廣告英語中的模糊現(xiàn)象分析

1、  廣告英語中的模糊現(xiàn)象分析   abstract advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it. it is thus clear that advertising has played a decisive role in todays business world. the issue of whether advertising languages are attrac

2、tive and persuasive or not has became the point of attention. so thorough and theoretical studies on language features of english advertising helps improve both the understanding and designing of successful advertisements. after a brief introduction to advertising, advertising language, fuzziness an

3、d fuzzy linguistics, the thesis is focused on the linguistic realizations of fuzziness in advertising english from the following two perspectives: the semantic realization and rhetorical devices. in the semantic analysis, fuzzy qualifiers, numerical fuzzy quantifiers, fuzzy verbs, descriptive adject

4、ives and symbols and abbreviations are analyzed to reveal fuzzy nature that are used by advertisers to achieve their persuasive ends. while in the rhetorical devices, punning, metaphors, and euphemism which make language more vivid and create more boundless association and imagination are discussed.

5、 then the thesis concludes with a brief summary of the article and points out the limitations of the study.key words advertising english; fuzziness; semantic and rhetorical analysis【摘 要】 廣告業(yè)被認為是一條通過耗盡人類智慧賺取錢財?shù)?科學(xué) 之道。很明顯，廣告在今天的商業(yè)世界已發(fā)揮著舉足輕重的作用。廣告語言能否具有誘惑力和說服力已成為關(guān)注的焦點。因此對 英語 廣告語言系統(tǒng)、全面地 研究 ，可以提高對廣告的理解，構(gòu)

6、想出成功的英語廣告。論文在簡短地對廣告，廣告語言，模糊性和模糊 理論 進行介紹之后，主要對以下兩種模糊實現(xiàn)形式進行 分析 。一、語義模糊。這一類廣告通過使用模糊限制詞、模糊數(shù)量詞、模糊動詞、修飾性形容詞以及符號和縮略語等具備模糊性的語言來突破日常行為的規(guī)范，使詞語在表達字面意義的同時又暗示其多重含義，形成詞語含義的未定性，激發(fā)了讀者的聯(lián)想和想象，吸引他們的注意并提起他們的興趣，從而對廣告本身的說服力起增強作用。二、修辭格（雙關(guān)、暗喻、委婉語）的使用，使廣告語言更具生動，引發(fā)讀者無限的想象和聯(lián)想。最后結(jié)論部分中，論文對主要概念和 內(nèi)容 做出了 總結(jié) ，提出了全文的局限性?！娟P(guān)鍵字】 廣告英語；模

7、糊性；語義和修辭分析1. introductionwith the rapid development of the world economy and globalization, advertising has played a vital role in promoting sales, providing services and building images. based on the fact that china remains lagging behind the west in both physical attraction and persuasiveness in a

8、dvertising, thorough and theoretical studies on the language of advertising have become an urgent need.in our daily life, fuzzy language has been employed in communication on various occasions negotiation and public speaking. though many linguists have been exploring fuzzy theory and fuzzy linguisti

9、cs heavily, the understanding of fuzziness hasnt been satisfactory and perfect. as a not well-established register, advertising english has its unique features compared with english for other purposes. fuzziness function in advertising english plays a positive role in human communication.through lin

10、guistic realizations of fuzziness in advertising english from semantic angle to rhetorical devices in the text, the purpose of the paper is to make people equip with a better manipulation of fuzzy advertising, so as to prepare them for producing more successful advertisements, then arousing peoples

11、interest in ads, stimulating peoples needs of consumption, and enticing people to make purchase in products.2. general ideas of advertising and its languagewhat is advertising? what does advertising originate from? why does it come into being? what is its language like? the following is going to exp

12、lain them.2.1 the definition and development of advertisingin etymological studies, the word “advertise” in middle english is spelt as “advertisen” meaning “to notify” and in old french as “advertir” or “advertises”. we find two records have the same explanation of “to notice”. further studies

