Advertising Discourse: A Contrastive Analysis of Computer Adverts in English and Spanish

Resumen

This article looks at the specific discourse features of press ads for computer products in English and Spanish and, to this end, presents the findings of a compa- rative analysis of two parallel corpora of ads, one in each language. Two parti- cular aspects are considered: firstly, discourse features which are common to the ads analysed in both languages, and which differ in some way from advertising discourse in consumer ads (as described by a number of experts), and secondly, the different ways in which the English and Spanish languages are used in the promotion of these products. In both cases, the communicative function of the discourse fea- tures identified is examined. Finally, some suggestions are proffered as to possible didac- tic applications for these texts, in the light of the conclusions reached, for transla- tors, trainee translators and the teaching of languages for specific purposes.