英语专业论文On the Realization of Textual Function in Advertising English.docx

英语专业论文On the Realization of Textual Function in Advertising English.docx

《英语专业论文On the Realization of Textual Function in Advertising English.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《英语专业论文On the Realization of Textual Function in Advertising English.docx（13页珍藏版）》请在冰豆网上搜索。

英语专业论文OntheRealizationofTextualFunctioninAdvertisingEnglish

LexicalFeaturesandtheRealizationofTextualFunctioninAdvertisingEnglish

1.Introduction1

2.SystemicfunctionalgrammarandTextualfunction3

2.1Systemicfunctionalgrammar3

2.2Textualfunction4

3.LexicalFeatures5

3.1Monosyllabicwords5

3.2Coinages，misspellingsandabbreviations7

3.2.1Coinages7

3.2.2Misspellings10

3.2.3Abbreviation11

3.3Adjectiveanditscomparativeandsuperlativedegree12

3.4Compoundwords14

3.5Foreignwords17

3.5.1French17

3.5.2Spanish19

4.Discourseanalysis20

4.1Contextofculture20

4.3Communicationrole22

5.Conclusion.23

References24

1.Introduction

Theword‘advertising’,takingitsoriginfromtheLatinword‘Advertere’whichmeans‘tocatchpeople’sattention’,istheacttotellthepublicaboutaproductoraserviceinordertoencouragepeopletobuyortouseit（夏政,2003）.TheNewEncyclopediaBritannicahaddefineditas“thetechniquesandpracticesusedtobringproducts,services,opinions,orcausestopublicnoticeforthepurposeofpersuadingthepublictorespondinacertainwaytowardwhatisadvertised”（vol.1,1993:

113）.Advertisingissuchacomplexphenomenonandprocessthatitisverydifficulttodefineit.Itwasnotuntiltheendof17thcenturythatwiththedevelopmentofcommercetheword“advertising”becamepopularandobtainedthemeaningof“tospreadcommercialinformation”.AblertLasker，thefatherofmodernadvertising,saidthatadvertisingwas“salesmanshipinprint”.AmericanMarketingAssociation（AMA）definesadvertisingasthenon-personalcommunicationofinformationusuallypaidforandusuallypersuasiveinnatureaboutproducts,servicesorideasbyidentifiedsponsorsthroughthevariousmedia.（夏政,2003）.

AsakindofEnglishforSpecialPurpose,advertisingEnglishisatermoftenusedtodescribeatextrelatedtosalespromotion.Howevercomplexitis,advertisingEnglishbelongstothecategoryoflanguagesandmakesnoexceptiontothosefeaturesthatlanguagesown,bearingitsuniquecharacteristicsphonologically,rhetorically,syntactically,andlexicallyinespecial.AdvertisingEnglishconstitutesalivelyrepositoryofvocabulary,rangingfromtheformationtotheselectionofwords.InadvertisingEnglish,awordthatisofregularmeaningmayevokeanewamazingmeaningwhenusedinspecialcontextandforcertainpurpose.

AdvertisingEnglishservestopersuadetheexistentandpotentialconsumerstopayforthepromotedproductsofcertainbrandortaketheadvertisedservicesofsomecompany.Itgivesinformationabouttheproductstoconsumers,arousestheirgoodfeelingtowardthebrandofthecompany,andintheendmotivatesthemtoaccepttheirproductsorchoosetheirservices.Inordertoachievethesegoals,therefore,advertisingEnglishissupposedtobeattractiveeithervisuallyoracousticallyandcharacterizedwithsophisticatedly-pickedwordsorphrases.Forinstance,bybreakingthespellingrulespeoplearefamiliarwith,inotherwords,bycreatingwordsorphrases,misspellingandcompounding,theadoptionoflexicalnoveltyprovokesinconsumersvividandimpressingimageaswellasmelodioussounds.Psychologistspointoutthatcreatedwordshelpthereaderstoappreciatethequeerspellingsandtospendmoresecondstoconnectthemwiththeitemsbeingadvertised,whichintheendimpressesthereaderswiththeadvertisedbrand.Moreover,theuseofsimplemonosyllabicwordsmakesiteasierforconsumerstoreadandtounderstandthelanguageandthepurposesitcontains.

2.SystemicfunctionalgrammarandTextualfunction

Sincethe1960s,Halliday,theprofessoroflinguistics,hasdevelopedasystematicandcomprehensivetheoryoflanguagecalled“Systemic-FunctionalGrammar（SFG）”,andpublishedhisbook“AnIntroductiontoFunctionalGrammar”.Manyscholarsalsopublishedanumberofbooksandpapersonsystemicgrammar.TheresearchofSystemicFunctionalGrammarbeganin1970sandbecamepopularinthelate1980s.

