On Persuasive Function of Pragmatic Vagueness in Advertising Language.doc

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1、语用模糊在广告语言中的劝说功能On Persuasive Function of Pragmatic Vagueness in Advertising LanguageContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I. Introduction.2II. Pragmatic Vagueness and Advertising Language.3III. Theoretical Framework of the Thesis.41. Verschuerens Linguistic Adaptation Theory.42. Grices Theory of Conversation

2、al Implicature.63. Searles Indirect Speech Acts Theory.7IV. Analysis of Pragmatic Vagueness in Advertising Language.81. Defining the notion of linguistic manipulation.82. Linguistic manipulation for pragmatic vagueness in advertising language91) Linguistic manipulation at phonetic level.92) Linguist

3、ic manipulation at lexical level.103) Linguistic manipulation at syntactic and discourse level133. Functions of pragmatic vagueness in advertising language.161) Increasing the attention value and memory value of the advertising language.162) Enhancing the flexibility of the advertising language.173)

4、 Improving the appropriateness of the advertising language.174) Condensing the advertising language.175) Creating rhetorical and aesthetical effects.18V. Conclusion.18References.18Abstract: Advertising is something that we are all exposed to almost every day. It is also something that is likely to a

5、ffect most of us in a number of different spheres of our lives. Advertising takes many forms, but in most of them language is of crucial importance. The wording of advertisements is, in most cases, carefully crafted to meet particular ends. Sometimes it is intended to inform, but more often, and mor

6、e importantly, to persuade and influence. In modern society, nobody is immune from advertising. We are affected, more or less, by advertising. It is worth wondering how advertising succeeds in grabbing our attention, arousing our curiosity and then triggering our action, and how we are influenced an

7、d persuaded gradually, unconsciously, but surely. This is just what the thesis tries to explore. Distinct from the precious researches on vague language, which are mainly interpretation-oriented, the present thesis has been conducted from the angle of language production. It views pragmatic vaguenes

8、s as a communicative strategy, which is carried out by the manipulation of vague language to achieve certain communicative goals. Key words: advertising language; pragmatic vagueness; analysis; function摘 要：广告无处不在，并且广告正在影响着我们的生活的方方面面。广告以很多形式出现，但是最为重要的便是广告语言。广告的措辞在很多情况下为了达到一定的目的往往是慎重而诡策的。一般而言，广告的作用是告知

9、，但更为重要的是劝说与影响。在当今社会中我们无人能够摆脱广告的影响。由此对于广告是如何吸引我们的眼球，激发我们的好奇心，并最终触发我们的行为，无意识的，是很值得研究的。与前人研究不同的是：我们的触发点是语言的产生。这种观点将语用模糊视为一种交际策略，通过语言的驾驭达到其交际的目的。关键词：广告语言；语用模糊；分析；功能I. IntroductionAdvertising is an important element of our culture because it reflects and attempts to change our lifestyles. New cultural tr

10、ends and fashions are first transmitted to the mass culture through advertisements. Without advertising, our newspapers, magazines, radio and television programming would be far different. Advertising takes many forms, but in most of them language is of crucial importance. The research on advertisin

11、g language had been greatly developed in recent years, but surprisingly few studies have been undertaken in vagueness in advertising language. We may believe that the basic percepts of good advertising are simplicity, brevity, accuracy, and precision, and that fuzziness, vagueness, imprecision and a

12、mbiguity should be avoided. However, many advertisements, which most people would think of as being good language use, contain a great deal of fuzziness or vagueness. In order to achieve their goals, advertisers exploit various linguistic devices to attract and hold the attention of audiences. With

13、the development of reform and opening up to, China has been coming into the world economy stream. We have to compete with the international economy. China has to reinforce its economy. Advertising, with its increasingly important role in todays business world, can be a very effective vehicle, when w

14、ell employed, for domestic companies to promote their sales and to build their images in the international market. There is an urgent need for the theoretical study of the language of advertising. Yet among the researchers studies on advertising few have touched the pragmatic application of vaguenes

