矛盾修辞在广告英语中的语用功能_英语论文

The Pragmatic Functions of Oxymoron in Advertising English

摘要

随着商品经济的发展，大量的广告语涌入人们的日常生活，广告在现代商业运作中的作用越来越重要。而英语作为多数国家的通用语言，使得英语广告的影响十分深远。广告英语用词独特，句型巧妙，具有自身独特的语言风格和特点，给人留下了深刻的印象。而广告英语中修辞手法的运用，不仅能增强广告语言的感染力和艺术魅力，同时也能给消费者留下深刻的印象，引起购买欲望。广告英语中矛盾修辞的运用更是独具艺术魅力，它是用两种不相调和、甚至截然相反的特征来形容某一事物，运用语言的哲理性和逻辑力量来牵动消费者感情，其矛盾的结构所带来的不和谐性往往给消费者带来疑惑和惊奇，从而收到意想不到的效果。本文主要就广告英语中矛盾语的语用功能和矛盾语的运用展开讨论，从而对广告英语有更深一步的了解。

关键词：广告英语; 矛盾语; 语用功能

Abstract

With the rapid development of commodity economy, more and more advertising language floods into people’s daily life. Advertising is playing an important role in modern commercial society. As English is the common language spoken in many countries, it makes advertising English have a far-reaching influence. Advertising English has its own individuality. In order to persuade customers, the language of advertising English must be forceful and effective enough to attract their attentions, to arouse their interests and to encourage their purchasing actions. The use of rhetorical devices in advertising English can not only enhance the appeal of language, but also promote customers to buy the products. The application of oxymoron in advertising English is of great artistic charm. It has two inconsistent, even totally opposite features to describe something, which can always bring confusion and surprise to customers, so it can receive unexpected results.

This paper mainly discusses the pragmatic functions of oxymoron applied in advertising English, so that we can have a better understanding of advertising English.

Key words: advertising English; oxymoron; pragmatic functions

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Previous studies on advertising English 3

2.2 Previous studies on oxymoron 4

3 Oxymoron in Advertising English 6

3.1 Structure of oxymoron in advertising English 6

3.1.1 Absolute antonymy 6

3.1.2 Relative anotonymy 7

3.2Values of oxymoron in advertising English 7

3.2.1 Value of attention 8

3.2.2 Value of memory 8

3.2.3 Value of aesthetics 9

4 Pragmatic Functions of Oxymoron in Advertising English 9

4.1 Information function 10

4.2 Demand creation function 11

4.3 Persuasion function 12

4.4 Purchasing function 13

4.5 Economy function 14

5 Conclusion 15

References 16