2.1Systemicfunctionalgrammar

AccordingtoHalliday,“languagehadevolvedtosatisfyhumanneeds;andthewayitisorganizedisfunctionalwithrespecttotheseneeds—itisnotarbitrary.”“Thefundamentalcomponentsofmeaninginlanguagearefunctionalcomponents.”SFGhastwocomponents:

systemicgrammarandfunctionalgrammar（Halliday,2000:

F39）.InHuZhuanglin’sbook“Linguistics.AcourseBook”,heholdsthat“Systemicgrammaraimstoexplaintheinternalrelationsinlanguageasasystemnetwork,ormeaningpotential.Andthisnetworkconsistsofsubsystemfromwhichlanguageusersmakechoices.Functionalgrammaraimstorevealthatlanguageisameanofsocialinteraction,basedonthepositionthatlanguagesystemandtheformsthatmakeitupareinescapablydeterminedbytheusesorfunctionswhichtheyserve.”（2001:

409）SFGhasclassifiedthelanguagefunctionsintothreegeneralfunctions:

Ideationalfunction,InterpersonalfunctionandTextualfunction

2.2Textualfunction

TextualFunctionmainlyreferstohowpeopleorganizelanguageandexpresstheconnectionbetweeninformationwhentheyadoptcertainlanguage.Besides,textualfunctioncanshowtherelationbetweenthetransmissionofinformationandthecontextwherethepersongivingtheinformation.（江淑娟戴卫平，2006）.“TheTEXTUALFUNCTIONreferstothefactthatlanguagehasmechanismstomakeanystretchofspokenorwrittendiscourseintoacoherentandunifiedtextandmakealivingpassagedifferentfromarandomlostofsentences.”“Thetextualfunctionfulfilstherequirementthatlanguageshouldbeoperationallyrelevant,havingtextureinarealcontextofsituationthatdistinguishesalivingpassage［…］”（胡壮麟,2001:

420）

3.LexicalFeatures

ThetextualfunctionofadvertisingEnglishistoequipthecustomerswiththeinformation（thefeatures,benefits,functions,andvalueoftheproducts,ect.）theyneedtomakepurchasedecisions.Advertisingaimstodifferentiateproductsfromothers,conveyinformation,inducenewcustomers,gainrepeatedcustomers,stimulatethedistributionandbuildbrandpreferenceandloyalty（夏政,2003）.Inordertoachievetheseaims,copywriterstryeveryefforttomaketheadvertisementappealingbyusingsophisticatedlexicaldevices,suchasemployingmonosyllabicandsimplecolloquialwords,creatingwordsorphrases,misspellingandcompounding.

3.1Monosyllabicwords

InadvertisingEnglish,itishighlyappreciatedinthetextofadvertisingtoestablishcloseandinteractiverelationwithreaders.（王树槐王群,2006）.Thus,briefwords,likemonosyllabicwords,canproducegreateffects.Ratherthan“attempt”,“purchase”,“peruse”or“employ”,copywritersprefertochoose“try”,“buy”,“read”or“use”topromptlyexpresstheultimateinformationratherthanhintingsimplybyusingflatteringwordsiftheyarenotattempttomakethoseelegantadvertisementsasincarnatingtheirwonderfulproductsorservices.Monosyllabicwordsarewordshavingonlyonesyllable,whichareeasytoreadandtoremember.Forexample:

（1）TheworldofMusic

TheworldofArt

TheworldofTheatre

TheworldofSight

Thisisatraveladvertisementofacity.Thecityiscomparedto“Music”“Art”“Theatre”and“Sight”.Wecanseethecopywriterappropriatelyadoptsmonosyllabicwords,repeatsthemonosyllabicword“world”toimpressthereadersandplantsinmindaseductivepicture.Byemployingmonosyllabicwords,thecopywriterproducesarhymedandstrikingtext,inducingnewcomers.

（2）Everwonderwhymostguysinpantsadsarestandingup?

Thisisanadvertisementfortrousers.Thecopywriteruses“guys”“pants”and“ads”insteadof“men”“trousers”and“advertisement”,inthattheformeronesaremucheasiertocatchthanthelatterones,bringingafeelingofclosenesstothereadersandcreatinginmindanimageofcasualnessandhandsomenesswiththepants.

Example

（1）and

（2）illustratethetextualfunctionofemployingmonosyllabicwordsinadvertisingEnglish.Wordsofonesyllableareeasilyunderstandableandmemorable,aswellascreatinganeffectofrhymeandvividness.

What’smore,monosyllabicverbsinadvertisingEnglishcansavetimeandspacebutneverlosethepowertoattractreaders.MonosyllabicverbsorverbsofshortspellingarequitepopularinadvertisingEnglish,suchas“give”,“make”,“try”,“come”,“go”,“see”,“have”,“get”,“keep”,“use”andsoon.

Inshort,asforthequalityofbeingeasilymemorableandunderstandable,monosyllabicwordsservetorealizetheultimatepurpose,thatis,tocapturethewould-becustomersandtopersuadethemtopurchasetheproductsormakeuseofacertainkindofservice.

3.2Coinages，misspellingsandabbreviations

AsEnglishisalanguagemadeupbyspelling,inadvertisingEnglish,copywriterscanmakegooduseofthespellingfeaturestoenduetheadvertisementswithcreativityandthenappeals.Theyfollowsuchruleas“tolimitlesslyapplylimitedsources”,tocaterforthepsychologicalneedsofcustomers.Thus,coinages,misspellingsandabbreviationsareamongtheprioritieswhenitcomestothewording.

3.2.1Coinages

Coinageisaprocessofinventingawordorphrase.“ItisaremarkingfeatureofadvertisingEnglish,whichmeanslittleaccordingtoregulargrammarbutisknownforthenoveltyandcompactformation”（刘霁,2007）.Forinstance:

（3）Merryx-mas

MerryXL-mas

MerryXXL-mas

Example（3）isanadvertisementofchocolatecandies.Merryx-masisananagrammaticspellingwhichimpliesthatthisproductbeingadvertisedisaChristmasgift.Inthepicturebesidetheprint,thesizesofthethreebeautifullypackedboxesbecomebigger,whichinturnhelppeopleassociatewiththesizeexpressionX,XL,XXL.XLmeansextralargeandXXLm