Consumer Behavior Enhancement through Vague Language in Advertising.doc

毕业论文（设计）Consumer Behavior Enhancement through Vague Language in Advertising1 Introduction12 Vague language and advertising22.1 Brief introduction to vagueness22.2 Advertising as linguistic communication42.3 Advertising as linguistic choice52.4 Vague language in advertising52.4.1 Efficiency62.4.2 Flexibility72.4.3 Appropriateness82.4.4 Persuasion93 Consumer psychology and advertising113.1 The communication goal of advertising113.2 The role of psychology in communication113.3 The communicators in advertising communication124 Vague language in advertising and consumer psychology and consumer behavior134.1 Consumer psychology and consumer behavior134.1.1 Pursuing freshness134.1.2 Pursuing brand144.1.3 Curiosity144.1.4 Psychological Synchronization144.1.5 Pursuing for the beauty154.1.6 Seeking bargain154.2 Vague language and consumer psychology and behavior164.2.1. Stimulating consumers motivation164.2.2. Stimulating consumers purchase desire174.2.3. Changing the consumers attitudes184.2.4. Inspiring the consumers imagination and emotional experience.205 Conclusion22References221 IntroductionSince professor Lofti. Zadeh in the United States put forward the “fuzzy sets” theory in 1965, many studies have been conducted on the vagueness and a series of relevant frontier branches of vagueness has emerged in succession. In fact, the process of using language is an active process in which speakers and hearers constantly have to make choices out of variables. The use of vague language in advertising is closely related to psychological factors that influence the communicator, and the studies related to consumer behavior indicate that consumers psychology directly influences consumer behavior. The wide use of vague language in advertising has prompted a vast mass of research, among which many researchers have studied the pragmatic functions of vague language in advertising from language level. these studies have made great contribution to the research of vague language in adverting. However, they often have neglected one important aspect-consumers psychology. Basing on this background, this thesis is to demonstrate the use of vague language in advertising and the consumer behavior enhancement through vague language in advertising. 2 Vague language and advertising2.1 Brief introduction to vaguenessVagueness is defined as an expression which has more than one possible interpretation (Zhang Qiao, 1998: 4). For example, the word “good” has a range of interpretations: good (fine) weather, good (hard-working) student, and good (warm-hearted) people.According to Channell (1994:58), an expression or word is vague if:a. It can be contrasted with another word or expression which appears to render the same proposition; and/orb. It is purposely and unabashedly vague. Although much work has been done about vagueness, there is a considerable confusion between the terms “vagueness”, “generality” and “ambiguity”. The three terms share the common characteristic of conveying imprecise information, but they differ in the types of imprecise meanings they refer to.As to generality, Zhang Qiao(1998:86) maintains, “the meaning of an expression is general in the sense that it does not specify certain details, i.e. generality is a matter of unspecification.” For example, the meaning of city is general because it does not specify whether of not a city is big or small, modern or ancient. My friend is general, as it could mean a female friend, a male friend, or a friend from New Zealand. the following sentences can be the examples:a. Mary saw John.b. Mary changed a baby. c. Mary received a degree.The meaning of sentence (a) is general because it does not specify whether or not Mary saw john in a shop, or in a school, or any other place. In sentence (b), Mary could change her own baby, or a baby belonging to her husbands ex-wife, or a baby she has kidnapped. The question of “whose baby it is” is left open. In sentence (c), Mary could have an art degree, or a science degree; a BA degree, or a PHD degree. Again, the sentence does not specify what kind of degree Mary receivedCompared with others, ambiguity has a more established definition. Taking truth condition as the standard, Kempson(1977:128) regards a sentence as ambiguous if it is true in quite different circumstances. In other words, a sentence is ambiguous if it is simultaneously true and false, relative to the same state of affairs. Zhang Qiao (1998: 11) defines ambiguity as “expression which have more than one semantically unrelated meaning; in other words, an expression is ambiguous if it has several paraphrases that are not paraphrases of each other”. One example often quoted is: Flying planes can be dangerous. This sentence is ambiguous, since the expression flying planes itself has two unrelated meanings: planes that fly and the flying of planes by people. That is, flying planes has two paraphrases that are not paraphrases of each other. Similarly, in Chinese, Xinsheng(新生) means new student or new life, these two meanings are semantically distinct. Also, mi (米) has two different meanings: Rice or meter.2.2 Advertising as linguistic communicationNowadays, there are many techniques that advertising can make use of, for instance, illustration, pictures, sounds, etc. However, language still plays an important role in making the product well-known and remembered. Therefore it still can be placed under the category of linguistic communication. It is one of the special cases of linguistic communication, in which no actual communication takes place at the very time of linguistic production. However, that does not diminish the communicativeness of this kind of language use. On the contrary, once it has access to the audience, it will be perceived and interpreted, either passively or actively. 