The Realization Of The Hyperbole In English Commercial Advertising

Hyperbole, which transmits strengthened emotion, is widely applied incommunication. The hyperbole in English commercial advertising possesses the advantageof helping advertisers to deliver intensive information and leading audiences to explore theimplied meaning initiatively for the aim of achieving ideal broadcasting effect. However,compared with metaphor, irony and other figures, hyperbole is attracting less attentionthan it deserves. Linguistic researchers construct their studies within the areas of rhetoric,psychology, anthropology and pragmatics, while few proceed from the perspective ofcognitive linguistics and apply hyperbole in practical application to discover its cognitiveessence. On the basis of cognitive linguistics, Sperber and Wilson indicate that hyperbolecould be taken as a 'loose talk'. They suppose communication as cognitive behavior whichleads to the form of Ostensive-inferential model according to relevance theory. Theyadvocate that relevant involvements in cognitive process are dominated by principles inrelevance theory, and the ultimate object lies in the acquirement of optimal relevance. Thisthesis is constructed on the basis of relevance theory, and develops the realization of thehyperbole in English commercial advertising from cognitive perspective which aims toanswer three major questions:(1) Why do we choose hyperbole in communication? What is the relevance ofhyperbole?(2) How does relevance theory lead audiences to complete transitional procedure ofhyperbole in advertising? What is the cognitive mechanism of the hyperbole in Englishcommercial advertising according to the principles in relevance theory?(3) Which linguistic strategies are adopted in English commercial advertising? Whatare their linguistic functions respectively?This thesis makes detailed analysis of relevance theory and hyperbole to illustratethat the cognition of hyperbole is achieved when acquiring the optimal relevance, andconstructs cognitive mechanism of the hyperbole in English commercial advertising bymeans of inductive and deductive methods as follows: receiving ostensive explicature; estimating it contradictory with cognitive environment in terms of general knowledge;constructing contextual hypothesis according to immediate context; reconstructingcognitive inference in accordance with logical imagination; acquiring optimal relevance.Meanwhile, advertisers use different linguistic strategies, including word hyperbole,rhetorical hyperbole and pictorial hyperbole, to transmit different advertising images andto achieve verified linguistic functions. As a result, the analysis of cognitive mechanismand linguistic strategies of hyperbole is helpful to advertisers to achieve expectedpersuasive effect.