Cognitive Approach To Conceptual Metaphors In English Advertisements

Different from traditional linguistics which views metaphor as a means of rhetoric, cognitive linguistics holds that metaphor, instead of being a deviant phenomenon of normal language, is a way of thought and a powerful instrument of cognition. In Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson claim that"metaphor is primarily a matter of thought and action, and only derivatively a matter of language"(Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: 62). This means that metaphors are not just a way of expressing ideas by means of language, but a way of perceiving, thinking and acting.The theory of conceptual metaphor is put forward by Lakoff and Johnson, who propose that metaphor is human cognitive mechanism. The essence of metaphor is cognitive and conceptual. And metaphor is"a cross-domain mapping", meaning we use familiar and specific concepts to reason about unfamiliar and abstract concepts. In a cognitive perspective, conceptual metaphor can be classified into three types: structural metaphor, orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor.Nowadays, more and more attention has been drawn to the study of English advertising. At the same time, interest in conceptual metaphor has been on the rise. Conceptual metaphor is a persuasive and effective means to express the advertiser's selling ideas. However, few studies have been undertaken about conceptual metaphor applied in English advertisements. This thesis plans to have a bold attempt to make an investigation of conceptual metaphors in English advertisements. So, the thesis categorizes and analyzes metaphors in English advertisements and discusses their bodily experiential basis and their roles in advertisements.Advertising is a kind of pervasive communication of message with practical and clear communication aims in today's society,which aims at"persuasion"to trigger off addressees'desire and action to consume products. In the common catching advertisements,metaphorical expressions are applied by the advertisement creators as a strategy to achieve the effective conveyance of the advertised messages or concepts to the target audience. Through analysis, the author thinks that different functions of conceptual metaphors are basically in concord with the basic functions of advertising and different conceptual metaphors serve respectively as cognitive basis for the functions of the advertising.In a word, this paper shows that metaphors in English advertisements are most appropriate examples of human metaphorical thinking. This thesis makes a brief introduction to the theory of conceptual metaphor in the framework of cognitive approach, and then applies this theory to the analysis of English advertisements. It mainly focuses on the analysis of these three types of conceptual metaphors applied in English advertisements. Through study the thesis aims to find out how the conceptual metaphor conveys the main selling idea to the consumers, thus enhance the understanding of English advertisements.As to the structure of the thesis, this thesis is divided into five parts:Chapter One is the introduction, which introduces the research objective and significance, methodology and source of data to be applied in this thesis.Chapter Two makes a general review of relevant literature on cognitive linguistics and advertising language. First, the paper makes a general description of cognitive linguistics, the experiential view within cognitive linguistics, and then two main components of cognitive linguistics, the definition and functions of advertising, literature review of advertising language. This chapter discusses the previous study of metaphor in advertisements at the end.Chapter Three states some theories applied in this thesis to set up the theoretical framework underlying the cognitive linguistic approach. From the view of cognition, this part explains some basic notions related to metaphor, such as essence of metaphor, coherence and systematicity of metaphor, classification of conceptual metaphor. The discussion of theories on metaphor paves the way for the interpretation of conceptual metaphors in English advertisements.Chapter Four serves as the key section of the study, which elaborates on how three kinds of conceptual metaphors, namely structural metaphors, orientational metaphors, and ontological metaphors can be applied to the English advertisement analysis. This chapter also discusses the cognitive functions of conceptual metaphors in English advertisements.Chapter Five, the last part of the paper, reports the findings, draws conclusions and points out the limitations of the present study and possible directions that future research can pursue.With the situation of globalization, more and more English advertisements come to the eyes of Chinese consumers. It is essential for them, especially for the English learners to fully understand English advertisements. Therefore, the author hopes that this thesis will be meaningful for people to understand various ads.