Advertising language is the core content of advertising. Social culture influences and restricts advertising language and its expression, and advertising language contains or reflects social culture. Language is the language of a nation, and advertising exists in a certain society. A nation's philosophical concept, mode of thinking, cultural psychology, moral concept, lifestyle, customs, social system, religious beliefs and so on will inevitably have an impact on advertising language. Therefore, the advertising language of any society inevitably reflects all aspects of social culture. In fact, advertising language reflecting social culture is easy to be understood and accepted by people, which can greatly promote the function of advertising. Recognizing this and trying to explore the internal relationship between social culture and advertising language are very important for understanding and appreciating advertising language, and for guiding the creation and design of advertising language that not only conforms to the basic principles of advertising expression, but also suits the characteristics of specific national culture. As far as I know, China scholars have little research on Chinese and Western cultures and advertising language, especially the lack of comparative research. This paper is an attempt of this research.
First, philosophical concepts and advertising language
Cao Zhiyun (1992: 130) believes that every nation has its own unique understanding and expression of the world and its own philosophical concepts. Philosophy profoundly affects the structure and application of related languages, and of course it also affects the application of advertising language. For example, the unity of man and nature is a basic philosophical concept in China traditional culture. In some advertisements in China, the concept of harmony between man and nature has obvious influence on language expression and acceptance. For example, the advertisement of Changhong brand TV set "Rainbow in the sky, Changhong on earth" gives people a feeling that heaven and earth are one and rainbow "Changhong" is one thing through the comparison and metaphor of rainbow in the sky. Through such advertisements, the beautiful image of "Changhong" color TV can be vividly seen. Changhong color TV enjoys a good reputation all over the country, and its sales volume ranks first among domestic color TVs, which is closely related to its quality, but it is also undoubtedly related to the beautiful image created by its advertising words.
The TV advertisements of Yangzi Electric consist of colorful logo patterns of Yangzi Electric and four Chinese characters of "Yangzi Electric" by people on the earth. In this scene, people and words are integrated. At the same time, the only two sentences in the advertisement, "Yangzi Tiandi, Yangzi Electric", compare the goods with the heavens and the earth. In this way, the whole advertisement has formed a very strong harmonious atmosphere of harmony between man and nature, which is very attractive. Give a few more examples:
Take books as friends, and heaven and earth will last forever. (a series of advertisements)
② Leather world, charming world. (Leather Shopping Mall)
(3) From the time of flower growth, from the geographical position of thick soil and high sky! (real estate)
The above advertising words all contain the philosophy of harmony between man and nature, which is a natural expression deeply rooted in Chinese culture, and can arouse our audience's unique feelings and voices and easily stimulate people's desire for consumption.
Emphasizing the group and neglecting the individual is another important feature of China's philosophy. For example, Chinese, including advertising language, the order of expression from big to small is the embodiment of this philosophical concept. For another example, most of China's advertising words are very incisive, often outlining the characteristics, characteristics and advantages of goods or services in a few words, focusing on shaping its overall image, and generally paying little attention to the detailed description of the characteristics and advantages of products or services. There is a phenomenon that China's advertisements don't highlight individuality, which seems to be related to the traditional thought of pursuing group consistency and opposing individual particularity in China culture.
On the contrary, emphasizing the individual and individuality is an important aspect of western philosophy. The expression order of English, including advertising English, from small to large is the concrete embodiment of this philosophical concept. For example, English advertisements pay special attention to the detailed description of the characteristics of products or services, especially highlighting their differences in personality. Advertising articles and exquisite illustrations complement each other, show the personality and characteristics of goods to the fullest, convey the value of goods to buyers skillfully and naturally, strive to create a happy and ideal living atmosphere, lure the audience into a fascinating realm, and let the idea of consumption arise spontaneously. Such advertisements can be seen everywhere in the west, but they are rare in China. This difference is closely related to the respective philosophical concepts and material civilization of China and the West.
