从语用学角度分析广告语

Analyzing Characteristics of English Advertisement Language From the Perspective of PragmaticsXingrui LiuSchool of Foreign Languages, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, P.R. ChinaAbstractAdvertising guru Ogilvie oncce said, advertising is the life of the words. His words point out the importance of advertising language for advertising. In the fierce competitive contemporary society, businessmen try to make use of a variety of advertising to promote products and services in order to quickly expand their products in the market. Because among various kinds of advertisement, a distinctive advertising language plays a great role in selling products. Advertising text is widely concerned by scholars at home and abroad because of its remarkable characteristics. Analyzing characteristics of English advertisement language from the perspective of pragmatics, it’s not difficult to find harmonious and unified context is beneficial to enrich advertisement information and promote the understanding of advertising . Smart advertisers will often hide transfer the information in the presupposition of advertising language, release products information and promote products in the market with the help of presupposition; the advertising language through violation of the cooperative principle intentionally or unintentionally in public to transfer products information, so that consumers can infer the conversational implicature instead of it’s surface meaning, therefore，businessmen are able to highlight the characteristics and advantages of their products .Keywords: advertising language; pragmatics; theory; usage1. IntroductionAdvertisements are getting their way into our daily life: they may smile to us from the television screen, shout to us from the radio loudspeakers, wave invitingly to us fromevery page of the newspaper and magazine, pluck at our sleeves on the buses and escalators, signal to us from roadside billboards and flash to us on the Internet. Advertisements, in any of mass media communication frequently make use of the direct approach of rhetorical devices to objectify appeals and enhance its persuasive power.However, when a large number of marvelous advertisements flood into another nation, their renditions could not always be as wonderful as the original and, therefore, might fail to produce similar effects on the target audience. Puzzled and stimulated by this problem, the author of this thesis has made an intensive study of analyzing the characteristics of English advertising language from the perspective of pragmatics to find a way of improving the efficiency of advertisement.With the establishment of socialist market economy and the rapid expansion of economic exchanges, especially after China’s entry into the WTO, international economic activities become more frequent and foreign trade more active. A successful advertisement, fine in the use of words, sentences, and rhetoric in order to be new, vivid and fascinating, is a unique and crafted product of creators. Through the examples of English advertisement, this paper mainly explores the way of improving the efficiency of advertisement.Advertising has become a popular subject of numerous scholarly studies approached from a wide range of disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, psychology, linguistics, literary criticism, aesthetics, marketing and media studies, for all kinds of advertisements have bombarded each of us in our daily life. Advertisements from the highways, radio, TV, magazines, newspapers and the Internet invade our ears and eyes with repetitive message and arouse our attention. Advertising is an effective and critical tool not only to promote tangible commodities and services such as hairdressing but also to promote economic, political, religious and social ideas. The essence of advertis ing’s global significance may have been captured by the British novelist Noman Douglas when he remarked, “You can tell the ideals of nation by its advertisements” (Wilson, 1989:263). Therefore, the study of advertising has taken on new significance.Advertising English is a style of immediate impact and rapid persuasion. The point of an advertisement is to persuade people of the merits of a particular product or service, in order that people will part with some of their money. In general, whether the medium is print, radio or television, the advertiser can rely on people’s attention for only a very short time. Therefore, the sales message must be short, clear, distinctive and memorable.The paper is composed of four parts. The first part presents the main concern of the thesis and its main theme. In part two, a general study of advertising. Based on the literature review, we are going to know more about the principles used to express the usages of advertising English. Then part three is devoted to the study of the pragmatic basis of English advertising language. Part four is the summary of this thesis.2. A General Study of Advertising2.1 Literature ReviewThe quality of advertising language to some degree determines the effect of an advertisement (hereinafter referred to as “ad”). The literature of the earlier period include Bovee’s Contemporary Advertising, Higgins’The Art of Writing Advertising: Conversations with Masters of the Craft, and Ulanoff’s Advertising in America, while Principles of Advertising co-written by Monle and Carla follow into the category of recent works. These publications are mainly devoted to media strategy, marketing planning process, customer behavior, public relation and the ways ads are presented (size, color and position), and seldom lay enough emphasis on copywriting, which has an indispensable relationship with language. Furthermore, the part organized around copywriting only