英语广告的修辞特征浅析A Brief Analysis of Rhetoric Characteristic in English Ads.doc

英语广告的修辞特征浅析A Brief Analysis of Rhetoric Characteristic in English AdsAbstractAdvertising is the very form that advertisers utilize the specific language to introduce their products or services through all kinds of media, such as TV, radio,newspapers、magazines and so on. According to different targets、functions and products, advertising can be divided into consumer advertising on peoples living, invisible service advertising and public benefit advertising. In this way, the advertiser wants to persuade customers to buy their particular products or services. Advertising frequently appears among peoples lives, no matter in what ways: TV, radio, newspapers, magazines. There is no denying that its language is essential part and it is also the most attractive part. As a frequently-used language in the business world, English for advertisement has become standardized and professional with its distinctive style and strong persuasive intention. However，advertisements dont reveal their intentional force on the surface of language but impress people by unique devices，then arouse their curiosity and stimulate them to take action. Through comparison, it is found that no matter in English advertising or Chinese advertising, the main features of advertising is the use of rhetorical devices, which include simile、metaphor、personification、hyperbole、pun、repetition and so on. All kinds of ads with different targets may use different rhetorical devices. It is the use of rhetorical devices that make the advertising language more colorful and impressive, and the same time make the ads more vivid, interesting, attractive and humor. Key words: Advertisements; advertising language; the rhetorical devices内 容 摘 要广告是广告主或商家利用了特定的语言通过各种各样的媒介如电视、广播、新闻、杂志，对他们的产品或服务而进行的广告宣传形式。根据目标，功能和产品的不同，广告可以分为满足顾客需求衣食住行的具体产品广告，看不见的服务广告和非盈利的公益广告。广告商主要通过广告促使消费者购买他们的产品或服务。广告以各种各样的形式频繁地出现在我们的生活里，但是不管是电视广告还是广播广告，是报纸广告还是杂志广告，不可否定语言始终是广告的精髓部分，也是最能打动人的地方。广告英语以它的独特风格和劝说功能成为一门标准的专业语言，可是它并不是通过语言直接显示其劝说意图，而是通过特殊的手段来打动消费者，激起他们的好奇心，刺激他们去购买。经过对比发现，不管是中文广告还是英文广告，广告语言的主要特点是修辞手法的使用。这些修辞手法主要有明喻、暗喻、拟人、双关、夸张和重复等等。各种各样的产品所针对的目标不同，其使用的修辞手法当然也不同。通过运用这些修辞手法，广告语言显得丰富多彩、映像深刻，同时也使广告自身生动、形象、具体、幽默。关键词：广告；广告语言；修辞特点IntroductionWith the internal globalization in the new century，advertising plays an increasingly significant role in the world economy. As an essential component of a commercial market and the free enterprise system，advertising is going deep into various parts of our lives. Everyday，people are exposed to advertisements whenever they open their mailbox，turn on their radios or TV sets，or go walking along the streets. In fact，advertising becomes something that influences everyones lives and working in a society.In facing of the globalization of the 21st century, China must open to the world and actively participate in all kinds of world economic activities. To promote our advertising industry, we have to take international practices for reference and learn from others experience. However, what to learn and how to learn are question we have to think about. The research of this thesis aims to provide a workable way of learning form English advertising copies. With the usage of rhetorical approaches, we Chinese practitioners can learn how to create more authentic and idiomatic advertising copies. However, China is a developing country and its advertising industry is still very young. Chinese-made English advertisements tend to be straightforward and the language of advertising seems to be poor for reading and persuasion.The general purpose of this thesis is to analyze and summarize the application of rhetorical devices in advertising English. As we know，the ultimate goal of the advertisement is to persuade the people to take action to buy. If an advertiser wants his advertisements to achieve the persuasive effect，he has to devise a creative and different language to impress people. Besides the traditional linguist techniques，advertiser shave no better way to deal with the problem of language inflexibility. To solve this problem，this research is to find out the rhetorical devices that are applied in the designing of the advertisement. By analyzing and concluding the examples, it tries to find out some practical writing theory and method to give the guidance to the advertisers creation of vogue and connotative advertisement. In the process，the comparisons between verbal and rhetorical devices are shown from the new to different angles. It will help the advertiser could understand some comprehensive technique which the rhetorical devices represent，and they also could realize the importance of rhetorician advertising.1. The General Knowledge About AdvertisingThe nature of ads is spread; it is a persuasive tool which delivers messages openly and widely to people through some media in order to reach some goals. Advertisement first of all comes from the Latin “advertiser”, meaning for the attention of their induction. Middle English era (about AD 1300-1475), it evaluated into “advertise”, and derived its meaning as “someone notes something” or “something informs others to attract the attention of something” 1. Until the end of the 17th century, the British began to carry out large-scale commercial activities. At this time, the word “advertisement” was widely used and become very popular. At this point the “Advertisement” has not only refers to an advertisement, which refers to a series of advertising campaigns. Static concept of the noun objects Advertise, has been given to the modern sense, transformed into the “Advertising”.1.1 The Definition of AdvertisingAmerican Marketing Association defines as “the non-personal communi- cation usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, service or ideas by identified sponsors through different media.” This definition highlights several points. Firstly, advertising is non-personal. It assumes