廣告中的雙關(guān)語(yǔ)的語(yǔ)用功能和運(yùn)用技巧Pragmatic Function and Application of Puns in English Advertisements

1、廣告中的雙關(guān)語(yǔ)的語(yǔ)用功能和運(yùn)用技巧pragmatic function and application of puns in english advertisementsabstractadvertising is highly effective tool of communication and persuasion. adverting values the power and flexibility of language and employs many language techniques to achieve the effects. pun, as a prominent f

2、orm of wordplay, has been widely employed in advertisements. therefore, based on sperber and wlisons relevance theory, this study intends to analyze the interpreting process of puns in advertising. as to the reason why the advertiser prefers puns, it has assumed that it is because puns can bring out

3、 certain pragmatic function to help achieve certain communicative effect. the present paper has proposed that puns have seven functions in english advertising: 1) information conveying; 2)attracting the audiences attention; 3)making advertisements brief; 4)making advertisements aesthetic; 5)avoiding

4、 social taboos; 6)humorous effect; 7)warning effect; 8)memory retaining effect. the analysis of advertising puns can not only deepen the audiences understanding of advertising puns but also enable the advertiser to make a better application of puns in advertisements.key words：advertisements, puns, r

5、elevance theory, functions內(nèi) 容 摘 要廣告是一種特殊的交際與勸說(shuō)工具，廣告商們善于運(yùn)用語(yǔ)言強(qiáng)大的表現(xiàn)力和靈活性，充分駕馭語(yǔ)言技巧來(lái)達(dá)到這一目的。雙關(guān)語(yǔ)作為一種獨(dú)特的修辭手段，在廣告中應(yīng)用廣泛。本文旨在運(yùn)用關(guān)聯(lián)理論，對(duì)英語(yǔ)廣告雙關(guān)語(yǔ)的理解進(jìn)行分析與闡述。對(duì)于廣告商青睞雙關(guān)語(yǔ)的原因，作者認(rèn)為雙關(guān)語(yǔ)有一定的語(yǔ)用功能。本研究表明雙關(guān)語(yǔ)在英語(yǔ)廣告中有種八種功能：一是傳遞功能；二是吸引受眾注意力功能；三是使廣告簡(jiǎn)潔凝練；四是美化廣告語(yǔ)言；五是避免社會(huì)禁忌；六是幽默效果；七是有效提出警告；八是保持記憶效果。本文通過(guò)對(duì)廣告的剖析不僅加深了人們對(duì)廣告雙關(guān)語(yǔ)的認(rèn)識(shí)，而且能使廣告更好地運(yùn)

6、用廣告雙關(guān)語(yǔ)。關(guān)鍵詞：廣告；雙關(guān)；關(guān)聯(lián)理論；功能contentsintroduction11.abrief viewof advertisements21.1 the definitionof advertising21.2function of advertising31.3 general characteristics of advertisements52.literaturereview onpuns72.1the definitionand the general functions of puns72.1.1 ambiguity72.1.2 the double context9

7、2.2 puns and relevance theory103. case study: analysis of puns in english advertisements133.1 date collection133.2 other related studies of puns in advertising143.3 classification of puns153.3.1 puns with one intended interpretation163.3.2 puns with rejected interpretation contributing to the intend

8、ed one203.3.3 puns with double intended interpretation243.3.4 interpretation of parody puns294. findings and discussions344.1 general functions of puns354.1.1 information conveying364.1.2 attention attracting364.1.3 making advertisements brief374.1.4 making advertisements aesthetic384.1.5 avoiding s

9、ocial taboos384.2 functions derived from the interpreting process394.2.1 humorous effect394.2.2 warning effect404.2.3 memory-retaining effect41conclusion42notes43bibliography44acknowledgements45 introduction with chinas entry into wto and globalization of the world economy, advertisements are playin

