP3 для двигателей с непосредственным впрыском, разработанный для Mitsubishi GDI, Toyota SIDI, VW/Audi/Seal/Skoda FSI, Nissan, BMW, Alta Romeo, Renault IDE. Данные системы очень чувствительны к качеству топлива. Продукт Wynn’s DIP3 Liguid и DIP3 Aerosol предназначены для межсервисного использования с целью поддержания в чистоте топливных систем (AG Автогид.

• Among the newly designed gadgets of Wynn’s company it is worth highlighting a specialized product DIP3 for the engines with direct injection, developed for Mitsubishi GDI, Toyota SIDI, VW/Audi/Seal/Skoda FSI, Nissan, BMW, Alta Romeo, Renault IDE. Products such as Wynn’s DIP3 Liguid and DIP3 Aerosol are intended for the inter-service use in order to maintain the fuel systems clean.

English-Russian Mix in Slogans

• About 4 % of all the ads contain English-language slogans. Slogan is a phrase or sentence with a complete meaning. Usually it is a laconic structure that may use rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, or pun to become memorable (Local touch, Global Brand - for computer “Acer”).

• Some slogans are registered trademarks; that is why they are not translated into national languages. Slogans like Ideas for life (Panasonic), Like.no.other (Sony), It’s different (Pantech), Thinking of you (Electrolux) are well-known all over the world.

Australia- Free –Spirited and Fabulous

English-Russian Mix in CLOSING LINES, HEADERS or

ATTENTION GETTERS

• These structural components reinforce the advertising message and also serve as a marker of prestige; thus, the expensive electronic, perfume and home appliances are targeted at the upper-middle class Russians who are expected to be educated and proficient in English. 6 % of the ads contain English in headers and closing lines: Pioneer London (clothes store Podium), Finely Selected Specialty Tea (tea Greenfield), etc.

Lumene: Cranberry Kiss

Correlation between the Type of the Advertised Product and

the Language Choice• Brand naming: English names -to advertise

electronic appliances, batteries, and snacks. Ads for cars, personal care products, laundry and household products, clothes, tea, coffee, and chewing gum use both languages and scripts in naming and labeling, with approximate proportion of English to Russian as five to one. English and Russian appear in equal proportions in the brands of chocolate and sweets, soft drinks, oil and dressings while both Western and Russian products are promoted. The majority of dairy products, national food, beer, and medicine made in Russia have Russian brand names and Cyrillic font.In the TV ad for the Russian national food, pel’meni language, music and images aretypical for the Russian folklore tales, and the colors of the Russian national flag in the visuals add the national flavor too.

Mix of Languages and Scripts

PATTERNS OF CODE-MIXING

• 1. Code-switching of Russian and English sentences

• 2. Code-mixing of Russian and English words or phrases within a sentence

• 3. Code-mixing of Russian and English morphemes within a word.

Code-switching of Russian and English Sentences

• In the commercial for the firm Zanussi, the written body text is in Russian with the mix of the brand-name in Roman script and the signature or closing line in a smaller font is in English.

Надежная бытовая техника существует. Доказано Zanussi Nadezhnaya bytovaya tehnika suschestvuet. Dokazano Zanussi.

Reliable home appliances exist. Proven (by) Zanussi .

Closing line in English: From the Electrolux Group. The World No 1. choice.

Code-mixing of the Russian and English Phrases within a Sentence

Russian language serves as the matrix language and gives the sentence its basic structure. The English words or phrases are embedded into the syntactic structure of a Russian sentence and are located in the proper places for the corresponding parts of speech. Incidences of the English names of product, company, or logo as a mixing element are a dominant feature in the ads.

Скидки на телефон Benefon Dragon до 100% Skidki na telefon Benefon Dragon do 100%.Discount on telephone Benefon Dragon up to 100%.Lip Silk от Max Factor творит чудеса Lip Silk оt Max Factor tvorit chudesaLip Silk from Max Factor makes wonders.

