Lexical features of Philippine TV commercials: A narrative inquiry

Abstract

This paper aimed to describe how gender is realized in Philippine TV commercial discourse through a textual and content analyses of the microstructure-features. From the pool of TV commercials aired and video recorded, data were quantified identifying the target audience female, male, and mixed-gender) and the classification of various linguistic features taken from the transcript of the voiceover, speaking lines assigned to women and men, and the background text . The corpus of data was analyzed vis-à-vis gender imaging. In general, the lexical features used in Philippine TV commercials include the use of neologisms and word play. Specifically, the female-directed TV ads made use of neologism and alliteration. On the other hand, the male-directed TV ads employed word play through the rhyme, rhythm, and assonance while the mixed-gender directed TV ads utilized neologism, alliteration, and allusion These features based on the data gathered were not conclusive to suggest gendered imaging: rather, they were more of the stylistic features characteristic of Philippine TV commercials. Apparently, code-switching was prevalent in Philippine TV commercials across the different audience-directed categories, but the female-directed TV ads showed the use of English as the dominant language in code-switching while the male-directed TV ads preferred to use Filipino dominant code-switching. The commercials directed to a mixed-gender audience had a similar pattern with that of the commercials directed to the male audience in terms of the dominant language preferred in code-switching. Apparently, code-switching was prevalent across Philippine TV commercials and with preference to use English only. Incorporated in the Filipino schema of communication is code-switching regardless of the target audience's gender and this is realized in Philippine TV commercials.