Pun in Advertising English.doc

毕业论文（设计）Pun in Advertising English1. Introduction12. Literature review of pun32.1 The definition and general features of pun32.2 The pragmatic approach to advertising pun42.2.1 Grices four maxims of co-operation42.2.2 Leechs economy principle and clarity principle52.2.3 Sperber and Wilsons relevance theory63. Classification of pun63.1 Homophonic pun63.2 Semantic pun83.3 Grammatical pun93.4 Idiomatic pun104. Functions of pun in advertisements124.1 Information conveying124.2 Attention attracting134.3 Making advertisements brief144.4 Making advertisements aesthetic144.5 Making advertisements polite155. Variation and derivation of advertising pun165.1 Classification of variation and derivative in advertising pun175.1.1 Embedding pun175.1.2 Creating pun185.1.3 Pun relating with parody185.2 Effects of variation and derivative196. Translation of advertising pun216.1 Literal translation216.2 Free translation226.3 Combination of literal translation and free translation237. Conclusion24References251. IntroductionWith the development of society and economy, advertisements have been infiltrating through every field of the society and have 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, marketing, 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 value 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.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. 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 necessary 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 general 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 effect (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 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 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 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 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 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 pun2.2.1 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, Quality 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 expression; 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, advertisers 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 language 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 encoding 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 conform 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 society, 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 communication 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 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 that 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 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 and 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, leaving 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 attention 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 the same pronunciation with “needs”. Then it is very easy to understand as “everyone needs Pillsbury Wheat Flour”. It is impressive because it is very brief. (4) WEAR-EVER introduces a new concept in glass oven ware: CLEANABLITY. (Advertisement for WEAR-EVER Glass Oven Wear)“WEAR-EVER” is the trademark of the product. Advertisers employ pun on “WEAR-EVER”: on the one hand, it emphasizes the products trademark as “WEAR-EVER”; on the other hand, it emphasizes its good quality “wear forever” and it is popular “wherever”.3.2 Semantic punSemantic pun is formed in a specific atmosphere by using the polysemous characteristic of vocabulary and sentence. The pun is also used with the same function of the homophonic pun. For example:(1) Im more satisfied! (Advertisement for More Cigarette)Here “more” is the trademark of cigarette, and the mark of adjectives comparative as well. It means “further”. The advertisement is the successful model of semantic pun and is always quoted by advertisers.(2) The label of achievementsBlack label commands more respects. (Advertisement for whisky)Semantic pun can always be seen in brand names. In the advertisement, “label” has two meanings: “label” and “Black Label”the trademark of the whisky. Because of semantic puns, it is easy to have association of drinking while thinking of success. In the meantime, it is useful for attracting consumers and impressing them on the brand name.(3) Spoil yourself and not your figure. (Advertisement for Weight-Watcher Ice Cream)The advertised ice cream is made for dieters. “Spoil yourself” means “enjoy yourself to take something”, while “spoil ones figure” refers to “destroy ones good shape”. Therefore, the advertisers tend to say “just come and enjoy the ice cream, because this of ice cream would not destroy your shape”. Semantic pun here makes the dieters accept the product with no worry and inspire their purchase desire.(4) Money doesnt grow on trees. But it blossoms at our branches. (Advertisement for Bank)“Branches” here has two meanings: in the one hand, “one part of tree”, which correspond to “tree”; in the other hand, “one part of groups or organizations”. So the meaning of the advertisement is obvious: “why not save your money in our bank? The value of your money will be increased here”.(5) A deal with us means a good deal to you. “A good deal” refers to “much” when it is in common use, but in this advertisement, advertisers interpret it as “a good business”.(6) The unique spirit of Canada: we bottled it. (Advertisement for Whisky)It is the advertisement of whisky Lord Calvert Canadian. Here, two pairs of puns are used. “Spirit” means “typical quality”, and also refers to “alcohol”. “Bottle” could mean “put wine into bottles”, and could also mean “put the unique spirit of Canadian together”. Due to the employ of pun, the advertisement becomes more meaningful and imaginative.3.3 Grammatical punEnglish is an analytic language: some part of a sentence can play a role of a grammatical component. We can have different understandings in different contexts. Grammatical pun is pun because of the grammatical use, such as omission of some structures, some words or phrases. For example:(1) Which lager can claim to be truly German?This can. (Advertisement for Beer)A bottle of beer is drawn beside the advertisement. “Can” could be used as a modal verb. When it is a modal verb, it means “be able to”. Besides, it could also be used as a noun, which means “tin”. The sentences make sense when “can” is a modal verb or a noun. With the drawing of a beer, consumers understand that “can” here means more “beer”. The play of “can” has an effect of humor and a deep impression on consumers. In Americas market, there are different kinds of beers, many of which come from other countries and very competitive. Therefore, the advertisement emphasizes the Germany taste of the beer.It is not unique that “can” is used by above advertisement.(2) Coke refreshes you like no other can. (Advertisement for Coke)Like the above advertisement, “Can” is used as a modal verb and a noun, which respectively refers to “be able to” and “tin”. So the advertisement could be understood as “coke refreshes you like no other (can: tin, drink) can (refresh you)”. For consumers, it is very easy to remember that product because of the use of “can”. 3.4 Idiomatic punAdvertising language often adopts some idioms and slangs that are familiar to the audiences. These advertisements are often based on peoples knowledge of the society and culture. The unique and light language forms of pun, strengthening the advertisement appealing and artistic quality to the advertising language, make advertisement have an overtone to the audiences. For example:(1) A mars a day keeps you work, rest and play. (Advertisement for Mars Chocolate)Reading the advertisement will remind consumers of two familiar idioms: “an apple a day keeps the doctors away” and “all work and no p