A Comparative Study Of Chinese And English Advertising Language In A Cross-cultural Perspective

With the development of economy and social culture, advertisement has become an important and inseparable part of people's daily life. It is not only a marketing tool but also a social actor and a cultural artifact. The transmission of advertising depends on language. Therefore, many linguists have studied 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 displayed. Researchers have made great contributions to advertising language studies, mainly concerning linguistic features, translating approaches, etc. Although some scholars have already studied the relationship of advertising language and social culture, to make a further study of their relationship is still of theoretical and practical significance. In this thesis, the qualitative approach is adopted in studying different cultural factors which influence Chinese and American advertising languages. The purpose of this thesis is to help establish and strengthen cross-cultural awareness and foster people's pragmatic competence in the course of both language learning and language using.In a large sense, language and advertising are all parts of culture, which Tayor(1871:1)defines 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."Famous Chinese scholars Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli(1994:5) refer culture to four aspects. Firstly, culture means all kinds of instruments. These instruments are processed by human beings through natural materials. Secondly, cultural means systems. These systems are built up in social practice. Thirdly, culture means human behavior. The behavior, usually in the form of customs, is generated in social activities. Fourthly, culture means ideology, including values, thought style, and aesthetic standards. Most cultural contents related to advertising language in this thesis will be approached according to the definition given by Taylor and Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli.Based on this definition and classification, the pattern of thought, one of the significant parts in human culture, is the most sophisticated presentation of human nature. Scholars studying in the field of intercultural communication often label Chinese thinking pattern holism or configuration mentioned in Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.Compared with Chinese configural pattern of thinking, scholars often describe Western pattern of thinking as linear logic derived from the Platonic-Aristotelian theory based on the ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. Governed by these different thinking patterns, the originalities and languages used in advertisements must be different in China and western countries.Values are often defined as a set of enduring beliefs concerning preferable modes of conduct or end state of existence which are shared among people from the same cultural background. Firstly, one of its most basic dimensions is the value placed on individualism versus collectivism, an aspect of culture employed in many studies. Hofstede(1991:51) has argued that the difference in the individualism-collectivism dimension represents one of the prime distinctions between Chinese and western cultures. And large/small power distance can also reflect certain cultural roots respectively in both Chinese and English advertising languages.In cross-cultural communication, cultural context is especially important. Up till now, the most widely accepted concept of cultural context is Hall (1976)'s theory of high-context culture and low-context culture. The success of communication of information in high-context culture needs a highly close relevance existing in the former and latter information or hidden in a specific individual feature. In a low-context culture, as Hall explains, most of the information must be in the transmitted message in order to make up for what is missing in the context both internal and external. As one of the powerful tools for advertisement, advertising language, both Chinese and English advertising, must mirror the characteristics of high-context or low-context culture.On one side, the author tries to find out how the English advertising language is particular by analyzing and concluding the distinct linguistic features of advertising language; on the other side, through the comparison of culture differences between Chinese and English advertising languages, the hidden message behind them and the inner root of their specialties will also be explored in this thesis for finding out why advertising language is particular.