A Descriptive Study Of Presuppositions In Both Chinese And English Advertisements

Advertising is everywhere in the current world. Whether we like itor not, realize it or not, various kinds of ads have already influenced usgreatly. Advertising has become one of the most important components ofthe modern life and it is closely connected with the economyglobalization, national economy, the development of enterprises as wellas our everyday life. As more and more people realize the importance andnecessity of advertising, economists, artists and psychologists all paymuch attention to the study of advertising. Linguists, too, attach greatimportance to the language of advertising quantitatively and qualitatively.With the development of linguistics, the study of the language ofadvertising moves on from pure analysis of the linguistic and rhetoricfeatures to the relationship between language and contexts and theappropriateness of language. In other words, a lot of theories and terms inthe field of pragmatics have been introduced to the study of the languageof advertising. In recent years, there have already been some linguistswho study the language of advertising from the pragmatic perspective andChen Xinren, a Chinese scholar, has classified presuppositions in thelanguage of advertising into several different types. Generally speaking,the author of this thesis holds similar opinion on the classification ofpresuppositions. Yet, she also finds that the study is mainly about Englishadvertisements and it rarely concerns about culture. Thus, it is possible tohave further study on presuppositions in ads and more profound andin-depth study should be carried out on the functions of presupposition inthe language of advertising. Therefore, this thesis expounds the features,types and functions of presupposition and the relationships betweenpresupposition and the language of advertising, presupposition and theadvertising information, presupposition and the consumer psychology, aswell as the relationship between culture and presuppositions in Chineseand English ads. Due to the requirement of length, there is no furtherstudy on aesthetics and adaptation of Chinese and English ads.Chapter One introduces the definition, classification and function ofadvertising, and briefly reviews the previous linguistic studies ofadvertising language. Among these studies, presupposition exerts greatpractical effect on the success of advertising.Chapter Two summarizes the former studies on presupposition.Chronically, the study of presupposition has been the focus of severalfields: first, psychology, then semantics, and now pragmatics. Thepresupposition in this thesis mainly refers to pragmatic presuppositions.Chapter Three goes on to analyze the features, types and functions ofpresuppositions in both Chinese and English advertisements. The largequantity of presuppositions in ads serves effectively for the ultimate goalof advertising –– to persuade and influence.Chapter Four furthers its analysis of the pragmatic presuppositionsfrom the cross-cultural perspective, comparing the different culturalvalues of Chinese and English advertisements.The analysis of presuppositions in Chinese and English ads showsthat the skillful use of presupposition can really illuminate the languageof advertising and help advertisers attain their goals, but it also revealsthat presuppositions work differently in different linguistic, social andcultural backgrounds.