A Linguistic Study of Extreme Word in Slogans in English teaching英语专业毕业论文.doc

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1、A Linguistic Study of Extreme Word in Slogans in English teaching Abstract: The present thesis studies the use of extreme words in English slogans in English teaching. Altogether 152 slogans are collected containing extreme words. It is noticed that superlative forms are the most favourite extreme w

2、ords in the advertising slogans.The pragmatic effects of these words are analyzed from the perspective of the Cooperative Principle Theory. It is found that almost slogans with these extreme words definitely violates quality maxim. Basing on the flouting of quality maxim in the slogans, the rest of

3、maxims violate more frequently to achieve various outcomes.Keywords: extreme word, advertising slogan,cooperative principle, pragmatic effect摘 要:本文研究了极端词语在英语教学中的使用及其效果。共搜集了152条相关语例。我们发现形容词最高级在英语广告标语中最受欢迎。大多数的极端词语一旦出现在广告标语就违反了合作原则中的质原则，在违反质原则的基础上又出现了量准则及关联原则的违反，在课堂上对标语的使用给学生带来丰富的语用效果。关键词：极端词语；广告标语；英语

4、教学；合作原则；语用效果20 A Linguistic Study of Extreme Word in Slogans in English teaching1. Introduction1.1 The issue There have been amounts of linguistic research on advertising language, including both advertising texts (e.g., 程晓丽 2008) and advertising slogans (e.g., 裴燕萍2007). 程晓丽 (2008) reveals how inter

5、personal meaning is realized in English advertising discourse from four aspects (person, mood, modality and evaluation) while裴燕萍(2007) illustrates in what occasion puns should be used in advertising slogans. Most of these studies aim to describe the linguistic features of and linguistic devices used

6、 in advertising, as well as the pragmatic effect they help to achieve. Another group of research attempts to solve problems in translation from English advertising slogans to Chinese or vice versa. For instance, 蒋磊(2002) argues that a pragmatic equivalence and failure in advertising translation are

7、due to influences of cultural differences between Chinese and English. Although many insights have obtained about linguistic devices in the advertising language, relatively few have focused on particular ones. 曾美菜（2008）is one of the few attempts, which addresses the use of person deixis in Chinese a

8、nd English advertising slogans. This thesis aims to discuss the use of another linguistic device, namely, the extreme words, in English advertising slogans. We will look into this issue from both the semantic and pragmatic perspective.1.2 Advertising Slogan With spreading swiftly in recent years, ad

9、vertising slogans can be found on wrappings, bottles, buses, television, inter net and in any place imaginable. The impact of advertising slogans is regarded as “a form of emotional blackmail” and “an exploitation of human inadequacies” (钱瑗:2006: 220) There are abundant descriptions to define advert

10、ising slogans.In Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary of American English (2007), advertising slogans are short phrases which are used frequently in advertisement to attract public attention. This definition highlights advertisement and slogans function as the most effective means of drawing attentio

11、n to one or more aspects of a product(Wikipedia). To emphasize a phrase that the company wishes to be remembered by can surely be its purpose, particularly for marketing a specific corporate image or connection to a product or consumer base(Wikipedia). Another definition provided by The American Her

12、itage Dictionary of the English Language is that the appearance of slogans exerts subtle influence on our daily lives as a phrase used repeatedly, as in advertising or promotion”. In Margaret Sanger words, “all the slogans and shibboleths coined out of the ideals of the peoples for the uses of imper

13、ialism. Inevitably, the implicit meaning of slogans, decided by advertisers as “hidden persuaders” (Qian:2006: 220), “is to buy the advertised product or to behave in the way as suggested by the admen is tantamount to an acquisition of a status symbol, an access to a prestigious social circle, a rel

14、ief from hidden anxieties, or the realization of ones ideal life style.”(Qian: 2006:219) English advertising slogans, as “loaded language”, have “persuasive power”. To be popular in advertising, slogans should have “memory value” which impress people and have certain characteristics. “Attention valu

15、e” and “readability” are realized through lexical and grammatical devices. (Qin 1992:200) Popular slogans are “marked by a wealth of adjective vocabulary”. (Xu:2004:122) In terms of lexical features, a large number of adjectives are being used to beautify advertising slogans. When we analyze collect

