英文广告的语言特点及功能分析.doc

本科学生毕业论文

英文广告的语言特点及功能分析

黑 龙 江 工 程 学 院

The Graduation Thesis for Bachelor's Degree

Language Features and Function Analysis of English Advertisement

Heilongjiang Institute of Technology

黑龙江工程学院本科生毕业论文

摘 要

当今世界，全球经济一体化已呈不可阻挡之势，广告伴随着企业国际化的进程而迅猛发展。广告，顾名思义就是广而告之，广告语言的好坏不仅直接影响到广告的效果，还关系到企业的发展。英文广告作为一种应用语言，因其所具有的特殊效用，已逐渐从普通英语发展成特殊的专用语言。要使中国产品在国际市场上具有强大的竞争力，就必须使中国的广告适应国外的环境，并得到外国人的认可。于是，如何恰如其分地使用英文广告语言以实现销售的目的，显得尤为重要。
本文结合大量精选的英文广告实例，对英文广告的语言特点和功能进行详尽的描述和分析，详述其在词汇、句法和语法上的许多独特之处。本文旨在揭示其语言规律，目的是让广告语更有吸引力，使中国广告在激烈的市场竞争中脱颖而出，处于有利地位，不断壮大我国产品在国际市场的竞争力。诚然，对英文广告语言的研究，仍然是一个需要不断研究和探索的课题，希望有更多的广告研究者能够参与并完善这一研究。

关键词：英文广告；特点；功能；词汇；句法；语法

Abstract

In today’s world, nothing can stop the momentum of global economic integration. With the process of internationalization of the firm，the advertisement develops rapidly. Advertisement, as the name suggests, is widely known by notice broadly, good or bad advertisement’s language not only has a direct impact on advertisement effectiveness, but also related to the development of enterprises. English advertisement as an applicable language, has gradually developed from ordinary English into the special language of special needs because of its special utility. In order to make Chinese products show strong competitiveness in the international market, Chinese advertisement must adapt to foreign environment, and be accepted by foreigners. So, how to use English advertisement language appropriately in order to achieve the purpose of selling is essentially important.
In this paper, it combines with a lot of English advertisement instances which are selected delicately and then describe and analyze the character and function of English advertisement. There are many unique features and functions in lexicon, syntax and rhetoric of English advertisement. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the rule of the language in order to make advertisement more attractive and competitive in fierce market, and stand out with good position to strengthen our Chinese products competitiveness in international markets. In fact, the study of English advertisement language is still a topic which needs to be researched and explored, I hope that more and more people who are studying advertisements will be able to participate in and continue to improve this study.

Key words: English advertisement; features; function; lexicon; syntax; rhetoric

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黑龙江工程学院本科生毕业论文

Contents

摘要………………………………………………………………………….…………….Ⅰ
Abstract……………………………………………………………………….………….Ⅱ
Ⅰ.Introduction…………………………………………………………………………1
A. Background of the paper……………………………………………………………….1
B. Purpose and significance of the paper…………………………………………………2
Ⅱ. A survey of English advertisement……………………………………………5
A. Classification of English advertisement ………………………………………………5
B. Elements of English advertisement ……………………………………………………7
Ⅲ. Language features of English advertisement……………………………….10
A. Lexical features…………………………………………………………………….....10
B. Syntactical features……………………………………………………………………13
C. Rhetorical features…………………………………………………………………….17
Ⅳ. The function of English advertisement……………………………………….21
A. Information function…………………………………………………………………..21
B. Economic function…………………………………………………………………..22
C. Social function ………………………………………………………………………..23
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………24
Works Cited………………….……………………………………………………….…25
References……………………………………………………………………..…………26
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………….27

