A Cognitive-pragmatic Study On Puns In Advertising Slogans

Puns in advertising slogans are a hot spot in linguistic studies.In recent years,more and more researchers apply Conceptual Integration Theory,Relevance Theory and Adaptation Theory etc.in studies of puns in advertising slogans.Samples in these studies are usually puns with one or two meanings relevant to the advertising context.Puns with more than two relevant meanings have been neglected.Furthermore,few have tried to integrate Relevance Theory into the Conceptual Integration Network for the purpose of displaying the dynamic process of the understanding of the puns.Therefore,this thesis attempts to construct a theoretical model,namely,Cognitive-Pragmatic Model of Puns in Advertising Slogans by infusing the two theories into one.It analyses puns with one,two or multiple meanings relevant to the advertising context and enriches studies in this field.This thesis tries to answer three questions: 1.what is the working mechanism of Cognitive-Pragmatic Model of Puns in Advertising Slogans? 2.What are the cognitive and pragmatic functions of puns in advertising slogans? 3.What are the causes for misconceptions of puns in the slogans? The author studied two masterpieces of advertisements,Urdang and Robbins’ s Slogans and The Handbook of Slogans of Salem.Eighteen English commercial advertisements from the two books are selected as samples which fall into three categories,namely,puns with one,two or multiple meanings relevant to the advertising context,according to the numbers of relevant meanings they contain.Samples are subjected to the Model to display their working mechanism.The Input Spaces of Conceptual Integration Network exhibit meanings of the pun;the Generic Space contains the shared frame of the Input Spaces;the Blended Space presents the final meaning.Relevance Theory associates the advertising slogan with the context.The working mechanism begins with the superficial meaning.The audience receive it and construct Input Space 1 on seeing the slogan.Relevance Theory directs the audience to relate the advertising slogan to the context for inference of the implied meaning hence the Input Space 2.Elements in Input Spaces connect with their counterparts in the other space and the shared frame of InputSpaces is projected into the Generic Space.Relevance Theory examines the relevance between the meanings and the context to choose the relevant ones as the final meaning the advertisement intends to convey.Based on the above study,cognitive and pragmatic functions of puns in advertising slogans are presented and causes for misconceptions of puns in the slogans are found out.It turns out that puns in advertisements have many a function.For instance,puns attract audience’s attention and increase memory value with their unique expressions;puns as polysemes reduce advertising space and cost;the audience are imperceptibly persuaded while decoding the puns;audience enjoy sense of achievement after they manage to interpret them;thinking and discussing over the interpretation of puns further promote the product.Misconceptions of puns are usually results of lack of background knowledge or contextual information.This thesis can also be enlightening for translating advertising slogans,teaching rhetoric,designing slogans and appreciating puns.Future studies are advised to study more samples,include more varieties of samples and to use research methods such as experiments and surveys to ensure the comprehensiveness and objectivity of the study.