Analysis Of Chinese And English Code-Switching In Chinese Magazine Advertising

Code-switching is the use of more than one language by participants in the execution of a speech act. Code-switching and the use of English in non-English advertisements are a research area that has received increasing attention lately. Nevertheless, most of the studies in this area are generally restricted to a rough sketch of the phenomena. And a few researchers conducted their researches from the sociolinguistic perspective. These researchers have attempted to reveal the social motivation of code-switching in advertising language and explore the inner relationship between code-switching and social factors such as social class and economic status. Despite deepening the understanding of the relationship between language and society, these studies on code-switching in advertising fail to connect the phenomena with the property of language. The present study, based upon the description and analysis of 301 pieces of Chinese advertisements, intends to explain code-switching in Chinese magazine advertisements on the ground of the property of language and makes an attempt to fill in the gap left by the previous researchers. The present researcher introduces the definition of advertising language and explains different definitions, types and functions of code-switching. In this part, previous researches on code-switching in advertising are also reviewed. In light of the literature review, the researcher points out that the present thesis makes a tentative exploration of code-switching in advertising language from the "pragmatic perspective" proposed by Verschueren (1999). In the second part, the researcher outlines the research methodology, which comprises data collection and data processing. Altogether, 301 pieces of advertisement are selected for twenty-one types of product or service. Each piece of advertisement is carefully studied. The English words and code-switching appearing in different product or service categories as well as in different positions of advertisement, i.e., different discourse domains, are noted. The study results show that English is prevalent in Chinese magazine advertising. Over 96 percent of advertisements contain at least an English word in each piece of advertisement. And the use of English and code-switching is varied according to the product categories. The advertisements for products which contain high technology are more likely to involve the use of English and code-switching. With regard to discourse domains, English and code-switching are present in the product name, headline, label, logo, and body copy, and most likely to appear in the body copy, headline, and on the product label.In the final part of the thesis, the researcher discusses the results from pragmatic perspective, which is put forward by Verschueren (1999). After reviewing a wide range of phenomena studied under the label of traditional pragmatics, Verschueren advances that pragmatics does not constitute an additional component of a theory of language, but it is concerned with the full complexity of linguistic behavior and offers a different perspective, namely, pragmatic perspective (1999:2). Verschueren's pragmatic perspective serves as a theoretical framework to explain the findings. The core of pragmatic perspective is adaptability. Adaptability is one of the properties of language. Adaptability enables human beings to make "negotiable linguistic choices from a variable range of possibilities in such a way as to approach points of satisfaction for communicative needs" (Verschueren, 1999:61). In the discussion, the present researcher also refers to Kachru's World Englishes, which provides a macroscopic context for the present study.The researcher argues that the root cause of the presence of code-switching in Chinese magazine advertising is the requirement and embodiment of adaptability-- the property of language. To be more specific, the high percentage of occurrence of Chinese and English code-switching in certain types of advertisements and the varied adoption of Chinese and English code...