A Stylistic Analysis Of English "Seeking Partner" Advertisements

Based on the theories of modern stylistics, this thesis analyzes the stylistic features of the English "Seeking Partner" advertisements carried in the magazine City Weekend, a newly emerged type of advertisement mainly appeared in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai. The analysis is carried out from three aspects: linguistic description, contextual factors analysis and the analysis of emotiveness. In linguistic description, the analysis covers six levels: phonology, graphology, syntax, lexis, grammar and semantics. In contextual factors analysis, Halliday's principle of three situational elements is adopted as the base for analysis: field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse. Through these analyses, a clear picture of the stylistic features of "Seeking Partner" advertisements is provided. What follows are the analysis of emotiveness, one of the most important modality features of advertisements and the analysis of cultural elements involved in the "Seeking Partner" advertisements.The thesis is divided into seven chapters. Chapter One is an introduction of the entire thesis by providing the necessary information such as the methodology and the reasons for material selection, etc. Chapter Two is the Literature review in which the previous research on advertisements both at home and abroad are analyzed; the Third Chapter is the linguistic description and the Fourth Chapter serves as the contextual factors analysis of the "Seeking Partner" advertisements. Chapter Five is the analysis of emotiveness involved in advertising English; Chapter Six contributes to cultural elements and proposes the underlyingcultural differences among people of the East and the West. Finally, Chapter Seven is the conclusion which gives a summary of the study and indicates the limitations of this study and offers some suggestions for further research.One primary aim of this thesis is to set the foundation for the research of English personal advertisements with the hope of improving mutual understanding of the people between the East and the West.