that the general public rather than some individuals are the potential readers. Secondly, advertising aims at conveying information about products, service or ideas are valuable. Thirdly, advertising is meant to persuade people to buy what is advertised. Lastly, advertisements appear in newspapers, magazines, over radio or television. In short, it appears in different media.1.2 The Classification of Advertising The advertisements can be classified into four groups by such factors as target audience，functions，and product types. The four groups are consumer advertising，business advertising，service advertising，and public benefit advertising.1.2.1 Consumer AdvertisingMost television，radio，newspaper and magazine ads are consumer advertisements. They are sponsored by the manufacturer of the product or the dealer who sells the product. They are usually directed at the ultimate consumer of the product or at the person who will buy the product for someone elses use. For example，a magazine advertisement for Coca-Cola may be aimed at both the purchaser and the consumer. A commercial for dog food on television，however，is aimed at the purchaser， not the consumer，of the product. The consumer advertising includes alcoholic ads，cigarette ads，drink ads, food ads，wear ads, cosmetic ads，automobile ads，domestic electric appliance ads，and other products which are used and purchased by ordinary people. To this kind of advertisements，most people have developed a kind of ambivalent psychology. On the one hand，they are bored with the endless advertisements hidden in the newspapers and magazines，clamoring on the radio，or dazzling on the TV. On the other hand，they still need the information to guide their purchasing. Therefore, to attract the consumers attention is the most important task for an advertising copywriter.1.2.2 Business AdvertisingBusiness advertising is often said to be invisible，because unless you are actively involved in some business，you are unlikely to see it. The majority of advertising you see as a consumer appears in mass consumer media. Business advertising，on the other hand，tends to be concentrated in specialized business publications or a professional journal，indirect-mail pieces mailed to business establishments，or in trade shows held for specific areas of business. Until recently，business advertising was rarely seen in the mass media. People in business comprise the target audience for business advertising.1.2.3 Sevrice AdvertisingService advertising is actually part of consumer advertising and business advertising，since consumer goods and industrial goods both include relevant service. However，due to its intangible feature，service is advertised in a more imaginable way. Hence wording service advertising is somewhat different from that of product advertising. Service advertising appears in both mass consumer media and specialized business publication according to its different target audience-consumer or people in business. Service advertising is actually a form between consumer advertising and business advertising because its target audience is as various as consumer advertising，at the same time，it also has its specific target audience.1.2.4 Public Benefit AdvertisingThe general objective of public benefit advertising is to inform，persuade，or remind people about the particular idea，cause，or philosophy being advertised. This kind of advertising is often used by non-business institutions，such as schools，hospitals and charitable organizations. We also see advertising by associations. In addition，we witness millions of dollars worth of advertising is placed by government organizations. Much government advertising announces the availability of such valuable government services as consumer assistance，welfare，or career guidance.However，with the resource available to it，government can also use advertising techniques for propaganda purposes. Many state governments use advertising to attract new businesses, tourists or workers to aid their economy. 1.3 The Functions of AdvertisingAs far as the notion of function is concerned, a frequently quoted department action is instrumental function and societal function. Though there is always a dominating function of advertising in an age, it does not mean that it can replace others. As a matter of fact, they coexist. The main instrumental functions of ads are their informative function, promoting function, persuasive function and communicative function. Advertising had been regarded as “news about products or services” before 1890s2, which had been the dominating function of advertising before the 20th century when products were not abundant enough. This informative function presupposes that people will not make a purchase until they are informed and this even remains so in contemporary times. Advertising has been called salesmanship in print, which indicates that its ultimate aim is to sell commodities or to promote services and ideas. Once an ad is identified; such cognitive components as “buy our product” or “we recommend that” are understood by default3.When Singapore Airlines cries that “raffles Class Space Bed offers you a new level of luxury with more space to work, relax or sleep” 4,it is not meant to provide us with a piece of information only. Instead, it persuades us to appreciate its commodity and choose its airlines to travel on. The persuasive function of advertising derives from intense competition. The advanced techniques to produce similar goods with similar qualities enable customers to have a large collection to choose from. Only the ads that are persuasive enough can catch customers attention, arouse their interest and provoke their desire for the advertised products.1.4 The Close Relationship Between Advertisement and Our LivesIt is now full of ads all the time in our lives, whether you open the computer, television or radio, or whether you are walking in the street or sitting in all