Language In Advertising: Rhetorical Devices And Their Effects In The Perspective Of Pragmatics

As a business language, advertising language has evolved into not only the commercial product that can bring about huge economic interests, but also an important part of social culture. Linguists at home and abroad have done many researches from the perspectives of pragmatics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, semiotics, etc. Among various persuasive devices, figures of speech have been extensively used. The application of figures of speech in advertising language can greatly strengthen the expressive force so to achieve desired effect. In recent years, studies from the perspective of pragmatics have been very fruitful, but the systematic study on combining various rhetorical devices with Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle is comparatively rare. Based on the published studies of advertising language, the author of the present thesis surveyed the metaphorical devices most frequently used in five types of advertisements by means of questionnaire. Then she explains how the devices violate the maxims of Cooperative Principle respectively by combining them with Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle. On this basis, the author draws the conclusion that certain advertising effects may be achieved as a result of this kind of violation. The findings of this thesis will be listed as follows. By collecting and analyzing the data of questionnaire, pun, personification, hyperbole, parody, simile and repetition have been singled out as the most popular rhetorical devices among young consumers. The reason for that result is caused by the different requirements and interests of products shared by consumers. According to the different characteristics of six rhetorical devices, the author further demonstrates that pun violates quantity maxim of Cooperative Principle; personification, hyperbole and parody flout quality maxim; while simile and repetition violate relation maxim and manner maxim separately. These violations add humor and attractiveness to advertising language in different ways. To sum up, the research findings are of great value for advertisers to create more persuasive, high-quality advertisements and thus attract consumers'attention effectively. Meanwhile, these findings can benefit ad-receivers as well, since they can help consumers understand and distinguish advertisements in a better way.