Abstract:Dating advertisement is a kind of advertisement published in newspapers, magazines or websites in order to find a lifelong partner. Dating ads is a special kind of advertisement whose direct purpose is to arouse the readers’ interest to the advertiser. The language of advertisement has its own features. Dating advertisements, as a special kind of advertisement, are different with other kinds of advertisements in language features and discourse. Understanding different aspects of different language is able to help you know more about the different lifestyles, value and personality traits of two nationalities, which will contribute a lot to smooth communication between China and western countries.

As a unique advertisement, dating ads have displayed the unique discourse, which can be supported by discourse analysis. This paper employs discourse analysis as the theoretical framework and analyzes language and discourse of dating ads. The paper can be divided into four parts. Chapter one is the introduction of background information and the structure of the paper. Chapter two is literature review, which offers the definition of dating ads, the introduction of discourse analysis and previous studies of Chinese and English dating ads. Chapter three makes the contrastive study on the language features from four perspectives, and the contrastive study of discourse of Chinese and English dating advertisements. Chapter four is the summary of the paper, the limitations of the paper and further study.

Keywords:  dating ads  discourse analysis  language features

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Background of the Research-1

1.2 Structure of the Paper-1

Chapter Two Literature Review-3

2.1 Introduction of Dating Advertisement-3

2.2 Discourse Analysis-3

2.3 Previous Studies-4

Chapter Three The Contrastive Study of Discourse between Chinese and English Dating Advertisement-5

3.1 Different Language Features of Dating Advertisement-5

3.1.1 Different Description Aspect-5

3.1.2 Different Choice of Words-6

3.1.3 Different Sentence Structures-6

3.1.4 Different Rhetorical Skills-7

3.2 Contrastive Study of Context between Chinese and English Dating Advertisements-9

3.2.1 On the Description of Advertiser-9

3.2.2 On the Description of the Desired Partner-11

3.2.3 On the Means of Contact-12

Chapter Four Conclusion-13

4.1 Summary of the Paper-13

4.2 Limitations of the Paper and Further Study-13

References-15