A Pragmatic-Cognitive Approach To Metadiscourse’s Application In English Advertisements

Metadiscourse, first proposed by Harris in1959, is one of the two layers in adiscourse, the other is primary discourse. Regarded as a means used by authors toorganize discourse, metadiscourse is applied to illustrate the author‘s attitudes,therefore affecting reader‘s reaction. In this sense, this terminology has got its vitalplace in discourse analysis and language education, etc. Due to the significantfunction it exerts on the whole process of analysis, as mentioned above,metadiscourse receives increasing attention from linguists both home and abroad.Various researches have been conducted from diverse perspective: functional，sociolinguistic，rhetorical，psycholinguistic and others.The present research takes as its study subject the core claims of the application ofmetadiscourse in advertisements. Though no doubt has been cast on itsachievements， until recently few researchers have made attempts to conductwell-rounded investigation of the interaction between the advertiser and his／herreaders in advertising discourse under the framework of metadiscourse and providethe copywriters of Chinese advertisements with rewarding writingstrategies．Therefore, this research has its unique function in extending the scope of such research from the perspective of metadiscourse.Though currently the researchers have tiny divergences on the definition of thisterm，still most of them accept that metadiscourse projects the writer‘s idea into thediscourse and helps to guide and direct his readers to organize, interpret，evaluate，and react to the propositional content as well as the writer‘s attitude towards thediscourse and readers. However, the definition and classification of this term are stillunder exploration. In order to resolve this inadequacy, this paper intends to studymetadiscourse from the Cognitive-Pragmatic perspective and postulates a cleareraccount. After the concept clarification and framework improvements, this researchanalyzes the application of metadiscourse in advertisements.The author builds up the theoretical framework of this study as cognitive andpragmatic oriented, specifically based on Hyland‘s latest interpersonal modelmodified, and supports it with Mental Space Theory and Systemic FunctionGrammar, trying to explore the most suitable and reliable definition, classificationand meta-functions of metadiscourse in English advertisements‘discourse. Brieflyspeaking, there are two principal issues to be settled for the comprehensivepresentation of metadiscourse: construction of an improved model and systematicanalysis of its application in advertisements.To finish our research, the author collects data from various sources of Englishmagazines and websites. And with regard to the enormous amount of data, this studyadopts an introspective and qualitative method as its primary methodology. This paper on the whole has six parts to discuss and study these issues. In ChapterOne, the thesis presents the current views and research background on metadiscourseat issue, the objectives, methodology, hypothesis, purposes of the present study, andthe sources of data are also contained in this section too. In Chapter two, the part ofliterature review makes an overview of metadiscourse theory, presenting itscontributions, shortcomings and aspects which can be used as references in thisresearch. Through an overview and elaboration on metadiscourse theory, the thesis,in Chapter Three, proposes a Cognitive-Pragmatics model as the basis for the modelconstruction, on basis of which, the frameworks used in this study are proposed withthe description of related theories as its foundation. Within this framework, MentalSpace theory and Systematic Function grammar definitely play an important role. InChapter three, the emphasis on the explanation of the method adopted in thisresearch is demonstrated, by adding more details and examples. In Chapter four, thefocus is on the analysis results in the improved model, analyzing the innermechanism behind linguistic events, through further elaboration and investigation ofmetadiscourse in advertisements collected by the author. In Chapter five, specificexamples by applying the theoretical framework built up in this thesis are discussed.In Chapter six, the major findings and consequences are summarized, thenconclusions are put forward based on this summary. Moreover, limitations and futurestudy orientations are mentioned.