The Image Construction Of Products In Advertising Discourse

Based on the theories and research methods related to Critical Discourse Analysis, this thesis conducts a data analysis on 5 advertisements of iPhone in hope of exploring the iPhone’s image constructed by the advertising, via combining discourse historical approach with Systemic Functional Grammar as analytical tool.The research mainly investigates five discursive strategies and the grammatical features realized in the advertising texts. The five strategies are developed by Ruth Wodak in discourse-historical approach, which include nomination, predication, argumentation,perspectivization, and intensification/mitigation. As a supplementary, the mood and transitivity developed by Halliday in Systemic Functional Grammar are also analyzed.According to the integrated analysis and discussion, the present thesis finds that:(1) The image construction of iPhone is a dynamic process of changing and innovating, but its idea “switch” and the goal that users’ experience goes first have never been changed, which is revealed by the diachronic analysis on the nominations in the advertising discourse of iPhone(from text 4 to text 6), and also the material process in transitivity.(2) iPhone is constructed as the symbol of the users’ status, the symbol of responsibility as well as humanity, which are supported by the nomination of persons “we”and “you”, and argumentation with the topoi “reality” and “responsibility”.(3) iPhone is seen as a leader of the technology with its advancement, uniqueness, superiority and perfection, it is a perfect integration of high technology and users’ desires, it is also a pioneer of new life for people, which are mainly realized by the strategies of nomination(nomination on objects, phenomena and events), predication,(such as quantities of adjectives with positively appraisive meanings, and rhetorical figures), and intensification(such as extreme adjectives and adverbs, marked theme, and phrases with superpose effect),and mood(amount of declarative clauses in active voice and present tense) and transitivity(the exploration of “you” as the beneficial in material processes).This research bears its significance in two aspects. First, it helps people especially the iPhone users clarify the exact image of iPhone. Second, the multi-image of iPhone is ultimately delivered to the iPhone users through the advertising discourse of iPhone. Afterthat the users gradually identify and then accept the images of iPhone by purchasing and using it, which in turn stimulates and facilitates the marketing of iPhone.