A Pragmatic Study Of Recruitment Slogans Of University Associations With Adaptation Theory

In our daily life,the slogan is a very common language phenomenon which involves a wide range of contents and various forms.Most of these slogans are concise in language and have a distinctive role of publicity and persuasion.Among them,the recruitment slogan of university associations(hereinafter referred to as RSUA)is one of the most distinctive types.Every year when freshmen enter the University,different kinds of recruitment slogans would appear in the playground,in front of the teaching buildings and other places where students gather,which has become a bright spot in the campus.Such slogans are usually novel and ingenious which deserve to be studied.However,there are few studies on such slogans.Due to the strong explanatory power of adaptation theory on the choice and use of language,this paper attempts to make a pragmatic explanation on such slogans from the perspective of adaptation theory.This paper mainly adopts a qualitative method to make a systematic study on the RSUA,and aims to answer the following three questions: what language choices are made in the recruitment slogans;what adaptation do the recruitment slogans make to achieve the communicative purpose;and what aspects need to be improved.Based on Verschueren’s adaptation theory,this paper analyzes the slogans from two aspects: linguistic context and communicative context.The adaptation to the linguistic context mainly analyzes the language choice and characteristics of the RSUA.Communicative context includes the adaptation to the mental world,social world and physical world.In addition,the study finds that the adaptation of RSUAs could be reciprocal and dynamic.In addition,this paper also analyzes the non-standard language phenomena in RSUAs,including the homogenization of RSUAs and the inappropriate choice of language.For this kind of non-standard phenomenon,slogan designers should improve their ability to use language,pay attention to innovation,and try to avoid improper language expression based on the campus context and culture.Through this study of the RSUA based on the adaptation theory,this paper aims to deepen people’s understanding of this kind of slogan,promote the continuous application and development of the adaptation theory,and also provide some useful enlightenment for the design of RSUA so as to promote its continuous improvement.