Sentence Structure and Meaning in

Ethical Lingua
Fast-Food Restaurant Tagline: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2022)

Syntax and Semantic Studies ISSN 2355-3448 (Print)

ISSN 2540-9190 (Online)
1Ema Halimah, 2Hendar Hendar
Corresponding Email
1,2 Universitas Widyatama Bandung, Indonesia Ema Halimah

Abstract
Tagline is one of the essential elements in building perception consumers, Article’s History
and it is basically formed in short phrases that provide a description or Submitted 13 July 2022
information from a brand. Linguistics stand as the medium to comprehend Revised 19 July 2022
the function and the structure of phrases involved in tagline. This research Accepted 20 July 2022
put five data to be analyzed; it consists of five different taglines taken from
various tagline of fast-food restaurants. The result showed that from those DOI
data analyzed, there are three types of phrases; noun phrase, verb phrase 10.30605/25409190.411
and combination of noun-verb phrases. In terms of providing research
data, the qualitative method is used with basic and advanced techniques.
The results of this study indicate that the use of the noun phrase, noun
phrase and combination phrase. This is indicated by the diversity of the
construction of the formation of verbal phrases and noun phrase. The Copyright © 2022
taglines have contributed to the strength of a brand itself. First, the The Author(s)
taglines help the restaurants increase awareness. Second, the tagline This article is licensed under
strengthens the positioning strategy of the brand. The taglines are also CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
using the simple and easy sentence, so they represent the part that
essential to the restaurants. Effectiveness of taglines in the fast-food
restaurants increase the consumers interest to the product offered by the
restaurants.

Keywords:
Tagline
Phrases
Brand awareness

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Abbreviations Used By Millenials on Instragram:
A Morfosemantic Study
Introduction
Fast-food restaurants refer to places where food providers serve food and drinks in a fast time; from ordering,
processing to serving to customers. In the Merriam-Webster English dictionary, fast-food is described as food
that can be prepared and served quickly which is usually sold in a restaurant or merchant with fast-paced
preparation and served to customers in a package form to be taken away or enjoyed on the spot. This food and
beverage business growth is still recorded as high growth in various parts all over the world. Communication is
a way where the company strives to inform, persuade, and remind consumers directly or indirectly. Therefore,
as a company (franchise) which purposes to communicate and market its products or services to consumers
should apply the appropriate marketing communications. Marketing communication stands importantly as key in
the development process and maintains brand identity and brand equity (Marmer, 2013).

Above all information regarding various events in various areas local, regional and international can be obtained
through the mass media. They have an act of communication which is eventually referred to as mass
communication. Mass communication is the scientific study of mass media along with the resulting message,
readers / listeners / viewers who will try achieved, and the effect it had on them (Nurudin, 2007).

Fast-food restaurant is usually widely used by those who do not have enough time to eat a meal. In this day and
age everything is required to run quickly; not only in the food and beverage sector, but also in other sectors,
such as technology, development, economy, and so on. With the high mobility of today's society, fast-food
restaurants have become one of the favorite choices for a group of people, especially for those who are busy
and are required to move quickly.

With the increasing popularity of fast-food restaurants, the number of these restaurants has also increased
rapidly. These fast-food restaurants are growing and trying to attract the attention of the general public to get the
attention and interest of consumers. In an effort to increase the number of consumers, these fast-food
restaurants need several strategies to be able to increase new customers and also retain loyal customers. One
strategy that can be applied by the fast-food restaurant actors is the tagline. In relation to the strategy of a fast-
food restaurant company, the tagline can play an important role. An attractive tagline that is easily accepted by
the general public will be useful for attracting the attention of customers easily. Therefore, the tagline will play
an important role in contributing to increasing the number of subscribers (Thi Do, 2018). Tagline is a tagline,
mantra, company statement or guiding principle that describes, or helps create, interest. In addition, the tagline
is a short statement related to the brand name. The tagline has the following characteristics: the tagline must be
short, make a tagline that easy to remember and easy to be spoken. Then make a tagline as creative as possible,
make a unique tagline and different from other competitors. Furthermore, the tagline must be copyrighted so that
no other competitor wants to take taglines that have been created (Griffith, 2006).

It can be concluded that the tagline may consist of three or five words that have a role to create interest in a
product. In addition, the tagline can also be a company strategy to make a company brand statement so that
consumers will be interested in buying certain products. From the explanation above, the writer is interested in
analyzing the structure of the phrases contained in the taglines of several fast-food restaurants in the syntactic
category. The author will analyze the tagline using a tree diagram that will be analyzed along with its constituents
that make up the structure of the tagline.