13、rooted out its origin in latin as “advertere”, meaning “a means used to draw attention from the public to something and lead them to some direction”. 1 nowadays, the scholars from different countries hold different opinions about the explanation of advertising, but remaining the similar meaning basi

14、cally. an explanation is widely accepted by american marketing association as following:advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products, services or ideas through the various media. 2it is not difficult for us to find out

15、four components of advertising from the explanation above.first, advertising is directed to the general public rather than individuals.second, the information conveyed by advertising can be commercial or non-commercial. (commercial advertising seeks profits, while noncommercial advertising sponsored

16、 by government or nonprofit organizations is used to publicize the organization, seek donations or call for some actions beneficial to society.)third, advertising reaches us through a channel of communication referred to as a medium, such as: tv, radio, newspapers, magazines and so on.fourth, any ad

17、vertising is launched by identified sponsors or organizations with a given purpose, either commercial advertising or public interests advertising.indeed, advertising is the result of high degree of development of commodity economy. in order to make their goods sell well, tradesman and merchants trie

18、d every means to trigger the consumers to buy their products. henry sampson described the beginning of advertising in his work history of advertising as below:there is little about that the desire among tradesmen and merchants to make good their wares have an existence almost as long as the customs

19、of buying and selling, and it is but natured to suppose that advertisements in some shape or form have existed not only from time immemorial, but almost for all time. 3until now, with the rapid development of the world economy and the acceleration of globalization process, advertising has played a v

20、ery important role in todays business world. advertising, with its persuasive function and taking action function, helps a business to create the products and corporate identities, not only realize the development of the business, but also increase the value of its goodwill, and win the confidence o

21、f the consumers.2.2 features of advertising languagesince the advertising aims at drawing attention from the public and leading them to some direction, and thus the language of advertising is language that is used in efforts to persuade or otherwise entice people to purchase products or service

22、s. toffler in his future shock approaches the language of advertising as a language of finely engineered, ruthlessly, purposeful messages, intending to trigger a special response from the consumers. this point of view is echoed by linguist peter trudgill, who said, “the wording of advertisements is,

23、 in most cases, carefully crafted to meet particular ends. sometimes it is intended to inform, but more often, and more importantly, to persuade and influence.” 4 david ogilvy also said, “every word in the copy must count, advertise what is unique.” 5in other words, the ultimate goal of advertising

24、is to sell. thus, advertisements must be presented with a type of language that is persuasive in nature, concise, vivid, visual, and with emotion and appeal, that is, the language of advertising conveys the most complicated meaning with the simplest language and is loaded with persuasive intentions

25、for sales promotion or other purposes.look at an example: “romantic, mysterious, italian”. three adjectives are put together, concise and sprightly, giving expression to deep connotation. another example “big thrills, small bills”. this is an advertisement sponsored by the taxi center. anyone enjoys

26、 the excitement to the largest extent as long as paying the less money. the word “big” stands in total contrast to the word “small”, the end syllable of the word “thrills and “bills” remains same, which creates a sense of rhythm. the cases below also explain the ideas above well.(1) look again. a li

27、fetime of perfect coordination. (custom eyes from revlon)(2) let the new york times find you.(3) the benefit of foresight, the world in 1993.(4) so much flavor that youll never miss your high “tar cigarette.”63. fuzziness    from the advertisements in section 2.2,we can easily find th

28、at some unclear and vague expressions exist in the language of advertising. and the following is going to make a brief introduction about fuzziness.   in our daily life, how many hairs must a man lose before he is determined to be bald? how many seconds make up a “moment”? how much mo

29、ney do you have to earn to be “rich”? when is a pile of sand a heap? we all agree that one grain of sand is not a heap but that a million grains is a heap. somewhere in between the pile must change from “non-heap” to “heap”. these indeterminate concepts are hard to logically define, and usually are

