Abstract:

Tropes are most frequently applied to English advertisements. This paper focuses on simile, metaphor and metonymy to discuss the application of tropes in advertisements. The paper lists examples to elaborate effects of tropes on English advertisements from perspectives of semantics and structure. In terms of semantics, tropes in advertisements can vividly describe features of objects and make advertisements easy to be understood by others. At the same time, they make abstract ideas more concrete and the meaning of English advertisements more definite. Without tropes, English advertisements would be tedious. In terms of structure, using tropes in advertisements makes English advertisements brief in word, but vivid in image. Undoubtedly, the use of tropes in advertisements gives an advertisement another new birth and impresses customers greatly.

Key words: English advertisement, trope, simile, metaphor, metonymy

摘要：

比喻是英语广告中最常用的修辞手法。本文主要从比喻、暗喻和借喻入手分析广告中的比喻对广告所产生的效果。文章列举了大量的英语广告实例来佐证这几种比喻手法，并从语音学，语义学和结构三方面来阐述这些比喻手法对广告所产生的意义。在语义学方面，比喻的使用能生动地描述商品的特征，使广告更容易被消费者接受。同时使抽象的广告更加具体，使广告的意义更加明确。如果没有比喻，广告将变得平淡无奇。在结构方面，比喻使英语广告变得简单明了，生动形象。毫无疑问，广告中比喻的使用给了广告新的生命，并且能给消费者留下深刻的印象。

关键词：英语广告；比喻；明喻；暗喻；借喻

1. Introduction
    Advertisements have already become an important part of our daily life. We are exposed to advertisements whenever we turn on the TV, read magazines or newspapers, walk on the street or surf on the internet. We are living in a world of advertisements and have been deeply influenced by them. Its popularity has aroused a great amount of interest in studying a language of advertisements in different disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, linguistics, literary criticism and medium studies. Tropes as one of the important features advertising language has also been studied by language learners and many linguists (Li Zhong, 2008).