Language Abstraction In Weibo Advertisements

The Linguisitic Category Model(LCM),established by Semin and Fiedler in 1988,is a social psychology based framework that can be used to investigate stereotyping,intergroup relationship,and social interaction properties.The LCM can be used to detect the systematic abstraction pattern of the interpersonal language.The content analysis of 465 Weibo advertisements is conducted to examine the language abstraction pattern of the interpersonal words in Weibo advertisements.The statistic results indicate that: 1)With regard to the linguistic abstractness,there is a statistically significant difference among four types of Weibo from food and beverage,IT,tourism,clothing and accessory industries.The mean level of abstraction for IT & electrical appliance is higher than the average;2)With regard to the linguistic abstractness,there is a statistically significant difference between Weibo using rational appeal and Weibo using emotional appeal.The abstraction level of advertisements with emotional appeal is higher than the average;3)In regard to the linguistic abstractness,there is a statistically significant difference among three types of Weibo that promote products,brand/sales activities,and service,respectively.The abstraction level of advertisements promoting products is higher than the average;4)In regard to the linguistic abstractness,there is a statistically significant difference between female customer oriented Weibo and male customer oriented Weibo.The abstraction level of female customer oriented advertisements is higher than the average.As the first study to explore the language abstraction pattern in Chinese Weibo advertisements using the LCM,the research demonstrates that LCM can be applied to Chinese,supporting the universality of the model.Moreover,this is the first research that discusses the criteria for classifying Chinese interpersonal words under the LCM framework and documents the language abstraction pattern of the advertising language,providing a new research paradigm for future LCM based studies in Chinese context.The practical meaning of the study is that it introduces ideas on composing the Chinese advertisements from a social psychological perspective.