英语专业论文Pun in Advertising English文档格式.docx

1、2.2.3 Sperber and Wilsons relevance theory 63. Classification of pun 63.1 Homophonic pun 63.2 Semantic pun 83.3 Grammatical pun 93.4 Idiomatic pun 104. Functions of pun in advertisements 124.1 Information conveying 124.2 Attention attracting 134.3 Making advertisements brief 144.4 Making advertiseme

2、nts aesthetic 144.5 Making advertisements polite 155. Variation and derivation of advertising pun 165.1 Classification of variation and derivative in advertising pun 175.1.1 Embedding pun 175.1.2 Creating pun 185.1.3 Pun relating with parody 185.2 Effects of variation and derivative 196. Translation

3、 of advertising pun 216.1 Literal translation 216.2 Free translation 226.3 Combination of literal translation and free translation 237. Conclusion 24References 251. IntroductionWith the development of society and economy, advertisements have been infiltrating through every field of the society and h

4、ave become one of the essential parts in peoples life. No matter it is business advertisement or non-profit advertisement, advertisement making is a comprehensive art. This art needs much more skills and techniques than other arts do, for it is the combination of sociology, aesthetics, psychology, m

5、arketing, acoustics, literature and linguistics. The goal of advertisements is to draw consumers attention and to inspire their desire to consume. To get audiences attention to make their products best-sellers, advertisers should well equip their advertising language with memory value, attention val

6、ue and readability. To achieve the above values, different kinds of rhetorical methods are often used in advertising English. With the use of the rhetorical devices, advertisements are more alive, aesthetic and emotional. Pun is the rhetorical device most often used in advertisements by advertisers.

7、To get to know more about pun in advertising English, literature review and practical application are analyzed in the following. The definition and the pragmatic approach are contained in the literature review. Different linguists hold different opinions about pragmatic approach of advertising pun.

8、After the literature review, the classification is summarized. Generally speaking, advertising pun has four types: homophonic pun, semantic pun, grammatical pun and idiomatic pun. Then function, variation and derivative are analyzed after the classification. In addition, translation is very necessar

9、y to analyze pun in advertisements. There are three translating methods: literal translation, free translation and combination of literal translation and free translation. According to its certain circumstance, different puns need different methods.2. Literature review of pun2.1 The definition and g

10、eneral features of punAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary, a pun is defined as the use of word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings or different associations or the use of two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with different meanings, so as to produce a humorous e

11、ffect （Murray:1928）. Redfern believes that “pun, in deed, is a post renaissance word, and an inaccurate but convenient tag for a whole variety of rhetorical devices which play on words” （1984:6）. He also argues that puns do not have to be funny, and the epithets are “serious” or “unicomic”, and they

12、 have often been applied to them.Although different dictionaries and different scholars make different definitions about pun, they have the same essence, that is, a pun is a kind of play on words.Pun has two features, which are ambiguity and a double context. Ambiguity is defined as a language item

13、which may have two or more than two cognitive meanings （Leech: 1983）. The first characteristic of a pun is that the focus of its meaning lies in its ambiguity. No matter what forms they are, the speakers aim to achieve an ambiguity. A pun raises the awkward problem of the presence of an ambiguity in

14、 language. In the daily communication, people try to avoid the presence of ambiguity, but as for puns, people deliberately create ambiguity. That is because the essence of a pun lies in its ambiguity. It is important to keep in mind that the central and fundamental phenomenon upon which pun operates

15、 is ambiguity. A pun deliberately employs phonemic or semantic conditions to express one meaning on the surface while hiding another.Another striking characteristic is that a pun contains a double context. According to American professor Archibald A. Hill in Austen Texas University, there are three

16、elements in analyzing and composing a pun: a double context, a hinge and a trigger. A hinge is the pun itself, and a trigger refers to the intention and background that lurk behind the exploitation of pun, which is often employed when we analyze pun. 2.2 The pragmatic approach to advertising pun2.2.