kinds of transportations, or even every corner you see, the various forms of advertising have an impact on our eyeballs and eardrums. Our field of vision, hearing is no longer able to escape the chasing ads. We can not imagine what life will be like detached from the ads.French famous journalist Roll Karol once said: “the air we breathe is oxygen, nitrogen and composition of ads” 5. This shows that how much ads weight the proportion of our lives. It can be said that we are in an era of being surrounded by ads. Many factors among the ads, the language of advertisings influence on people is the most that can not be ignored, which impact on peoples mind so that people become interested in the content of ads and the ads reach final effect. Many people may not remember the content of ads, but some classic language ads often blurt out by people. It can be said that the charm of the language is reflected in the advertising language, and therefore ads creative or ads pragmatic research has also become the current language of academia, one important research topic. A good language ads can bring the greatest benefits of a brand can even be saved, this article has collected some of the classic language ads, and we will study linguistic characteristics from the perspective of rhetoric devices. 2. The Rhetorical Devices in AdsThe use of ads language have a high degree of flexibility, in order to get a high degree of flexibility, the language must be simple, eye-catching and vivid to express rich content of the idea, so it is of great importance to be good at using the relevant skills.The following will explore rhetorical devices and their artistic effect that the classic ads use in some of the basic, commonly way. We find that the following rhetorical devices are commonly used in the language, namely: metaphor, personification, exaggeration, pun, duality and so on. It is the use of rhetorical devices that make the ads more vivid and interesting, while at the same time, it avoids stating ads in a straightforward way and makes them more to attractive and thought-provoking to the audience.2.1 AnalogyAs one of the oldest rhetorical devices, tropes paint the most splendid pictures with words and so add vigor to the language. They are now widely employed in advertising. Discussion of grammatical patterns and pragmatic functions of metaphor is very important. Whether it is Chinese or English, the rhetoric devices we encounter first and use the most is analogy. Analogy is based on two different types of things in similar point, with a thing to describe another kind of things, like to portray the characteristics of things or rendering. Analogy includes simile, metaphor, synecdoche, and metonymy and so on. In advertisements, simile and metaphor are more effective used.2.1.1 SimileSimile is a figure of speech which makes a comparison between two unlike elements having at least one characteristic in common. To make comparison, word like as, asas (so) and like are used to transfer the quality we associate with one to other. Simile is to use in their advertisements to vividly highlight the characteristics of the product, to take this to impress customers. Following are some examples:1) Good coffee is like friendship: rich and warm and strong.（PAN- AMERICAN COFFEE BUREAU (1961)）. 2) Featherwater, light as a feather (Featherwater glasses ads).3) Our eyebrow pencils are as soft as petals (An eyebrow pencil ad)4) A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.(FLORIDA CITRUS COMMISSION)Simile is a powerful device in description, explanation and persuasion. In the former three ads, the similarity between the tenor and the vehicle is clearly stated in each simile. The intangible features of a product or service, such as taste of food, handle of clothes, etc, are made tangible and physical. While in the latter one, similarities are not stated clearly, this leaves readers imagination. (Orange juice brings people good mood like sunshine does.)5) Get a Beautyrest. And sleep like a baby again.Beautyrest mattressThe softness and comfort provided by Beautyrest mattress is like that of mothers arms. Appeal to basic human motive, “parents love”, makes the ad more touching and affectionate. And the name of the product, Beautyrest, also reminds readers of “a beautiful rest”.6) Think of it as cough syrup for your carburetor. Gumout XRTA 1 Tank Carb CleanerThe carburetor cleaner helps soothe common engine performance problems caused by a dirty carburetor, making the engine work smoother and quieter like cough syrup that helps soothe peoples cough.In advertising, illusion and words are indivisible to create maximum excitement and stimulus. Nowadays, visually attractive advertising gets more attention and is more effective. Thinking visually in writing advertising will help to get the message across fast and widely.2.1.2 MetaphorIf simile is a direct way to illustrate the products, a metaphor, then, is a condensed simile, differing from the latter only in form and artistry. An Wenheng even says: “simile is the mother of metaphor” 6. It is a higher form and not all metaphor can be recast as similes. A metaphor in its true sense should be a novel and striking comparison which helps transfer the qualities of one thing to another naturally. With it, copywriters can make their copies more attractive, specific and vivid. It is one of the most popularly used rhetorical devices in advertising English. A metaphor differs from a simile in that there are no words whatsoever used to show the relation of comparison between the two objects. And sometimes only the reference/vehicle appears in the comparison, leaving more room for imagination and conjecture. It is also called condensed simile/implicit simile, since it is more concise and implied.Here are some examples of this kind:1) Go for the Gold. Goldstar, The brightest star in electronics .(Goldstar Electronics)2) King of beers.(Budweiser