On Advertising Language From A Cultural Perspective

Modern society is informative. As a means of transmitting information, advertising has become an indispensable part to people's life. With the passage of time as well as the development of economy, advertisements seem to have pervaded every corner of social life. Whether you are in a street, a bus, a supermarket, or a cinema or you are watching television, listening to radio, reading a newspaper or magazine, advertisements like unexpected guests are suddenly in sight of you.However, as for any type of advertising, its transmission depends largely upon language. Therefore, lots of linguists have conducted a study of advertising language. Advertising language distinguishes itself with the ultimate aim to persuade consumers to take a purchasing action, making a study of advertising language worthwhile in linguistic field. In the meantime, as a product of the socioeconomic life, advertising is naturally affected by a variety of social factors, and hereby its prominent social features have been explicitly displayed. Researchers have made great contributions to advertising language studies, mainly concerning the fuzzy expressions, rhetorical features, translating approaches, gender differences, etc. Although some scholars have already studied the relationship of advertising language and social culture from a cultural perspective, to make a further study of their relationship is still of theoretical and practical significance, especially nowadays when the world economy is being globalized and in a new century when China's advertising is approaching the outside world.The thesis makes an attempt to perceive advertising language through cultural aspects. To begin with, the roles, definitions, and classifications of advertising are respectively introduced. Then, the economic functions, aims of advertising and the features of advertising language including its lexical and rhetorical features are explored. After that, the close relationship between social culture and advertising language is mainly analyzed, suggesting that advertising language, as a special communication means, on the one hand, is restrained by culture; on the other hand, reflects various aspects of culture. Based on this, a proposal is made that creating advertising should take cultural differences into account. Finally, the impact of China's traditional culture on China's modern advertising language is explored as an important part. The traditional culture here discussed refers to social values, traditional morality and emotions, philosophical views, thinking modes, etc.Studying the advertising language from a cultural perspective is beneficial to the advancement of China's modern advertising. In the age when the world advertising is being internationalized, China's traditional culture is not only spiritual treasure but also one of cultural foundations of international advertising. As a result, it is essential to create advertisements with national characteristics.