Code-mixing of the Russian and English Morphemes

Russian and English mix within various parts of one and the same word. Blending as a type of incorporation is characteristic for the mixed words.

 

A word can be formed from English stem and Russian affix

  TV commercial for the chocolate bar Snickers: the bar of chocolate is

offered for lunch to the wood-cutters with a message, written in Cyrillic letters on the TV screen:

Сникерсни!• Snikers-ni !• Snikers- Imperative, 2 person, Sing.• Have Snickers!

English stem plus Russian Bound Morpheme’ is a

Productive Model• Words, belonging to computer or business terms or

slang: the English stems such as ‘cash’, ‘brows’, ‘link’, ‘welfare’ or abbreviations ‘PC’, ‘CD’ and the Russian morphemes produce new words, some of them belonging to a very colloquial register, like nouns кэшак (cash-ak: ‘cash’); писюк (pis-iuk:’ PC’); сидюк (sid-iuk: ‘CD’).

• Some phonological changes are at play here too, CD sounds as ‘sidi’, PC as ‘pisi’ : a reduction of ending vowels takes place, and English stems ‘pis’ and ‘sid’ adds Russian inflextions:’iuk.’

• Verbs: браузить (brows -it’: ‘to browse’); кликать (klick-at’: ‘to click’), participles: слинкованный (s-link-ovannyi: ‘linked’), adjectives: велферный (welfar- nyi: adj. ‘having a welfare’) or Shell-ковый( shell-k-ov-yi: belonging to the Shell company).

Blended words are typical for the ‘Russian English’ of Russian

speaking immigrantsIn the verb напутонили (naputonili: put on-Past Simple) the

English stem put with preposition on is combined in one word in Russian. It is decorated with the Russian prefix на (na), characteristic for some verbs, such as ‘надели’ (nadeli : wore, put on) and the suffix of the past tense of the verbs л (l); In another verb, the imperative form: наслайсте/послайсте (poslice-te/naslic-te: slice), the English stem ‘slice’ is surrounded by the Russian verb prefixes: на/по (na/po), the suffix of the Imperative form: й( i) and the ending of thesecond person plural:те-(te-).

• There exist native Russian words together with the code-mixed words: ‘связанный ‘(svyazanniy) and ‘слинкованный’ ( s-link-ovanniy),’ бесценная’ ( bestsennaya) and ‘беспрайсовая’( bes-price-ovaya), ‘ бродить’( brodit’) and ‘браузить’ ( brows-it’), ‘надели’(nadeli) and ‘напутонили’ (naputonili).

A word formation of two stems: Russian and English

The slogan for the commercial of a show on Russian TV Bingo

Бинго Шоу- Все будет хорошоу. Bingo Shou- Vse budet khoroshou

( khorosh+shou) Bingo Show- Everything will be ‘fine show’.  The productivity of this pattern of word formation,

especially for compound nouns: Web - страницы (Web–starnitsy :Web-pages), мани-ордер ( money-order:money-order), brand-name ноутбуки ( brand name noutbuki : brand-name notebooks), кино-триллер ( kino-thriller:movie-thriller) , прайс-лист (price-list: price-list).

ENGLISH AS A MARKER OF PRESTIGE IN SOCIAL MEANINGS OF GOODS

TV commercials for the stylish, expensive, prestigious, foreign-made cars contain language mix of Russian and English and target successful, affluent young people .

Corolla

Conclusion• The Russian ads are under the influence of the well-

established patterns of Western, predominantly American, advertising discourse.

• 75% of Russian TV commercials and ads employ a bilingual mix.

• In twelve structural components in the layout of Russian ads, English-Russian mix is present in abundance , esp. in brand name, name of the company, logo, and attention getter.

• A certain correspondence exists between the type of the product, and the language choice for the brand name: names of the Western products are advertised in English, while Russian goods employ both languages in labeling. Having in mind the effectiveness of promotion of goods on the Russian market, Western firms should consider the concept of advertising as cultural communication, and not neglect the influence of Russian culture on advertising.

• Code-mixing is a typical feature of Russian ads.