A Discourse Study On Female English Commercial Advertisements From The Perspective Of Systemic-Functional Linguistics

In modern society,the desire of females for purchasing is higher than males' in general.According to the data of a sampling survey on social status of Chinese females,it reveals that there are females about 88.7% who have rights to purchase their own high-grade products3.There is another relevant study showing that females take up obvious advantages in deciding family consumption4.Therefore,commercial advertisements about cosmetics,clothes,etc.regard females as their main consumers.With the advent of the information age and the deepening of economic globalization,multinational advertisements with international impact spring up.They attract increasing Chinese females by virtue of their high reputation,popularity,quality and excellent effectiveness of products.From this point of view,studies on female English commercial advertisements are of research value.As advertisements belong to the field of discourse,and from this perspective,the theory of systemic-functional linguistics mainly refers to Halliday's three metafunctions,that is,ideational function,interpersonal function,and textual function.Therefore,it's reasonable for the thesis to choose the theory of Halliday's three metafunctions to analyze female English commercial advertisements.This thesis chooses thirty pieces of advertisements of famous brands from foreign authoritative female magazines as its study objects to discuss the linguistic features of female English commercial advertisements.Through the qualitative method and the quantitative method,it aims at discussing the realization of transitivity in ideational function,the realization of mood system,modality system and person pronoun system in interpersonal function,and the realization of theme markedness and patterns of thematic progression in textual function,in order to reveal that systemic-functional linguistics can provide references and implications for the practice of female English commercial advertisements.Accordingly,it reveals that in ideational function,material processes and relational processes are the most frequently used means.In interpersonal function,declaratives share the most percent and imperatives follows;the second and the third person pronouns are employed most and modal auxiliaries are relatively less chosen.In textual function,unmarked themes and constant theme progression patterns are the most common strategies.Theoretically,the study of the thesis not only enriches the application scopes of systemic-functional linguistics,but also broadens the perspectives of advertisements.Practically,the study results of the thesis can provide reference for the practice of female English commercial advertisements.