On The Functions Of Pragmatic Presupposition In Advertising Language

Advertisement is everywhere in the current world. Whether we like it or not, realize it or not, various kinds of ads have already influenced us greatly. Advertisement has become one of the most important components of the modern economy and life and it is closely connected with the economy globalization, national economy, the development of enterprises as well as our everyday life. As more and more people realize the importance and necessity of advertisement, economists, artist and psychologist all pay much attention to the study of advertisement. Linguists, too, attach great importance to the language of advertisement quantitatively and qualitatively. Advertising as a persuasive language has the goal of informing consumers of the advertised products or services, and persuading them to take purchase action. Designing attractive and persuasive advertising language involves successful manipulation of communicative, linguistic, and psychological strategies.With the development of linguistics, the study of the advertising language moves on from pure analysis of the linguistic and rhetoric features to the relationship between language and contexts and the appropriateness of language. In other words, a large number of theories and terms in the field of pragmatics have been introduced to the study of the advertising language. Felicity and common ground, which ate essential to utterance understanding, are often attributable to pragmatic presupposition, one of the most widely studied topics in pragmatics. However, we are equally interested in other properties that characterize pragmatic presuppositions, notably unidirectionality, subjectiveness and latency. Proper exploitation of these features may prove to be strategic, which is manifested in verbal advertising.By means of theoretical analysis, case study and quantitative investigation, this thesis expounds and analyzes the pragmatic functions that presupposition has in advertisement from four macroscopic angles: presupposition and the form of advertising language, presupposition and advertising discourse, presupposition and advertising information, presupposition and consumer psychology in advertisement with an attempt to explore the possible functions of presupposition in printing advertising language and to find out the positive roles played by presupposition in helping advertising achieve its persuasion goal. The author hopes that the thesis may enrich the understanding of pragmatic presupposition and modify the existing studies of advertising language theoretically and help advertising copywriters design more attractive and more successful ads practically.The thesis consists of the following main parts. Chapter one introduces the objective of this study, the language data and research methodology employed in this thesis, as well as the organization scheme of the thesis. Chapter two and chapter three are chapters of literature review and theoretical basis. Presupposition is originated in the field of philosophy and logic. However, it gradually involves the studies of language forms, structures, usage and function. Based on Relevance Theory, presupposition triggers are introduced to be coherent with the later discussion. Meanwhile, the thesis reviews previous studies on presupposition in printing advertising language especially from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition. Chapter four and chapter five are chapters of case analysis. One hundred and fifty advertisements, culled from English newspaper and magazines, are analyzed to examine the positive role that presupposition plays in advertising language. Chapter four makes detailed analysis of the functions of presupposition in advertising language through qualitative and quantitative study. Its appropriate employment ensure concise, diverse and humorous of advertising language. Skillful application of pragmatic presupposition is responsible for indirect and implicit advertising information, which thereby invites consumers to infer some information and in turn leave a deep and unforgettable impression on their minds. Proper exploitation of pragmatic presupposition ensures economical and concise advertisement. It ascertains a smooth, coherent and natural advertising discourse. Chapter five discusses the different functions of pragmatic presupposition in manipulating consumer psychology, for example, emotion, concealment, leading, euphemism, persuading and humorous functions. With the linguistic device involving presupposition, the advertisers can easily create emotional intimacy with the potential consumers, win their favor, change their attitudes and beliefs, lead them to accept the presupposed facts, and finally persuade them to take purchase action. Chapter six summarizes the pragmatic presupposition in advertising and puts forward implication and limitations of the present study as well as suggests further research.