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摘要：广告作为信息传媒的一种重要手段，已经成为人们日常生活当中不可或缺的一部分。广告的出现影响了社会、政治、经济、文化各个方面。因此,从社会文化的角度研究广告语言，不仅能深入体会社会与文化的内涵，更有益于各国文化的交流与发展。
关键词：广告；广告语言；社会因素；文化因素
Study on the Advertising Language from a Cultural Perspective
Abstract: Language is the carrier of advertising. The language styles and rhetorical features of different advertisements are distinctive. However, to adopt different kinds of rhetoric will increase fresh vitality. On the other hand, as the product of social and cultural life, advertising will naturally be under the influence of social and cultural elements. Therefore, it is of great importance to study the language of advertising from a cultural perspective.
Key Words：Advertising; advertising language; social elements; cultural elements
Ⅰ Introduction
In the modern society, people are quite familiar with advertising which is the indispensable part of our life. The "advertising" has been used to spread commercial information and persuade people to buy commodities. However, it is hard to conclude a precise definition of advertising.
In China, advertising is a kind of new industry. The development of advertising mostly depends on the economy. Now, China is promoting its advertising economy actively in order to strengthen its status of commercial competition. Therefore, the fact that advertising language mirrors culture has been accepted.
ⅡCultural Values Reflected in Advertising Language
Formally, a value may be defined as an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to another (Samovar, Richard E. Porter, 2004). Values are, according to Rokeach, "a learned organization of rules for making choices and for resolving conflicts" (Rokeach, 1973). These rules and guideposts are normative and teach us what is useful, good, right, wrong, what to strive for, how to live our life, and even what to die for. Although each of us has a unique set of individual values, there also are values that tend to permeate a culture.
As we have seen that, in most of Chinese's heart, home and family is the most important among all the other things. In early 1990s, Confucian Home wine (a wine calls Confucian) started to play its advertisement in CCTV-1.To almost of the audiences the most remarkable slogan of this advertisement is "Confucian Home wine makes me homesick." Between the word and lines, we can deeply touch by the strong homesick and deep love for motherland.
To the Chinese, home and family are the essential words of their minds. In Chinese culture, home is the basic statue of its developing and innovation. It means that the home or family is as the basic carrier of promoting culture. Just as Sima Yunjie and Qian Mu points that, "the interests of family or clan are the basic ones for the Chinese."(Sima Yunjie, 2003; Qian Mu, 1994).
Accordingly, to the advertisers, the reason of achieving their aims is that they indeed the significant words of the audiences' -home, family. Moreover, they understand how to use the word "home" successfully in order to appeal the audiences' feelings about "family".
Adverting language also emphasizes the word "home" or "family". For instance, "Dear father and mother are waiting for us to go home." (Jinlongyu edible oil), "We are family" (China Trust's credit in Taiwan). From the mentioned examples of advertisements which are closely related with "home" and "family" all mirror our traditional cultural values.
No matter it is in the past or the recent years, our Chinese all pay great attention to families or homes under the influence of these mentioned advertisements. Dai Jinhua points out that, "In a large sense, it derives from the rapid social dividing and regrouping. And this may be a nostalgic memory: with the debut of the first generation of only children in Chinese society, the complicated relationship net that is made of two or more children families is becoming history. "(Dai Jinhua, 1999)
Before 21st century, individualism had not taken shape in people's mind. "祖国"is their unique belief. In the other words, the Chinese all believe that the motherland is their home. So, in that period, the Chinese advertisements all related to state-home.
Ⅲ Social values and advertising language
Modern advertising is the product of economic society which has its economic and cultural feature. Advertising is an instrument of delivering information to the consumer with relative language. In a sense, advertising language is closely related to the traditional values. In a word, social values and advertising language influence each other. O'Guinn,T.C.(1998) states that "Values are the defining expressions of culture. They express in words and needs what is important to a culture" (O'Guinn, 1998).That means, some cultures advocates wealth while others advocate ordinary life; some cultures worship freedom while others worship duty to the country. The original belief, value and culture cannot change easily. Actually, the most effective advertisements can always express the essential cultural values.
IV Conclusion
In this thesis, study on the language of advertising from a cultural perspective is emphasized, which mainly discusses cultural and social elements that affect advertising language, such as, social values, moral values and traditional customs. In addition, a variety of cultural values has been reflected in advertising language are also respectively introduced. Language is the carrier of advertising. It can propagate information and ideas rapidly though a great variety of magazines, newspapers, internet and so on. In reality, lots of scholars have studied magazines or newspaper advertisements, but hardly the internet advertisements. Nowadays, as the internet has been developed widely, the research on internet advertising might be explored as an excessively significant task.
