A Study Of Speech Acts In TV Monologue Advertisements

In the modern society, advertisements have become a part of our life. And as a bridge ofcommunication, advertisements play an important role between the advertisers and theconsumers. Among the plenty of elements in advertisements, the advertising language is themost important one.The objects of this thesis are100Chinese TV monologue advertisements. The data arecollected from the channel of CCTV-1during prime time, which is mainly from seven thirtyto ten in the evening, and the collecting period is from January third to June third. This thesisstudies the speech act characteristics in100Chinese TV monologue advertisements byemploying speech act theory.The100Chinese TV monologue advertisements are analyzed and discussed byemploying Searle’s speech act theory. According to Searle’s theory, speech acts are dividedinto five taxonomies: assertives (A), directives (D), commissives (C), expressives (E) anddeclarations (De). Based on the classification, this thesis analyzes and discusses the speechact characteristics in every advertisement. It is found that four types of speech act exceptdeclarations are employed in Chinese TV monologue advertisements. It is also found thatsome advertisements present one type of speech act, and others present two or more speechacts simultaneously, that is, the integrated speech acts, which are A+C, A+D, C+D, andA+C+D. What’ s more, it is found that the integrated speech act of A+C is most frequentlyemployed; speech act of A, that of A+C+D and that of A+D are less employed with similarfrequency while speech act of C, that of D, that of E and that of C+D are least frequentlyemployed.Reasons for these speech acts employed in the100Chinese TV monologueadvertisements are explored as well. A successful advertisement must obviously present theadvertisers’ intention and satisfy the consumers’ interests and needs simultaneously. Theintegrated speech act of A+C in advertisements is the most frequently employed because itnot only presents the advertisers’ intention effectively but also satisfies the consumers’ physiological and psychological needs simultaneously.