10、g an increasing important role in the countrys economic development. as we have seen, the main aim of an advertiser is to persuade a prospective customer to buy the product, service or idea. advertisements can be extremely successful and nowadays have been assigned the important task of granting sur

11、vival in a market flooded with competitors. many products hardly differ from each other and, as a consequence, have to be distinguished by other means, especially by effectiveadvertising.but in reality, an advertiser hassome difficulties toovercome.because anadvertiser hasonly a limited amount of sp

12、aceor time, and people are exposedto an enormous number ofcommercial messages, anadvertiser must tryto have the advertisement noticed amongother numerousadvertisementsand subsequently to create a maximally effective impactduring the brieftime span in which-if luckily-he hascapturedthe consumers atte

13、ntion.pun is alinguistic twist. becauseof the dual meaningscontained in a single word, apuncan workas two or even morewords. it is then morepowerfuland can make thecopy more amazing. and a puninadvertising is aneffectivemeans to draw theconsumers attention. a pun is one ofthose figuresofspeech, whic

14、h occursso frequently in advertising, and henceoftenseems to be a deviationfrom the general advertisingpractice. it adds attractiveness, memorability and effectiveness to advertisingcopies.the thesis intends to analyze puns used inenglish advertisements based on the relevance theory and to explain t

15、he functionsofpuns in thecommunication betweenadvertisersand audiences. specificobjectives are as follows: to show how thepun to be applied in the advertisements;toprovide the advertisers with the theory guiding principles of puns in advertising to make abetter applicationof puns in theiradvertiseme

16、nts; to help audiences achieve a better application of puns understandingofpuns inadvertisementsand enjoy them.1.abrief viewof advertisementsin this section, from the definition of the advertising to show the relevance theory can be used to analyze the english advertisements. and through the analysi

17、s of the functions and general characteristics of the advertisements to show that pun plays an important role in the english advertisements. so, the study of puns in english advertisements has a significant meaning.1.1 the definitionof advertising theterm advertising1 hasits origin in thelatin word

18、advertere, meaning drawing attention to something or notifying or informingsomebody ofsomething. according to the definitions committeeof the american marketing association, advertising2 is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for andpersuasive in natureabout products,serviceso

19、r ideas by identified sponsors through thevarious medias. several aspects of this definition generally must be exchangedwithexchanged with money. secondly, the non-personal indicates that advertisinginvolvescertainpeople of the public, but there is no opportunityfor immediate feedbackfrom the inform

20、ation recipients-theadvertisement receivers. thirdly, communication has been definedas the transferring of information, theexchange of ideas, or the process of establishing communication betweena sender and a receiver. fourthly, media refer to the channels like magazines, newspapers, tv, radios,etc.

21、 thatcan make the information recipients.anyway, advertising is with us all the time and everywhere and we might define it as a communication process, a marketing process and an economic and social process. however, relevance theory is used to analyze this language phenomenon. in view of sperber and

22、 wilsons claim that their theory can be applied to communication in general, so it also can work for advertising as wellat least in as much as advertising isa kind of communication.1.2function of advertising language possesses the following functions: phatic function, informative function, expressiv

23、e function, evocative function, context function and directive function. since advertising is a kind of communication, it employs language as the most important means for the intercourse and is provided with all the basic functions of language with special emphasis on informative, directive and expr

24、ess functions. in order to persuade consumers to buy the products of a certain band, advertisers give information about their products to consumers, arouse the good feelings towards the brand, and finally motivate them to buy their products. in fact, the advertising language can be seen as the commo

25、n language exploited at its best, but one can still easily distinguish the advertising language from the other language of common uses. this peculiarity of adverting language is mainly determined by its emphasis on the main function of advertisementpersuasion. as a matter of fact, in the advertising

26、 circle, there is a principle as far as advertising functions are concerned. that is the aida principle, namely to attract attention, create interest, increase desire and motive to action. based on marketing managers handbook, the principle is stipulated as follows. (1) attention: a good advertiseme

