毕业论文正文双关语在广告英语中的语用分析及其运用.doc

The Pragmatic Analysis of Pun in Advertising English and Its Application温州医学院本科毕业论文( 2010届 )论文题目The Pragmatic Analysis of Pun in Advertising（英文） English and Its Application论文题目 双关语在广告英语中的语用分析及其运用（中文） 专业学院 仁济学院英语学号班级2006（02）班0606041055作者姓名指导老师 陈晓 张利华完稿时间 2010.04.27成绩 目录Abstractiv摘要ivOutlinev提纲vi1. Introduction12. The Pragmatic Analysis of Pun in Advertising English12.1Theory of Pun22.1.1 Double Context22.1.2 Hinge22.1.3 Trigger22.2 Cooperative Principle32.3 Relevance Theory43. The Application of Pun in Advertising English63.1 Homophonic Pun63.2 Homographic Pun73.3 Grammatical Pun83.4 Idiomatic Pun93.5 Other Puns94. Function of Pun in Advertising English104.1 Brevity104.2 Association104.3 Emotional Transmission114.4 Humor115. Conclusion11Works Cited13The Pragmatic Analysis of Pun in AdvertisingEnglish and Its ApplicationCHEN XiaoAbstract: In the era of rapid development of Chinese economy, advertising as a business media, plays a very important role in the exchange of international trade. For the purpose of increasing sales promotion, advertising English uses refined language, rich content, appropriate rhetorical means to propagate products or ideas. Pun, as decorative device of language is frequently employed in advertising English. It not only makes the advertising language concise, humorous, and impressive, but also makes advertisement attractive and memorable. This paper will discuss the application of pun in English advertisement from the phoneme, semantics, syntax and other aspects .Meanwhile it will analyze and explain the proper use of puns from the point of view of pragmatics. If properly used, puns can promote peoples understanding, appreciation, and creation of advertisement.Key word: advertising; pun; pragmatic analysis; application双关语在广告英语中的语用分析及其运用陈晓摘要：在日益发展的商品经济时代，广告作为一种商业手段，其作用日益重要。同时，广告英语作为一种商业语言，利用精炼的语言，丰富的内涵，适当的修辞手段来为某件事，某种产品进行宣传，以其达到广为人知，促销增产的目的。广告语必须要有很强的说服力，而运用修辞格正是最常见也是很有效地一种方式，备受广告撰稿人的青睐，应而在广告中得到大量的运用。它不仅能是广告语言简练，丰富，诙谐，而且能使广告引人注意，便于记忆。本文通过从语音、语意、语法等几方面探讨双关语在英语广告中的运用，并语用学角度分析，阐述双关语在广告中的合理使用，进而促进人们对广告的理解、欣赏和创作。关键词：广告；双关语；语用分析；运用The Pragmatic Analysis of Pun in Advertising Englishand Its ApplicationOutline1. Introduction2. The Pragmatic Analysis of Pun in Advertising English2.1Theory of Pun2.1.1 Double Context2.1.2 Hinge2.1.3 Trigger2.2 Cooperative Principle2.3 Relevance Theory 3. The Application of Pun in Advertising English3.1 Homophonic Pun3.2 Homographic Pun3.3 Grammatical Pun3.4 Idiomatic Pun3.5 Other Puns4. Function of Pun in Advertising English 4.1 Brevity 4.2 Association4.3 Emotional Transmission4.4 Humor5. Conclusion双关语在广告英语中的语用分析及其运用提纲1. 引言2. 双关语在广告英语中的语用分析2.1 双关语三要素2.1.1 双重语境2.1.2 铰链2.1.3 触机2.2 合作原则2.3 相关原则3. 双关语在广告英语中的运用3.1 语音双关3.2 语义双关3.3 语法双关3.4 成语或俗语双关3.5 其他双关4. 双关语在广告英语中的作用4.1 言简意赅4.2 联想意义4.3 情感传递4.4 幽默风趣5. 结语13The Pragmatic Analysis of Pun in Advertising Englishand Its Application RS 2006（02）（English）CHEN XiaoTutor: Associate Professor ZHANG Li-hua1. IntroductionWith the rapid development of Chinese economy and the diversities of the mass media, advertising is affecting peoples life in various ways. Meanwhile, the trade between China and foreign countries are becoming more and more frequent. Many foreign commodities swim into China, and domestic goods also sell well in overseas market. As we all know, advertisement means “widely advertised” and is the best way to disseminating information. According to American Heritage Dictionary, advertising is “the activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in print or on the air” (Chen 54). Advertisement, as a means of disseminating information, its language must be concise, lively, vivid and effective in its language so that advertisement can promote the exchange of international trade. However, the key factor to achieve the effectiveness of advertisement is the employment of pun. Pun, also called Paronomasia, is the most commonly used rhetoric method. Meanwhile, it is a play on words, which involves an amusing use of expressions with a double meaning or the same sound but different meanings (Wang 180). The employment of pun in advertisement has many advantages such as memory and attention value as well as persuasive, humorous and witty effect. A good advertisement usually brings success to business, and gets an unexpected effect. 2. The Pragmatic Analysis of Pun in Advertising EnglishPragmatics is the study of how to use sentences to communicate successfully. It is research on language use, language meaning in the social and cultural context. Context is the knowledge shared by communicators which includes the knowledge of the language as well as knowledge of the objective world which includes the common sense of the world and the communication in the actual context.If, according to Neubert(1978:185-89)，its grammatical meaning is defined as the relation between linguistic forms, and semantic meaning as the relation between forms and reality, then pragmatic meaning can be see as the relation between linguistic forms and the participants in the communicative act (Fawcett 123).2.1Theory of PunPun is the most frequently used rhetoric method in advertising English. As Guo Guilong said pun can refer to different senses of the same, similar words or the same sound of different words (54). It maintains that the language unit has both form and content. While there is not a one-to-one relationship between form and content, that is to say, one phonemic form does not signify one meaning and one meaning is not in the only one language form. So the employment of pun provided an opportunity to the success of ads. Meanwhile, well-expressed ads must have three important conditions. According to American famous professor Archibald A. Hills view, a pun is usually based on this three conditions: double context, the