clarifies advertising structure (namely, headline, subhead, body copy, slogan and closing), copy devices (namely, format, design and illustration), and ideas of how to bring originality to copywriting. It seems that marketing perspective of advertising has overwhelmed its linguistic features, which is generally considered as a research objective of studies by the linguists.2.2 Definition of AdvertisingThe English word, advertise, means to draw something through newspapers, handbills, radio, etc, so as to make people want to buy it. Up to now, various definitions of advertising have been made from different perspectives. However, the underlying function of advertisement to inform and its ultimate goal to sell remain unchanged. In the Britannica Encyclopedia: advertising is generally defined as any openly sponsored offering of goods, services, or ideas through any medium of public communication. Today, the widely adopted definition was put forward by the American Marketing Association:“Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products (goods and services) or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.”2.3 The Characteristics of English Advertising Language2.3.1 Lexical Features2.3.1.1 Using More Positive AdjectivesAdvertising language often uses amount of modifiers to make advertising vivid and interesting enough to appeal to consumers. And adjectives become the preferential choice. The British linguist G.H.Leech rank the advertising English adjectives according to their frequency in advertising, the first ten are:（1）new（2）good/better/best（3）free（4）fresh（5）delicious（6）full（7）sure （8）wonderful（9）clean（10）specialeg1.A brand new Hyatt. A whole new feeling.(Hyatt Hotel）eg2.Feel good. Fast food.(Top Shelf Fast Food）2.3.1.2 Using Monosyllabic Verbs frequentlyThe most basi c feature of Advertising is it’s concise in choosing advertising words, and the most eloquent is probably verbs and adjectives. While monosyllabic words are often used .The following monosyllabic words are used most frequently in English advertising:(1) buy (2) see (3) get (4) use (5) choose (6) feel (7) go (8) have (9) keep (10) give (11) like (12) look (13) love (14) need (15) save (16) take (17) make (18) know (19）come (20) enjoyeg1. The First Ever. The Last You’ll Ever Need.(Seiko wristwatch）eg2. Three Letters that Bring the World Together.(YKK zipper）2.3.1.3 The Innovative Onomatopoeia CombinationOften making use of the homonym of words to make advertisement vivid and attractive in English advertisements,For example.He’s never gone a sleeper befor e,Because he wets the bed...(But tonight, with Goodnites, that will change.)Goodnites means Good mornings.There are a few words selected from the Goodnite urine pants ads, this advertisement makes full use of the homonym between Goodnite and Goodnight, stressing that you can have a wonderful overnight sleep if you wear the Goodnite urine trousers, hence enjoying the fun of sleeping out, it also and emphasizes a good sleep will guarantee you have a wonderful morning.eg2. InLondon Airport, there is one line of words in front of a duty-free shop "Have a nice tripe. Buy-buy！" At first glance, as if it is wrong, it should be Bye-bye! However，thinking carefully, “buy-buy” reminds you of buying some duty-free products before flying .It is such an ingenious advertisement.2.3.2 The Characteristics of Sentence PatternsThe often used sentence patterns in English advertisements are ellipsis sentence, imperative sentence and interrogative sentence, and most of them are short and clear with rapid rhythm, so it is easy to remember. A lot of English advertising slogan has been known to every household, for example:eg1. Come alive with Pepsi! (Pepsi drink）eg2. Soft shoes for hard world. (Ultrasoft women's shoes）Advertisement is fond of using a variety form of rhetoric, according to statistics, themost important title of an English advertisement document utilizing rhetorical has the proportion as high as 86% (McQuarieer&Mick, 1992), the commonly used rhetorical forms in English advertisements are "personification, analogy, pun, repeated" (Zhao Jing, 1992: 278-283). The purpose of applying rhetorical is to highlight the key information, on the other hand, to attract the target audience.eg1.I’m more satisfied. Ask for More. (More cigarette）eg2. Opportunity knocks！（A real estate advertisement）2.4 Functions of AdvertisingAs is known to everyone, the effects of advertising and advertisers are greatly criticized in the following aspects: 1) Advertising increases the living cost because its costs are added to the prices; 2) Advertising encourages the wrong values in our society-consumer values, make people purchase things they do not need, or even cannot afford. These criticisms do really reflect the fact to some degree. Nevertheless, we should see the other side of the coin. Advertising tells us a great deal about our society, and helps to influence and change it. Although the aim of the ad is to sell products, its function doesn’t stop there. In practice, that is where it starts. Advertising is the first to reflect and stimulate social trends. Basically, advertising fulfills the following functions:1)The Marketing Function;2) The Educational Function;3) The Communicative Function;4) The Economic Function;5) The Societal Function.2.5 The Target Audience of Advertising LanguageAdvertising is the extension of human communication, it origins from the need of disseminating products information massively. The ultimate aim of advertising is to create the attitude and behavior which is conducive to sales, the British linguist Torben (1985) classified the advertising functions as follows: 1) the dissemination of information; 2) the shape of image; 3) to persuade the reader to take action. Differentforms