Abstract

In the fierce competition of the advertising market, figures of speech plays an increasingly important role. Advertising language, whose theme is clear, has several vivid features. As a language technique, rhetoric is a process of selecting, adjusting and combining language, whose aim is to make language expression vivid and rich. Rhetoric can be roughly divided into three types: phonetic rhetoric, lexical rhetoric and syntactic rhetoric. Utilizing rhetoric in advertising slogans will produce aesthetic, persuasive and social effects that tend to promote a product’s sales and publicity. The purpose of this paper is to reveal that rhetoric is the key to the success of advertising slogans by analyzing the efficacy and influences of rhetoric that it brings slogans. In addition, the article also points out that the majority of advertising creators should notice some problems that caused by the inappropriate use of rhetoric in advertising slogans to avoid negative impacts. Rhetoric is ubiquitous in our lives and needs to be properly used in advertising language. 

Key words: figures of speech;advertising slogans;features;effects;problems

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1 Introduction-1

1.1 Research background-1

1.2 Literature review on rhetoric in advertising slogans-2

2 Features of advertising slogans-3

2.1 Simplicity and conciseness-3

2.2 Understandability and readability-3

2.3 Novelty-3

2.4 Usage of rhetoric devices-3

3 Use of rhetoric-4

3.1 Phonetic rhetoric-4

3.1.1 Alliteration-4

3.1.2 Consonance-4

3.1.3 Onomatopoeia-4

3.2 Lexical rhetoric-5

3.2.1 Metaphor-5

3.2.2 Pun-6

3.2.3 Parody-6

3.2.4 Hyperbole-7

3.3 Syntactic rhetoric-7

3.3.1 Parallelism-7

3.3.2 Repetition-7

3.3.3 Antithesis-8

4 Effects of Rhetoric in Advertising slogans-8

4.1 Aesthetic effects-8

4.1.1 Beauty of image-8

4.1.2 Beauty of implication-9

4.1.3 Beauty of innovation-10

4.1.4 Beauty of Rhythm-11

4.2 Persuasive effects-11

4.2.1 Subject’s purpose of persuasion-11

4.2.2 Recipient’s comprehension persuasion-12

4.2.3 Recipient’s emotional persuasion-13

4.2.4 Moral culture and psychological persuasion-14

4.3 Social effects-14

4.3.1 Promotion of social development-15

4.3.2 Mutual influence and restriction-15

5 Problems that need people's attention -16

5.1 Exaggeration to be based on facts-16

5.2 Metaphor to be appropriate-16

5.3 Homophonic to be limited-16

6 Conclusion-17