hinge (the word used as a pun), and a trigger (the elements which make the pun possible) (Wang 182).2.1.1 Double ContextDouble context means that the double meanings of pun exist in double contexts. The existence of the dual context is the important condition of the establishment of pun which can not exist independently. The double context is able to provide the environmental opportunities of the use of pun. Thus the pun is really formed. This can be illustrated by the following example:(1) Theres never been a better time. (Ad for Watch)This is a watch ad. “Time” is the most frequent word in watch advertisement. Here, “time” means that “there will not be more accurate time than this time”. The deep meaning is that “there is no longer better time than this time”. The exchange between two contexts and two meanings instantly come up with the new interpretation. That is “if you can wear this type of watch, you may always have a better time.” This ad has played with a function of pun.2.1.2 HingeHinge is the most important element of pun, due to the basic constitution of pun. The so-called hinge is the word pun itself such as homophone and homonym which is able to play the role as Pun. Its language feature is to make the different contexts together. Moreover, there is a process of translation to convert it between the two meanings. If this translation fails, the hinge will die out. This can be illustrated by the first example. The hinge word “time” itself has a double meaning. The first meaning is “accurate time”. Another meaning is “better time”. It makes two different contexts together. 2.1.3 TriggerTrigger is the key factor in the using of pun which arouses the consumers attention to a double meaning. It is the motivation and background of making pun, that is to say, trigger formed before the speakers actual speech act. The trigger is usually regarded as an implicit context. Pun is able to solve the semantic ambiguity that sometimes can not be explained because the value of trigger is ambiguity. It can increase the infinite charm in language. Therefore, advertisers make the most use of puns. Puns are accepted and appreciated by consumers. Among these three conditions, “Double Context” is an objective precondition of pun. “Trigger” is the inducing element of the emergence of pun. And the “hinge” makes context and semantic together. We can see that puns are the conscious speech acts in order to achieve the effects of expected expression. 2.2 Cooperative Principle The Cooperative Principle is an important part in communication. This principle was formally proposed by an American language philosopher H.P.Grice when he made a speech at Harvard University in 1967. He holds that discourse is interrelated rather than by making a string of unrelated words together in the conversation. A communicative discourse is the result of cooperation between the two parties, for both parties have one or several common goals,or at least a mutually accepted point.Grice calls this principle the Cooperative Principle:“Make your conversationalcontribution as required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged” (Chen 54). Meanwhile, a further explanation is that the message conveyed by both parties is beneficial to each other.Meanwhile, Grice himself postulated (1975) four maxims of Cooperative Principle: quantity, quality, relation, and manner (Fawcett 130). As to the maxim of manner, it requires to be perspicuous and specifical: “avoid obscurity, avoid ambiguity, be brief, and be orderly” (Jacobl 72). And he also holds that the violation of manner will produce conversational implication. Conversational implications are suspended if they are not in keeping with background or ontological assumptions, often referred to as real world knowledge (Huang 33). However, people do not always obey the maxim of manner of the “Cooperation Principle”, they deliberately violate the Cooperation Principle in the actual communication.It is a case that advertisers disobey Cooperative Principle when using pun. While puns by nature convey ambiguity, naturally they violate the maxim of manner, so puns themselves have implications. Puns concern the use of a polysemous word and homonyms to suggest two or more meanings, commonly literal meaning versus implied meanings. The advertisers employ puns, because the first and the most important requirement of an advertisement should be concise and attractive. They strive to make the consumers able to detecting the violation of Cooperation Principle, force them to interpret the conversational implication of advertising language because the implication of a pun is the real intention of the advertisement. Meanwhile, the conversational implication is related with the background or context. So the advertisers find a proper excuse for them to do it. And it is obvious that pun is the best choice for advertisement. We can use the following example to explain it:(2) Time flies.Not doubt every consumer would not feel confused after reading the above sentence because this is a common sentence used frequently by a number of advertisers. In this sentence, fly is a pun. The word “fly” originally means “insect” but here it also has another meaning as “go or pass quickly” based on the context of the ad. In fact, people do not think its ambiguous. In our daily life, the hearers understand this sentence easily. No one would think about the literal meaning. People would deliberately violate the maxim of manner of the Cooperation Principle, but it didnt impede communication. On the contrary, the use of pun is conducive to creating a conversational implication.Clearly, from the perspective of Cooperation Principle, the use of pun in advertising is a violation of manner. Although, the speakers just violate the surface meaning, it obeys this principle in the deep layer. Sometimes, in order to gain their intention, the speaker does not pay attention to the violation of the principle. Their purpose is to cause listeners attention. Although it seems to provide an ambiguous meaning to the consumer, it is able to extend time to get the consumers attention. So it can not only increase the interest, attraction, and attention of advertisement, but also make the advertising language readable, persuasive and vivid, and arouse the consumers desire to purchase. Therefore, the advertisers also find a reasonable excuse for the violation. 