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1、A Linguistic Study of Extreme Word in Slogans in English teaching Abstract: The present thesis studies the use of extreme words in English slogans in English teaching. Altogether 152 slogans are collected containing extreme words. It is noticed that superlative forms are the most favourite extreme w
2、ords in the advertising slogans.The pragmatic effects of these words are analyzed from the perspective of the Cooperative Principle Theory. It is found that almost slogans with these extreme words definitely violates quality maxim. Basing on the flouting of quality maxim in the slogans, the rest of
3、maxims violate more frequently to achieve various outcomes. Keywords: extreme word, advertising slogan,cooperative principle, pragmatic effect 摘 要: 本文研究了极端词语在英语教学中的使用及其效果。共搜集了 152 条相关语例。 我们发现形容词最高级在英语广告标语中最受欢迎。大多数的极端词语一旦出现在广告标 语就违反了合作原则中的质原则，在违反质原则的基础上又出现了量准则及关联原则的违 反，在课堂上对标语的使用给学生带来丰富的语用效果。 关键词：极端词
4、语；广告标语；英语教学；合作原则；语用效果 1 A Linguistic Study of Extreme Word in Slogans in English teaching 1. Introduction 1.1 The issue There have been amounts of linguistic research on advertising language, including both advertising texts (e.g., 程晓丽 2008) and advertising slogans (e.g., 裴燕萍 2007). 程晓丽 (2008) revea
5、ls how interpersonal meaning is realized in English advertising discourse from four aspects (person, mood, modality and evaluation) while 裴燕萍(2007) illustrates in what occasion puns should be used in advertising slogans. Most of these studies aim to describe the linguistic features of and linguistic
6、 devices used in advertising, as well as the pragmatic effect they help to achieve. Another group of research attempts to solve problems in translation from English advertising slogans to Chinese or vice versa. For instance, 蒋磊(2002) argues that a pragmatic equivalence and failure in advertising tra
7、nslation are due to influences of cultural differences between Chinese and English. Although many insights have obtained about linguistic devices in the advertising language, relatively few have focused on particular ones. 曾美菜（ 2008）is one of the few attempts, which addresses the use of person deixi
8、s in Chinese and English advertising slogans. This thesis aims to discuss the use of another linguistic device, namely, the extreme words, in English advertising slogans. We will look into this issue from both the semantic and pragmatic perspective. 1.2 Advertising Slogan With spreading swiftly in r
9、ecent years, advertising slogans can be found on wrappings, bottles, buses, television, inter net and in any place imaginable. The impact of advertising slogans is regarded as “a form of emotional blackmail” and “an exploitation of human inadequacies” (钱瑗:2006: 220) 2 There are abundant descriptions
10、 to define advertising slogans.In Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary of American English (2007), advertising slogans are “short phrases which are used frequently in advertisement to attract public attention“. This definition highlights advertisement and slogans function as the most effective means
11、of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product“(Wikipedia). To emphasize a phrase that the company wishes to be remembered by can surely be its purpose, particularly for marketing a specific corporate image or connection to a product or consumer base(Wikipedia). Another definition provided
12、 by The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is that “the appearance of slogans exerts subtle influence on our daily lives as a phrase used repeatedly, as in advertising or promotion”. In Margaret Sanger words, “all the slogans and shibboleths coined out of the ideals of the peoples
13、for the uses of imperialism“. Inevitably, the implicit meaning of slogans, decided by advertisers as “hidden persuaders” (Qian:2006: 220), “is to buy the advertised product or to behave in the way as suggested by the admen is tantamount to an acquisition of a status symbol, an access to a prestigiou
14、s social circle, a relief from hidden anxieties, or the realization of ones ideal life style.”(Qian: 2006:219) English advertising slogans, as “loaded language”, have “persuasive power”. To be popular in advertising, slogans should have “memory value” which impress people and have certain characteri
15、stics. “Attention value” and “readability” are realized through lexical and grammatical devices. (Qin 1992:200) Popular slogans are “marked by a wealth of adjective vocabulary”. (Xu:2004:122) In terms of lexical features, a large number of adjectives are being used to beautify advertising slogans. W
16、hen we analyze collected data of slogans, it is easy to see that most of adjectives are belong to “evaluative adjectives”, such as marvelous, wonderful, excellent, ever-lasting, particular refreshing, etc. Yet this kind of adjectives usually turns into superlative form in slogans, because comparing
17、ones product with others can highlight particular features which are distinguished from others. Hence, adjectives of comparative forms are also frequently applied in 3 advertising.(e.g.Taste richermellower more satisfying.- -REAL cigarettes). Secondly, certain phrases which emphasizes their implicit
18、 meanings, (e.g.no other, notanymore) are normally applied to make context more powerful.(e.g. Theres no taste like Stones - Stones Bitter). Last but not least, creative words in slogan can also attract publics attentions such as blended words like Stimulotion(=stimulating +lotion) in this ads (e.g.
