Interpretations Of Advertisement Via Conceptual Integration Theory

This thesis applies an important cognitive theory—Fauconnier's Conceptual Integration Theory—to exploring how the audiences understand advertisements, thus revealing the dynamic and cognitive process of interpreting ads.The basic operation unit of conceptual integration theory---conceptual integration network—has four mental spaces:two input spaces,one generic space and a blending space.These four spaces are connected through mappings and selective projections,and in turn form emergent structure in the blend,where the new meaning arises.Therefore,conceptual integration is a dynamic process of meaning construction.As a special way of communication,advertising realizes its ultimate purpose of persuasion with the appliance of indirect strategies.Therefore,the audiences are required to construct the hidden meaning of ads through the presented literal information,which is a complicated process involving the audiences' cognitive system.This thesis on the basis of conceptual integration theory explains this operation from the aspect of cognitive system.The linguists and scholars have conducted valuable studies on ads from linguistic,communicative,semiotic and pragmatic perspectives.The linguistic and communicative approaches make static descriptions about ads such as their features and content,but neglect the dynamic interpretation of ads;although semiotic approach and pragmatic approach involve the dynamic understanding process,they do not take into consideration of the audiences' psychology and emotional feelings.This research,however,applies conceptual integration theory to the study of advertising,thus establishing the relationship between cognitive linguistics and adverting study.The thesis is made up of five parts.Chapter 1 includes a general introduction to the framework of the research,including the motivations and significance of the research.Chapter 2 discusses the basic concepts of advertisement,and summarizes the previous researches on advertising language.Chapter 3 provides a detailed introduction to Conceptual Integration Theory,including the background of the theory and its key terms.Chapter 4,the core of the thesis, explores how the audiences' cognitive operations work on the interpretations of ads based on conceptual integration theory.Through the analysis of the examples, this chapter presents a whole picture of cognitive operations on meaning constructions.Chapter 5,the conclusion part of the thesis,discusses the limitations of the study and offers suggestions for further research.