英语广告中语言变异现象-康琰.doc

长春理工大学光电信息学院毕业论文Abstract Advertising is playing a more and more important role in modern society. Advertising of various forms can be seen at any time and in any place. Many researches have been carried out in this field among which the study of advertising language has attracted particular attention from linguists. As a way to promote the sales of products, advertisers must abide by the AIM Principle, i.e.to grab readers attention, arouse their interest and construct their memory to achieve the final goal of triggering their action. Advertisers try their best to make their ads stand out, which is the first step to create effective advertising. The application of the technique of deviation in advertising is one way. Deviation is a language phenomenon which is commonly used by western linguists to analyze poetic language. It refers to the special/unusual expression that deviates from norm and it appears in various forms such as deviation of phonology, grammar and semantics.This paper will choose around 40 ads from altogether 12 issues of two magazines as studied samples to analyze deviation of phonology, lexicon, grammar, semantics, register and discourse in advertising respectively. From this study, we find deviation of various forms is really widely used in English advertising and is an effective way to attract readers attention.Key words: advertising; deviation; classification of deviation; function of deviation摘 要 当今社会，各种广告铺天盖地。广告作为一种应用语言，因其所具有的特殊效用，已逐渐从普通语言中独立出来而发展成非规范化的专用语言，它的遣词造句与普通语言也有着许多差异。不管是语言学家，心理学家还是广告的撰写者都家还是广告的撰写者都对广告语言赋予了很大的关注。广告是一种宣传形式，公开而广泛地向公众介绍产品，以达到影响舆论，增强信誉，扩大销路等目的。广告制造者为最终达到推销商品的目的，务必使广告遵循AIM.原则，即引起注意(attention)，唤起兴趣(interest )，构成回忆(memory), 为了达到“语不惊人誓不休”的广告目的，广告制造者势必要充分利用他们的语言能力，运用各种各样的语言手段。语言变异(language deviation)就是其中最重要的手段之一。 所谓变异，是指人们在交际中，偏离常规，选择特殊的表达方式表达。变异的形式多种多样，如语音变异，词汇变异，语义变异等。 本文将对两种共十二期英文杂志中的近40篇广告进行分析，找出各种变异现象(包括语音变异，词汇变异，语法变异，语义变异,语域变异和语篇变异)在广告的使用。分析表明，各种变异在英文广告中确实被广泛地运用。关键词：广告；变异；变异分类；变异功能 ContentsI. IntroductionII.literature review and theortical foundation 2.1What Is Advertising? . 2.1.1The Stylistic Features of Advertisements. 2.2 What Is Deviation? . 2.2.1 Classification of Deviation . Leechs Classification . Fengs Classification 2.3 Research abroad and Research at home. III. Deviation in Advertising . 3.1 Deviation of Lexicon. 3.1.1 Coinage/Nonce-formation. 3.1.2 Functional Conversation. 3.1.3 Deviation of Collocation. 3.2 Deviation of Phonology 3.3 Deviation of Semantics. 3.3.1 Seemingly Illogical Sentence. 3.3.2 Pun. 3.3.3 Parody. 3.3.4 Oxymoron 3.4 Deviation of Grammar . 3.4.1 Ungrammaticality Incomplete Sentences Ellipsis. 3.4.2 Abnormal Frequency of Some Sentences . Imperative Sentences Interrogative Sentences. 3.5 Deviation of Register 3.6 Deviation of Discourse 3.7 Conclusion. Function of Deviation in Advertisement. 4.1To Achieve Attractiveness 4.2To Achieve Persuasiveness. 4.3To Achieve Briefness 4.4To Achieve Informality.Conclusion. 5.1 Summary of the paper. 5.2 Limitation of the paperBibliography .Acknowledgments.I. Introduction Advertising, with its increasingly important role in todays society, is becoming a common social phenomenon that a French advertising critic once said that the air we live in was composed of hydrogen, oxygen and advertising. Due to its prominent role in society, advertising has been a popular subject of study for researchers in various fields such as marketing, sociology, psychology and linguistics. Among all the issues raised by advertising, the issue of advertising language seems to have attracted particular attention. Advertising takes many forms, but in most of them language is of crucial importance. The function of advertising is to grab readers attention, arouse their curiosity and then trigger their action. In order to fulfill these aims, advertisers try every means to make their ads stand out. Deviation is one of the effective forms. Deviation is a theory that is often used by western scholars to analyze the language of poetry. Some Chinese experts have adopted it to the analysis of advertising but superficially and unsystematically. So this paper tries to give a detailed discussion of various deviations in advertising with up-to-date English ads and also to interpret this phenomenon with relevant theories. By doing so, we hope to draw advertisers attention to the application of deviation in advertising and also to provide them with better knowledge of deviation in advertising so as to prepare them for the production of more successful advertisements.The arrangement of the thesis will be as follows:Chapter Two Literature Review introduces the nature of advertising and the classification of deviation and also some pioneering work of the study of deviation and advertising done by both western and Chinese scholars.Chapter Three Deviation of Advertising puts forward the authors understanding of deviation in advertising with sufficient examples of ads.Chapter Four Function of advertisement from the use of deviation analyzes this phenomenon from several aspects to give reasons why deviation in advertising and also gives some examples to advertisers in using deviation in advertising.Chapter Five ends with the conclusion and suggestions for further study.II. Literature ReviewLanguage deviation is a necessary part of advertising because it plays a significant role in the advertisements. This part consists of a brief introduction of advertising and language deviation and classification of deviation. 