Abstract

At present, there are all kinds of natural disasters and social problems. But governments have no ability to solve these problems all by themselves. They also need the participation of the public. As a result, Public Service Advertisements (PSAs) are becoming important in our daily life. Based on this situation, this paper tries to apply metaphor into analysis of Chinese and English PSAs. Firstly, the author staples and points out the metaphors in Chinese and English PSAs separately, and then carries out a comparative analysis between them. Finally, the author discusses the socio-cultural reasons behind the different usages of metaphors in English and Chinese PSAs.
Through this study, the author finds that: (1) Metaphors are pervasive in English and Chinese PSAs and there is one even two or three metaphors in a sentence. (2) War metaphors, journey metaphors, family metaphors and building metaphors are widely used in both kinds of data. (3) There are both similarities and differences of the socio-cultural reasons that concealed behind the metaphors. For example, war metaphors mean that both China and English countries experience the changes of dynasties, but westerners hold the idea that “man can conquer nature”. In family metaphors, we can find Chinese people stress the importance of family, while the westerners emphasize individualism. So, through this paper, people can have a better understanding of PSAs and the socio-cultural reasons behind them. Thus, it can influence people’s attitudes and behaviors and promote the sustainable development of harmonious society. Meanwhile, the research about culture is beneficial to the cross-cultural communication.

Keywords: Public Service Advertisements  metaphor  comparative study  socio-culture 

摘要

当今,各种各样的自然灾害和社会问题不断出现，然而单靠政府不能完全解决这些问题，这还需要公众的参与。因此，研究公益广告也在我们的日常生活中变得重要起来。鉴于此，本文试着从隐喻的角度来分析公益广告语。首先作者将搜集到的中英公益广告进行分类，然后对其进行比较,讨论中英公益广告中使用隐喻的异同及其背后的社会文化原因。
研究发现：(1)隐喻普遍存在于公益广告语中，一条公益广告中可能存在一个甚至两三个隐喻。(2)中英公益广告语中隐喻的类型以战争，旅行，家庭和建筑隐喻为主。(3)隐藏在这些隐喻背后的社会文化背景有着相似和不同之处。比如，中西战争隐喻说明了中西方社会都要经历时代的变更，但西方人却有着人定胜天的思想观念；在家庭隐喻中，由于受中国传统文化的影响，国人更多地强调家庭的重要性。而西方人主要强调个人主义。因此，研究有助于帮助人们更好地了解公益广告及其背后的文化背景，从而扩大公益广告的影响，使人们的态度和行为有所改变，促进和谐社会的建设和可持续发展。同时，研究对于文化的探析有助于促进跨文化之间的交流。

关键词:公益广告；隐喻；比较研究；社会文化