A Cognitive Study On Presuppositions In Alcohol Advertisements From The Perspective Of ICM

Commercial advertising has penetrated into every field of our social life,exerting great influence on people’s thinking,lifestyle,and taste.Scholars in the linguistic world have done a lot of research on the advertising language from different perspectives with the focus gradually shifting from static linguistic features to the dynamic communicative interaction as well as from speakers to hearers.In this context,the emerging cognitive linguistics provides a new research perspective,enabling us to further explore the cognitive interaction between advertisement designers and the audience.Besides,presupposition,as a universal and important language phenomenon,is fequently adopted by advertisers,significantly affecting people’s deep understanding of ad,vertisements.This thesis selects Chinese alcohol advertisements as the research object and employs the theory of ICMs to conduct a cognitive study on presuppositions in them.It mainly addresses how presuppositions in Chinese alcohol advertisements can be classified according to the theory of ICMs,how each type of presuppositions is formed,and what kind of an analysis model can be summarized for the interpretation of presuppositions in advertisements.Through this study,it is found that in accordance with the structuring models of ICMs,presuppositions in Chinese alcohol advertisements can be classified into three types,namely propositional presuppositions,metaphoric presuppositions,and metonymic presuppositions with their own characteristics and functions.The formation of each type of presuppositions is closely related to their corresponding models in ICMs.In a given cognitive context(alcohol advertising),the relevant image schema is activated in the minds of the audience,which is stored by means of various secondary ICMs such as ICM1,ICM2.ICM3,ICM...etc.With the help of the three devices,namely the proposition,metaphor,and metonymy,a certain ICM of the image schema will be highlighted in the primary ICM.The primary ICM containing the highlighted ICMn is finally presented in different types of presuppositions and in turn promotes the true understanding of them.It is an analysis model adopted in this thesis,available for the interpretation of the formation of different types of presuppositions in advertisements.This thesis studies the theory of ICMs in a relatively systematic way,further demonstrating its strong explanatory power in various language phenomena.Furthermore,it helps the audience understand the presupposition in the advertising language,which is a cognitive phenomenon.In this way,they can accurately interpret presuppositions in advertisements and dig out the deep meaning behind the advertising language.