河南理工大学本科生毕业论文

广告文体的特色
—论广告语中的句法和修辞

院 系：外国语学院
专 业：英语
班 级：07-2 班
姓 名：杨莎莎
学 号：310714010219
指导教师：王敏霞

2010 年 10 月 29 日
Characteristics of Advertising stylistics
—Syntactic and Rhetorical Features in Adverting

A Thesis Submitted
To School of Foreign Studies of
Henan Polytechnic University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

By
Yang Shasha
Supervisor: Wang Minxia

October 29, 2010

 Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt gratitude to those who have
helped me all the way to make this paper possible.
My sincere thanks first to my supervisor professor , for him(her)enlightening lectures ,for his
careful revision and critical comments ,for his generous guidance and continuous
encouragements .Without his patience and efforts ,the paper would be impossible .
I also owe an enormous debt to the teaching and working faculty of school of Foreign studies
for their help and instructions during my four-year study in Henan Polytechnic University. And I
appreciate a lot to the writers listed in references for their valuable ideas and information.
My classmates also offered their timely help whenever I needed in the course of my writing
this paper, and here I would like to give my thanks to them as well

Ⅰ
 摘要
广告的历史可以追溯到公元前 3000 年以前，几乎在每一个古代文明中都能
见到广告以不同的形式存在。随着经济的飞速发展，在二十世纪的最近二十年，
越来越多的跨国公司把目标从国内市场转移到国际市场。这种经济全球化的趋势
也给中国的广告业带来了契机。因此中英广告翻译在实践和理论研究上凸显出了
其重要性。广告是沟通消费者与产品的桥梁，所以好的广告应与众不同﹑抢人眼
球。因此在这篇论文中笔者将谈论一些广告中的句法和修辞特色。同时举例说明
新奇的句法和修辞将会给广告带来哪些意想不到的惊人之处。