2.1 What is advertising?Enter a whole work style. One that transcends time, place and business as usual. Uniting your people, corporation and information in a secure environment that facilitates idea and asset sharing. Centralized document production and resources flexible network and data management. Thats bizhub. New from Konica Minolta. (Bizhub, Time, Aug 16th)It is easy to recognize the above as an example of ads even readers may not be familiar with the products being advertised. So whats advertising? Advertising originates from the Latin wordadvertere, meaning a means used to draw attention from the public to something and lead them to some direction. Nowadays advertising of various forms can be seen at any time and in any place. So before the detailed study of advertising, it is worthwhile to know the definition of it. Advertising is a public notice designed to spread information with a view to promoting the sales of marketable goods and services. (Harris & Seldon 1962:40)Advertising is the usually persuasive nonperson communication of information usually paid for and through the various in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors media.“ (Boove, 1992:70)2.1.1The Stylistic Features of English Advertisements Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to purchase or take some action upon products, ideals, or services. And as a practical language, advertising English has its specific functions. In order to achieve its aim, its way of choosing words and building sentences are quite different from normal English: English advertisements are usually very short, clear, distinctive and memorable. 1) BriefnessIn order to reduce the cost, the advertiser usually use the smallest space and the minimum time, which makes sentences in most advertisements are very short and snappy, especially the headlines, which may or may not be accompanied by a longer informative text. The sentence consists of subject verb and object that are accompanied by an explanatory supplementThe headline is normally expanded or clarified in the text body, where simple，elliptical and compound sentences or their fragments are used. 2) Informality We can see in many English advertisements grammar mistakes, most of which are intended. This phenomenon also mainly results from the cost of display advertisements on newspapers, televisions, Internet, etc. Advertisers first try to use short but complete sentences but they may find that the short sentence is still too long so they cut the words again and again. In fact, in the more extreme cases, large parts of sentences are elided, and there may be some “sentences” which do not contain a finite clause. As a kind of special writing form, advertisements can almost do without subjects. In this sense, phrases may be better if not as good as sentences, thanks to their shortness and distinctiveness. As a matter of fact, all kinds of phrases can be put into use: noun phrase, verb phrase, preposition phrase, adjective phrase, etc. They are so concisely to the point that they are beyond our power to do any addition or subtraction.3) Attractiveness In order to make the advertisement has “selling power”, draw the buyers attention is the first priority. That is to say, a successful advertiser must try his best to make consumers to take care of their products, arouse their desire to buying, and finally buy their goods. For instance: “For TWOgether the ultimate all inclusive one price su kissed holiday.” Here the wordTWOgethersounds like together , and it also means two people travel together, but it is more attractive and vivid. 4) PersuasivenessBecause imperative sentences target the receivers as on the spot and can realize the intended persuasion in a fairly direct manner. An advertisement often pretends to be talking to the prospective customers. There is therefore heavy use of you, especially at the beginning of clauses. There are many imperative sentences and interrogative sentences in this type of use.Take the world famous advertisement “Just Do It” promoted by Nike for example. This catchy and forceful imperative sentence conveys a strong energetic and uplifting feeling to the prospects that are surely expected to have a desire to maintain youth and vigor. In our daily life, we are also quite familiar with such sentence structures as “Lets” or “Its time to” Those imperative sentences like “Lets have breakfast”, “lets go” and “Its time to go to bed “take place with great frequency in our daily conversations with families and friends. It is based on this proximate similarity in real life that EDS came up with “Lets get to work” and UNITED Airline promoted “Its time to fly”.In order to create novel and brilliant ads, ad makers must grasp the skill of ads making, it is attract attention, provoke interests, arouse desire, deepen memory, and promote action. 