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1、英文广告模糊性的研究A Study of Fuzzinessin English AdvertisementsContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTSiContentiiAbstractiv摘 要v1. Introduction12. Literature Review22.1 Definition of Advertising22.2 Features of Advertising Language33. Introduction to Fuzzy Language73.1 Fuzzy Language73.2 Functions of Fuzzy Language in Adver
2、tisements94. Four analyses of Fuzziness in English Advertisements114.1 Fuzziness at Phonetic Level114.1.1 Pun114.1.2 Spelling Variation134.2 Fuzziness at Lexical Level144.2.1 Adjectives144.2.2 Verbs154.2.3 Numerals and Quantifiers174.2.4 Hedges174.3 Fuzziness at Syntactic Level194.3.1 Indirect Speec
3、h194.3.2 Ellipsis204.3.3 Disjunctive Sentence214.4 Fuzziness from Pragmatic Perspective224.4.1 Fuzziness and Cooperative Principle224.4.2 Fuzziness and Politeness Principle265. Conclusion31BibliographAbstractThis paper focuses on the application of vague language in advertising which is viewed as a
4、persuading strategy by advertisers. After a brief introduction of advertising, features of advertisements, fuzzy language, the thesis analyzes the function and application of fuzziness in English advertisement from a linguistic perspective. Through the study, we found that English advertisements are
5、 fraught with fuzzy expressions indeed. Fuzzy languages are applied in advertisements in a flexible way, which not only adds beauty to advertisements but also promotes the sale and swiftly transmits business messages. In recent years, the research of advertisement English has made the very big progr
6、ess. However, it is as if insufficient to understand its fuzziness in the former research. And it is also one of reasons to present the paper. This research is for the purpose of giving the certain enlightenment to the advertisement editor and the consumer; therefore it has the widespread practical
7、significance. As the adman, we must be good at grasping the fuzzy criterion of the language, thus attracting general expense communitys attention to the greatest degree within the limited length and the limited time, increasing the advertisement power, displaying the best commercial function of adve
8、rtisement language. For the populace who expended, understanding the fuzziness of the advertisement language could cause them understand the charm of the advertisement language so well that they can make the correct choice promptly at the same time. Key words: English advertisement; fuzziness; fuzzy
9、 language摘 要本文关注的是被广告人视为劝导手段的模糊语言在广告中的应用情况。在简要介绍了广告，广告特点，模糊语言后，论文从语言学的角度对模糊语言在英文广告中的应用和功能进行了探讨。通过研究, 我们发现英文广告中确实存在着大量的模糊表达。而模糊语言的灵活运用不但为广告本身增色，而且达到了促进商品销售和迅速传递商业信息的功能。近年来，英文广告的研究取得了很大的进步，然而，以往的研究对其模糊性的认识似乎不够，这也是做本论文的缘由之一。该研究旨在对广告编写者和消费者给以一定的启示，有着广泛的现实意义。作为广告人，要善于把握好语言的模糊尺度，从而在有限的篇幅和有限的时间内最大程度地吸引广大消费
10、群体的注意力，增加广告感染力，发挥广告语言的最佳商业功能。对于消费大众来说，了解广告语言的模糊性，能使他们在更好地领略广告语言魅力的同时，及时地做出正确的选择。关键词：英文广告； 模糊性；模糊语言321. IntroductionIn modern society, advertising is becoming an indispensable part day by day. It is a systematic effort to influence peoples opinion, to win them over a certain view or side. Undoubtedly
11、, the study of advertising language is of great importance. The research on advertising language had been developed in recent years, but surprisingly few studies have been undertaken in vagueness in advertising. If we compare a market to a battlefield, thus advertising is one of powerful vehicles in
12、 this fierce competition. With the development of reform and opening up to the world, China is more and more integrated with the world economy and the rapid development of globalization. Against the background that advertising in China to some extent remains lagging behind the west in both physical
13、attraction and persuasiveness. Thorough and theoretical studies on successful western advertising are urgently needed to help improve both the understanding and designing of successful advertisements.This study aims to introduce fuzziness (vagueness), analyze its application in advertising language
14、and identify the motives behind the employment of the vehicle of vagueness. The purpose of this paper is to draw peoples attention to the application of vagueness in advertising and equip people with better manipulation of vagueness in advertising so as to make advertisers produce more successful ad
15、vertisements. After learning this paper advertisers may understand how to meet consumers needs of satisfaction and the social recognition by means of effective linguistic productions in a comparatively constrained space. 2. Literature Review2.1 Definition of AdvertisingAdvertising is the life of tra
16、de.Day by day advertising is having a greater influence over the formation of the mass production and consumption economy in modern society. Advertisements have been inseparable from our daily life. But what is advertising? What are the features of advertising? These are the questions of which we mu