关键词： 广告﹑句法﹑修辞
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Abstract
The history of advertising could be traced back to as early as 3000 B.C. In nearly every
ancient civilization, advertisements could be seen in one form or another. As the fast development
of the economy, from the last two decades of the twentieth century, more and more multinational
companies have shifted the focus of their attention from the domestic market to the foreign ones.
This trend of economic globalization has brought dramatic changes to the Chinese advertising
industry. Thus the advertising translation between English and Chinese has been gaining
significance in the practice and translation studies as well. Advertisement is a bridge connecting
the readers and products. So a good advertisement should be distinctive and attractive. In this
thesis the writer will talk about the syntactic and rhetorical features used in advertisement. At the
same time, the author will give some examples to illustrate what unexpected result will be taken
by using of distinctive Syntax and Rhetoric.
Key words: Advertising﹑Syntax﹑Rhetoric.
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Table of Content
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….Ⅰ
摘要……………………………………………………………………………………….Ⅱ
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………Ⅲ
Table of Contents…............................................................................................................Ⅳ
Chapter1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………...1
Chapter2 Syntactic Features in Advertisement……………………………….....................3
2.1 “Imperative sentence”…………………………………………………….……3
2.2“Interrogative sentence”…………………………………………….…............3
2.3“ Ellipsis sentence”…………………………………………………….............3
Chapter3 Rhetorical Features in Advertisement…………………………………..…….….4
3.1“Pun”……………………………………………………………….....................4
3.2“Personification”…………………………………………………….….…..….. 4
3.3“Metaphor”…………………………………………………………….….…..…5
Chapter4Conclusion………………………………………………………….….………..…6
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..…..……7
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Chapter 1 Introduction
According to the Definition Committee of American Marketing Association( 方薇, 1997:2),
advertising is defined as follows: Advertising is the nonperson communication of information
usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified
sponsors through the various media. In English, the word” advertisement” originated from the
Latin word“ adventure” which meant“ to call loudly so as to attract or lead people’s attention”. In
Chinese, the term“ 广 告 ” is made up of two Chinese characters“ 广 ” and“ 告 ” . The
character“ 广 ” means“ widely”,“ further ” or“ extensively” and the character“ 告 ” means “to tell”
or“ to announce”. Thus, “ 广告 ” the combination of two characters means to widely announce. In
this sense, it is equivalent to“advertising”.
We live in a world of advertising. As potential consumers, we are endlessly bombarded with
all kinds of product or service information from various media including newspapers, magazines,
television, radio, posters and Internet, etc. Advertising provides a valuable service to society and
its members, because it defines for consumers the meaning and the role of products, services, and
institutions. It indicates the difference that exists between brands of products and alternative
services, as well as the distinguishing characteristics of companies and institutions. Advertising
also tells the consumer what a specific product, brand or service should do when it is used and
thus helps him or her to understand and evaluate experience with the products and services that he
or she uses. On the other hand, by making people aware of products, service and ideas, advertising
promotes sales and profits. Finally, advertising is one of the major forces that are helping improve
the standard of living around the world. Combined with all these communicational, marketing and
social functions, Advertising becomes indispensable in the modern world
Naturally, advertisements in English have become an important means of communicating
ideas, demonstrating a variety of linguistic features of its own. The present study attempts to
examine the syntactic and rhetorical features of advertisement language, in the hope of offering
help to advertisement writers and language learners. Advertisements can be divided into two
types: public relation ads and commercial ads. The former tries to advocate reputation for a social
group, whose purpose is to leave a favorable impression upon the potential audience. The latter
leads to the act that purchase the products or use the recommended service. Commercial ads are
much more presented through mass media for the reason that manufacturers and companies are
willing to spend a large sum of money to make a certain product known or to boost the image of a
certain brand. In some cases, competitors, like Coca-cola and Pepsi, even spare no expense to
launch advertising campaigns to win over the market share. Commercial advertising can also be
divided according to the target audience into two groups: consumer advertising and business
advertising. Most of the ads in the mass media are consumer advertisements. They are typically
directed at consumers. By contrast, business advertising tends to be concentrated in specialized
business publications, professional journals, trade shows targeting at a certain group of people
involved in some business. Since consumer advertising is most accessible to common people, the
present study on will focus on consumer advertising.
Usually, advertising communicates information in three types: audio, visual, and language. It
is a more common case that an advertisement is a mixture of the three. In radio advertisements,
music is always accompanied by language; on TV and motion pictures, music and language
1
illustration are mixed with each other. In magazines and newspapers, advertisements are the
combination of pictures and language of written information. Although music and pictures can
provide some hints, or create a kind of atmosphere, the information about the product is limited.
Even worse, it may lead to misunderstanding. Thus, we may say that language in a way provides
more exact, detailed and dependable information whereas music and pictures only act as a
supplementary means in advertising. Advertising language, playing a role of communication and
persuasion, has developed its own features.
As a marketing tool, there are mainly five functions of advertisement .They are Informative
function, vocative function, social function, educational function and aesthetic function.
This paper will focus on the language features of English advertisements about syntax and
rhetoric. It is hoped, by a contrastive study of Imperative sentence, Interrogative sentence and
Ellipsis sentence giving the reader a different feeling. The rhetorical features such as simile,
metaphor, pun, parody and personification will be summarized and possible reasons will be given
in the light of the function and advantages.
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Chapter2 Syntactic Features in Advertisement

Syntax refers to the study of each part of the sentence, and their permutation order. The object
of study is the sentence. Now, let’s look at the following sentences.
2.1 “Imperative sentence”
Imperative sentence, a kind of direct exhortations, has a meaning of requiring or commanding,
which is desirable in advertising English to persuade people to buy some products or accept some
ideas. Such as “ Have a Pepsi Day ”（祝君天天百事乐）. “Fresh up with Seven-up ”(七喜在手，
清爽常有). This simple sentence is so friendly and convictive. The next sentence“Our sandalwood
soap not only possesses all the merits sandalwood soaps may have, but also does no harm
whatever to your skin. Just try it, and you will see our sincere recommendation is rather
convincing. ”From this sentence we can see the choice of words in advertising is very cautious
and skillful. The aim of the advertiser is quite specific. He wishes to capture the attention of the
members of a mass audience and by means of impressive words to persuade them to buy a product
or behave in a particular way. Both linguistic and psychological aspects are taken into
consideration in the choice of words, Sharing the same purpose of advertising－to familiarize or
remind consumers of the benefits of particular products in the hope of increasing sales.

