A Relevance-Theoretical Approach To Advertising Language

The language used in advertising has been the subject of studies in different disciplines, but few studies have been undertaken in linguistics. The main purpose of this study is to give an analysis of advertising language in English and Chinese, and to explain how communication occurs between the advertiser and audience. The nature of communication and how it is achieved are considered, and aspects of communication prominent in the language of advertising are investigated.In the analysis of advertising language Relevance Theory is employed. The first part of the thesis surveys and criticizes some approaches to the language of advertising and puts forward Relevance Theory as a new way to explain the comprehension of utterances, including advertising. Then in the discussion of covert communication, it is deemed as a kind of communication strategy, thus it cannot serve as the opposite of the ostensive-inferential communication, which contradicts Tanaka's study in Advertising Language (1994). To explain linguistic devices used in advertising, puns and metaphors are selected for further study, in the meantime, both are found to share some traits of covert communication and may be used for such purposes. The distinction between communication goal and communicative intention in this study can be regarded as a supplement to Relevance Theory.