Abstract

The explosive growth of We-Media platforms in China has innovated advertising language with one remarkable feature as English Memes are employed in the context of Chinese advertisements. Despite plenty of extensive studies home and abroad on advertising from pragmatic perspective, few have touched on memetic phenomenon in advertisements and even fewer are based on pieces with memes in a foreign language. The main body of this thesis, therefore, is devoted to revealing pragmatic functions and motivations underlying this new trend.

This thesis conducts the qualitative analysis on collected samples and slogans from We-Media ads. It mainly elaborates on illustrating the embodiment of four major pragmatic principles applied in the innovation of Chinese ads with English Memes. Moreover, through comparison and case study, the conclusion indicates that pragmatic motivations are evoked by the purpose of marketers in enhancing interestingness function, emphasis function and persuasion function.

The significance of the present study resides in its initiative to look into English Memes, which are motivated by rapid development of We-Media, in Chinese advertising context. With the aim at decoding English Memes in Chinese advertising from the perspective of pragmatics, this thesis provides guidance for those who are engaged in the creation of We-Media advertising and sheds new lights on the pragmatic interpretation of Chinese advertisements.

Keywords: Pragmatic functions; Pragmatic motivations; English Memes; Chinese We-Media advertising

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

Chapter One: Introduction-1

1.1 Background Information-1

1.2 Literature Review-1

1.2.1 Relevant work on socio-pragmatic perspective-1

1.2.2 Previous domestic researches on pragmatic principles applied in advertising-1

1.2.3 Literature studies on Memes in advertising in the same language-2

1.3 Research Questions-3

1.4 Methodology-4

Chapter Two:-4

Major Pragmatic Principles Underlying English Memes in We-Media Ads-4

2.1 General classification of English Memes in Chinese We-Media ads-4

2.1.1 English Memes with meaning and function remaining the same-4

2.1.2 English Memes with meaning enriched or syntactic functions reformed-4

2.1.3 Homophony—English Memes coined according to Chinese phonetic transcription-5

2.1.4 Analogy—English Memes derived from substituting certain parts of original pattern-5

2.1.5 Abbreviation—English Memes made by leaving out some of the letters-5

2.2 Presupposition & Vagueness-5

2.3 Cooperative Principle & Implicature-6

2.3.1 Maxim of Quantity-6

2.3.2 Maxim of Manner-6

2.4 Politeness Principle & Face-saving Theory-7

2.4.1 Tact Maxim-7

2.4.2 Sympathy Maxim-7

2.5 Code-switching-7

Chapter Three: Pragmatic Motivations for English Memes Popularizing in Chinese Ads Online-8

3.1 Comparison between traditional advertising and We-Media ads with English Memes-8

3.2 Pragmatic analysis of reasons for English Memes in Chinese We-Media ads-8

3.2.1 Enhancing Interestingness Function-9

3.2.2 Enhancing Emphasis Function-10

3.2.3 Enhancing Persuasion Function-10

Chapter Four: Conclusion-11

References-12