A Study Of Prototype Shift In Commercial Advertising Language

In cognitive linguistics, the theory of prototype has always been one of the most important topics among scholars. Prototype is the clearest case of category membership and possesses central attributes of the category, it functions as the cognitive reference point in people’s categorization. However, according to Ungerer and Schmid, “the prototypes of cognitive categories are not fixed, but may change when a particular context is introduced”. “Prototype shift” is the “cases where central attributes of a category are replaced, normally as a result of extra-linguistic changes”. The core meanings of categories thus dynamically change due to “prototype shift”.The phenomenon of “prototype shift” in commercial advertising language usually operates in this way: the central and salient attributes of products or services are not stated straightforwardly, but some novel attributes are focused on by means of creating certain contexts or introducing new attributes, with the aim to create striking effects of advertisements. The phenomenon of “prototype shift” leads to dynamic meanings of advertising language, and promotes consumers’ perception of the novel and central attributes of products or services.The research is carried on mainly from two aspects to discuss the phenomenon of “prototype shift” in commercial advertising language and the cognitive mechanism of dynamic meanings due to “prototype shift”: advertisers and consumers. This research is conducted by virtue of analyzing the selected examples of commercial advertising language with the theory of prototype and “prototype shift”. The corpus is collected from Chinese and foreign journals issued in 2015, including New Weekly, China Advertising, Bloomberg Businessweek, TIME, Newsweek, The Economist.The research shows that advertisers construct new meanings and realize “prototype shift” by creating certain contexts or introducing new rational and emotional attributes, and leave consumers imaginary space to impress them in commercial advertising language. On the other hand, the cognitive phenomenon of “prototype shift” enables consumers to interpret meanings through filling the gap and inferring the implied meanings. The cognitive mechanism of dynamic meanings due to “prototype shift” in commercial advertising language is that: with the change of the weight of attributes, the old prototypes are reduced to the peripheral position, the heavily weighted attributes become new prototypes, leading to the dynamic changes of meanings.It is also discovered that “prototype shift” has great influences on the dynamic changes of people’s consumption concepts and values, making consumers pay more and more attention to emotional and affective pleasure brought by products and services. At the same time, with people’s awareness of spiritual civilization, some hot issues as new prototypes are applied in advertisements to replace old prototypes, which draw people’s attention and show advertisers’ concern for the public, with the ultimate aim to build positive image of the brand and increase the market share.The theoretical significance of this thesis is that it can promote researches on advertising language from the cognitive perspective, and goes further to discuss prototype theory of cognitive linguistics. The practical significance of this thesis is that it can bring some implication in the marketing activities, advertisers are induced to produce more successful advertisements, and consumers can make rational purchasing decisions while interpreting the artistry of commercial advertising language.