The data used will be taken from the popularity of fast-food restaurants on the advergize.com website which is
an inspiration site for marketers that includes inventions, opinions, and articles related to brands, technology,
innovation, and everything creative. The population of data that has been taken from the website will be
distributed to several groups of academics and non-academics for later surveys to find suitable and limited data
samples. Identification of the problem in this research is what constituent elements are contained in the sentence
structure in the fast-food restaurant tagline and what meaning is contained in the sentence in the fast-food

Vol. 9, No. 1, 2022 | 337

restaurant tagline. The limitation of the problem that will be examined leads to the constituent elements contained
in the sentence structure in the fast-food restaurant tagline, along with the meaning of the sentence. The fast-
food restaurant tagline that will be studied is fast-food restaurant which is widely known by the Indonesian people
based on a survey that will be conducted on a population of a group of academics and non-academics.

Literature Review

In this research, the types of phrases categorized by several linguists will be discussed. There are two types of
phrases, exocentric phrases and endocentric phrases. Exocentric phrases are phrases that do not have a central
element where there is no distribution equation with the elements. This exocentric phrase usually fills the adverb
element in a sentence. Meanwhile, endocentric phrases are phrases that have a central element where one of
the constituent elements has the same syntactic behavior with one of the other elements, or the whole element.
These endocentric phrases are categorized into three types, namely coordinating endocentric phrases,
appositive endocentric phrases, and attributive endocentric phrases.

a. Syntax
Syntax is a branch of linguistics that investigates word units and other units above words, relationships with one
another, and arrangement so that they become speech units (Chaer, 2015). Syntax is a branch of linguistics that
studies the arrangement and relationships between words and words, or between words and larger units, or
between larger units in language. Syntax is also a branch of linguistics that studies how words are arranged and
related to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. Syntax is a branch of linguistics that concerns the arrangement
of words in sentences. Syntax is the study of the relationship between words or phrases or clauses or sentences
with one word or phrase (clauses or other sentences or specifically studying the intricacies of phrases, clauses,
sentences and discourses) (Verhaar, 2010). From the several meanings of syntax above, it can be concluded
that syntax is the study of linguistics which studies grammar including the structures of phrases, clauses, and
sentences. In other words, Simatupang (2019) elaborates that semantics is the science of the meaning of words
and sentences. From the definitions mentioned, it becomes clear that in semantics, meaning is an immensely
important part. Nevertheless, semantics as the study of meaning is frequently intertwined with another branch
of linguistics that also studies meaning, pragmatics

Phrases refer to combinations of one or two words, even more, which are not predicative. Not only the predicate,
but also the subject; in a phrase, there is no subject and predicate element. However, a phrase will carry a
certain meaning. In other hand, the elements contained in a phrase include the main element (head) and the
information element (modifier). These phrases can be divided into several categories based on their core or
main elements including:

1. Noun Phrase

A noun phrase is a form of a phrase or a combination of two or more words that have the main element in the
form of a noun. For example:

She is a beautiful girl.

In the sentence above, it contains the noun phrase a beautiful girl. The word combination consists of the main
element girl who has a noun class and a beautiful adverb which has an adjective class. Because the main
element is a noun, the phrase is included in a noun phrase (Noun Phrase).

2. Verb Phrase (Verb Phrase)

A verb phrase is a form of a phrase or a combination of words consisting of a main verb that can stand alone as
a whole verb phrase, or be preceded by two to four verbs in its function as an adverb. For example:

She studies.

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In the sentence above there are two phrases, namely noun phrases (she) and verb phrases (studies). The word
studies which only consists of one word is a verb phrase because it has a verb as the main element (verb).

She is studying now.

In the sentence above, is studying is a verb phrase which consists of two verb elements, namely the main verb
and the auxiliary verb. Is is an auxiliary verb and studying is the main verb.

3. Adjective Phrase (Adjective Phrase)

Adjective phrases are combinations of words that consist of adjectives as the main element. In this adjective
phrase can be modified by elements both at the beginning (pre-modification) and at the end (post-modification)
of the word. For example:

(i) The coffee is hot.

(ii) The coffee is too hot.
(iii) The coffee is hot enough.

In the first example sentence, the word hot which only consists of one word is an adjective phrase because the
word is the main element that has an adjective (adjective) class. While in the second example sentence, the
word hot gets a modified form of too this is located at the beginning of the word (pre-modification) to become too
hot. As with the second example sentence that gets modified, in the third example sentence, the word hot gets
a modification at the end of the word (post-modification) to become hot enough.

