Relevance Theory And Advertising Puns

sBased on Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theory (1995), the present paper employs many examples to explore some characteristics peculiar to puns and their functions in advertising. The paper mainly intends to answer these two questions:l.Why does the advertiser still prefer puns in advertisements since puns contain ambiguity?2. Why do puns in advertising possibly lead to smooth communication?As to the reason why the advertiser prefers puns, it has been assumed that it is because puns can bring out certain pragmatic function to help to achieve certain communicative effect. The present paper has proposed that puns have four functions in written advertising discourse: 1) attracting the audience's attention; 2) making advertisements brief; 3) making advertisements aesthetic; and 4) avoiding social taboos.The reason why puns may possibly lead to smooth advertising communication is that in interpreting an utterance, an individual automatically aims at optimal relevance. In order to achieve optimal relevance, the audience will pick out from whatever sources, a context in which to process the utterance. Therefore, the audience's expectation of optimal relevance is a crucial pragmatic factor. The advertiser deliberately exploits puns' characteristics to provide the audience with two or more layers of meanings, whereas the latter who aims at optimal relevance will eliminate the surface structure meaning and grasp the deep structure meaning, thus leading to successful communication. After the audience comprehends the advertiser's intention, she will find that the product or service is of benefit to her. In the meanwhile, understanding messages non-literally gives the audience the pleasure of exercising her cognitive competence. However, the research conducted in this paper indicates that not all advertisements containing puns are successful. Finally, we can generate the following conclusions:1) PersuasivenessAs one of attention-attracting devices, puns are often employed in headlines or slogans. The present study finds that there are many puns involving the brand names of the product or service advertised.2) The choice of puns is in search for relevanceIn the light of relevance theory, the advertiser's choice of puns is a choice of styles, in the pursuit of relevance. Specifically speaking, the advertiser's choices of puns are based on the evaluation of the audience's cognitive abilities and considerations of the characteristics of products.3) Association is the soul of punsAssociation is the soul of puns and it has two forms: phonetic and semantic. Through association, the audience accesses interpretations which are consistent with the principle of relevance.The analysis of advertising puns can not only deepen the audience's understanding of advertising puns but also enable the advertiser to make a better application of puns in advertisements.