Order and symmetry are a philosophical concept formed by people's correct understanding of objective things. As we know, many objective things have the characteristics of neatness and symmetry. All human disciplines, including architecture and art, embody this feature. Language, including advertising language, as a carrier of culture, of course, also shows this feature. The double four-sentence structure often used in Chinese advertisements is an example of neatness and symmetry. For example, "Quality first, reputation first", the antithesis sentence is very neat and symmetrical, which conforms to the expression and appreciation habits of China people. In addition, many advertising words in Chinese advertisements are well-written, rigorous and catchy advertising golden sentences. For example:
4 sweet white rabbit, baby's favorite! (white rabbit candy);
⑤ Chasing beautiful pictures and leaving eternal memories! (camera)
English advertising texts also pay attention to neatness and symmetry. Many advertising headlines and slogans are neat and symmetrical sentences. Give an example:
Millions of pounds of business, a few pence of profit.
As we all know, there are many compound sentence in English advertising texts, some of which are roughly equal in syllables and quite neat in structure. For example:
⑦ The earth is a person who needs to care, and the earth is a home that needs to be managed …
In addition, phrases can also be seen in English advertisements. British linguist G.N. Leech (1966: 95) called it Chunk Language. The advertising copy arranged by phrases is neat, rigorous in structure, clear in meaning, clear at a glance, impressive and unforgettable. Phrase arrangement discourse is also common in Chinese advertisements, which may be influenced by western advertisements.
Cleanliness and symmetry is a correct understanding of objective things by human beings, which is reflected in all aspects of human civilization. Orderliness and symmetry are also one of the rhetorical features of advertisements. China pays the most attention to neatness and symmetry, and seldom uses irregular, scattered and incomplete artistic techniques. This may be because our people prefer neatness and symmetry. Western advertising not only adopts neat and symmetrical structure, but also uses artistic techniques such as jagged, scattered and incomplete, which has rich and colorful, implicit and meaningful effects. Obviously, the artistic techniques of Chinese and western advertisements are closely related to their respective cultural traditions, including philosophical concepts.
Second, thinking mode and advertising language
There is a relationship of mutual restriction and influence between thinking mode and language. The way of thinking naturally affects the use and acceptance of advertising language. Advertising language will inevitably reflect and influence the way of thinking.
Specifically, it is the thinking characteristics of all nationalities in the world. People are used to thinking in images and like concrete, vivid and intuitive language. Advertising language is full of figures of speech and is usually very vivid. For example:
8 power failure for 24 hours! Still as cold as ice. (Shanghai Aerospace Refrigerator Advertisement)
Pet-name ruby book for the valley, the pen for the diameter. (color pen advertisement)
Attending the gentle and lovely poured into the body. (Fragrant shower gel advertisement)
The first example above contains simile figures of speech, which vividly express the characteristics and functions of the product. The first sentence contains two metaphors, comparing books to valleys and pens to mountain roads, which are clear and easy to understand. Metaphorically speaking, pen is a path to the temple of knowledge and an essential tool to harvest the fruits of knowledge. The first example skillfully turned the product image into "soft and charming", creating a very soft and charming experience, romantic and charming.
English advertising wording also pays attention to vivid images. For example:
(1 1) Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.
(12) Venus is the brightest star in the electronics industry.
The previous sentence (1 1) is a typical simile sentence, and the previous sentence (12) is a typical metaphor sentence. The language is vivid, and the artistic conception is distinct. It is really exciting to present the product function and company image vividly to readers.
Thinking in images is one of the characteristics of human thinking. Figures of speech, such as metaphor and analogy, are widely used in English and Chinese advertisements, creating vivid artistic conception and images and publicizing the characteristics of goods or services in an infectious way, thus greatly enhancing the functions of English and Chinese advertisements.
Another characteristic of human thinking mode is fuzziness. The so-called "between the lines", "between the lines" and "words can only be understood, but not expressed" are all China people's special experiences of language and writing. Although the advertising language should be concise and easy to understand, proper vagueness and understanding can make the advertising language full of associations and endless aftertaste, which greatly increases the artistic appeal of advertising. The fuzziness of Chinese advertisements often lies in the use of incisive words, clever expressions or appropriate rhetoric to shape the overall image of goods or services with profound implications. For example, in the TV advertisement of Shanshan brand suit, a beautiful and charming suit worn by a man aroused everyone's envy. A couple were drinking, and the young man stared at the suit with envy and said in surprise, "Shanshan suit!" " "His girlfriend said to him half-jokingly at once," Don't be too handsome! " "The meaning is rich and vivid, which is very intriguing.
