Advertising Language And Chinese & American Cultures

With the globalization of politics and economy, the economic and cultural exchanges with foreign countries are increasing. As a specific carrier of culture, ads have become a significant instrument to communicate among all countries. Besides, advertising is subordinate to culture, influenced by culture, and carries and reflects culture. Meanwhile, language is a specific carrier of ads and one of the forms of expression. Therefore, My paper is to comparatively study the Chinese and American cultures through the advertising language.E.B.Taylor, the famous anthropologist, defined (1871: 1) culture as "a complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by individuals as members of a society." Culture is also defined from the following four aspects by Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli(1994: 5): First, culture is defined as instruments. These instruments, or the materialized knowledge forces, are processed by human beings through natural materials; Second, culture is defined as systems. These systems are built up during man's social practice; Third, culture is defined as human behavior. The behavior, usually in the form of customs, is set up in social activities, especially in interpersonal communications; Fourth, culture is defined as ideology, including values, thought style, and aesthetic standards, etc. Most cultural contents related to advertising language in this thesis will be approached according to the definitions given by Taylor, Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli.After the study of the history of the American and the Chinese advertising, the second chapter states the cultural properties of advertising. Ads are composed of language, pictures, music and so on, among which the language is the most important carrier of message. As a part of language, advertising language is bound to reflect a certain culture. Therefore, the advertised product or service will undoubtedly evoke people's imagination of...