Perlocutionary Effect Through Figures Of Speech In English Commercial Advertising

Studies on English commercial advertisement (ECA) have always been flourishing because of its universality. Those studies have embraced different theoretical frameworks and approaches: the stylistic, semiotic, discoursal, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic approaches and so on. The researches about how the figures of speech realizing the perlocutionary effect in ECA turn out to be the area lacking of due attention. Based on the Speech Act Theory from the pragmatic perspective, realization of the advertisement functions is to achieve the perlocutionary effects of advertisement. The author of the thesis attempts to use 362 pieces of ECA using figures of speech which are printed on the American magazine Business Week issued in 2004 as research material. The research purpose is to analyze a certain amount of figures of speech selected from ECA to demonstrate how figures of speech function to achieve the perlocutionary effect in terms of informing and persuading. The research is based on perlocutionary effect theory and figures of speech theory as its theoretical support to fulfill the task.As to research method, firstly, the research describes distribution of all types of figures of speech in ECA by histogram and the percentage table, and identifies those figures of speech which realize the perlocutionary effect of informing and persuading. Then, it investigates how those figures of speech realize the informing and persuading effects through example analysis. Through careful analysis, the research discovers that among those 362 pieces of ECA, 322 pieces of ECA are related to such figures of speech which can achieve the perlocutionary effect according to the statistic data. 91 pieces of ECA containing figures of speech- pun, rhetorical question, metaphor and repetition fulfill the perlocutionary effect of informing, and 231 pieces of ECA using figures of speech- pun, rhetorical question, metaphor and climax realize the perlocutionary effect of persuading. Among 362 pieces of ECA selected from Business Week issued in 2004, five types of figures of speech help to achieve the perlocutionary effect of informing and persuading. They are pun, rhetorical question, metaphor, climax and repetition.The research is a worthy application of Speech Act and Rhetoric theories, which once again demonstrate their effectiveness and practicability. Secondly, the research on how ECA's perlocutionary effect achieved through those figures of speech is of practical significance to encourage more effective use of figures of speech in ECA, so that the quality of ads might be improved. Thirdly, the research benefits the practical application of figures of speech in advertisements, helping reader better understand advertisements and providing insights into the effect of ads for the writers.