The fuzziness of western thinking is also fully reflected in English. This ambiguity seems to be as common as advertising in China. The fuzziness of English advertisements is manifested in many aspects, but mainly lies in the use of rhetorical devices such as pun and implied comparison or clever expressions to describe the specific characteristics, characteristics and advantages of goods or services. For example:
(13) You will be crazy about the nuts you got in Nux. It makes you full and energetic. (Leech, 1966: 185)
There are puns in the advertisement: the nuts( = go crazy) in go nuts and the nuts (nuts) in front constitute semantic puns. Obviously, puns are double-related, killing two birds with one stone, rich in association and flexible, which profoundly and vividly reveals the characteristics and functions of advertising products. It can be seen that the fuzziness of advertising language is the author's ingenious pen.
The fuzziness of language exists in phonetics, vocabulary, grammar and rhetoric system. The fuzziness of advertisement exists not only in the advertisement text, but also in the advertisement image. Fuzzy advertising language and illustrations provide a broad imagination space for the audience, arouse people's imagination, stimulate consumers' association with products and arouse their desire to buy.
Westerners like humor and talk funny, which is closely related to their way of thinking and cultural background. Westerners' strong sense of humor can be seen in English advertisements. Give a few examples:
(14) The man has to wash the dishes and two waitresses.
(15) Accommodation is suitable for two girls or young men who are willing to share.
(16) Accommodation: honeymoon suite, sleeping for three.
(17) Photographers build their own business demand models as partners for sleeping or activities.
(18) If your car can swim, please don't brake and go straight. (Foreign traffic safety advertisements)
Although humor is an effective and pleasant artistic means, there are more and more humorous languages in China's advertisements. Please enjoy an advertisement and a humorous TV advertisement.
(19) Part I: White jade still has defects. Where is perfection?
Part II: Youth is infinite. When will you choose a spouse?
Crosslinking: Who stayed?
(20) To tell the truth, the fame of Tianxian brand is "blown".
Third, cultural psychology and advertising language.
Cao Zhiyun (1992: 135) pointed out that "every nation has some psychological characteristics deeply rooted in its traditional culture. These psychological characteristics affect people's daily life and customs, and also restrict people's language activities. " It is the cultural psychology of every nation to seek good fortune and avoid evil, but it has its own connotation and performance in every nation. China people attach importance to good luck, getting rich and honoring their parents, especially their children. Advertising language that reflects these cultural psychology is quite common. For example:
(2 1) Sanyang, Sanyang, good luck! (Sanyangpi Store)
Luck comes every day, and it's your turn today! (cream advertisement)
(23) Congratulations on getting rich, welcome the New Year, and good luck again and again.
(24) South Building, bless all families.
(25) Giving love to millions of elderly people is the dedication of Yunnan Pharmaceutical Factory.
(26) power washing machine, dedicated to mother's love.
(27) Cotton thermos to warm your family.
(28) For children, for the future, there is a culture and a tomorrow (Hong Kong and Taiwan actor benefit performance advertisement)
The above advertising language caters to the cultural psychology of China people, can impress the hearts of the audience, and easily cause the buzz of * * *, which has a strong persuasion function.
Although West Renye Fang has the above cultural concepts, compared with China people, they are indifferent. Therefore, English advertising texts expressing the above cultural psychology are rare.
Everyone has a love of beauty. Youth and beauty are interrelated. Young people want to be beautiful, and middle-aged and elderly people also want to be younger than their actual age and more beautiful than their actual appearance. Chinese and western advertisers use people's love for beauty to skillfully connect many commodities with youth, beauty and chic, endowing products with magical charm and arousing consumers' strong desire for consumption. For example:
(29) Special beauty belongs to special you! (cosmetics)
(30) Hairdressing is detached and elegant! (hair cream)
(3 1) Keep youthful charm forever, like a fairy! (cosmetics)
(32) Delicate and light, keeping your skin radiant, healthy and beautiful, which is an excellent base for makeup. (Toben, 1992:80)
(33) Don't let motherhood ruin your chest lines ... Thousands of women use Aguamede to keep their chest lines.
