从修辞学角度分析英文广告说服力的实现_双关和拟人的运用_英文_

[作者简介]李荣华,女,包头师范学院外国语学院讲师,硕士,研究方向:二语习得及应用语言学。

Rhetorical Devices i n English Advertisi ng Texts

Use of Pun and Personification

L i R onghua

(Baotou Teacher !s Co llege ,B aotou,Inner M ongolia,014030)

[Abst ract] R hetor i ca l approaches i n copy w r iti ng a re very i m portant to ga i n the attention of the aud ience and to l ead

them to t he des i red m essage successfull y .T o attract the audience ,copyw riters use var i ous rheto rical approaches to m ake the ir cop i es m ore readab le ,mo re i n teresti ng ,m ore m e m orab le and ,to t he end resu lt ,m ore e ffecti ve .In this pape r ,pe r

son ifi cation and pun are d i scussed i n Eng lis h adverti sing tex ts .

[K ey words] rhe torica l dev ices

; personificati on ; pun ; Eng lish adverti s i ng texts [中图分类号]H 315 [文献标识码]A [文章编号]1672 8610(2010)08 0003 03

I .Introduction

R hetor i c is about the body o f pr i nciples and t heory hav ing to

do w ith the presentati on of facts and i deas i n clear ,conv inc i ng ,and a ttracti ve language .The study of rheto ric is usua ll y on lite ra t u re ,espec iall y on class i c literature .But t h i s pape r concentrates on adv erti sing texts and stud i es rhe t o ric from a m ore practi ca l po i nt o f view .

R hetor i ca l approaches i n copy w r iti ng a re very i m portant to ga i n t he atten tion o f the aud i ence and to l ead t hem to the des i red m essage successfu ll y .T o attract t he aud i ence ,copyw riters use va ri ous rheto rica l approaches t o m ake t he ir cop i es m ore reada b l e ,m ore i nte resti ng,m ore m e m orab le and ,t o t he end resu lt ,m ore eff ec ti ve .Copyw riters who str i ve to w rite i m pressively tend to produce w riti ng that is artificia,l fl ow ery ,and po m pous .T hey m ay l oad the i r w riti ng w ith b i g words ,h i gh-sounding phrases and too m any ad j ec tives and adverbs ,and a l so trite fi gures of speech .Such a sty l e is sa i d to be ∀over w r itten #.H owever ,a good copy often consi sts of ord i nary ,eve ryday w ords woven i nto o rd i na ry ,everyday sen tences .A fresh ,apt fi gure o f speech appea l s to the i m ag ina ti on ,creates m ental p i ctures and m akes the w r i ting v i v id ,i m press i ve and i nteresti ng .

T here are m any k i nds o f rhetor i ca l approaches that can be used .T he se lec ti on o f rhetorica l approaches m a i nly depends on the w ay to de liver t he m essag e ,rega rdless what t he i dea is .In constructi ng a copy ,copyw riters are at libe rt y to take li be rti es w it h the language .W ord cho i ce and sentence construc tion are the essenti a l sk ills i n t he use o f Eng li sh .W hil e figures o f speech are regarded as ∀deco ra ti ve dev ices #i n the use o f Eng lis h ,they compr i se various uses of language that depart from the custom ary constructi on or orde r so as to ach i eve special effects or m ean i ng s .

R hetor i ca l dev i ces are used frequently i n advertisi ng at every li ngu istic leve.l Thus w e find at t he g ramm atica l leve,l

the re is functi ona l conversion i n w hich a wo rd o f one c l ass be

haves as t hough it w ere in ano t her ,and many syn tacti c construc ti ons ,w hich cannot be g enerated by an Eng lis h gra mm ar bu t are neverthe less interpretable .T he ac t ua l t o ta l nu m be r of figures of speech is a dry m a tter of defi n iti on ov er wh ich acade m ics m ay argue .N o ma tter how m any t here are ,t hey are comm only d i v id ed i nto t hree categor i es :

A.L ex i ca l fi gures of speech .B .Syntacti ca l fi gures o f speech .C .Phonetic fi gures o f speech .

A ny rheto rical dev ice can be used to ach ieve t he goa ls of adverti s i ng .H ow eve r ,person ificati on and pun w ill be discussed in this paper .∃.Pun

Pun i s a hu m orous use of a w ord i n such a way as to suggest d ifferentm eani ngs or app licati ons ,o r of wo rds hav i ng t he sam e o r nearly the sam e sound but d iffe rent m eanings :a p l ay on w ords .T hus t he f o r m er i s usua lly ca lled hom og raph w hereas the latter ho m ophone .T he re are three e l em ents in analyzi ng and composi ng a pun :doub le context ,h i ng e and tri gge r .H o m ograph and ho m ophone usuall y act as hinge ,wh ich is t he w ord or phrase unexpec ted l y and si m ultaneously co m bi nes t wo unre l a ted m ean i ngs .

Pun is a linguisti c t w i st .Because of t he dua lm ean i ngs con ta i ned i n a si ng le w ord ,a pun can wo rk as t wo or even m ore w ords .It is t hen m ore pow erful and can m ake the copy m ore a m azi ng .It is one of the mo st co mmon l y used rhetor i ca l dev ices in adverti s i ng Eng li sh .It adds a ttracti veness ,m e m orab ili ty and ef fecti veness to adverti s i ng copies .T he f o ll ow ing exa m ples show us ho w pun w orks .

2.1Puns co m posed o f ho m ographs (1)G illette ,the best m en can get . G ill e tte shaver

3 语文学刊%外语教育教学 2010年第8期