30、changed, as the variation of time, place and people groups. for example, “ she is a pretty girl.” maybe we need not to know how beautiful she is, just in order to convey useful information “she is pretty.” thus, vague statements are provided where a more precise statement is called for sometimes. mo

31、st importantly, humans seem to be able to communicate quite well using vague terms.paul therous ever trenchantly said, “l(fā)anguage is deceptive, and though english is subtle, it also allows a clever person with one alert to the ambiguities of english to play tricks with mock precision and to combine v

32、agueness with politeness. english is perfect for diplomats and lovers.” lakoff in his work also said, “ some of the most interesting job is to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy. ” 7 indeed, accuracy and determinacy of language occurs in the extreme, while uncertain and inaccurate language is often f

33、ound here and there. just based on the existence of uncertain objects and vague ideas, fuzzy language came into being. in spite of the unclearness, we seldom challenge the speaker to an exact explanation of the subject in question since these expressions are understandable and communicative enough i

34、n most cases. thus, we can say, this intrinsic uncertainty in natural language is called fuzziness or vagueness .the following two definitions will help us have a clear mind of fuzziness.max black wrote in his language and philosophy that “vagueness consists in the existence of objects concerning, w

35、hich it is intrinsically impossible to say either the symbol in question does, or does not, apply”. 8 while crystal defines fuzziness as a term derived from mathematics and used by some linguists to refer to the indeterminacy involved in the analysis of a linguistic unit or pattern. for example, sev

36、eral lexical items, it is argued, are best regarded as representing a semantic category that has an invariant core with a variable (or “fuzzy”) boundary, this allowing for flexibility of application to a wide range of entities, given the appropriate context. 9 for instance, the boundaries of cup and

37、 glass are difficult to be defined. invariant core with a variable boundary had become the essence of fuzziness recognized by most investigators in this regard.to sum up, fuzziness can be defined as an indeterminacy or uncertainty of the borderline of the subject in question while fuzzy linguistics

38、is a branch of linguistics that studies the intrinsic uncertainty or vagueness of the borderline of the linguistic units in a language.4. linguistic realizations of fuzziness in advertising englishhow does the language fuzziness function in the advertising after all? perhaps linguistic realizations

39、of fuzziness in advertising english can be analyzed from semantic as well as syntactical perspective, to rhetorical devices or other areas. and this text is focused on semantic and rhetorical realizations of fuzziness in advertising english. the purpose of this study of language fuzziness is to rais

40、e the level of awareness about the persuasive techniques expressed in the application of fuzzy language in ads.4. 1 semantic realizations of fuzzinesssince fuzziness is embodied in many aspects of advertising, the article will focus on the verbal especially semantic realization of fuzziness, includi

41、ng fuzzy qualifier, numerical fuzzy quantifiers, fuzzy verbs, descriptive adjective and symbols and abbreviations. the diffused application of fuzzy language in advertisement is due to its conformity with the semantic features of advertising language. advertisements with fuzzy language can easily ar

42、ouse consumers interest and stimulate imagination and association of ideas. hence, fuzzy language shortens the distance between consumers and advertisements, and entices people to make purchase.4.1.1 fuzzy qualifiersamerican linguist george lakoff in the early 1970s first proposed fuzzy qualifiers,

43、which refers to some indeterminate words. it qualifiers the exact degree of the utterance and restricts the proposition in question to a certain scope; meanwhile, it also shows the speakers direct and subjective estimation upon the subject or indirect and objective attitudes by the third party. 10 s

44、uch fuzzy qualifiers are found in advertisements here and there. examples of this kind are: a little, almost, some, really, more or less, to some extent, about, loosely speaking, roughly, i suppose, i think, it is said that, as is well known, etc. for example:(1) the new nokia 8850, a very personal

45、pleasure.(2) chique only some women have it. (chique化妝品)(3) little wonder they dont build cars like they used to, building a pen is difficult enough. (pike)(4) extra taste, not extra calories. (食品)in example 1,the degree adverbial very is almost impossible to measure the exact degree of personal ple

