认知语言学论文

The Analysis of Pun in Chinese Advertising Based on Figure-Ground

Theory

[Abstract] The researches on the pun in advertising have been very popular in these years, which are mostly from the perspectives of pragmatic functions, aesthetic functions and translation. This thesis intends to study the interpretation mechanism of pun in Chinese advertising based on Figure-Ground Theory from the angle of the audience.

[Key words] Chinese Advertising; Pun; Figure-Ground Theory

1. Brief Introduction of Advertising and Pun

With the rapid development of international trade and information exchange, advertising is becoming an even more indispensable part of our society. We are, indeed, living in the sea of advertisements. According to the American Marketing Association, advertising is “the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services, or ideas by identified sponsors through various media. ” (赵静，6) There are many kinds of advertisements according to different sorts of division. And above all, the role of advertising is to inform, persuade, and remind groups of customers, or markets, about the need-satisfying value of the company’s goods and services. This thesis specially aims at the printed commercial Chinese advertisements.

Then, we are going to take a look at pun. As for the definition of pun, there are also various ones given by different scholars from different perspectives, and we can get a general idea about the pun. A pun employs phonetic or semantic conditions of a word, words or phrase skillfully to create more than one meaning in same utterance. It is based on the ambiguity of a word and uses the sound or meaning condition usually to create two meanings and thus to produce some humorous effect. And according to that, we can classify the pun into three major types, namely, phonetic pun, semantic pun and complex pun. Pun are greatly employed in adverts for its novelty and excellent humorous effect which can easily arouse audience’s interest and moreover to deepen the audiences’ impression towards the products.

2. The general understanding of Figure-Ground Theory

The Figure-Ground Theory is an important theory under the prominence view in cognitive linguistics. In cognitive linguistics, Figure is the more prominent part in cognition, which is the focus of attention, and more easily attracts people’s attention, while the Ground is less prominent than Figure in cognition and can be regarded as the reference of Figure in people ’s cognition. Let ’s have a look at the well-known face/vase illusion.

There are two illusions in this picture: a white vase and two faces. On the first sight of it, we can see one illusion the white vase or two faces, but after long observation or implication, we can easily notice the other possibility and make it easily. But there is no possibility that we can catch both of them at the same time and what lies behind our inability to see both of them is the Figure-Ground Segregation. In the cognitive linguistics’ view, people’s perception field is always divided into two parts: the Figure and the Ground. when we percept a situation we will put our attention and interest to the one which is more prominent and single it out as Figure from the rest which acts as its environment Ground. Overall, the Principle of Prgnanz is the guiding principle, which reflects the way that people select something as Figure. It contains series of formula and portrays a phenomenon that the more configuration of an element satisfies the gestalt principles (which contains “principle of proximity”, “principle of similarity”, “principle of closure” and “ principle of continuation”), the more possibility it has to be singled out as Figure.

3. The Analysis of Figure-Ground Theory in Pun in Advertising

In the interpretation process of pun in advertising, the audiences use their language knowledge and the advertising intention to interpret the pun in advertising from form to meaning and obtain three levels of Figure-Ground Organization unconsciously. The first level is the destruction level, which contains the advertising expression and common expression of the pun in advertising. The second level is the punning level, which contains the pun, and its context. The third level is the joint level, which contains the advertising meaning and the common meaning. The audiences’ interpretation of the pun in advertising is in such order from form to meaning. Through the analysis of the destruction level, the audiences activate the punning level, joint level and complete the interpretation of the pun in advertising in form and meaning respectively. In the destruction level, the advertising expression is prominent as Figure and the common expression from language knowledge in cognitive world is the Ground. In the punning level, the pun of the pun in advertising is the Figure and its context is the Ground. In the joint level, the advertising meaning which is implicit and connects with the advertising purpose is prominent as Figure and the common meaning which is explicit and easily achieved is the Ground.

3.1 Illustration of Figure-Ground Theory in phonetic pun

The phonetic pun means the pun they use is a word or phrase that has same or

similar sound with what is fixed in our experience but has quite different spelling and meaning. This characteristic makes the pun in advertising become prominent in our perception. Then let’s see two examples:

① 闲妻良母(全自动洗衣机) (姚俊, 2004)

In this advertisement, there are the Figure “[闲]”, the pun context “妻” and the common context “(良母) ”. In the interpretation of this pun in advertising the language knowledge is that the words “闲” and “贤” have the same pronunciation “xi án” in Chinese . The fixed Chinese four character idiom “贤妻良母” is the common expression of this advertisement and acts as the Ground, while the deviated phrase “闲妻” as the advertising expression is the Figure. From the experience in our language knowledge we will easily know the meaning of the idiom “贤妻良母”, it means “a good housewife who is very understanding, considerate, and good at housekeeping work”. But here it becomes the deviated one “闲妻良母”, and thus the word “ 闲 ” here is the focus of the audiences and becomes Figure. The understanding of this word must be on the base of its context, which acts as Ground.

