ApplicationofAmbiguityinEnglishCommercialAdvertisements-文档资料

1、Application of Ambiguity in English Commercial Advertisements 【】 Ambiguity is often seen as a common phenomenon in language. Many linguists laid more emphasis on ambiguity from the ancient Greece. The chief aim ofthis paper is to master a comprehensive understanding of ambiguity in order to obtain a

2、 deep insight of ambiguity by exploring the causes of English ambiguity and application of ambiguity in commercial advertising. It must have difficulties in covering all the fields of ambiguity. This paper will endeavor to find the causes of ambiguity in every role of languages so as to really under

3、stand ambiguity in English. CHAPTER 1 Introduction With the constant advancement of world informationization and commodities economy， competition among enterprises is getting more intense. This thesis aims at knowing how does this comprehensive art commercial advertisements covering linguistics， pho

4、nics ， literature and aesthetics impacton our life in an all-round and far-reaching way. CHAPTER 2 Introduction of commercial advertisements and ambiguity 2.1 Introduction of commercial advertisements 2.1.1 The definition of commercial advertisements So far ， so many definitions of advertisements ca

5、n be found in related works. However ， the definition “Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products ， services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media”（ Liu2002 ：3） ruled by American Marketing Associat

6、ion has been accepted by the insiders. 2.1.2 The functions of commercial advertisements There are two major functions exist in commercial advertisements. It is social function and culture function respectively. Ads have reached a level of high speed， wide range and frequency which occupied people s

7、life once for all. So ads do have influence on the psychology of recipients and make changes on their way of thinking and value orientation. 2.2 Introduction of ambiguity Ambiguity has all along aroused a heat debate. So what is ambiguity ？ Mackay and Bever made a definition that “any stimulus patte

8、rn which is capable of two and only two distinct interpretations.” More clear to say that ambiguity means that the same linguistic sentence or part of it can convey multiple meanings.There are several modification effects which ambiguity brought to the commercial ads. Initially ， it adds readability

9、 which is tend to keep readers lingering on the ads to the commercial advertising. Then， it makes ads more interesting and attractive and reaches an action of purchasing. Lastly ， it is undeniable that ingenious use of ambiguity makes ads sound enjoyable in rhyme. CHAPTER 3 Application of ambiguity

10、in commercial advertisements 3.1 Phonological ambiguity 3.1.1 Phonological ambiguity caused by stress ， not only in Sharp. As Different stress may give rise to different meanings of the same word or sentences ， for example “From Sharp minds， come Sharp products ，” this is an ad of an company produci

11、ng appliances. With the stresses on the word “Sharp”， it means that a person s mind is insight ， but when the word “Products ” is stressed ， it means products could be produced in any factory you have seen， different stress on different words in the phrases and sentences can produce different meanin

12、g. 3.1.2 Phonological ambiguity caused by liaison Liaison is considered as a link between sounds or words （Kooij1971 ：161）. Each word should sound smoothly and naturally in a speech. Taking an ad of telephone as an example ， it writes “Make your every hello a real good buy”. Here the seller uses the

13、 same pronunciation between good bye and good buy which was spoken together with an ingenious design. Besides ， there are also an ad of oven ware， it writes that “Wear-Ever”. It is a model of frying pan. This ad can be interpreted either the word “wherever ” which means this new ad is widely known t

14、o all or the abbreviated phase “wear forever ” which means this appliance is lasting and enduring. Therefore ， liaison between words and phrases may give rise to two or more meanings. 3.2 Lexical ambiguity 3.2.1 Lexical ambiguity caused by homonymy Homonymyc an be split into three types. The first t

15、ype is perfect homonymsw hich means word same in pronunciation and spelling but have different meaning. For example ， an ad of tape for English learning writes that “Lets learn English in a sound way.” The designer of this ad makes the most of lexical ambiguity in order to advertise their products. The word “sound” here can be either interpreted to mean perfect or vocal. Then the second type is homophone. Homophonem eans that words are same in sound but different in spellings and meani