A Conceptual Integration Perspective On The Cognitive Meaning Construction In Chinese Tourism Slogans

A tourism slogan is a short phrase or sentence which communicates the information of a tourist destination in an effort to persuade potential tourists.An effective tourism slogan can attract tourists‘ attention and leave a good impression on tourists so much so that destination marketing organizations create unique and appealing tourism slogans to improve competitiveness and increase tourism market share.A large number of studies have been conducted from the perspectives of evaluation,design,features and translation of tourism slogans,but few of them are concerned with whether the intended message of tourism slogans is effectively delivered to tourists and how tourists interpret the meaning hidden behind tourism slogans.Thus,the analysis of the cognitive processes in tourism slogans is of great value.This study is to explore the cognitive meaning construction in Chinese tourism slogans from the perspective of the Conceptual Integration Theory proposed and developed mainly by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner,which has been proved that it can offer great explanatory power in language and human thinking.Two research questions are expected to be answered in this study:1.What are the dominant themes in Chinese tourism slogans through a lexical analysis of tourism slogans?2.What are the cognitive meaning construction processes in Chinese tourism slogans in terms of the different kinds of themes?The research data of this study are 131 Chinese tourism slogans created and promoted by different provinces,cities and scenic spots.They are collected from different resources,such as official tourism websites,official WeChat accounts and official Weibo of tourist destinations.Through the study,five themes of Chinese tourism slogans are identified: emotional needs,beautiful scenery,long history and rich culture,pleasant weather and air,and compound themes.Through a detailed analysis of Chinese tourism slogans from the perspective of the Conceptual Integration Theory,the cognitive meaning processes of Chinese tourism slogans are clearly illustrated.In the first theme ―emotional need‖,the cognitive meaning processes of tourism slogans are usually through metaphor,allusion,parody,and homonym,and metaphor is more often used than other methods.In the second theme ―beautiful scenery‖,the cognitive meanings of tourism slogans are often constructed through homophone,metaphor,and homonym.Homophone and metaphor are more frequently applied in cognitive meaning construction.In the third theme ―long history and rich culture‖,the cognitive meaning construction of tourism slogans is by means of antithesis,homonym and parody,and antithesis is the major method employed to construct the cognitive meanings of tourism slogans of this type.In terms of the fourth theme ―pleasant weather and air‖,homophone and metaphor are normally used to construct the cognitive meanings of tourism slogans.As for the compound theme,the cognitive meaning processes of tourism slogans are mainly constructed through antithesis,homophone and metaphor,and antithesis is the frequently used method to construct the cognitive meanings of tourism slogans.