I．Introduction

Advertisement is an important part of modern life. In our country the advertisement business is now in the ascendant, playing an immeasurable role in promoting sales of commodities and prospering our economy. Therefore, advertisement business and advertisement language are increasingly finding favor in people eyes because of their peculiar charms. In order to establish the firm position of our domestic products in the world, we must try to achieve more trade chance and be ready for international competition; it is not only necessary but also urgent to study the English advertisement language and its function. All of us are influenced by advertisement, as a product of the modern commercialized society, advertisement has captured more and more attention. Numerous researches about advertisement, especially its language and function have been conducted.
A. Background of the paper
China started to implement the policy of reform and opening to the outside in 1980 in order to promote the prosperity of our country. After a period of time, China became one of the largest emerging markets in the world, and was also considered as the most potential country. Foreign companies and products began to flood into China. However, any kind of product manufactured by even the best-known company needs firm and international support to gain market share in China, namely, advertisement.
What is advertisement? In English, the word “advertise” has its origin in Latin, meaning “to inform somebody of something”, “to bring into “notice” or “to draw attention to something”, etc. [1] Abert Lasker, father of modern advertisement, said that advertisement was “salesmanship in print”. This definition was given a long time before the appearance of radio and television. In the past, men have been intrigued with style and many students of human communication have offered their ideas about it. Some are concerned with clarity or lucidity, as Aristotle called it. For this ancient Greek critic, it was important that the speaker or writer not only has ideas but he says them in the right way, a way an audience can understand clearly. He also said that style should be neither above nor below the dignity of the subject but must be appropriate. Another student of language and human use, the Scottish writer George Cam pbell, also believed words (the author's diction or word choice) were the foundation of style. He believed that the best style comes from diction that the listener notices so little that he is barely conscious that it is through this medium diction that he sees into the speaker's thoughts. The nature and scope of advertisement were considerably different from those today. The definition indicates that the ultimate objective of advertisement is to sell. Obviously, it is not an all-round definition for it can not cover all advertisements.
Definitions of advertisement are different and varied. An advertisement may be defined as a public notice which is designed to spread information with a view to promoting the sales of marketable goods and services, or defined as a vital marketing tool as well as a powerful various mass media by business firms, nonprofit organizations, and individuals who are in some ways identified in the message and who hope to inform or persuade members of a particular audience. Although advertisement can be defined in many different ways, the essential points concerning its definition may be summarized as one sentence: advertisement is a kind of extensive communication of information usually highly paid for and strongly pursuance in nature. Advertisement contains messages or information about marketable products and services, ideas, norms or values. Advertisement messages are designed particularly, ingeniously and meticulously, and are made known through various media to the general public or particular groups of people.
“Advertisement” is derived from Latin “advertere”, meaning “to arouse public attention to certain things, in the use of means which induces a certain direction”. [2] Bovee defines advertisement as “the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by idented sponsors through the various media.”[3]
Now advertisement is developing rapidly with each passing day in our modern society, English advertisement has been of more and more importance for the current globalization of the products and services. English advertisement is a little different from the other advertisement. Advertisement is not just a semantic equivalence issue, but also a re-creation of advertisement features, the focus was not to ask whether the accurate reproduction can show the meaning of the original semantics, but stress that language have been translated to the ads and whether they can enhance appeal of effectiveness of advertisement to focus more attention on the actual results which are produced by language. It must be translated into the target language to be accepted by target consumers or advertisement readers when foreign products are introduced into China.
B. Purpose and significance of the paper
This paper supplies a detailed study of English advertisement in business English, which helps us to know clearly about language feature of English advertisement. With this study, we had better improve our Chinese products’ advertisement in order to enhance our products’ competitive power in drastic international market. Perfect English advertisement plays a crucial role in selling products, transmitting information, expanding market and winning competition. As a way of propagating and transmitting information, advertising’s role cannot be underestimated because it is not only an artful technique in persuading people to buy, but also gradually has become a must for social communication which in turn influences the development of society and economy. An advertiser’s main purpose is to present and exhibit product or service, and to spread the influence. To the extent, the potential purchasing population becomes real and actual. Advertisers try by the various means at their disposal to get people to buy the product or service advertised. Moreover, advertisers want potential purchasers to consider what is advertised to the exclusion of all other similar products or services. They therefore attempt to construct an advertisement that will fully involve the attention of the potential purchasers and which will have a persuasive effect. Advertisers thus create a semiotic world in order to persuade their audience of essential rightness of purchasing the product or service advertised. Broadly speaking, advertisements have at least two functions: informing and persuading, although overlap may often take place in one single piece. The trick here is an informative advertisement informing that the customer about goods, services, or ideas and then tells how to get them means of an identified sponsor. Examples of informative advertisements are not a few, ranging from fliers to insertions in magazine and newspapers, all of them aim to show new products/services or special prices on certain products/services. This type of advertisement gives basic, factual information and sometimes that shows a photo or an illustration of the product/service to give the target audience a better view about the advertised product. Persuasive advertisements are the instruments which are used by advertisers who have defined their target audiences and determined the effect that they hope to achieve by persuasive advertisements in the media. A persuasive advertisement should try to persuade the potential customers to buy the new product. The persuasive function is not only limited to attracting the potential customer into buying a certain object, but also including the selling of services, ideas, norms and values.
To summarize, we should get the idea that firstly advertisement is a communication process. Secondly, at least a medium is used. Thirdly, this communication process has a definite purpose to convince the target audience. The above three features suggest advertisement is closely connected with society, media, its people and their buying habits. Advertisement is not only an economic activity promoting sales and services, but also a culture carrier, which sets great influences on our life styles and consumption habits. And the tradition, belief and value of a culture, to some great extents, affect not only the psychology and behavior of both producers and customers, but also the advertisement itself, all in all, it is very important for us to know the language features of advertisement. In order to achieve the advertisement effect, the language features of English advertisement should be vivid and attractive, whose linguistic characteristics would be covered in the following chapters.
This paper tends to show the features and function of English advertisement with five chapters as follows:
Chapter one is a brief introduction to this paper from it background, purpose and significance.
Chapter two is to know some knowledge of the classification and elements of English advertisement.
Chapter three is the main concern of this paper, which explores language features of English advertisement in lexicon, syntax and rhetoric.
Chapter four is mainly about the function of English advertisement in information, economy and society.
Chapter five ends up with the conclusion.

II. A survey of English advertisement

Advertisement is not only an economic activity which promotes sales and services, but also a cultural carrier, which sets great influences on our life styles and consumption habits. And the tradition, belief and value of a culture, to some great extents, affect not only the psychology and behavior of both producers and customers, but also the advertisement itself. Advertisement has entered into every aspect of human life. In modern society, the newspaper, magazines, TV, radio, network and some other media show us various kinds of information about goods and services. With the development of our society, advertisements have become an important part of our modern society. Turn on radio, you hear advertisements; turn on TV, you see advertisements; skim and scan newspapers, you see also advertisements; even at the doorway you can get advertisements. Advertisements follow you like shadows. And under the trend of globalization, English advertisement has become more and more popular and important for English works as an international language. Now our country has joined the WTO and more and more world famous companies come to invest in China. The trade and product exchange between China and other countries increase a lot. Every day, people are exposed to a large number of advertisements no matter whether they like them or not. But what is advertisement? What elements does an advertisement consist of? How are advertisements classified? And what is the significance in the study of advertisement? These are the questions of which we must have a good idea before we proceed to explore the language features or characteristics of English advertisement.
So, it is very important for us to know the classification and elements of English advertisement.
A. Classification of English advertis