27、nt should direct consumers attention to the product advertised. (2) interest: an advertisement should arouse consumers great interest. (3) desire: advertising should stimulate consumers desire to buy the product, and make them realize that this product is just what they want. (4) action: advertising

28、 convinces consumers of the advertised information, which is externalized by the action of purchase.from the above analysis, it is easy to find that to make money is the foremost concern for advertisers. although some advertisements (those for promoting company image) are not supposed to win an inst

29、ant sale increase, in the long run, they indeed serve profit-making purpose. so, the advertisers pay much attention to design the advertising language. they endeavor to seek a suitable linguistic device to attract and arrest the attention of audience. thus various figures of speech are widely employ

30、ed in advertisements to attract the attention of the audience, because the rewarding character of artful deviation thus suggests that figurative advertising language, as compared with literal advertisement language, should produce a more positive attitude toward the advertisement1. among the multipl

31、e rhetorical devices, pun is a prominent form of wordplay which has been widely employed in advertisements. leigh 2, for instance, shows that in a largesample, 10% to 40% of alladvertisements contain wordplay (the range depending on the definitionof what constitutes a pun).1.3 general characteristic

32、s of advertisements there are always some shared characteristics in advertisements.first, advertisements should be vivid. in order to fulfill the aida principle, advertisers will first of all gain the attention of consumers. it is highly impossible to make the advertisements impressive. vividness ca

33、n also create beautiful envisions for consumers. so the frequent and wide use of figures of speech is an important characteristic of advertising english. in order to enhance the appeal of an advertisement, advertisers pay much attention not only to such expressive devices as plates, color and the la

34、yout of a printed page, but also to the choice of words or phrases, to make an advertisement beautiful and attractive. in the practice of the advertising english, people pay more attention to pun to make the advertisement vivid and to provide rich imagination and plentiful associations for readers s

35、o as to stimulate their desire. second, advertisements should be commercial, except those exclusively for the welfare of the public. it might be difficult for audience to feel commercial flavor simply from words in an advertising nowadays, for this is the purpose of advertised. but the pun makes it

36、effectively.firstly, advertising is paid message, with limited space and time, so it doesnt allow verbiage to waste the investment. pun with double meaning has the characteristic of small carrier but plenty of connotations. so it is very economic, effective and money-saving to the advertiser.secondl

37、y, in modern society, people pay more and more attention to effect, and get tired of the tedious advertisement. the pun in advertisements is usually formed by short sentences. some use the name of the product as the theme of the advertisement. some use excellent phrases to show the specialties of th

38、e product. to the audiences, it saves their time to get the information they want.thirdly, usually, the audiences read or watch advertisement unintentionally and only can remember something unconsciously. so, to achieve expected propagandist effect, the advertisement must reduce the memory message.

39、pun is suitable for the requirement. the content is short, the form rhythmic, and the style novel, which are easily remembered and impressed people deeply. in a word, pun uses fewer words to express full message which is the content of economy principle, and it usually reaches the purpose of adverti

40、sement that is to arouse consumers attention to a commodity and induce them to use it. the detail will be given in part three.2.literaturereview onpunsin this section, the author will introduce the puns.2.1the definitionand the general functions of punsaccording totheoxford englishdictionary, apun i

41、sdefined as the use of word in such a way as tosuggest twoor more meanings or different associations or the use of two or more words of thesame ornearly thesamesound with different meanings,so as to producea humorouseffect. ruse also definesa pun3as a play on thedual or multiple meanings of a word o

42、r the similarity ofsound between different words. redfern believes that “pun4, indeed, isa post -renaissance word,and an inaccurate but convenient tag for a whole variety ofrhetorical devices which play on words”.he also argues that punsdo not have to be funny, and the epithets areserious or unicomi

43、c,and they have often applied to them. in a word, a pun is a kind of play on words.2.1.1 ambiguityleech defines ambiguity5as language item which may have twoor more thantwocognitive meanings. the first characteristic ofa pun is thatfocus of its meaning lies inits ambiguity. no matter what forms they