Considering this is an advertisement of an automatic washing machine, the audiences will obtain another meaning which contains the intention of advertisement that “this automatic washing machine will help the housewives a lot in washing work and save them much time and energy and free them from this tiring and boring work”. In all, this advert makes use of the well-known idiom “ 贤妻良母 ” as its Ground gives the audiences such an impression that the automatic washing can free the housewives from washing work.

② 聪明的妈妈会用“锌”(三精葡萄糖酸锌口服液广告) (殷志纯, 2007)

In this advertisement, the word “锌” has the same pronunciation “x īn ” with the word “心”. On hearing this advertisement people will misunderstand the character of “x īn ” is “心” and obtain such meaning “a good and clever mother knows how to take care of her child with concentrated attention”, while after seeing this advertisement especially the “wrong ” “锌” which means a chemical element they will obtain another meaning “a clever mother know how to add zinc gluconate to ensure child’s nutrition”. What this advertisement wants to express is “a clever mother knows how to take care her child with enough nutrition and know how to add the zinc gluconate”.

3.2 Illustration of Figure-Ground Theory in Semantic Pun

Different from the phonetic pun, the semantic pun uses a word or phrase, which has two or more than two meanings to create pun in advertising. When the audiences observe this pun in advertising, they would consider this advertisement is quite right and interpret it as the common expression in our language knowledge. While the advertising intention will make the audiences reconsider this advertisement and they will get two expressions. Then, let’s have a look at the following examples:

③ 您的健康是天大的事 (天大药业广告) (姚俊,2004)

In this advertisement, there are the Figure “[天大]”, the pun context “您的健康是的事”, and there is no common context.

This is an advertisement of a medicine company whose name is Tianda. At first sight of this advertisement, the audiences will not consider this as an advertisement but regard it as a common sentence, which emphasizes the importance of health. Considering it’s an advert, the audiences will naturally reconsider it, and with some efforts, they will finally obtain its two expressions which are the common expression and the advertising expression: “ 您的健康是天大的事 ” and “ 您的健康是天大的事 ”. Although these two expressions are same in form, they have different meanings and basis. The common expression which based on our language knowledge has the meaning of “your health is the most important thing”, while the advertising expression with advertising purpose as its basis means that “your health is the business of our Tianda Company”. The advertising intention makes the advertising expression salient and prominent as the Figure and the language knowledge makes the common expression become the Ground. After associating these two meanings with the advertising intention, the audiences will obtain the ultimate meaning “The health is the most important for a person and our company Tianda will take good care of your health”

④ 做女人挺好！(丰胸产品广告) (殷志纯, 2007)

This is an advertisement of a breast enhancement product. Naturally, this sentence can be interpreted as this “to be a woman is really very good”, while associated with its product and the advertising intention, the audiences turn their focus on the word “挺” easily, which is not a adverb in the first interpretation but is a verb and means “tauten or keep breasts firm”. This advertisement wants to give the audiences such information that “our product will make women keep their breast firm and become perfect women, and make them feel good to be women”

3.3 Illustration of Figure-Ground Theory in Complex Pun

There is a special pun in advertising, which contain both the phonetic pun in advertising and the semantic pun in advertising. The interpretation of this kind of pun in advertising is not so complicated as its name suggests. Let ’s take a look at the example straightly:

⑤“愈满全球”(某眼药水广告) (姚俊, 2004)

In this advertisement, there are the Figure “[愈]” and “[球]”, the pun context “满全”, but there is no common context. The word “愈” is the phonetic pun, which has the same pronunciation of “y ù” with the word “誉”. The word “球” is a semantic pun, and it has two meanings in this advertisement one of which is the whole world, the other of which is the whole eye. The ultimate meaning of this pun in

advertising is “Our product can cure your eyes and its good effectiveness makes it famous all over the world.” As the examples of this kind of pun in advertising are not so common, here we just give this typical one to illustrate its interpretation process.

4. Conclusion

In short, we can see that the pun in advertising has features to correspondent to Figure-Ground Theory, which guides the audiences’ interpretation process. The Figure of pun in advertising can give prominence to the features and functions of products and give prominence to the brand names and the products. The Ground in pun in advertising can bring comfort, happy and pleasing atmosphere to the products advertised giving the audiences enough space to imagine, or at least it will reduce some awkward and embarrassing atmosphere for some special product.

Work Cited

薛冰, 李悦娥，“广告双关语的语用观和美学观”，《外语与外语教学》，6(2000) :

36-47。

姚俊，“广告双关语的认知研究”，《四川外语学院学报》，5(2004) : 102-106。 殷志纯，“论广告语构成中的语言手段”，《语言应用研究》，8(2007) : 72-73。 赵静，《广告英语》，北京:外语教学与研究出版社，1993。