2.2“ Interrogative sentence”

Interrogative sentence in advertising English are capable of evoking consumers’ curiosity and
consequently their responses to the advertising. Consumers may desire to get the answer and
finish the whole advertisement themselves. For example:
Don’t have much of a personality? Buy one. (Honda Motor)
By tomorrow, another country. And another change in your itinerary. Will someone
understand English?
Yes. At the next stop are American Express people.
They are also at 17,000 other travel locations around the world.
Something bankcards do not have, You are not surprise.(英汉互译理论与实践)[张燕青，席
东 编 ] .This sentence may be a little long, but from every word you can see the purpose of
persuade. Or, do you want to by some Chinese native products? It seems that you have to give a
reply-yes. This is the function of Interrogative sentence.
In accomplishing the persuasive function in advertising, active voice is generally adopted. In
some sense, passive voice is to state“fact” while active voice is to express“emotion”. By using
active voice the advertiser will find it easier to establish a seemingly“intimate”relation with the
readers.

2.3“ Ellipsis sentence”

Ellipsis is a rhetorical tactics to avoid repetition, Outstand new information to make the
context is closely connected. For example: Corns gone in five days, or money back. (Medicine).
More than a timepiece. An acquisition ( piagit Watch). Refreshment, 65 million times a day. (Coca
Cola). These sentences are short and brief. It can be remembered quickly. So short is an
advantage.
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Chapter3 Rhetorical Features in Advertisement

Figure of speech is the most active factor in all the human languages. The biggest merit of
rhetorical devices used in advertising is to establish connection between abstract ideas or qualities
of the advertised product and easy-to-understand ideas. Rhetorical is the art of using words in
speaking or writing, persuading or influencing others by the use of figures of speech. Since
advertising language should be impressive, attractive and convincing, there many rhetorical
devices applied to the advertisement which bring beauty to advertisement language, simile
metaphor, personification, hyperbole, pun and parody visual beauty and repetition, rhyme and
Palindrome musical beauty . In this way, the advertisements become more vivid and attractive.
The followings are widely-used rhetorical device in advertising.