of communication have their unique focus on both sides. Literary creation is concerned with expressing the author own feelings,science and technology review pays attention to the reader's understanding but not cater to the tastes of readers. While in advertising activities, all aims at the target audience (potential consumers), the target audience’s understanding and respond to advertising information often determine the success or failure of the expensive advertising campaign. Therefore, it is extremely critical to choose the appropriate English advertising language, vivid and interesting language is capable of attract the target audience’s attention and interest to the products, so as to stimulate the desire to buy.3. The pragmatic Basis of English Advertising Language3.1 ContextContext refers to the "speech act depends on the performance of the physical and social environment". Context consists of linguistic context and non-linguistic environment. The former mainly refers to the language symbol system within the context. Context restricts the use of linguistic symbols to a certain extent, at the same time, it can also promote the understanding of language symbols. Linguistic context caused by harmonious and unified context is beneficial to enrich advertising information and promote the understanding of advertising. In respect to linguistic context, non-linguistic context have more restriction on advertising language, accordingly, the available accommodation is greater than linguistic context. The advertiser tries to adapt to Veschueren’s "Theory of Adaptation"to better illustr ate. The theory points out, during the process of using language, the language choosed by speaker should adapt to the context. The process that speakers choose language is a dynamic process conformed to himself and listener’s psychological world. The process that speakers using language is the process of selecting language. Starting from the intention of communicator, communicators must select appropriate content, occasion, manner, and determine what should say or what should not say, expressly or implied. Therefore, in order to achieve the anticipated effect, advertisers must estimate the advertising target audience in the first place, and then generateadvertising discourse to adapt to the psychology and taste of consumers.For example, Nescafe Coffee have an advert known to every family: It is the taste! Which is translated as "the taste is great". However, once the advert separates itself from the context, the meaning of this sentence is uncertain, because the word "taste" can be understood as good taste, can also be understood as bad taste. But this is a slogan to propaganda Coffee the good taste of Nescafe Coffee, naturally, it is very appropriate to translate it into "delicious". If you change a situation, the contextual effect is totally opposite. For example: When a child went home from school, he immediately opened the cookie jar and picked up a biscuit into his mouth, then his mother asked him why he did not have meal in school, the children answered: It is the taste! Taste here can only be understood as the school lunch taste terrible., as a result, he would rather eat biscuits than eat at school. Obviously, the same word may have entirely different meanings in different context.3.2 Speech ActAccording to Austen, language is used for doing things. When we say a series of language that is a request, indicating or have other functions, we are concerned with the speaker’s and the listener’s response. This language entity is called"speech act" by Austen. A series of concrete request, indicating is considered to do things: locutionary act, illocutionary act, perlocutionary act. And analysis an English advertisement language by means of Austen’s Speech act theory .Are You Trying to Be “Too Perfect”？1）Do you get caught up in details, no matter what job you undertake?2）Do you worry more than most people?3）Do you find it embarrassing to “lose control” and be emotional?4）If thinking about some future event, do you dwell upon the things that might go wrong?“Yes” answers indicate that your need for control is comp romising your ability to experience life’ simple, spontaneous pleasures. Read TOO PERFECT：When being in control-the self-help book for people who try to be too perfect for their own good.＄18.00，now at your bookstore.According to Austen's speech act theory, the discourse strategy of this English advertisement is the illocutionary act, namely, the advertiser uses words to do things through discourse strategies, that is to say, transferring the literal meaning of advertising through grammar and vocabulary. The discourse function of this article is the illocutionary act, advertisers attract consumers to buy this book through the discourse. Once spoken, one will concentrate on the audience's feelings, thoughts and behavior, this is the perlocutionary act. The consequence of this text is to persuade consumers to buy this book. When the advertising is able to stir consumers’ desire to buy, it has achieved the anticipated effect, that is to say the discourse communication is successful. Therefore, in addition to the content and the packing of the book, advertising language plays a decisive role in the sales process.3.3 The Conversational ImplicatureThe concept of conversational implicature was first proposed by American linguist H.P.Grice, Based on his cooperate principle, the later researchers complement the politeness principle and developed a new theory - neo-Gricean theory of conversational implicature, compared with the previous theory of Conversational Implicature , the new theory focus on dealing with the "normal" meaning included in conversation by using inference mechanism, and the previous conversational implicature theory tends to understand the "very" meaning, namely, to find the discourse implication by complying with or violating the use cooperative principle. The target of English advertising is to attract the consumers, and its ultimate purpose is to let the audience react favorably to advertising (to purchase products ), but English advertising always uses circuitous equivocate in language expression to impress the audience, so as to let the audience feel the quality of products out of the ordinary and buy the products finally.eg1. Where do you want to go today？