16、ed data of slogans, it is easy to see that most of adjectives are belong to “evaluative adjectives”, such as marvelous, wonderful, excellent, ever-lasting, particular refreshing, etc. Yet this kind of adjectives usually turns into superlative form in slogans, because comparing ones product with othe

17、rs can highlight particular features which are distinguished from others. Hence, adjectives of comparative forms are also frequently applied in advertising.(e.g.Taste richermellower. more satisfying.- -REAL cigarettes). Secondly, certain phrases which emphasizes their implicit meanings, (e.g.no othe

18、r, not.anymore) are normally applied to make context more powerful.(e.g. Theres no taste like Stones - Stones Bitter). Last but not least, creative words in slogan can also attract publics attentions such as blended words like Stimulotion(=stimulating +lotion) in this ads (e.g.Stimulotion for refres

19、hing and stimulating). Sometimes a purposely misspelled word can be outstanding and interesting.(e.g.We know Eggsactly how to sell Eggs). Besides, certain prefixes and suffixes are also frequently used in English advertising slogans such as Rolex (watch), Kleenex (tissue). Imperatives receive great

20、attention for its power on persuading customers to buy product. (e.g.Say Yes to Electrolux-cleaner, better, faster!”-Electrolux vacuum cleaner). Besides, abbreviated sentences also exert the same influence as imperatives do. They not only meet contexts demands but also make key words outstanding.(e.

21、g. Make it Mild Smoke. Mild seven, smooth, rich, rewarding.-Mild Seven Cigarettes Japan) From the rhetorical perspective, hyperbole is also applied frequently in slogans. In other word, it is impossible to find out the saying about “small egg” in American advertising but “medium, large, extra large,

22、 jumbo”. Apart from hyperbole, there are some other rhetoric device. For example, punning is the common tool to make slogans sound more original and persuasive. (e.g. Because Sony knows Beta -Sony Beta Video tapes) 1.3 Linguistic devices in advertising slogans Linguistic devices are claimed as a dec

23、isive factor in forming advertising slogan.（Qin:1992:200） There are amounts of devices, fully revealing how plain words can be turned into an interesting slogan linguistically. Firstly, Graphological devices are largely used to draw attention by misspelling words deliberately. (e.g.Coooooool. A fabu

24、lous sort-of-soft drink thats light with .), using exclamation marks (e.g.Hey Chief! Save Marts done it again! Just look at these prices!) And punctuating with dashes, full stops, etc (e.g.Automatic focus lets you take this picture .easily. Only POLAROID lets you see it .INSTANLTY.) Syntactic device

25、s are also used to sparkle slogans. For instance, directive imperative are used to prompt actions like “Save time and temper. (e.g.Use Schiphol. - Schiphol pain relief), decent usage of present time is to suggest timelessness. (e.g. Persil washes whiter and it showsPersil detergent) Superlative or u

26、nqualified comparatives adjectives are also favourite expressions to indicate superb or unparallelled quality. When it comes to lexical devices, there are evaluative adjectives (extra, fresh, special, great.), technical terms (e.g.WAFEX is your best aid to slimming), improvised adjectival structures

27、 to stress the uniqueness (the refreshest cigarettes), pronouns (no, none ,nothing) and adverbs (always). Extreme words in slogans is also one lexical devices. Extreme expressions can be either semantic or pragmatic. Semantically, certain words may have an inherent extreme meaning. But other words m

28、ay not express such extreme meanings until they are used in contexts. This leads to the contextual meanings of words. (e.g.It wasnt even about basketball any more.-adidas). From the literal meaning, anymore have nothing to do with extremity, but the collocation with not” makes the whole expressionex

29、treme which implies that adidas plays the same role as basketball does.1.4 Definition of Extreme Word Extreme words, as the term implies, have to be biased enough. They have great influences in human communication, especially advertising. As Savan (2006:11) states, they convey more attitude than lit

30、eral meaning, pulse with a sense of an invisible chorus speaking it, too. When properly reflected, pull attention and probably consensus, its way”. However, this explanation seems different to us because it is too profound. While the definition from Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary of American En

31、glish (2007) is comparatively easier to comprehend: an extreme word is an expression to describe the situation and behavior or political movements which you disapprove of because they are very different from those that most people would accept as reasonable or normal. It is not easy to define extrem

32、e word. Hardly can its appropriate explanation be found in dictionaries, so definitions of extreme” are taken into account first to describe extreme word. Mostly, extreme words are understood with a meaning far beyond what is considered normal on U like (most, best, drastic, impossible, etc).Actuall