2.3 Advertising as linguistic choiceAs advertising belongs to the category of language use, a series of linguistic choices should be made in both advertising production and interpretation. However, advertising production is the focus of the present research, so it will be solely referred to. Because of the great degree of directedness of advertising language, the advertiser must be highly conscious of the linguistic choices. Furthermore, he does not only choose communication strategies either linguistic and extra-linguistic ones, or, in other words, language-internal and language-external ones. Finally, choices are not equivalent. Though all sorts of choices are available, not all of them are preferred. For instance, commendatory expressions are more frequently chosen.2.4 Vague language in advertisingIn order to achieve the goal, the advertiser must make linguistic choices in advertising production to adapt to the psychology of the consumer. With the development of advertising production, more advertisers employ vague terms in advertising production to adapt to the psychology of the consumer more effectively. The reason why the advertiser employs vague language in advertising production is mainly because of its functions. 2.4.1 EfficiencyEfficiency is the first distinct function of vague language. In modern society, vast colorful information of permeates our daily lives, and our life rhythm is becoming faster and faster. Customers tend to just quickly take a brief look at something. An advertisement today must be short and simple, otherwise it would be very costly. Thus the advertiser has to manage to convey as many messages as possible within the limited space or time to cut down the advertising cost. Moreover, the longer an advertisement is, the easier the consumer may be irritated. Readers do not have enough time to read what they think is the boring and useless thing, so if the salesmen intend to catch these busy peoples attention, they must focus and occupy as little of their time and energy as possible. Whats more, according to some research, the length of a sentence should not be longer than twelve words if one wants his information to be correctly remembered. (J .Channell,2000:188)Taking these two factors into consideration, more and more advertisers employ vague terms during the process of advertising process of advertising production. Using vagueness in advertisement is not always negative, but positive sometimes. Vagueness in advertisement usually plays a positive role in conveying free scope to imagination and interpretation. Here are two examples. “Koca-Cola, adds your life.” (Koca-Cola) “Too convenient.” (Polaroid Camera)In these two advertisements, the words “adds” and “convenient” are vague terms. Containing abundant meanings, they have broadened the interpretative range of the advertisement, thus left much room for the consumer to imagine.Therefore, its a wise choice for the advertiser to employ simple but rich-contented vague expression to publicize the product. At this point of view, the skillful choice of vague language can make an advertisement succinct and economical and cut down the advertising cost as well.2.4.2 FlexibilityA principle feature of vagueness is indeterminacy, that is to say, vagueness is relatively elastic and flexible. Vagueness can be employed to minimize categorical commitments. Advertisers often resort to vague language to achieve their purposive communication in avoidance of categorical commitments. J .Channell (2000:188) argues that “vagueness may be used as a safeguard against being later shown to be wrong”. There is an example below.“Listerine fights bad breath.” (Listerine Collutory)In this advertisement, “fights” is a vague expression of great flexibility. “Fights” is used instead of “stops”, as it is not a categorical commitment and doesnt indicate a definite warranty. If the consumer misunderstands the meaning of fights and believes that this collutory can stop bad breath, the responsibility of interpretation will be imposed on the consumer rather than the advertiser. So this advertisement withholds the advertisers personal commitment and shifts off the advertisers possible responsibility. Here is another example.“Rheingold: the natural beer” (Rheingold Beer)The use of vague word “natural” in this advertisement greatly enhances the flexibility of linguistic communication. Rheingold beer is natural, and this quality fitly adapts to the consumers psychology of returning to nature and refusing pollution. In modern society, with the raising of consciousness of green environment conservation and green health, the natural goods are often regarded as the best and accepted by people. Looking at this advertisement, people will spontaneously believe that this brand of beer will not do any harm to their health, for it is natural. But what is natural? Nobody can give exact explanation. The advertiser uses natural here and gives no any definite warranty. Therefore, the responsibility of interpretation is accordingly imposed on the consumer but not the advertiser.2.4.3 Appropriateness Appropriateness seems to be contrary to the characteristics of vagueness, but it is indeed the case. In fact, linguistic communication not requires only precision or accuracy, but also vagueness. Vagueness and precision is a dialectical unity. As Chen Guoping (1993:4) puts it, “fuzziness includes accuracy and indeterminacy contains determinacy.” In objective reality, there are too many “boundary phenomena”, in other words, the phenomena that belong to objective reality manifest indeterminacy. Vagueness is sometimes, an important means of accurately stating or expressing these indeterminate, uncertain things and phenomena (Hyland, 1993：440). In advertising copies, advertisers always use vague terms to seek precision in expression. “Simply better than other alcohols.” (Sop Whiskey)If all the brands are identical, they must all be