Abstract:Human beings have studied metaphors for over two thousand years. People in different times studied metaphors with different perspectives, from the rhetoric study of metaphors to the semantic and the multi-disciplinary study of metaphors. Nowadays, linguists are studying metaphors from various branches ranging from Semantics, the Relevance Theory, the Cognitive Science, Pragmatics and Philosophy, etc. With the development of public media, advertising has become an important and indispensable part in people’s life. In order to strengthen the influence of advertising, more and more metaphors are used in advertising to develop people’s interest. On the one hand, metaphors attract the public’s attention through enhancing the implication of advertising. On the other hand, the figurative metaphors stimulate the cognitive power of the public, thereby delivering information to the audience more efficiently.

This essay aims to study metaphors in English advertising from the perspective of relevance theory. The communication of advertising is essentially the ostensive—inferential communication. With the framework of Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory, the essay analyses specific examples of three kinds of advertising—advertising with verbal metaphors, advertising with pictorial metaphors and advertising with verbal-pictorial metaphors. With the method of discussion and analysis of how metaphors help the audience to discover the optimal relevance under the ostensive stimulation of metaphors, the essay makes further explanations and analysis for metaphors.

Keywords: metaphor; the Relevance Theory; advertising; optimal relevance

Contents

摘要

Abstract

Chapter1 Introduction.1

Chapter2 Metaphor3

2.1 The Definition of Metaphor.3

  2.2 The Classifications of Metaphor3

Chapter3 The Relevance Theory.5

  3.1 The Explanation of the Relevance Theory.5

  3.2 Principles of Relevance5

  3.2.1 Cognitive Principle of Relevance5

  3.2.2 Communicative Principle of Relevance.6

Chapter4 Understanding Metaphors in Advertising with Relevance Theory.7

  4.1 The Definition of Advertising.7

  4.2 Ostensive-Inferential Communication in Advertising.7

  4.3 Case Study7

  4.3.1 Verbal Metaphors in Advertising.7

4.3.1.1 Solely Verbal Metaphors. 8

4.3.1.2 Verbal Metaphors Assisted by Pictures.9

  4.3.2 Pictorial Metaphors in Advertising9

   4.3.2.1 Metaphors with One Pictorially Presented Term10

4.3.2.2 Metaphors with Two Pictorially Presented Terms.11

  4.3.3 Verbal-Pictorial Metaphors in Advertising.11

Chapter5 Conclusion.13

  5.1 Findings of the Research13

  5.2 Limitations and Expectations of the Research 13

References15

Acknowledgements.17

Appendices.19