15、s in advertising language. In the present thesis, pragmatic vagueness refers to a communicative strategy, which is carried out by the manipulation of vagueness language to achieve certain communicative goals. Vague language permeates our daily communication. It is also commonplace that it has come “

16、part of our taking-for-granted world.” (Channel, 1994:4) The use of language can be divided into two categories: non-motivated and highly motivated. If language producers are not equipped with adequate knowledge or linguistic ability concerning the related topics; or it is not necessary for them to

17、observe exactitude, then the vague language adopted by then is counted as non-motivated. While the latter refers to the cases in which language producers do not use vague language casually but rather intentionally.This thesis aims to introduce the theory of vagueness (fuzziness) and to analyze its p

18、ragmatic function in advertising language and identify the motives behinds the employment of the vehicle of vagueness. Distinct from the precious researches, which are mainly interpretation-oriented, the present thesis has been conducted from the angle of language production. It views pragmatic vagu

19、eness as a communicative strategy, which is carried out by the manipulation of vague language to achieve certain communicative goals. In addition, the newly-born Linguistic Adaptation Theory has been chosen as the leading theory in constructing the theoretical framework of the present thesis. In lin

20、e with this theory, the use of vague language is closely related to social, cultural, and even cognitive or psychological factors that influence the communicators. Therefore, the present thesis has adopted a dynamic and context-dependent approach along these dimensions and taken the shape of an addr

21、essor-based, addressee-oriented and adaptation-driven exploitation.II. Pragmatic Vagueness and Advertising LanguageAdvertising is defined by American Marketing Association as “the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services, or

22、 ideas by identified sponsors through various media.” (Ambler, 1998:501) According to Barthes (1984:224), “advertisement is generally made up of the linguist message, the coded iconic message and non-iconic message.” As a communicative device, advertising has its own specific situation. Vestergaard

23、and Schroder (1985) make a thorough analysis of the communicative situation of advertising. They propose that in the case of advertising, the addressor is the advertiser; the addressee is the audience; the meaning transmitted is about the products or services; the code is language, sound and some so

24、rt of visual code; the channel consisted of printed publications or TV media; and the context includes such features as the audiences total situation. In their opinion, advertising is both verbal and non-verbal, public and one-way communication, because advertising involves simultaneous use of langu

25、age and some other elements like music, color and sound. Meanwhile, it is a communicative process in which one communicator addresses to an anonymous public who can not answer her back. Thus it is a one-way communication.Since the ultimate purpose of advertising is to persuade people to buy the adve

26、rtised product or service, to attract attention, arouse interest, simulate desire, strengthen memory and get action naturally becomes the basic AIDMA Principle in advertisement making (Amble, 1998). As the main carrier of advertisement information, advertising language is then of vital importance in

27、 this AIDMA process. Besides as for the function of pragmatic vagueness, He Ziran (He Ziran，1990) sketches out its positive role and holds that pragmatic vagueness can make utterances more appropriate and more tactful in certain contexts. Similarly, Thomas (1995:143) also generalizes some functions

28、of pragmatic vagueness (which is termed as indirectness by Thomas) as follows“making ones language more/less interesting, increasing the force of ones message, handling competing goals, and being polite or face-saving”. In addition, Leech (1983:2324) maintains that “by leaving force unclear, s(peake

29、r) may leave h(earer) the opportunity to choose between one force and another, and thus leaves part of the responsibility of the meaning to h(earer)”. And Channell (1994:194) also provides the following functions“giving the right amount of information, deliberately withholding information, using lan

30、guage persuasively and self-protection”. Therefore, pragmatic vagueness is one of the strategies frequently resorted to by advertisers to increase the attention value, memory value and persuasive power in the finite time and space to the max. On the other hand, pragmatic vagueness can also enhance t

31、he flexibility, improve the appropriateness, condense the information, and create special communicative effects of an advertisement.III. Theoretical Framework of the ThesisThis part will present a brief introduction to the relevant theories so as to provide a theoretical support for the exploration

32、of the pragmatic vagueness in advertising. Different theories have their distinctive strong points and weak points. Therefore, in the present thesis three major pragmatic theories are supposed to construct the theoretical framework for our analysis of the pragmatic vagueness in advertising language.