Young and energetic. Why don't you join them? ..... (ibid., p.8 1)
Today, with the prosperity of commodity economy, advertising has become the golden key to open consumers' wallets. There are countless advertisements for cosmetics and other fitness products. Women are the main audience of this kind of advertisements. In today's advertisements, the most popular images for women are young, beautiful, fashionable and charming beauty images. In the west, the pursuit of beauty and fashion seems to be the first choice for women, and the obligation of mothers is put in a secondary position. In this cultural background, advertisers carefully design attractive advertisements for cosmetics and fitness products. In this way, advertising cosmetics and bodybuilding products have become a "panacea" to create youth and beauty.
People all over the world like good quality and cheap goods. Even those millionaires are no exception. Advertisers understand people's consumption psychology and concepts, and always emphasize the high quality and low price of goods, especially in western advertisements. For example:
(34) Provide the highest male value at the lowest price! (clothing)
(35) a rare fate, a rare price, a rare feeling! (furniture)
It's time to make a reservation. Right away. Because now you are free.
Flying from one coast to another, it costs only 99 pounds to buy a round-trip ticket. In addition, be sure to check out our.
Low-cost air tickets to other wonderful destinations cost only 99 pounds or less for one way.
Round-trip purchase ... (USA today,1February 3 1, 1998)
(37) Good news. In these cities, there is a new way to save money … make a price! (same as above)
Pursuing good quality and low price is people's traditional cultural psychology. Advertising highlights the quality and low price, conforms to people's wishes, caters to consumers' cultural psychology, and can stimulate people's consumption interest and action.
At present, although China consumers' psychology of worshipping foreign things is far less serious than before, it still exists more or less. Advertisers in our country always emphasize "first-class products produced by imported equipment and advanced technology" intentionally or unintentionally in many advertisements, so as to establish the image of goods and lure potential consumers to take practical actions. In order to cater to consumers' preference for foreign goods, many product manuals are in Chinese and English, and even domestic consumer goods produced by township enterprises and private enterprises are printed with eye-catching English brands, which makes the products have a foreign flavor. A large number of China brands adopt newly formed translated names, which sound like foreign brands. Because a considerable number of China consumers will associate these fake foreign brands with imported products, they are willing to buy these domestic products that look like foreign brands. At present, the popular shanzhai foreign brands are: Monissa (fashion company and its products), Yasili (shampoo and conditioner), Jieshi Slimming Cream, Toner Dew, Meijiajing, Esili (cosmetics), Roumeisi, Lihua Bao Si, Ballet, Li Fajia, Aimeisi (chocolate), Menglaina (children's clothing) and Xuemenglai (leather clothing).
The cultural psychology of a nation is closely related to its cultural background and customs, and people of different nationalities show different cultural psychology. For example, we think that indecent words or behaviors that violate people's cultural psychology are used to by westerners and are completely acceptable. Western countries have advocated sexual liberation for a long time. The propaganda of sexual life and behavior is scattered in various mass media. As one of the mass media, English advertisements sometimes closely link the promotion of products with pornography or sexual life to increase the attractiveness of products. Some advertisements (including pictures) clearly promote contraceptives, such as condoms, contraceptive suppository, contraceptive cream, contraceptive pills and so on. Some advertisements openly mention sex, semen, imaginary liquid, mutual masturbation, fingering and anal sex (see Greg Myers,1995:177-1865438. Occasionally, you can encounter advertisements defending homosexuals and their same-sex behaviors, calling their sexual behavior sex. The above advertisements are not surprising in the west, and do not conflict with the cultural psychology of westerners. If such advertisements are widely publicized in China, it will undoubtedly exceed the cultural and psychological endurance of ordinary people.
Fourth, moral concepts and advertising language.
As a part of national culture, traditionally recognized moral concepts are people's code of conduct. The use of advertising language should be restricted by social morality. For example, no matter in which nation, country or society, honesty is always regarded as one of people's basic moral qualities. Honesty is the best policy. Advertising must take honesty as the best policy, seek truth from facts, be honest with each other, be emotional, be sensible, and avoid boasting, cheating or fooling. In fact, there are many sincere and touching advertising words in China. For example:
If you like writing, please read and write.
