Lexical features and motivations of product reviews on selected Philippine online shops

• Main Authors: Tonio, Jimmylen Z., Anudin, Ali G., Lucas, Rochelle Irene G.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Lexicology; Lexical grammar; Linguistic analysis (Linguistics); Teleshopping; Consumer behavior; Consumer complaints
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/390
• Institution: De La Salle University

Alongside the progress of electronic-business websites, consumers have become more comfortable with online shopping. Subsequently, after purchasing, consumers tend to post their own comments of the product in the same e-business websites. Because of this, product reviews (PRs) have become an indispensable feature in online businesses equally beneficial for both business owners and consumers. This study explored the linguistic features and motivations of online product reviews on selected Philippine online shops, LAZADA and SHOPEE. Specifically, it looked into the lexical features of the PRs, the factors that motivated consumers to write the product reviews, and the difference of lexical preferences between male and female when they write the reviews. The findings revealed the following: (1) Formality of words in online product reviews primarily involves non-standard spelling, followed by abbreviated word forms, colloquial contractions and use of coined/novel words; (2) Paralinguistic features in online product reviews are dominated by the use of emoticons, capital letters and punctuations followed by the use of pictures/photos and lastly, by paralinguistic expressions; (3) The factors that motivate consumers to write product reviews varied. Online product reviewers are predominantly driven by venting negative feelings motivation, followed by helping the company, helping other consumers, positive self-enhancement, advice seeking and lastly, by social benefits; and (4) Gender affects the word frequencies of product online reviews, while negation words, personal pronouns, formality of words, and paralinguistic features utilized by both male and female online product reviewers are not different. © 2019 Asian E F L Journal Press. All rights reserved.