33、 To be exact, they are Verschuerens Linguistic Adaptation Theory (LAT for short), Grices Theory of Conversational Implicature and Searles Indirect Speech Act Theory. However, these three theories play different roles in the present thesis. Verschuerens Linguistic Adaptation Theory is the backbone of

34、 the theoretical framework. The problems that the present thesis seeks to approach are dug out and settled with the enlightenment of this theory. While the other two theories mainly serve as the theoretical support when the detailed analyses are made pertaining to the concrete functioning of pragmat

35、ic vagueness in advertising language. 1. Verschuerens linguistic adaptation theory The theory is initiated, developed, and finally put forward by J. Verschueren, the secretary general of the International Pragmatic Association (IPrA). According to Verschuren (1999:6-7), “linguistic pragmatics studie

36、s peoples use of language, a form of behavior or social action.” Since language use is a form of social action, it must have a close relationship with cognitive, social and culture factors in human life. Hence, when the full complexity of linguistic behavior is scrutinized, neither society and cultu

37、re nor cognitive should be ignored.On the basis of his above insights, Verschueren advocates that pragmatics ought to be a general functional perspective instead of a component of linguistic theory, thus involve all sorts of social, cultural, and cognitive variables whenever a linguistic phenomenon

38、is studied from this angle. And the investigation topic of pragmatics is the meaningful functioning of language in actual use, as a complex form of behavior (or social action) that generates meaning. Verschueren (1997:7) further defines pragmatics as “a general cognitive, social, and cultural perspe

39、ctive on linguistic phenomenon in relation to their usage in forms of behavior.”Enlightened by evolutionary epistemology, Verschueren holds the opinion that “using language must consist of the continuous making of linguistic choices, consciously or unconsciously, for language-internal (i.e. structur

40、al) and /or language external reasons.” (Verschuren, 1999:5556) “Language is not a thing that leads an independent and unchanging life once it has been made. It requires constant adaptations to different purposes and circumstances of use.” (Verschueren, 1987:18) During the dynamic process of adjusti

41、ng to its surroundings, language is constantly selected and sifted out. In short terms, as Giles and Powesland (1975:114) have pointed out, “linguistic interaction can most be fruitfully be viewed as a process of decision-making, in which speakers select from a range of possible expressions”. As is

42、generally acknowledged, the same meaning may be expressed by diversified linguistic forms; on the other hand, the same linguistic form may also be interpreted in different ways due to the changing contextual factors. Therefore, for the purpose of successful communication, people are actually opting

43、for appropriate language forms continuously to achieve their communicative needs. The power of the Linguistic Adaptation Theory is mainly displayed by its proposal of the general functional or pragmatic (i.e. cognitive, social, and cultural) perspective for linguistic study and its revelation of the

44、 inner-adaptive character between linguistic structure and the context in which the former is used. The pragmatic perspective on language use may be conceived as “the study of the mechanisms and motivations behinds any of the choices made when using language (at any level of linguistic structure and

45、 in whatever contextual backgrounds) and the effects they have or are intended to have.”(Verschueren, 1987:36) Or phrasing it briefly, any research approached from the pragmatic perspective tries to find an answer to the question “what do people do when they using language?” The deliberate use of va

46、gue advertising language is from the perspective of language production. It tires to dig out the mechanism involved in the production of vague advertising language, and probe into the rules and effects of the use of vague language in advertising. According to the forgoing illustration, linguistic ch

47、oices originate from the language produces communicative needs, which prompt motivation in her mind. In order to realize the motivation, the language producer has to opt for an appropriate communicative strategy. Once the strategy is chosen, linguistic forms or structures are needed to put the strat

48、egy into action. In the process of carrying out the strategy, some contextual correlates are adapted to by linguistic structures and the functions of the strategy are performed in the meantime. Therefore, the general functional perspective on language use enables us to explore the research object in question from the cognitive, social, and cultural angels and conduct a rather dynamic rese