The Application Of The Rhetorical Devices In The Advertising Language

The thesis aims to analyze the rhetorical devices in the advertisement and deal with theproblem of how to reduce the division, become consubstantial and achieve identificationbetween the advertiser and audience according to rhetoric of identification based on KennethBurke’s new rhetoric.The theoretical foundation of the thesis is the rhetoric of identification, includingidentification by sympathy, identification by antithesis and identification by inaccuracy. It is usedto analyze the application of rhetorical devices in the advertisement, exploring the process ofreducing the division and building identification between the advertiser and audience.Apart from introduction and conclusion, the thesis is divided into four chapters.Chapter one is a review on advertising and rhetoric, including previous researches onadvertising at home and abroad from the linguistic perspective and studies on rhetoric in theadvertisements at home and abroad. Meanwhile, the author points out the shortcomings of thesestudies and puts forward a new perspective from new rhetoric.Chapter two is the theoretical foundation—the rhetoric of identification based on KennethBurke’s new rhetoric, including a brief introduction of rhetoric and Kenneth Burke’s newrhetoric, identification and an analysis framework based on rhetoric of identification.Chapter three expounds the relationship between the advertising and the rhetoric ofidentification in detail by means of explaining the rhetoricity and nature of the advertising.Chapter four is the main body of the thesis, identification analysis on the application of therhetorical devices in the advertising language. The widely used rhetorical devices include simile,metaphor, personification, pun, hyperbole, parody and metonymy. And there are threeadvertisement cases for every figure of speech, which aims to prove the validity of the theory.They are selected by the author from the advertising books, excellent theses and webpages.The thesis uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, mainly qualitativeanalysis. Firstly, the advertisements in the thesis were collected from many books which focuson the study on the advertising language, webpages and some excellent theses. Then theanalysis follows a procedure, defining the rhetorical device, case studying and summarizing theanalysis. Moreover, there are three cases for each figure of speech in order to prove the validity of the theory.After analyzing the application of rhetorical devices in the advertising language from theperspective of rhetoric of identification, the author concludes that advertisers should make fulluse of rhetorical devices to make the language vivid, impressive and attractive. During theprocess, advertisers should attempt to create advertisements from some factors which can satisfyconsumers’needs, including tasting the life, avoiding the danger, obtaining the safety andachieving the success and so on. Only in this way can the advertiser identify with the audienceand rhetorical devices produce positive effects on receivers, finally reducing the division andachieving identification between the advertiser and the audience, achieving the persuasivefunction of advertisements. However, due to the inadequate competence of the author, the limitedtime and space, the author fails to make a thorough research on the rhetorical devices in theadvertising language from the rhetoric of identification, which may leave more room for theprospective researchers to keep trying in this field.The thesis analyzes the rhetorical devices in the advertising language from the rhetoric ofidentification and has certain theoretical and practical significance. Firstly, there are fewresearches done on the rhetorical devices in the advertisements from the rhetoric of identification,so the research proves the explanatory power of rhetoric of identification towards the advertisinglanguage to a certain degree. Secondly, the analysis framework constructed from the rhetoric ofidentification provides some enlightment to the advertiser for designing advertisements.