46、asure. we cant draw the conclusion from the surface meaning. example 2 the word some means the cosmetic is the patent of the cream of the women, which caters to the psychology of those fashionable women who uphold novelty. however , some refers to how many people participate in purchase, which depen

47、ds on peoples different understanding. and in example 3 two words little and enough represent the fine crafts and unusual thinking which the manufacturer spent on producing pens, leaving the readers some room for imagination. example 4,double use of the word extra, the delicious food with modest cal

48、ories cant spoil your figure. the information conveyed through fuzzy language accords with the consumption concept of modern people.4.1.2 numerical fuzzy quantifiersas we know, there are a number of ways being fuzzy about quantities in english. in particular, speakers have the option of either addin

49、g something to a precise number or numbers, or using a round number, or using a fuzzy quantifier. whatever ways the speakers use, it all expresses an uncertain and indeterminate notion. when a number doesnt refer to a real number, then it is just an imaginary number. this is one phenomena of semanti

50、c fuzziness in number. if numbers are used to refer to fuzzy meaning, then it will lose its numerical meaning, but represent imagery meaning. 11 examples are presented as following:(1) in taipei1+1+1+1+1=one.(2) this christmas surprises him with a dozen presents- a year of gq.(3) this year is twenty

51、, and next year is eighteen. this is the mystery of belie. ( belie化妝品)example 1 is the advertisement in taipei world trade center. why four 1 equals one, but not four? originally the advertisement intends to entice the reader to read the body quickly and arouse their imagination. the equation 1+1+1+

52、1+1=one realizes the shift from number to image, making the readers connect four 1 with the center of conference, the world office, the center of exhibition, and luxury hotel in taipei. in example 2, the phrase a dozen presents doesnt refer to a real number, but an imagery number. and in example 3,

53、the number indicates the function of the products makes people look younger.now lets look at non-numerical fuzzy quantifiers. crystal and davy initiated this new concept. their analysis of large stretches of natural conversation data revealed the use of many non-numerical fuzzy quantifiers. english

54、has a great many ways of quantifying without using number of any kind. for instance: several, lots of, masses of, bags of, heaps of, etc. lets take an example:we ve hidden a garden full of vegetable where youd never expect, in a pie. (食品)the word full of attracts the readers to the largest extent. a

55、nyone wants to acquire nutritive food full of kinds of vegetable from a pie. here, the use of the expression full of implies boundless fuzzy meaning.4.1.3 fuzzy verbsthe re is a kind of verbs in advertisement that creates a sense of intimacy, and makes the advertisements strike root in the hearts of

56、 the people. especially for monosyllabic verbs: make, get, have, come, love, know, etc. in addition to easily accepted by the reader, these fuzzy verbs are of clearness and definiteness in meaning expression. e.g. take toshiba, take the world. (東芝 電子 )12meanwhile, such the words look, feel, taste, s

57、mell, etc. as express people's subjective notions and feelings. uncertainty and indeterminacy in nature leaves the readers much room for imagination. for examples:(1) you can feel the feature in philips design. (家電)(2) go for it! look, good, feel good. be you best! (健康雜志)(3)"i couldn't

58、believe it, until i tried it!”  "i'm impressed!” “youve gotta try it!” i love it!"(微波爐)in example 3, its simple wording and colloquial design let the consumers feel the reality-a consumer who has used the products is talking about the excellence of products in quality. a series of

59、 verbs believe, try, impress easily induce people produce a strong urge to make purchase.carl.p.wright,a famous copywriter, holds that these words not only avoid direct and blunt expression but also induce people to figure the implications underlying the words spoken and to hold them as true. he points out three typical fuzzy words in ads, namely, help, like, virtually.“help” is a popular catchword in ads, which means, “be conducive to ” but whose definite effects are not indicated. for example:         &