A Study Of Pragmatic Presupposition In Chinese Cosmetic Advertisements From The Perspective Of Cognitive Reference Point

Since it comes into being, presupposition has been a hot topic in both the philosophical area and the linguistic area, especially in the pragmatic study. Pragmatic presupposition arouses many scholars’ attention and it has been studied from the philosophical approach, the semantic approach, the pragmatic approach and the cognitive approach. However, the previous researches focus on the application, while the studies on cognitive mechanism of pragmatic presupposition are few. Therefore, this thesis mainly uses a qualitative method to give a further study on pragmatic presupposition from a cognitive-pragmatic angle. The author selects CRP model as the theoretical framework to explain pragmatic presupposition used in cosmetic advertisements. This research finds that(1) CRP has a powerful explanation for pragmatic presupposition, because it provides a mental path to look for pragmatic presupposition;(2) Pragmatic Presupposition is widely used in cosmetic advertisements;(3) There are some cognitive functions of pragmatic presupposition set in cosmetic advertisements based on CRP.Cognitive Reference Point(CRP) is an important cognitive theory which reflects the fundamental mental process of human’s cognition. It is composed of five components: conceptualizer(C), reference point(R), target(T), domain(D) and a mental path. There is a close connection between CRP and pragmatic presupposition, so CRP has the most powerful explanatory power as regards pragmatic presupposition. This research attempts to explain the way in which pragmatic presupposition realized by means of CRP and emphasize the cognitive functions of pragmatic presupposition in cosmetic advertisements.This thesis consists of five sections. Chapter One briefly introduces the contents of this thesis, which involves the background, the significance and the overall structure. Chapter Two covers a comprehensive review of presupposition from the angles of philosophy, semantics, pragmatics and cognitive linguistics, introduces the previous studies of the definition of pragmatic presupposition, the properties of pragmatic presupposition and the presupposition triggers. Besides, the previous researches of advertisements and cosmetic advertisements are introduced. Chapter Three is devoted to talk about the theoretical framework—Cognitive Reference Point(CRP), and gives an introduction to the research methodology and the data presentation. Chapter Four addresses the analysis of pragmatic presupposition in Chinese cosmetic advertisements based on the CRP Model. Meanwhile, the cognitive functions of pragmatic presupposition in cosmetic advertisements are presented. Chapter Five presents some major findings and concludes the implications, sums up the limitations of this research and gives suggestions for further research.