17、1 Grices four maxims of co-operationSpeakers hold the wish to cooperate with others and to make their communication successful, so they need to agree upon certain principle, which is the Cooperation Theory （Grice: 1989）. Grice puts forward four Maxims of Cooperation, which are Quantity Maxim, Qualit

18、y Maxim, Relevant Maxim and Manner Maxim:Quantity Maxim: say no more than is necessary; say no more than is necessary.Quality Maxim: do not say what you believe to be false; do not say that for which you are lack of adequate evidence.Relevant Maxim: be relevant.Manner Maxim: avoid ambiguity of expre

19、ssion; avoid obscurity of expression; be brief, be clear.However, in some information communications, speakers could break above rules. Their aim is to express some implied meanings. It is what advertising pun does in advertisements. Because advertising language is different from daily language, adv

20、ertisers usually convey meaning indirectly through deliberately employing pun, because the first and perhaps the most important requirement of advertisements is that they should attract and hold the audiences attention. In this case, advertisements could be most effective only when advertising langu

21、age deliberately break the Manner Maxim. 2.2.2 Leechs economy principle and clarity principleAccording to Leech, advertising English should conform to Economy Principle and Clarity Principle. First of all, Economy Principle requires briefness. He holds the opinion that the course of audiences encodi

22、ng and decoding will be time-saving and labor-saving when the message conveyed is not only short and pithy, but also complete and unabridged （1983）. However, because the principle has a disadvantage of limiting the amount of information which probably causes ambiguity, advertising language should co

23、nform to Clarity Principle. It happens often that two principles conflict with each other. Therefore, it is necessary to make a balance between the principles in different cases. Advertising language is the unity of two principles, sometimes even Economy Principle is more emphasized. In modern socie

24、ty, due to the acceleration of living pace and increase of psychological pressure, audiences are getting more and more tired of long literary piece. Generally, only the brief ones are welcome.2.2.3 Sperber and Wilsons relevance theoryAccording to Sperber and Wilsons Relevance Theory, language commun

25、ication is a course of signal and inference. Relevance Theory is that peoples cognitive activities are based on Maximal Relevance, while language communication is based on Optimal Relevance （1986）. Hearers try to acquire the most contextual effects with the minimum cognitive efforts, which is a way

26、to assume the speakers intention. Therefore, to understand is not just to distinguish its overt assumption, but to understand the significance of contextual effects and the great role which cognitive factors play in utterance interpretation.As a special means to communicate, it is beyond all doubt t

27、hat pun is very eye-attracting. Seen from Relevance Theory, advertisers make good use of puns character to offer audiences two or more explanations. Generally speaking, in the course of decoding, pun needs more time and labor than other direct expressing ways. However, it is what advertisers tend to

28、 do. Besides attracting and maintaining the attention of audiences, employing pun can also make them fall into the enchantment of advertisements.3. Classification of pun3.1 Homophonic punThis form is advertisers favorite. It is the use of words with the same pronunciations but different spellings an

29、d meanings. In modern English, there exists a large of number of words that happen to share the same pronunciations with different meanings. Advertisers are intended to use this form, because it is a style of humor, interest and fun, can strengthen the advertisements persuasion and affection, leavin

30、g a good and deep impression to the consumers. For example:（1） Make your every hello a real good-buy. （Advertisement for Telephone）Here “buy” provokes readers association of “buy” and “good-buy” and stirs up the association of “good-bye”. The maker of the advertisement intends to attract readers att

31、ention and ensures that the purchase of their telephone is a good and worthwhile deal.（2） More sun and air for your son and Heir. （Advertisement for Beach）There are two pairs of homophone forms here: “sun” and “son”; “air” and “heir”. Advertisers tend to convey the message that sun and air in the beach are healthy for the consumers families. The employ of homophonic pun makes the advertisement not only sound smoothly, but also funny and humorous.（3） Everybody kneads it. （Advertisement for Pillsbury Wheat Flour）In the advertisement, “kneads” has