A Study On The Application Of The Rhetorical Devices Flouting The Maxims Of Cooperative Principle In Chinese Commercial Advertisements

The dissertation mainly studied a popular phenomenon in advertising language --- the use of those rhetorical devices which violate the maxims of Cooperative Principle (CP). Those rhetorical devices include pun, metaphor, irony, personification, simile, hyperbole, rhetorical repetition and so on. There are two ways those rhetorical devices are used in advertisements: the positive way and the negative way. The author conducted a detailed analysis on many Chinese commercial advertisements which contain those rhetorical devices from the perspective of CP, aiming to show both the positive and negative application of those rhetorical devices in commercial advertisements. Through analyzing the examples of successful application of those rhetorical devices, the author displayed how those rhetorical devices convey intended information through flouting the maxims of CP and generating conversational implicatures. The author also dealt with some cases where those devices are abused or improperly employed, which tend to mislead the consumers or may have a negative impact on the public benefits and the culture. In such cases, though the maxims are violated too, such violation, in most cases, does not give rise to conversational implicature or the conversational implicature cannot be comprehended.After a broad survey of the advertisements containing those rhetorical devices, the author discovered some ways or patterns in which some of those rhetorical devices tend to be abused or inappropriately used.(1) Some rhetorical devices are utilized to communicate deceptive information.(2) Some rhetorical devices are abused to produce indecent and vulgar advertisements.(3) Some rhetorical devices are used in a way that makes the advertisements violate some prohibitive clauses in relevant laws.(4) Some rhetorical devices are used in a way which makes the meanings of the advertisements inexact, ill-defined and difficult to understand.Through the analysis on both the positive and negative application of the rhetorical devices which violate the maxims of CP in advertising language, the author hopes to arouse language pursuers'attention to such language phenomenon. Conveying conversational implicature by flouting some maxims of CP is a type of indirect language. Through analyzing the application of the rhetorical devices in advertising language from the perspective of CP, the study may shed some light on future study in conversational implicature and indirect language in advertising language. Meanwhile, the summary of the main ways in which those rhetorical devices tend to be abused or inappropriately applied may offer some lessons and help to advertisement copywriters in producing successful, effective and responsible advertisements.