17、st have a good idea before we proceed to carry out an analysis on fuzziness in advertising English.In English, the word “advertise” has its origin in “advertere” in Latin, meaning “a means used to draw attention from the public to something and lead them to some direction.” (Cook, 2001:100)The defin
18、ition of advertising are various. Many people defined the word differently as the nature of advertising keeps changing all the time.Once around the turn of the 20th century, Ablbert Lasker, the father of modern advertising, defined it as the “salesmanship in print, driven by a reason why”. He gave s
19、uch meaning because at that time the availability of radio and television was quite limitedprint media were commonly used, as they were accessible to most people. (Zhang, 2005:2)American Marketing Association(AMA) defines it as “Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information usually pai
20、d for and usually persuasive in nature about products, survices or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media”.(Wang, 2004:7)From those statements, we may have a better understanding of advertising. In general, We may conclude the following items an advertisment must need.1) Advertisemen
21、ts are intended for all the customers, not for a single and particular person.2) Advertisements convey the information on either products or services. At the same time, advertisements can be used in some noncommercial areaseconomic, political, religious and so on.3) The various media are the non-per
22、sonal channels of communication that people have inverted and used and continue to use. These include newspapers, magazines, radios, televisions, billboards, the internet, transit cards sandwich boards, skywriting, anything that helps communicating in a non-personal way ideas from one person to anot
23、her, or one group to another .4) Advertising is sponsered by identified sponsors or groups to achieve a specified aim. The basic purpose of advertisements is to identify and differentiate one product from another in order to persuade consumers to buy that product in preference to another and the cos
24、ts of advertisements must be paid for. However, there are some advertisements, they are not for obtaining profits, and the costs of them dont have to pay. For example, the advetisements of SARS.Generanlly speaking, the key goal of advertising is to sell. Therefore, in order to make an advertisement
25、attractive and effective, the language of advertising plays a more and more important role. The following part will introduce some features of advertising language.2.2 Features of Advertising LanguageAdvertising is a form of communication and language is our most important vehicle of communication.
26、All communication relies on some communication principle that nothing would be said unless there was some reason for saying it. The objective of the advertising is to promote the sale, without this knowledge the advertisement is not understandable. Therefore, advertising should tell its audiences th
27、e benefits of a product, that is, the advertising should state, implicitly or explicitly, why the product is beneficial for the consumer, why the product is worth buying, or what the consumer can get from it. In the case of advertising, space and time are costly, thus the wording is cautiously weigh
28、ed to satisfy peculiar needs.According to Bolen, advertisements have the following qualities: being believable, simple and readable and advertisers need to make selective use of clichs and superlatives, and achieve positive, widely understood connotations. Perfect advertisements must have large powe
29、r: people will read by stopping their steps; they make cheerful promises, which fulfill one of their essential functions of persuasion; they create affirmative feelings, stimulating desires that, it is hoped, will persuade the reader of the advertisement to purchase the product; and they are distinc
30、t. (Bolen, 1981:192-193)Generally speaking, there are four distinct characteristics of advertising:Attractive Advertising aims to sell products, but there are many difficulties to fulfill this objective. Consumers like to watch TV or listen to audio not because of its advertising, but because of its
31、 brightly attractive programs. Copywriters try their best to make the advertisements noticed. If the advertisements capture our attention in the first place, they are successful. The creative advertisers are well aware that every outstanding advertisement needs an effective strategy based on some st
32、riking concept. Of course the concept is often developed only after carefully considered decisions. That is to say, they live on language.Once our attention has been captured, the advertisement should also convince us that the subject of this particular advertisement is of great interest to us. Then
33、 it has to convince the audience that the product would meet his content, which he never felt in the past days. At last, it is not enough that the prospective consumer should feel a need for the product in general; the advertisement must convince him that the particular brand advertised has some qua