4. Adverbial Phrase (Adverb Phrase)

Adverbial phrases are phrases that contain the main element as an adverb. Basically, this adverbial phrase has
a structure that is close to an adjective, except for the position of the main element in this adverbial phrase which
is an adverb, not an adjective. For example:

I met him yesterday.

In the sentence above, the word yesterday is an adverbial phrase because it is formed from one main word
(yesterday) which functions as a description of the sentence. Some linguists have categorized phrases into two
types based on the type of structure and based on the distribution of the elements; namely exocentric phrases
and phrases endocentric.

Exocentric phrases are phrases that do not have a central element where there is no distribution equation with
the elements. The exocentric phrase usually fills the adverb element in a sentence. Exocentric phrases are
phrase constructions that do not function and have the same distribution as all of their constituent elements.
Therefore, this exocentric phrase cannot occupy the entire phrase because it does not have a central element
(Khairah&Ridwan, 2014).

In other hand, endocentric phrases are phrases that have a central element where one of the constituent
elements has the same syntactic behavior with one of the other elements, or the whole element. Endocentric
phrase is said to be a phrase if the phrase construction unit has the same distribution and function as one of its
constituent members (Parera, 2004). Endocentric phrases are phrases in which one of the elements has the
same syntactic behavior as the whole where the element can replace the overall position (Chaer, 2012). These
endocentric phrases are categorized into three types:

• Coordinate Endocentric Phrases; is a type of phrase whose constituent elements have an equal
position and can be connected by coordinating conjunctions.
• Appositive Endocentric Phrases; is a type of phrase whose constituent elements refer to the same
referent.
• Attributive Endocentric Phrases; is a type of phrase that only has one central element, and the other
elements are only attributes to complete the central element.

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b. Semantics
In general, semantics refers to a branch of linguistics that studies meaning. In the speech act of a language, the
existence of semantics cannot be ruled out. With the semantic element in every linguistic speech act, it gives
meaning and goals to be achieved (Sumarsono, 2007). For example, someone who is at home and feels thirsty,
that person will go to get drinking water, without having to say anything. It's a different matter with someone who
is in a restaurant who is feeling thirsty. The person cannot immediately take drinking water for himself. The
person will certainly speak in such a way that the meaning and purpose of obtaining drinking water can be
achieved. The person may say, "May I have a glass of water?" The servant who heard these words was able to
understand the meaning of the sentence by bringing him a glass of water (Hurford, 1983).

Therefore, the semantic contribution or meaning in a sentence, speech, or utterance can play an important role.
This is because the resulting effect of the meaning function on the speech can channel the right goals to be
achieved.

Sentence is a grammatical sequence of words and contains a complete meaning. The meaning of a sentence is
determined by the meaning of the words that make it up and the meaning of the sequence of words that make
up the sentence. The meaning that arises as a result of the sequence of these words is called the structural
meaning. The meaning of a sentence will be formed and influenced by the sequence of words that make it up
(Parera, 2004).

c. Meaning Aspect of Tagline

Some functions of language in communication that can be related with the function of the objective meaning
aspect in the tagline of the products, (1) Expressive function, when the tagline comes from the ideas of speakers
or writers as a means of expressions, such as speech; (2) Fatigue function, when it originates in a channel to
facilitate communication; (3) Informational function, it is sourced from messages or information, such as news in
the mass media; (4) Aesthetic function, it is sourced from messages with an emphasis on the beauty of the
message, such as poetry and songs; (5) The function of the directive, it is directed at the actions or reactions of
the hearer or reader, like a sermon, but a function that directly involves social role there are only 3 functions of
the meaning of the purpose of language in tagline communication (Leech, 1981).

Related to tagline, meaning in tagline could be referred to symbol. Symbols or symbols are linguistic elements
in the form of words or sentences. A reference or reference is an object, event or process in in the world of
human experience. While thoughts or concepts refer to what are in the brain about the object referred to by
symbol and kind of the relationship between the three of them. Mind as an element which carries out significance,
it acts as present meaning and has direct relationship, either in symbols or symbols or with reference. The idea
(reference) is the result of conceptualizing the relationship between the symbol and the referenced reference.
While between symbols with the referent there is an indirect relationship because both have an arbitrary
relationship. The relationship between the symbol and referent will be stay through concepts or thoughts that
are in the brain (Suwandi, 2011).

d. Tagline
A tagline is a phrase that is used to express an idea or memorable goals. The form of taglines varies, from
written and visible, to spoken and vulgar. In general, the form of rhetoric is simple provide space to convey more
detailed information, besides it is also conveyed in the form of social expression of a common goal, rather than
the projections of a few people. The tagline usually uses persuasive sentence. There are several things worth
noting as below: Tagline given rhythm, rhyme, and sound.

a) With these three things, the tagline is not just a series of words or dead and silent words. In essence,
this tagline touches one of the human senses, especially hearing. With the rhythm and rhyme, the
tagline becomes something that cannot be forgotten because it has something (read: a distinctive
sound).