2.2 What is deviation? Deviation/variation is opposite to norm. When people are using a language, they must obey some rules (i.e. norm). For example, an s or es must be added to the verb of the third singular present tense or a preposition must be followed by a noun or gerund. But in reality, the using of language is not that stiff or formalistic. Qin Xiubai(1997:98) points out that man will choose the most suitable language form to express their ideas according to the subjective or objective factors during the communication. This raises the issue of using language creatively. Each style has its extraordinary or unusual language characteristics and each writer tries to display their extraordinary style in their creation. This special expression which deviates from norm is called deviation.The original idea of deviation is put forward by the great philosopher of Ancient Greek, Aristotle. In his essay Poetics, Aristotle points out that the perfection of style is to be clear without being mean and that diction, on the other hand, is lofty and raised above the commonplace which employs unusual words. For by deviating in exceptional cases from the normal idiom, the language will gain distinction; while, at the same time, the partial conformity with usage will give perspicuity. That means each has its distinctive functions. In the 20th century, Victor Shklovskij, one of the Russian formalists, and Jan Mukarovsky, one of the founding members of the Prague Linguistic Circle, raised deviation to the theoretical level: it is connected with the theory of defamilarization and foregrounding. 2.2.1 Classification of deviation Deviation is categorized from different standards by different scholars. Several classifications are worth mentioning here which are proposed by both Chinese and English scholars. Leechs ClassificationGeoffrey Leech makes a systematic summary of deviation. In his book, a Linguistic Guide to English Poetry (1969), he categorizes deviation into eight types, i.e. lexical deviation, grammatical deviation, phonological deviation, graphlogical deviation, semantic deviation, dialectal deviation, deviation of register and deviation of historical period.1) Lexical DeviationThe most common usage of lexical deviation is neologism (the invention of new words). When the new words are made up for the nonce, i.e. for a single occasion only, rather than as serious attempts to increase the English word-stock for some new need, we call them NONCE-FORMATIONS.2) Grammatical DeviationTo this deviation, Leech first distinguishes between MORPHOLOGY (the grammar of the word) and SYNTAX (the grammar of how words pattern within sentences). Deviation of the former, as Leech suggests, is rare enough in English poetry, so he pays much attention to deviation of syntax. 3) Phonological DeviationPhonological deviation in English poetry is of limited importance. Leech mentions some of it like aphesis (the omission of an initial part of a word or phrase, e.g. tis for it is), syncope (the omission of a medial part, e.g. neer for never), syncope (the omission of a final part, oft for often) and special pronunciation for the convenience of rhyming, as when the noun wind is pronounced like the verb wind.4) Graphological Deviation As spelling represents pronunciation, any strangeness of pronunciation will be reflected by strangeness of the written form. But there are also some graphological deviations that have nothing to do with speech, such as the characteristic line-by-line arrangement of poetry on the printed page, with irregular right-hand margins and the typographical line of poetry is independent of, and capable of interacting with, the standard units of punctuation, etc. The famous American poet, E. E. Cummings, is well known for his use of graphological deviation: discarding of capital letters and punctuation, jumbling of words, eccentric use of parentheses, etc. For example, seeker of truthfollow no pathall paths lead wheretruth is hereNO.3 of 73 Poems In this poem, the poet doesnt capitalize seeker and the last line doesnt have a full stop which indicates that the seeking of truth is endless. The poem is not grammatical stop which indicates that the seeking of truth is endless. The poem is not grammatical as it has no punctuation and the last two lines are unreasonable according to the syntax, as where is used as an adverbial conjunction of place in the last sentence which should not be combined with here. This implies the seeking of truth is irregular. By means of the nonstandard division of the poem, epiphany effect is created for readers. (Hu Zhuangling, 2000: 97) 5) Semantic DeviationSemantic deviation may be translated into nonsense or absurdity. Thus we often find some ridiculous sentences in some works. But the very face -value oddity lends it abnormal power of significance (Leech, 1969: 48).This means these seemingly meaningless and ridiculous sentences have their specific meanings in a certain context. For example, Wordsworths The child is father of the man is illogical according to the unimaginative standards of the philosopher, as it is impossible for X to be Ys father while X is a child and Y is a man. But this superficial absurdity of the sentence forces the reader to look beyond the dictionary definition for a reasonable interpretation: what the author wants to express may be that from a childs action we can predict what the child will become when he grows up. 6) Dialectal DeviationGenerally speaking, the average writer is expected to write in the generally accepted and understood dialect known as Standard English, but for some certain purposes, some writers may borrow features of socially or regionally defined dialects. For example, in The Shepheardes Calender, Spensers use of homely provincial words like heydeguyers(a type of dance), rontes(young bullocks), weanell(newly waned kid or lamb), and wiynble(nimble) evokes a flavour of rustic naivety in keeping with the sentiments of pastoral. In Kipl