3.1 Pun
Make pun and alliteration Pun is an amusing use of a word or phrase that has two
meanings which is called Plessey or of words with the same sound but different meanings which is
called Homonymy. Pun, the game of words, will leave a deep impression on readers by its
readability, wit, and humor. However, to make a successful and impressive pun is not easy. Except
for its own meaning, the word used as a pun is usually closely related to the characteristics of a
certain product or the brand name of the product. Such coincidence doesn’t occur often. Here we
present several classic pun- used advertisements.
For example: Ask for more. (More is a famous brand of cigarette). Ask for More. No cigarette
gives me More taste. I'm More satisfied. (再多来点摩尔牌香烟吧,它给予我独特的品位,我更满意摩尔牌香烟.)
Here, on the one hand, More is famous brand, on the other hand. (More) for adjectives to embellish taste (both
"taste, feel" of righteousness, have again "taste" of righteousness), and also an adverbs to modify satisfied
(satisfaction). Advertisements will be easily remembered by the readers. In addition, filled with wit
and humor, puns help the advertised product win favor from readers. Such as “The unique Spirit
of Canada”. Another example Spoil yourself and not your figure. (尽情地吃吧,不会损坏你的体形.) This is
the AD title of" Weight - Watcher" (diet) ice cream ..."Spoil oneself" means" enjoy oneself to one's heart's
content" . That’s "尽兴", in Chinese. While "spoil one's figure" means “destroy your figure”. This kind
of ice cream is produced for diet dieters, by using pun; the diet can accept the product naturally in
easy humor tone.
3.2 Personification
Personification is a kind of rhetorical device that describes things or other creatures as human
beings. This kind of rhetoric device gives life to the products. So that it becomes friendly, gives
consumers the feeling of tenderness. By comparing lifeless objects to thinking beings,
personification can make any product familiar and accessible to the average people.
For example, Oscar de La Renta knows what makes a woman beautiful. Oscar de La Renta (深知女人的美
食 之 道 ). Oscar de La Renta is the band of Woman cosmetics. Advertising authors do not tell the product
advantages explicitly, but use the personification to propaganda, it is apparently attractive to the lady with love
beautiful heart. Another example, Every time we race, you win. (Yamaha 电子琴),,(每场比赛，场场必胜). It will
give you a feeling that the keyboard is a comrades, it will encourage you and give you a hand.
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3.3 Metaphor
Metaphor is a common rhetorical tactics in business advertisement, It includes simile,
metaphor and metonymy all together, etc. the use of metaphor device can make the things you
described more vivid and easy for people to accept.Simile is a kind of rhetorical device that a
word or phrase that compares sth to sth else, using the words “like”or “as”,for example “a face
like a mask or as white as snow”, the use of such words or phrase. Now, let us look at the
following examples:
"Today, it is like a thriving sakura."( 今天 ,这家银行就如一棵繁茂的樱花树 ). (周晓, 周
怡 ,1998:130). This is an advertisement of Japanese sakura bank, this simile is very vividly
because it associates the tree with the development of the industry. It is easily for people to think
that the economy of the bank will flourish as the tree. It is not only keeps the native culture of the
nation but also give us some imagination. So it is a successful advertisement. Some other
examples: a cigarette AD of American “Cool as a mountain stream…Cool as fresh Consulate."(该
香烟加入薄荷剂,令人吸后清凉爽口,可直译为"凉如高山溪流……爽似 Consulate 香烟",肯定
会令 chain smokers 顿感心旷神怡, 口干舌燥之感尽消). So this AD achieve it’s goal to appeal
consumers to buy this kind of products. 眼 镜 广 告 "Feather water. Light as a feather."(Feather
water 眼镜, 轻如鸿毛);童鞋广告"As soft as Mother's hands."(像母亲的手一样柔软) ;Light as a
breeze, soft as a cloud.(cloth ad)(轻如佛面之为风；柔如天上之浮云)。
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Chapter4 Conclusion
From the above examples we can see advertisement style is a practical style that valuable in
business. It always use different kinds of rhetorical devices to achieve it’s business goal. It is not
only attract readers imagination but also increase readers interests to increase the instigative and
persuasive thus the ad can be called a successful translation. So it is necessary to master some
features of English ad and the different culture, values, and social amorous.
Different kinds of ads speak different language. The study has shown that six kinds of
features in advertisements in the corpus respectively demonstrate their own unique language
features. In daily consumer goods ads, descriptive adjectives tend to convey senses of sight, taste,
and touch in the hope of satisfying women's appeal for beauty and comfort. No jargon is used.
Headlines of daily consumer goods ads tend to ask question to arouse the interest of audience,
especially women's.
in summary, no matter what kind of structure, or content, or words are used in an
advertisement, all of them serve the purpose of attracting ads readers, conveying information to
them, and urging them to purchase the products or to use the service. That is what an ad for, and
that is also the function advertising language performs.
As we all know, the final aims of the English ad is to promote and sale their products. In order to
achieve their goal the author usually uses some Syntactic Features and rhetorical devices such as
Imperative sentence, Interrogative sentence, Ellipsis sentence, simile, metaphor, personification,
pun and rhyme. These are the art of language. There are much difference in culture, geography,
history and psychology between Chinese and English. So the ad translation between Chinese and
English involves to some subject such as linguistics, socialistic, psychology and aesthetics. So the
translator should be familiar to the business strategies, products function and rich imagination.
Thus the advertisement will be attractive and vividly.
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