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 b) Emphasize key benefits

The tagline should emphasize the main message of differentiation from product or brand. This key
message should be picked up with assertive; not the other way around. It is

dwelling on beautiful words, but messages on the main thing are not received by the audience. The
tagline is the audience's first impression. Once touched, the audience will not forget it.

Tagline will be related to advertising and also the linguistics aspect within. Advertising has a function to
disseminate information about offering a product, idea or service. The existences of an item or services are
known to consumers through advertising. Advertising seeks to provide information about the advantages,
advantages, benefits and given the goods, services or ideas that are intended or recommended. On the other
hand, advertising is a persuasion tool so that consumers buy or use the goods, services or ideas. Different from
news in a newspaper, advertising does not just convey information about an object or service, but has the
"encourage" and "persuade" people to like, vote and then buy it. In the advertising process there is a process
related to discipline psychology; starting from the information dissemination stage as the initial process, to the
stage of moving consumers to buy or using services is a psychological process. Advertising can be said
successful if it is able to move consumers for the first time when see the appearance of the advertisement; visual
stimulation of appearance the advertising immediately gets the attention of the observer (Djajasudarma, 2012).

Method
The research method used in this research is a qualitative research method. It is a methods based on the
philosophy of post-positivism in which the researcher is the key instrument, the sampling of data sources is
carried out purposively and snowball, the collection technique using triangulation (combined), data analysis is
inductive or qualitative, and qualitative research results emphasize meaning rather than generalization.

In addition, qualitative research methods are often referred to as naturalistic research methods because the
research is carried out in different conditions natural (natural setting). Meanwhile, post-positivism philosophy in
this qualitative research method is often referred to as an interpretive and constructive paradigm that views
social reality as something holistic, complex, dynamic, and full of meaning and the relationship of symptoms is
interactive (Sugiyono, 2008).

Data collection techniques used in this study carried out using the method of documentation, see and record.
This is done because the object in this study is a sentences contained in the fast-food product tagline. This
research uses documentation technique as a research instrument to collect the tagline of the products. The
collection of slogans is done by recording by using a camera so that the data is in the form of photos. These
photos are selected by choosing an ad that has a tagline. The truth and accuracy of the data obtained depends
on the tool data collection used or commonly called instruments, as well as data source. The instrument in this
research is documentation with a checklist while listening and recording with a data card.

Results and Discussion

In this research, the analysis will focus on the structure of the phrases contained in the tagline of fast-food
restaurants and their constituent elements. In representing this data, it is presented in the form of a tree diagram.

Data 1
I’m lovin’ it! (McDonald’s)

McDonald's is an American fast-food restaurant that was founded in 1940. The McDonald's fast-food restaurant
tagline is composed by a sentence that has a noun phrase and a verb phrase. The constituent elements
contained in the tagline: I'm lovin’ it refers to a pronoun (I) that forms a noun phrase. The other constituent
elements are auxiliary verb (am), verb (loving), and pronoun (it).

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The fast-food restaurant tagline above implies that consumers have more love and preference for food and
beverage products from this fast-food restaurant. This tagline raises the assumption that consumers are the
party who consumes the product and then likes and loves the product.

Brand awareness is the ability of a brand to appear in consumers' minds when they are thinking about specific
product category and how easy it is to come up with the name. Furthermore, brand awareness is a basic
dimension in brand equity. With the presentation of a simple tagline by the McDonald's company with through
advertising media that are widely broadcast on television. It is purposed to the tagline can be one of the
benchmarks in increasing brand awareness in public.

Data 2

World’s greatest hamburger (Fuddruckers)

Fuddruckers is a fast-food restaurant located in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Panama. The
Fuddruckers fast-food restaurant tagline is composed by noun phrases with 4 constituents. The structure of the
phrase that forms the tagline of this restaurant is a noun phrase because it has a main element (head) in the
form of a noun; namely hamburgers. The constituent elements contained in the tagline: World's greatest
hamburger are nouns (World), possessive pronouns ('s), and superlative adjectives (greatest), and nouns
(hamburger). The word combination consists of the main element Hamburger which has a noun word class.
Because the main element is a noun, the phrase is included in a noun phrase (Noun Phrase).