44、 are, thespeaker aims toachieve an ambiguity. in the daily communication, people try to avoid the presence of ambiguity, butasfor puns, people deliberately create ambiguity. that is because the essence of a pun lies inits ambiguity. forexample,(1) what kindof money do girls like the most?matrimony.i

45、t is a perfectexample of puns inenglish. the ending elementsmoneyof theword matrimony has thesimilarsound with that of thatmoney, which is considered as homophonicpun. it isknown to everybody that girls usually expect tochange theirsocial and economicstatuses through marriage. this punis very ironic

46、.lets lookat anotherexample:(2)we must hang together, or we shall all hangseparately.this is a famous saying by american politician benjamin frankin during the independence war. it is a homonymic pun. here, the same word hang is used twice. combined with the context, we will find that the former mea

47、n united while the latter refers to death by hanging. it is ambiguity that produces puns. it is important to keep in mind that the central and fundamental phenomenon upon which puns operate is ambiguity. a pun deliberately employs phonemic or semantic conditions to express one meaning on the surface

48、 while hiding another.people can find theoretical support for the ambiguity of puns. li xinhua (2000) maintains that the language unit has both form and content. while there is nota one-to-one relationship between form and content, that is to say, one phonemic form does not signify one meaning, and

49、one meaning is not represented by one language form.2.1.2 the double contextanother striking characteristic is that a pun contains a double context. according to li xinhua, there are three elements in analyzing and composing a pun: a double context, a hinge and a trigger. a hinge is the pun itself,

50、and a trigger refers to the intention and background that lurk behind the exploitation of puns, which is often employed when we analyze puns. take the following as an example:(3) mine is a long and sad tale! said the mouse, turning to alice and sighing.it is a long tail, certainly, said alice, looki

51、ng down with wonder at the mouses tail; but why do you call it sad? this is an instance of pun. in this example, the hinge is the word tale/tale. what the mouse intends to convey is a tale, whereas alice mistakes it for a tail. generally speaking, we can say a miserable story, but we can not say a m

52、iserable tail. so alice gets confused. there is no doubt that this example has a double context. both the mouse and alice have their contexts. the following are some of the memorable puns.(4) a professor tapped on his desk and shouted:” gentlemen-order! the entire class yelled:” beer!(5) king: .my c

53、ousin hamlet and my son. how is that the clouds still hang on you?hamlet: not so, my lord, i am too much in the sun.(6) a man sits down at a table in a restaurant and asks,” do you serve spirits here?the waiter says,” sure, sit down, we serve anybody.the list goes on. puns shine with the luster of w

54、isdom, adding color to advertisements. readers will easily be captured by the charm of the language and the artistic effects conveyed by them. so the advertiser seldom takes the risk of abandoning them when creating the advertisement copy.2.2 puns and relevance theorysperber and wilson define releva

55、nce as a combined function of effect and effects:extent condition 1: an assumption is relevant in a context to the extent that its contextual effects in this context are large. extent condition 2: an assumption is relevant in a context to the extent that the effort required to process it in this con

56、text is small.relevance increases to the extent that the information convey by the communicator has an impact on the cognitive environment of the hearerthat is, it causes the latter to modify the view of, or thought about, aspects of the world by adopting, rejecting, strengthening or weakening certa

57、in assumption. for relevance to be obtained, a stimulus processed in a cognitive environment should have a contextual effect. consequently, relevance is always a function of a kind of cost-effect balance. 3relevance is a matter of degree. that is, the greater the contextualeffects of a newly present

58、ed item of information is, the more relevant it is.itfollows that the processingeffort needed to derive contextualeffects is crucial and this leads to the notion ofoptimalrelevance.if processing efforts were not taken intoaccount,humanbeings would continue to process a newly receivedstimulus endlessly, combiningit with an infinitestock of informatio