equally good, the legal minds have decided. Therefore, “best” means that the product is as good as the other superior products in its category. Here in this advertisement the word “better” has legally interpreted to be a comparative and therefore becomes a clear claim of superiority. The use of vague word “simply” better here does not show inferiority at all. On the contrary, it makes a promise to provide the alcohol with better taste and better quality. The promise is more real than such advertisements as “We produce best” “the mostin the world”. The use of vague word “simply better” makes this advertisement more appropriate and acceptable to the consumer.2.4.4 PersuasionThe ultimate goal of advertising is to persuade consumers to acquire goods or services advertised, and successful advertising should avoid pushing consumers to buy, but rather persuade them. The mission of advertising is to persuade people to act in a way that will be of advantage to advertisers. Thus the main role of advertising comes increasingly to be persuading and appealing. Persuading is a process that changes a persons attitudes, beliefs or behaviors by conveying certain information, yet the most effective method of conveying information is language. In other words, language is a component of realizing persuasion. The advertisers tend to employ all kinds of language skills to convey implicit or explicit information to achieve their goals, such as vague terms or something else. The following is the example.“When seeking high taste, you will find JiaYi!” (JiaYi Dress)Here the vague word “high” implies that JiaYi dress owns the excellent quality and the rarefied design, meanwhile stirs the consumers imagination-Wearing JiaYi dress, can help you possess higher taste and will be accepted more easily by other persons belonging to high class. The use of vague word “high” in this advertisement adapts to consumers psychology of pursuing status and identity and gives them deep impression. Here is another example.“Miraculous and magnificent, beyond expression.” (ShengHuang Lamps and Lanterns)In this advertisement, the use of two vague terms “miraculous” and “magnificent” successfully reflects the high quality and magical effect of ShengHuang lamps and lanterns. Meanwhile, they arouse the consumers infinite imagination-staying at the room with such lamps and lanterns, one will feel very comfortable and contented; for the room decorated with such lamps and lanterns looks very beautiful and feels very miraculous. The use of “beyond expression” heightens the brilliance of the light more effectively. What beauty cannot be explained in words? This simple phrase greatly arouses the consumers imagination and curiosity, and the only thing they want to do is to have a look and even have a try. Thus, the magic of the product advertised wells up in consumers heart and deeply impresses the consumer. In other words, such advertisement which deeply impresses the consumer would be more persuasive.3 Consumer psychology and advertising3.1 The communication goal of advertisingBecause of the directedness of advertising language, the communication goal is of great importance. It can help explain why advertising language should get adapted to the advertisers assessment of the consumers psychology.As the main purpose of the advertiser is to persuade the consumer to purchase the goods advertised in the consumer, therefore, it is of prime importance that he should adapt to the consumers psychology. Furthermore, since it is impossible to take all these factors into account, he has to decide to which aspect(s) his advertisement is to adapt. 3.2 The role of psychology in communicationPsychology plays an important role in verbal communication. The psychology refers not only to a persons psychology, but also to his assessment of what the psychology of the interpreter looks like. (J .Channell,2000:188) The psychology activated in language use contains two types of elements-cognitive and emotive elements. While the former provide a bridge between the mental and the social in the shape of conceptualizations in terms of which social interaction is interpreted, the latter are those elements such as affect and involvement, which reflect the participants attitudes and emotions characterizing and influencing the interaction.Therefore, it is impossible to find a general summery for how the assumptions of the listeners psychology are turned into. Besides, the mental state is dynamic rather than static. It is in a constantly changing state. Even if it is still hard to decide, apart from specific context, which aspects of it should be adapted to. On the other hand, supposing it is possible to decide which of the interpreters psychology should be adapted to, there occurs another problem-the degree of adaptation to different aspects may vary. therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the consumers psychology while producing the advertisement.3.3 The communicators in advertising communicationSince advertising communication is different from face-to-face communication in which no real interpreter is present at the very time of advertising production, the audience of an advertisement is a “virtual interpreter”. The advertiser is constructing a virtual audience in his mind when producing an advertisement. In order to increase the possibility of the audiences interpreting the advertisement as intended, he has to make some assumptions of what expectations the consumer might hold towards a product that is worth buying. Only after this stage will he make linguistic choices to make the consumer satisfactory, if not perfectly, interpret the message in the way as he has intended. In producing an advertisement, the advertiser has to make sure to whom his advertisement is directed as well. Of course here whom the advertiser faces is no one else but a virtual interpreter. There is no other way