| Nowadays with the development of cosmetic industries, cosmetic advertising attracts moreand more attention. As an effective way of providing people with the information of products,cosmetic advertising is a special communication form, which aims to persuade customers totake the action of purchasing. The critical discourse analysis of cosmetic advertising caneffectively reveal how its persuasiveness is realized.As an important approach of critical discourse analysis, Halliday’s systematic functionalgrammar consists of three meta-functions: ideational meaning, textual meaning andinterpersonal meaning. On basis of the three levels, the author will conduct a full analysis of45samples from six aspects: transitivity, voice, theme structure, mood, modality, intertextuality,with the aim to explore how the persuasiveness is realized by the three meta-functions. The45cosmetic advertisings are collected from the official websites and magazines. In this study, bothquantitative method and qualitative method will be used. The author will conduct a descriptiveanalysis of all the collected advertisements from the aspects of transitivity, voice, mood,modality, intertextuality, etc. Also the frequency and distribution of those aspects are countedfor analysis.Through the analysis of45cosmetic advertisings, the author concludes the major findingsas follows:(1) At the ideational meaning level, it is found that material process and active voicetake the largest percentage, which indicates that the products being advertised are of powerfulfunctions and initiatives.(2) At the textual meaning level, simple unmarked themes are mostfrequently used for that they can clearly provide the information of products. While markedthemes are used to highlight the selling points of the products, which can attract people’sattention. Besides, some quotations of medical fields are common to see in cosmeticadvertisings, which implies that the products are professional and reliable.(3) At theinterpersonal meaning level, most sentences are written in declarative mood and many modaloperators as well as modal adjuncts are common to find in cosmetic advertisings. In this way,the advertisements can exert a great influence on people’s emotion and choices. As a kind ofmarketing tools, cosmetic advertisings not only provide potential customers with the information of products, but also attract their attention, arouse their desires to buy and persuadethem to take actions. |