2.3 Relevance Theory Relevance Theory was formally proposed by French scholar Dan sperber and the British scholar Deirdre Wilson in 1986, according to them, human cognition in communication is relevance-oriented. The theory suggests that conversation is an ostensive-inferential communication. This is because inferential communication involves, in addition to a first-order informative intention, a higher-order intention, which Sperber and Wilson (1986, 1995) call communicative intention (Huang 186). Whats more, it aims to explain how the audience infers the communicators intended meaning (Christoph 10). “Ostensive “and “inferential” are the two sides of communication process. The “Ostensive” means “indicate” (to the speaker, communication is an ostensive process). That is, the speakers express their own intent through the proper form of discourse. Here, the “inferential” means “reasoning (for the hearer, the Communication is a reasoning process), that the process of the hearer through information expressed by speaker combined with contextual assumptions, to seek contextual effects, and conclude the speakers intention. So we get from the semantic representations to the full-fledged thought by means of context (Fawcett 135). Meanwhile, relevance refers to that the communicators want to find the correction between new information and the contextual assumptions when they analyze the discourse. Then the communication is able to carry out, because the utterance were hearing or reading is accessible as part of our mutually recognized, common cognitive environment or context; as such, the utterance is relevant (Jacobl 86). Furthermore, with people we know, rather than spell everything out, we rely on shared understanding to facilitate communication (Adrian 388).Sperber and Wilson further developed the theory that Humans cognition is maximal relevance oriented; the communication is optimal relevance oriented. According to the Relevant Theory, whether the discourse has relevance or not, and the degree of relevance can be judged by contextual effects. The principle of relevance drives directly from these two elements of effort and benefit. We choose from the context those assumptions that will satisfy two requirements:(1) They will have the largest contextual effects or benefit;(2) They will require least processing effort. (Fawcett 135)From the Relevant Theory, advertisers are interested in the use of puns to provide two or more meanings to the consumers. However, the consumer would exclude the most superficial and direct meaning, so that they can make themselves surrounded by the advertising atmosphere to grasp the deep meaning. The following example specifically describes the operation of a pun in advertisement to show the Relevance Theory. (3) Less bread. No jam.This is an ad for London Underground. In this case, the two interpretations areboth intended by the advertisers. At first sight, it would be regarded as a food advertisement,the“bread” and “jam” is to be understood as “bread” and “marmalade” because this is the most intuitive interpretation. However, the reader will soon find that such understanding does not make sense and is illogical according to the environment surrounding billboards and Relevance Theory. So the consumers are encouraged to find both interpretations to acquire optimal relevance, and recall that the “bread” in slang is interpreted as “money” and “jam” is interpreted as “traffic jam”. Then it can be understood like this: Less money, no traffic jam. Through the further thinking, you will get the real meaning. That is, if you travel by London subway, it will cost you less and you will not suffer in traffic jams. In this case, the advertiser skillfully uses polysemy. The pun makes the sentence more subtle and hidden. So if the reader wants to know the real meaning they must ponder it by careful analyzing the surrounding environment. This advertisement is profound and attracting.In the above example, we can see pun in advertisement make the most of the advantage of Relevance Theory, associated with the well-known background. And concise words make the reader find the optimal relevance. In short,combined with Cooperative Principle and Relevance Theory, pun may help the ads go on smoothly to achieve the mutual expected goal of the advertisers.3. The Application of Pun in Advertising English As a rhetorical device, a pun is commonly used in the advertisement. It exists in the pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and all language levels. As Shong Hong said a pun is the use of polysemy, synonymy of language to produce a double meaning which has the character that one meaning is true, and the other is false. Then it will make eye-catch and deep memory (31). If a pun is used properly, it will enable advertisers to achieve unexpected effects. The commonly used puns are as follow.3.1 Homophonic PunIt is the use of words with similar pronunciation but different spellings and meanings. Advertisers like to use homophonic pun, because pun has an affable, witty, humorous, and persuasive language style, which can enhance the persuasiveness and appeal of advertisement, thus leaving a deep impression on con