19、Stimulotion for refreshing and stimulating). Sometimes a purposely misspelled word can be outstanding and interesting.(e.g.We know Eggsactly how to sell Eggs). Besides, certain prefixes and suffixes are also frequently used in English advertising slogans such as Rolex (watch), Kleenex (tissue). Impe
20、ratives receive great attention for its power on persuading customers to buy product. (e.g.Say Yes to Electrolux-cleaner, better, faster!”-Electrolux vacuum cleaner). Besides, abbreviated sentences also exert the same influence as imperatives do. They not only meet contexts demands but also make key
21、 words outstanding.(e.g. Make it Mild Smoke. Mild seven, smooth, rich, rewarding.-Mild Seven Cigarettes Japan) From the rhetorical perspective, hyperbole is also applied frequently in slogans. In other word, it is impossible to find out the saying about “small egg” in American advertising but “mediu
22、m, large, extra large, jumbo”. Apart from hyperbole, there are some other rhetoric device. For example, punning is the common tool to make slogans sound more original and persuasive. (e.g. Because Sony knows Beta -Sony Beta Video tapes) 1.3 Linguistic devices in advertising slogans Linguistic device
23、s are claimed as a decisive factor in forming advertising slogan.（Qin:1992:200） There are amounts of devices, fully revealing how plain words can be turned into an interesting slogan linguistically. Firstly, Graphological devices are largely used to draw attention by misspelling words deliberately.
24、(e.g.Coooooool. A fabulous sort-of-soft drink thats light with .), using exclamation marks (e.g.Hey Chief! Save Marts done it again! Just look at these prices!) And 4 punctuating with dashes, full stops, etc (e.g.Automatic focus lets you take this picture easily. Only POLAROID lets you see it .INSTA
25、NLTY.) Syntactic devices are also used to sparkle slogans. For instance, directive imperative are used to prompt actions like “Save time and temper“. (e.g.Use Schiphol. - Schiphol pain relief), decent usage of present time is to suggest timelessness. (e.g. Persil washes whiter and it shows Persil de
26、tergent) Superlative or unqualified comparatives adjectives are also favourite expressions to indicate superb or unparallelled quality. When it comes to lexical devices, there are evaluative adjectives (extra, fresh, special, great.), technical terms (e.g.WAFEX is your best aid to slimming), improvi
27、sed adjectival structures to stress the uniqueness (the refreshest cigarettes), pronouns (no, none ,nothing) and adverbs (always). Extreme words in slogans is also one lexical devices. Extreme expressions can be either semantic or pragmatic. Semantically, certain words may have an inherent extreme m
28、eaning. But other words may not express such extreme meanings until they are used in contexts. This leads to the contextual meanings of words. (e.g.It wasnt even about basketball any more.-adidas). From the literal meaning, “anymore“ have nothing to do with extremity, but the collocation with “not”
29、makes the whole expression“extreme“ which implies that adidas plays the same role as basketball does. 1.4 Definition of Extreme Word Extreme words, as the term implies, have to be “biased“ enough. They have great influences in human communication, especially advertising. As Savan (2006:11) states, t
30、hey “convey more attitude than literal meaning, pulse with a sense of an invisible chorus speaking it, too. When properly reflected, pull attention and probably consensus, its way”. However, this explanation seems different to us because it is too profound. While the definition from Collins COBUILD
31、Advanced Dictionary of American English (2007) is comparatively easier to comprehend: an extreme word is an expression to describe the situation and behavior or political movements which you disapprove of because they are very different from those that most people would 5 accept as reasonable or nor
32、mal. It is not easy to define extreme word. Hardly can its appropriate explanation be found in dictionaries, so definitions of “extreme” are taken into account first to describe extreme word. Mostly, extreme words are understood with a meaning “far beyond what is considered normal“ on U like (most,
33、best, drastic, impossible, etc).Actually, not only those words, involving great degree or intensity, can be extreme words, but certain words without semantically extreme meaning can also like extreme words in certain context. For example, “only”, has various explanations in Longman English Dictionar
34、y of Contemporary: not more than a particular amount, number, age or no one except when being adverb; the one single thing, person, etc, that there is when there are no others .These explanations seem unable to relate “only“ to an extreme word. However, in my collection of English advertising slogan
35、s, it is not surprising to define the term “only“ as as a word of extremity when it is put into certain contexts. (e.g.It can only be HeinekenHeineken. Just like a chocolate milkshake, only crunchy-Coco Pops Kelloggs). The cognitive basis of extreme words may be related to opposition in human life.
