摘要

广告是传播信息的一种重要方式, 有效的广告语言可以帮助广告实现它的商业价值。仿拟是一种在英汉两种语言中都广泛使用的富于创造性的修辞手法。英语parody和汉语仿拟基本对应。本文从仿拟辞格的定义入手，阐述了其结构特点，并结合广告实例对仿拟修辞在英汉广告中的具体表现形式进行分析，最后从语用学角度对仿拟在广告中应用产生的效果进行了简单的探讨。

关键词：仿拟；广告语言；修辞；语用功能

Abstract

Advertisement is an important way of spreading information. Effective advertising discourse can help an advertisement to fulfill its commercial value. Parody is a widely used and creative rhetorical device in both English and Chinese language. English parody and Chinese fang ni (仿拟) are in fact counterparts. This paper is to present the definition and structures of parody firstly, then to analyze the use of it in English and Chinese advertisements. Finally, it is to have a further study of the pragmatic functions and effects by using parody in advertisements.

Key words: parody; advertising discourse; rhetoric; pragmatic functions

1 Introduction

Parody originated from the ancient Greek Aristotle’s Poetics. Generally, it has been regarded as a figure of speech and is still being treated by many critics as a rather low comic form that had been of little real significance in the history of literature or of other arts. English parody and Chinese fang ni (仿拟) are in fact counterparts belonging to two different languages. In a broad sense, they are the same. Dispute and uncertainty have prevailed in descriptions of uses and meanings of words for parody. Of all the terms still used to describe comic quotation, imitation, or transformation, parody alone is named in the classical literature and poetics of the Greeks, and has gained some importance in the Western tradition from this fact (Margaret, 1993:6). A history of parody shows that its formation involves more than a process of imitation. It also distinguishes parody from other forms of quotation and literary imitation.
There must be many reasons for using parody in language. Here we will discuss the phenomena of parody in English and Chinese advertisements. The generative and receptive process of parody involves great linguistic creativity. From the perspective of pragmatics, parody is a tool for helping to achieve the effects of humor and irony, contrast and emphasis, vividness and effectiveness.