Functions Of Pragmatic Presupposition In Advertising English

It is a self-evident fact that advertisements play a very important role in modern society. National economy needs advertisements for its development. Enterprises need advertisements for inter-enterprise competition, market occupation and sale promotion. People in general need advertisements for help in choosing commodities and for the enrichment of spiritual life. Because of the important role advertisements play in contemporary society, many scholars have been making studies on advertising language from different aspects. Recently, the studies on the advertising language have opened a new way studying advertising language from the angle of pragmatics. Some scholars choose one of the pragmatic notions -- presupposition as the entering point to the studies of advertising language. Their studies lay good foundation for this thesis. However, the author of this thesis holds that the relationship between presupposition and advertising language is of a complex subject matter. Since the studies on this subject matter have just started, the published works on this matter are far from enough and far from perfection. Therefore, the author of this thesis further points out that presupposition has pragmatic functions on advertisements, and due to the complex relations between presupposition and advertising language, this thesis expounds and analyzes the pragmatic functions that presupposition exerts in advertisements. The author hopes that this thesis can give theoretical guidance to the applying of presupposition in advertisements, and she hopes that it can help advertisements achieve their actual goals.