34、lities, which make it superior to other similar brands. Furthermore, an ideal advertisement should be constructed in such a way that as much as possible of its message will get across even to the audience who merely notices it but decides not to watch or read it. To fulfill these targets, language i
35、s undoubtedly crucial.Identifiable The advertiser will take us to identify their products after we are attracted. The copywriters spare no efforts to make a connection between famous people or well-known symbols and us. People have the desire to associate with successful people. The advertisers gras
36、p this human distinct to make successful advertisements. Therefore, if we buy the goods or services as the famous ones, we can benefit a lot. In fact, symbols are efficient, persuasive and powerful in advertisements, not because they carry meanings of their own, but because we endow a meaning to the
37、m. The difference between language of advertising and other languages lies in that we are participators in it. We have the same culture and knowledge with the copywriters.Simple Simple sentences will make readers comfortable while complex sentences will make them tired. So advertisers will not emplo
38、y a wide vocabulary in an advertisement to attract consumers attention. Consumers usually have confidence in advertising messages that they often see. In other words, consumers can easily understand the meaning rather than waste a lot of time to assume. Simple but powerful language mould many succes
39、sful advertisements, such as Adidas, Philips, etc. All in all, simplicity is so of great importance in English advertisements that any complex expressions should be shunned.Fuzziness Over the years, the advertising language has frequently changed. In modern society, competitive markets make the sell
40、ers and the copywriters of the products do more efforts in advertising language. More and more fuzzy words are adopted in advertisements. It is generally believed that the basic percepts of good advertising writing are simplicity, brevity, accuracy and precision, and that fuzziness, vagueness, impre
41、cision and ambiguity should be avoided, for example, Partridge in his Usage and Abusage say:The ideal at which a writer should aim,-admittedly it is impossible of attainment, is that he writes so clearly, so precisely, so unambiguously, that his words can bear only one meaning to all averagely intel
42、ligent readers that possess an average of the language used.(1947:372)However, this is rather too simple a view. Many advertisements, which most people think of as being “good” language use, contain a good deal of fuzziness or vagueness. In order to achieve their ultimate goalto sell the products, c
43、opywriters exploit various linguistic devices to attract and hold the attention of audiences. Fuzziness prevails more and more in modern English advertisements, the following chapter will introduce something about it in a detail way.3. Introduction to Fuzzy LanguageIt is generally believed that the
44、research on advertising language has greatly developed in recent years, but surprisingly few studies have been undertaken in fuzziness in advertising. Most researchers focus on language precision while ignoring fuzziness in advertising. Even most native English speakers are not particularly aware of
45、 the frequency of fuzzy language use in advertisements. Thus, the study of fuzzy expressions in advertisements is of crucial importance.3.1 Fuzzy LanguageWhen different experts study the same academic domin, they may define a term by using different words. “Fuzzy”and “vague” are used here to denote
46、something not clearly expressed or inexpicit. That is to say, some people use the term fuzzy language, while others prefer vague language. We cant say which is more correct than the other, because both of them are alright to be employed.In this chapter, several concepts of fuzzy language are present
47、ed by outlining some former methods to it. New ideas about vagueness in language use and meaning has been proposed in a great many of disciplines: literrary criticism, lingustics, psychoulogy, philosophy. Now vague have been existed widely in language use, and a full theory of language must include
48、vagueness as whole ingredient.Pierce is often considered as the originator of the notion of vagueness in language. He was perhaps the first to try to formulate the notion in a rigorous way, as follows:A proposition is vague where there are possible states of things concerning which it is intrinsical
49、ly uncertain whether, had they been contemplated by the speaker, he would have regarded them excluded of allowed by the proposition. By intrinsically uncertain we mean not uncertain in consequence of any ignorance of the interpreter, but because the speakers habits of language were indeterminate; so