A Cognitive Semantic Study Of Modals In English Cosmetic Instructions

Nowadays, with the development of economy and globalization, people’s living standards have been greatly improved and cosmetics have nearly become a necessity for a great many people. The popularity of overseas purchasing and online shopping are bringing an increasing number of foreign cosmetic products to us Chinese people. More and more people are coming to realize the influence of cosmetic instructions on the products. Obviously, a well-written instruction is highly conducive to the promotion of the brand, to the conveyance of information and to the expression of manufacturers’ confidence.So far, many scholars both at home and abroad have conducted numerous studies on cosmetic instructions from the perspectives of lexicology, pragmatics, stylistics, translation and contrastive analysis, etc. Based on the previous achievements in this field and the theory of Talmy’s Force Dynamics, this thesis chooses modals in cosmetic instructions as the research target and aims to discuss how the meanings of modals in English cosmetic instructions are generated in cognitive process and how the three force dynamic patterns(physical dynamic pattern, psychological dynamic pattern and social dynamic pattern) interact with each other in English cosmetic instructions.This thesis conducts a detailed analysis of the meanings of modals implied in English cosmetic instructions from the perspective of physical dynamics, psychological dynamics and social dynamics with 60 instruction samples. The main method used in this thesis is quantitative analysis. The top 10 international cosmetic brands in 2014 are chosen and all these samples come from the author’s word-by-word copies of the instructions found from the authoritative websites.Through the analysis, the author finds that force dynamics are encoded in English modals in English cosmetic instructions and the three force-dynamic patterns are interrelated with each other. Physical dynamic pattern is the basic one in the three force-dynamic patterns and psychological and social dynamic pattern are the metaphorical extension of physical dynamic pattern. As far as English cosmetic instructions are concerned, physical dynamic pattern of modals tends to convey the basic information of the product to the customers or users; the psychological dynamic pattern of modals has a tendency to change the customers’ purchasing desire more or less; and the social dynamic pattern of modals shows indirectly some responsibility of the products’ manufacturers and users.