On Rhetorical Iconicity In Advertising Language

As the carrier of the communication of information, advertising languages is indispensable in advertising. Many scholars at home and abroad have made great contributions to the research of advertising language from different perspectives.Based upon those researches, this thesis attempts to investigate into advertising language in light of the theory of cognitive linguistics on iconicity theory, intending to study iconicity and its rhetorical function in English and Chinese advertising language. Theory of language iconicity was put forward in contrast to language arbitrariness. Ranking as one of the important theories in cognitive linguistics, it has been under hot discussion at home and abroad. Iconicity refers to the iconic relation between linguistic form and the meaning it conveys. Iconicity frequently manifests itself in ordinary language, and is taken as a natural attribute of language used unconsciously. In recent years, some people have set out to explore iconicity being applied as a rhetorical device consciously and purposely and its rhetorical function, with most of their work confined to stylistic analysis and literature appreciation, especially to the study of poetry. Advertising language which is closely related to our life and full of vitality is also touched, but it is far from enough. Fischer [1] has only studied graphological iconicity in printed advertisements. Wang Yin [2] has mentioned that iconicity can be applied in advertising language to achieve certain stylistic effects, but he does not expound them in detail. Several Ph. D dissertations and M. A. theses in China focusing on this topic are only confined to limited data. Therefore, this thesis intends to study iconicity and its rhetorical function in English and Chinese advertising language to widen the scope of rhetoric study of iconicity.Rhetoric involved in this thesis will be interpreted in its wide sense, which is not only confined to the traditional figure of speech. Instead, it is a process and an action in which the cognitive world of language users and their expressions become integrated with the participation of cognition, including the use of languages and other linguistic signs, for example, visual images and signs, for communications.Based on the citation of abundant data, this thesis attempts to present a comparatively systematic study of iconicity and its rhetorical function from two subtypes of iconicity: imagic iconicity(from the angles of iconicity principles of sound and graphology) and diagrammatic iconicity (from the angles of iconicity principles of markedness, quantity and symmetry) through Chinese and English advertising language, which will verify that iconicity can be frequently employed in advertising language as an important rhetorical device to achieve various rhetorical effects.This thesis, on the one hand, provides enlightenments to copy writers and readers; on the other hand, it widens and enriches the study of iconicity theory; at the same time, it provides us with an iconic theoretical basis to the study of advertising language and rhetoric. As to the future prospects of this study, a relatively larger number of data concerning their source and quantity can be included to make the study more convincing. As far as methodology is concerned, we can resort to statistics and draw on findings and data obtained in psycholinguistic experiments to widen and deepen the study in this area. We can also embrace more iconicity principles such as metaphorical iconicity in future study so that we will be able to have a thorough understanding of rhetorical iconicity in advertising language.