(software advertisement of Microsoft company）eg2.Unlike me, my Rolex never needs a rest. (Rolex watch ads）eg3. Wentworth’s students get Auto CAD edge in job hunt. (Recruitment advertising）In example 1, the surface meaning of the sentence is: where did you go today? Whereas as it is a software advertising, the target audience can easily infer its implication, that is Microsoft software will take you travel around the world. And in example 2, the advertisement stresses that Rolex watches never need to have a rest while it will provide the right time forever. For example 3, it implies the commitment of school enrollment: If you are going to be our students, you will get Auto CAD (Computer Aided Design) edge which is essential in job hunt. The statement is not only close to the readers, but also urge the reader into potential students, namely, encouraging students to be their students.3.4 The Politeness PrincipleLeech (1983) thinks that, only through the politeness principle can more fully explain the relevant implication (implicature) and the indirect speech act and other issues. Advertisers have to hide the real communicative intention in the advertising by using of euphemism, indirect, polite words to transform the mandatory speech act into speech act commitment, naturally, turning the proposition of "persuade the consumer to buy a product" int o "a product can bring benefits for consumers”, embodying the maximum of “Yuantong standards" and "generous rule" in Leech’s politeness principle. Businessmen require to exaggerate the benefits to the target audience so that consumers have the feeling of gaining benefits from the purchase. In order to get a better understanding of this two rules, let’s review the two maxims of politeness principle in Leech theory:The Yuantong criterion: reducing the expression that hurts others.1) making others suffe as little as possible ; 2) making others benefit as much as possibleThe generous standards: reducing the expression of self-interest.1) benefiting himself as little as possible; 2)suffering oneself as much as possibleeg1. If you have a taste for quality，you have the taste for Kent. （Kent cigarette）eg2. Four free nights at Five-Star hotel，free airfare，free transfers，and a journeythrough a land of enchantment aboard a magnificent Renaissance Cruises ship.In example1: You will choose Kent cigarette if you have a good taste. The advertisement is very artful is not that it directs you buy his goods by raising your identity instead of ordering you to buy Kent cigarettes. In example 2, the word “Free” has great temptation for consumers, for all the “free charge products” have the magic power of making people have a try. American famous advertiser David Ogily once said, "The powerful words you can use in a headline are free and new." However, advertisers will never send their goods without paying, so the word free is rarely used in commodity brand, it’s function is to attract consumers to buy products or receive services.3.5 Relevance TheoryIn the advertisement, advertisers make use of the coexist cognitive environment with consumers and readers to strive to achieve the mutual manifestness and form the best contextual effect, so as to make consumers completely fall in the atmosphere created by businessmen, at the same time, the reader can also fully understand that the real intention of the advertiser. For example: Not all cars are created equal. (Japan Mitsubishi car) , this seems difficult to understand at first glance, but the trick is that it uses the familiar American declaration of independence in the line "All men are created equal", Japan advertisers cha nge the word “men” in the declaration to “cars” in their advertisement, and change the certainly sentence into negative sentences. These changes reflect the relevance theory, namely, the use of the coexist cognitive environment with consumers and readers to guide the readers understand the real purpose of their advertising: Japanese car is better than other cars produced by other countries all over the world; And another classical example, “We take no pride and prejudice”. (the magazine of Time), readers wi ll naturally think of the famous work Pride and Prejudice wrote by the famous British writer Austen at the first glance. 4. ConclusionWhether the English advertising language can accurately convey information to desire consumers buy one’s products or serv ice is the ultimate aim of advertisement.Analyzing English advertising language from the perspective of pragmatics canprovide reference for the choice and innovation of English advertising language. ReferencesLeech, G. N. (1996). Language in Advertising: A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain. London: Longman.Bovee, Courtland L, and Arens, Wiqiam F. (1994): Contemporary Advertising. New York:Richard D. Irwin Inc.Schroder. (1985). The language of advertising. Oxford and New York: Wiley Blackwell.Monle, Lee & Carla, Johnson. (1999). Principles of Advertising:A Global Perspective.New York: Haworth Press.崔刚. (1993). 广告英语3000句. 北京: 北京理工大学出版社.赵静. (1992). 广告英语.北京: 外语教学与研究出版社.王琼. (2003). 商标与广告主题句翻译的特色艺术.外语教学.（5）,47-50刘丽. (2009). 英汉广告语篇组织模式比较研究. 河南大学硕士学位论文.张艳军. (2010). 英语招生广告分析：评价理论视角. 河南大学硕士学位论文.。