An Analysis Of English Print Advertisement From The Perspective Of Language Economics

Economist Adam Smith suggests that the appearance of language makes it possible for market exchange and transactions since trading behaviors requires language in human society,which is the earliest economic description of language.Based on this point,language also has economic value as an indispensable tool in the process of human activities and social exchange.The emerging theories of human capital and education economics in 20~thh century built the theoretical foundation for the development of language economics.In 1965,the information economist Marschak first put forward the interdisciplinary theory of language economics,and he proposed that language has the same economic features as other resources,that is,value,utility,cost and benefit.The analysis and discussion focusing on these four aspects have become the main contents of language economics research.This brand-new theory crosses economics and linguistics,which aims to explore the language phenomena with the help of economic concept and methodology,and it also provides a new direction for the study on linguistics.From the perspective of language economics,this paper analyzes the language collocation as well as its effectiveness in English print advertising.First of all,the author uses the method of case analysis to discuss specific advertising examples and demonstrates the effectiveness of language in print advertisement.Meanwhile,based on the theory of language economics,this paper attempts to reveal the economic characteristics of advertising language by means of qualitative analysis.The analytical framework of this paper is based on the four economic features proposed by Marschak,namely,value,cost,utility and benefit.Besides,the main theories applied in the process of this study are the Cooperative Principle and the Principle of Least Effort.There are two questions involved in the paper,the first question is to explore how the language in print advertisement influence the purchase decision of consumers from the perspective of language economics,another is to reveal that what language collocation can realize the best effect of persuasion in print advertisement.In a word,this paper aims to explore the language collocation and its effect in English print advertising,and to reveal the economic characteristics involved in advertising language.This study not only enriches the relevant theories of language economics but also offers a new theoretical perspective for the research of English print advertising.In addition,based on the new perspective of language economics,the author combines language economics with the creation of print advertising language and discusses the restriction of economic principles in the process of advertising production.Meanwhile,this paper explores how to realize the optimal speech effectiveness at the price of the minimum language input,in hope of providing a new angle for the advertisers and achieving better economic value of language.At last,the author tries to bring some enlightenment to readers especially to the researchers who are interested in language economics,which will be helpful for the further development of this new theory.