33、y, not only those words, involving great degree or intensity, can be extreme words, but certain words without semantically extreme meaning can also like extreme words in certain context. For example, only”, has various explanations in Longman English Dictionary of Contemporary: not more than a parti

34、cular amount, number, age or no one except when being adverb; the one single thing, person, etc, that there is when there are no others .These explanations seem unable to relate only to an extreme word. However, in my collection of English advertising slogans, it is not surprising to define the term

35、 only as as a word of extremity when it is put into certain contexts. (e.g.It can only be HeinekenHeineken. Just like a chocolate milkshake, only crunchy-Coco Pops Kelloggs). The cognitive basis of extreme words may be related to opposition in human life. Opposites exist in various relationship betw

36、een entities, states and actions, for example, DAY/NIGHT, TALL/SHORT, BLACK/WHITE, MALE/FEMALE, ALIVE/DEAD. These opposites include three types: complementary (alive/dead), reversal (above/below), gradable (black/ white). A set of gradable opposite are often used as extreme words such as: None/All,

37、Every/No, Nobody/Everybody, Best/Worst, Nothing/Everything Additionally, gradable opposite are reflected in quality as comparisons, which may serve to differentiate gradable opposite from other types of opposites. e.g. BLACK vs WHITE (GREY may be somewhere in the middle). black whitediagram1 GreyIn

38、the same way, many pairs of opposites in extreme words can be leading to the polarity, which interprets degrees of quality involved as follows. E.g. Best/Worst, All/None best worst diagram2 Excellent, Better, good, not bad, ok, not good, bad, worse, terrible All nonediagram3 most, more, quite a few,

39、 some, not a few, a few, few, fewer Base on the above, a working definition of extreme words may be :they are phrases or expressions with a reference to polarity of a certain gradable scale. 1.5 Organization of the thesis The thesis contains four parts. The first part introduces the topic of researc

40、h, presents critical reviews of advertising slogans and linguistic devices and gives a working definition of extreme words. The organization of the thesis is presented in this part as well. Part two is devoted to the categorization and pragmatic effects of extreme , including the context to which th

41、ey are applied and cooperative maxims they violate. Part three is a case analysis of extreme words in Coca-Cola advertising slogans using speech act theory and cooperative principle. The last part gives a summary of the main points developed in this thesis, and some limitations are also given for fu

42、rther studies.2. A pragmatic analysis of extreme words 2.1 Data collection Altogether 152 slogans are collected, which are were taken from slogans websites(http:/www.corpus4u.org/showthread.php?t=327, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_slogans,en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mcdonalds), a book called Pragmatic S

43、trategy, semantic and pragmatics and advertisement, magazines like Cosmopolitan nov2007, Economist March April May 2008. The Coca-Cola slogans (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_slogans) are analyzed in a case study to get a deeper understanding of the pragmatic effect of extreme words in advertising

44、slogans. 2.2 Categorization of Extreme Word Extreme words in slogan collected may be classified according to word class, that is, pronoun, adverb and adjective. There are two types of extreme pronouns, one is exclusive and the other is inclusive. Exclusive Pronouns to pronoun including none, nothing

45、, nobody. For example: Nobody Can Do It Like McDonalds Can. (1979 McDonald) Impossible is nothing adidas, TBWA (2008) Nobody makes your day like McDonalds can (1980-1983) Theres nothing quite like a McDonalds (1988-1990) Inclusive pronouns include examples such as all, everyone, everything, etc. Exa

46、mples are as follows: We cook it all for you at McDonalds (1982, concurrent with 1980 slogans) All because the lady loves Milk Tray - Cadburys Milk Tray chocolates, 1970s All the news thats fit to print.” The New York Times, 1896, Direct Everyone loves my Cocoa Krispies - Kelloggs ( in the late 80s

47、/ early 90s! Everything you always wanted in a beer. And less. (Lite) When it comes to adverbs, there are several words which appeares frequently in slogans such as always, best, most, wherever, whatever ,all, etc. The following are some of the examples: Always Coca Cola. (1990s) Theres always room for J-E-L-L-O, Jell-O (1950s) Whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you maybe, when you think of refreshment, think of ice-cold Coca-Cola. (1939) Wherever you see an arro