Arts and sciences are inseparable from writing.
All walks of life are inseparable from writing.
Welcome to subscribe to writing. (writing magazine advertisements)
Eat as much as you want and bake as much as you want. (Advertising words for electric ovens) (Zhu Qingyang, 1993: 70)
The language of these two advertisements is simple and natural, highlighting their respective themes with real words, giving people a frank feeling and impressive.
In contrast, some advertising words are too vain and unreliable, intentionally or unintentionally. Some advertisements also use obviously exaggerated advertising words, such as "first-class", "unique", "first-class", "original", "world-famous", "unparalleled", "excellent", "cure all diseases" and "drugs to eliminate diseases".
Western advertising has gone through hundreds of years of development, from words to illustrations are more particular and mature. Many English advertisements focus on presenting facts and data, using vertical and horizontal contrast and other methods to understand the characteristics and advantages of products or services in a specific language, and at the same time focus on shaping the image of goods, giving people a true and reliable feeling. Of course, some exaggerated words such as "best", "best", "most wonderful" and "most perfect" occasionally appear in some English advertisements, which are criticized by some western linguists.
Inferiority and respect for others are the moral principles of the Chinese nation. In Chinese, humble words such as slave, inferiority, clumsiness and inferiority, and honorifics such as you, jun, GUI, Zun and Your Excellency are the direct embodiment of this principle. Advertising is an important means of propaganda in business war. We should use advertising language that shows respect, understanding and sincere help to the audience, so as to arouse consumers' high trust in enterprises and products, which has strong appeal and persuasion. In fact, honorifics and modesty are frequently used in China's advertising texts. Give a few examples:
(40) Beautify the world you live in! (trading company)
(4 1) brings you the warmth of spring! (air conditioning)
Welcome to write, call or come to our company to discuss business. (Advertising by Beijing Advertising Company)
Of course, it is more important to let the audience feel that advertisers are speaking modestly, not arrogant and boastful.
Although modesty is not a typical moral standard of western nations, respecting others and thinking for customers is also one of the moral standards observed by western nations. This moral concept is naturally reflected in English advertisements. For example:
(43) This process begins with a careful and in-depth assessment of all your needs. Then we provide a customized program.
Specially designed for your company ... (USA today, 1 4th, 1999.p.6)
We hope to be your airline. (ibid., 18)
(45) ... such a wide range of photographic creativity is at your disposal. (ibid., para.
Ensure the cleanest dishes.
If you don't agree that these are the cleanest dishes around, we will take them back.
Dishwasher, I'll refund your money and give you another 25 pounds for your trouble. (ibid., 14)
These advertising words reflect advertisers' warm and thoughtful service attitude and express their noble business ethics: from the interests of consumers, put yourself in their shoes and respect their choices.
Chinese and western cultures have many influences on Chinese and western advertising languages, and Chinese and western advertising languages also reflect the characteristics of Chinese and western cultures in many aspects. Chinese and western advertising language embodies the ideas and characteristics of Chinese and western cultures, which is easy to be understood and accepted, and often causes the audience's goodwill and favor for the goods, thus promoting the success of advertising. Chinese and western culture and advertising language are an important topic worthy of comprehensive discussion, involving a wide range. Due to the limited space, this paper only covers four main aspects. Related contents include: customs and advertising language, lifestyle and advertising language, values and advertising language, religious beliefs and advertising language. These aspects need to be carefully studied and discussed.
refer to
Cao Zhiyun. Advertising language art [M]. Changsha: Hunan Normal University Press, 1992.
[2] Zhu Qingyang. Advertising golden sentence 7000[M]. Changchun: Jilin Science and Technology Press, 1993.
[3] Dong Zhang. Encyclopedia of advertising coup [M]. Nanning: Guangxi Ethnic Publishing House, 1993.
[4] Leach, government notice 1996. Advertising language. [M]。 London: Longman.
[5] Myers, G. 1994. Advertising words. [M]。 London: Green Gate Publishing Service.
[6] Torben, V. 1992. Advertising language. [M]。 Oxford: Blackwell Press.