Tagline is a form of marketing communication. Marketing communication refers to the collection of all the
elements in an organization's marketing mix facilitate exchange through the formation of shared meaning with
consumers and clients of an organization. This marketing communication refers to all a form of communication
used by organizations to tell something and influence the buying behavior of existing and existing customers’
potential. Marketing communications must be designed to inform customers about the benefits and value of the
product or service offered. Basic form of marketing communication is the elements of the promotional
combination between are advertising, personal selling, publicity and sales promotion.

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Data 3
The Sign of Good Taste! (Yoshinoya)

Yoshinoya is the largest fast-food restaurant in Japan. The tagline of this Yoshinoya fast-food restaurant is
composed by noun phrases with 4 constituents. The structure of the phrase that forms the tagline of this
restaurant is a noun phrase because it has a main element (head) in the form of a noun; ie sign. The constituent
elements contained in the tagline: The sign of good taste! These are determiners (The), nouns (sign),
prepositions (of), adjectives (good), and nouns (taste). The word combination consists of the main element Sign
which has a noun class. Because the main element is a noun, the phrase is included in a noun phrase (Noun
Phrase).

Tagline impressions in advertising that provide information indicate that the ad is communicative, since
respondent as audiences are aware that advertisements broadcast provides new information for him. Providing
information to audience shows that advertisers provide cognitive elements in the form of intellectual or
knowledge of the audience. In addition, the tagline that is considered simple and easy to remember; yet it is
repeated by society, especially in the interest of the brand or its products. Especially for consumers who are
already regular customers. The tagline carried by Yoshinoya is expected to be more helpful to consumers to be
more aware that the products they consume have a tagline that simple and easy to remember so it helps them
to remember their favorite product every time they see an ad or something related with that brand.

Data 4
Eat fresh! (Subway)

Subway is a fast-food restaurant that has been around since 1965. The tagline of Subway fast-food restaurant
is composed by verb phrases that are imperative because the subject is omitted. The structure of the phrase
that forms the tagline of this restaurant is a verb phrase because it has a main element (head) in the form of a
verb; eat. The constituent elements contained in the tagline: Eat fresh is a verb (Eat) and an adjective (fresh).
The word combination consists of the main element Eat which has a verb class. Because the main element is a
verb, the phrase is included in a verb phrase (Verb Phrase).

The role of the tagline in an advertisement of Subway is a very important thing to be able to help products stay
in the minds of consumers. There is a tagline in an advertisement; it will really help people to remember the
brand of the products offered. So, the tagline is a series of sentences or creative expressions that are easy to
remember and able to present the whole advertising messages from companies to consumers or the public,
which include the brand and the character of its products, in the context of the process of inculcating the concept
of product positively into the minds of the people. Taglines can be used for helps communicate the point of
difference from competitors.

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Data 5
Lisense to Grill (Chili’s)

Chili's is a legendary fast-food restaurant that has been around since 1995 in Dallas, Texas. Chili's fast-food
restaurant tagline is composed of verb phrases that are imperative because the subject is omitted. The structure
of the phrase that forms the tagline of this restaurant is a verb phrase because it has a main element (head) in
the form of a verb; license. The constituent elements contained in the tagline: Lisense to grill is a verb (license),
a preposition (to), and a verb (grill). The word combination consists of the main element Lisense which has a
verb class. Because the main element is a verb, the phrase is included in a verb phrase (Verb Phrase).

Every tagline carried by a certain company must have a meaning and value for the company. Of course, in this
case the Tagline must have the power to attract the attention of the candidate consumers and easy for potential
customers to remember to build identity of a product that is favored by the company. Need It is also known that
a good tagline contains several important indicators as a support for the success of Tagline in carrying out its
function as the identity of the company is Familiarity, Differentiation, Massager of value.

Conclusion
Tagline is an identity for a brand or product that is used to attract people's attention to its products. This is also
considered very important to support the branding and marketing of a business. Based on linguistics point of
view, tagline could be analyzed by several areas in linguistics; as morphology and semantics. Based on the
results of the research and discussion of data relating to the construction of phrases in the tagline on fast-food
products, it could be concluded that when formulating the problems on how to construct phrases, the noun
phrase, verb phare and the combination of those phrases.

Branding, taglines and slogans does not require printing companies to spend a lot of money. simple things like
creating interesting post content that is done regularly and consistently can help branding. Based on the results,
known that there is the tendency of a positive relationship between the influence variables, between exposure
to the tagline and the affected variable, brand awareness. People may respond more to messages and it is only
based on less important cues or commonly known as 'peripheral cues' related to the content of the message,
but society is expected able to carry out the process of thinking actively by paying attention to each argument,
ideas, and content contained in the message.

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