36、Opposites exist in various relationship between entities, states and actions, for example, DAY/NIGHT, TALL/SHORT, BLACK/WHITE, MALE/FEMALE, ALIVE/DEAD. These opposites include three types: complementary (alive/dead), reversal (above/below), gradable (black/ white). A set of gradable opposite are oft
37、en used as extreme words such as: None/All, Every/No, Nobody/Everybody, Best/Worst, Nothing/Everything Additionally, gradable opposite are reflected in quality as comparisons, which may serve to differentiate gradable opposite from other types of opposites. e.g. BLACK vs WHITE (GREY may be somewhere
38、 in the middle). black white diagram1 Grey 6 In the same way, many pairs of opposites in extreme words can be leading to the polarity, which interprets degrees of quality involved as follows. E.g. Best/Worst, All/None best worst diagram2 Excellent, Better, good, not bad, ok, not good, bad, worse, te
39、rrible All none diagram3 most, more, quite a few, some, not a few, a few, few, fewer Base on the above, a working definition of extreme words may be :they are phrases or expressions with a reference to polarity of a certain gradable scale. 1.5 Organization of the thesis The thesis contains four part
40、s. The first part introduces the topic of research, presents critical reviews of advertising slogans and linguistic devices and gives a working definition of extreme words. The organization of the thesis is presented in this part as well. Part two is devoted to the categorization and pragmatic effec
41、ts of extreme , including the context to which they are applied and cooperative maxims they violate. Part three is a case analysis of extreme words in Coca-Cola advertising slogans using speech act theory and cooperative principle. The last part gives a summary of the main points developed in this t
42、hesis, and some limitations are also given for further studies. 7 2. A pragmatic analysis of extreme words 2.1 Data collection Altogether 152 slogans are collected, which are were taken from slogans websites(http:/www.corpus4u.org/showthread.php?t=327,http:/ 121.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_s
43、logans,en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mcdonalds), a book called Pragmatic Strategy, semantic and pragmatics and advertisement, magazines like Cosmopolitan nov2007, Economist March April May 2008. The Coca- Cola slogans (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_slogans) are analyzed in a case study to get a deeper und
44、erstanding of the pragmatic effect of extreme words in advertising slogans. 2.2 Categorization of Extreme Word Extreme words in slogan collected may be classified according to word class, that is, pronoun, adverb and adjective. There are two types of extreme pronouns, one is exclusive and the other
45、is inclusive. Exclusive Pronouns to pronoun including none, nothing, nobody. For example: Nobody Can Do It Like McDonalds Can. (1979 McDonald) Impossible is nothing adidas, TBWA (2008) Nobody makes your day like McDonalds can (1980-1983) Theres nothing quite like a McDonalds (1988-1990) Inclusive pr
46、onouns include examples such as all, everyone, everything, etc. Examples are as follows: We cook it all for you at McDonalds (1982, concurrent with 1980 slogans) All because the lady loves Milk Tray - Cadburys Milk Tray chocolates, 1970s All the news thats fit to print.” The New York Times, 1896, Di
47、rect 8 Everyone loves my Cocoa Krispies - Kelloggs (http:/ in the late 80s / early 90s! Everything you always wanted in a beer. And less. (Lite) When it comes to adverbs, there are several words which appeares frequently in slogans such as always, best, most, wherever, whatever ,all, etc. The follow
48、ing are some of the examples: Always Coca Cola. (1990s) Theres always room for J-E-L-L-O, Jell-O (1950s) Whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you maybe, when you think of refreshment, think of ice- cold Coca-Cola. (1939) Wherever you see an arrow, think of Coca-Cola. (1909) Your best bet for a
49、 fuller flavor - Carling Black Label lager (1980s) We Do it All for You. (McDonald 1975) We all do dumb things. But paying too much for car insurance doesnt have to be one of them.GEICO auto insurance We drink all we can. The rest we sell. - Utica Club, 1965, Doyle Dane Bernbach. Adjectives may be divided into evaluative adjectives (forever, superb, excellent.) and superlative ones (best, most .). Di