References
[1]O'Guinn, T. C. etc. Advertising. [M].South-Western College Publishing, 1998.
[2] Rokeach, M. The Nature of Human Values. New York: Free Press, 1973.
[3]Samovar, Richard E. Porter. Communication between Cultures. [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004.
[4]戴锦华.雾中风景：中国电影界 1978-1998.[M].北京：北京大学出版社， 2000.
[5]钱穆.中国文化史导论.上海:三联书店上海分店，1994.
作者简介：李雨茜（1986.12-），女，汉族，山西太原人，山西财经大学经贸外语学院 2009级研究生，主要研究方向：英语教育。
关键词：广告；广告语言；社会因素；文化因素
Study on the Advertising Language from a Cultural Perspective
Abstract: Language is the carrier of advertising. The language styles and rhetorical features of different advertisements are distinctive. However, to adopt different kinds of rhetoric will increase fresh vitality. On the other hand, as the product of social and cultural life, advertising will naturally be under the influence of social and cultural elements. Therefore, it is of great importance to study the language of advertising from a cultural perspective.
Key Words：Advertising; advertising language; social elements; cultural elements
Ⅰ Introduction
In the modern society, people are quite familiar with advertising which is the indispensable part of our life. The "advertising" has been used to spread commercial information and persuade people to buy commodities. However, it is hard to conclude a precise definition of advertising.
In China, advertising is a kind of new industry. The development of advertising mostly depends on the economy. Now, China is promoting its advertising economy actively in order to strengthen its status of commercial competition. Therefore, the fact that advertising language mirrors culture has been accepted.
ⅡCultural Values Reflected in Advertising Language
Formally, a value may be defined as an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to another (Samovar, Richard E. Porter, 2004). Values are, according to Rokeach, "a learned organization of rules for making choices and for resolving conflicts" (Rokeach, 1973). These rules and guideposts are normative and teach us what is useful, good, right, wrong, what to strive for, how to live our life, and even what to die for. Although each of us has a unique set of individual values, there also are values that tend to permeate a culture.
As we have seen that, in most of Chinese's heart, home and family is the most important among all the other things. In early 1990s, Confucian Home wine (a wine calls Confucian) started to play its advertisement in CCTV-1.To almost of the audiences the most remarkable slogan of this advertisement is "Confucian Home wine makes me homesick." Between the word and lines, we can deeply touch by the strong homesick and deep love for motherland.
To the Chinese, home and family are the essential words of their minds. In Chinese culture, home is the basic statue of its developing and innovation. It means that the home or family is as the basic carrier of promoting culture. Just as Sima Yunjie and Qian Mu points that, "the interests of family or clan are the basic ones for the Chinese."(Sima Yunjie, 2003; Qian Mu, 1994).
Accordingly, to the advertisers, the reason of achieving their aims is that they indeed the significant words of the audiences' -home, family. Moreover, they understand how to use the word "home" successfully in order to appeal the audiences' feelings about "family".
Adverting language also emphasizes the word "home" or "family". For instance, "Dear father and mother are waiting for us to go home." (Jinlongyu edible oil), "We are family" (China Trust's credit in Taiwan). From the mentioned examples of advertisements which are closely related with "home" and "family" all mirror our traditional cultural values.
No matter it is in the past or the recent years, our Chinese all pay great attention to families or homes under the influence of these mentioned advertisements. Dai Jinhua points out that, "In a large sense, it derives from the rapid social dividing and regrouping. And this may be a nostalgic memory: with the debut of the first generation of only children in Chinese society, the complicated relationship net that is made of two or more children families is becoming history. "(Dai Jinhua, 1999)
Before 21st century, individualism had not taken shape in people's mind. "祖国"is their unique belief. In the other words, the Chinese all believe that the motherland is their home. So, in that period, the Chinese advertisements all related to state-home.
Ⅲ Social values and advertising language
Modern advertising is the product of economic society which has its economic and cultural feature. Advertising is an instrument of delivering information to the consumer with relative language. In a sense, advertising language is closely related to the traditional values. In a word, social values and advertising language influence each other. O'Guinn,T.C.(1998) states that "Values are the defining expressions of culture. They express in words and needs what is important to a culture" (O'Guinn, 1998).That means, some cultures advocates wealth while others advocate ordinary life; some cultures worship freedom while others worship duty to the country. The original belief, value and culture cannot change easily. Actually, the most effective advertisements can always express the essential cultural values.
IV Conclusion
In this thesis, study on the language of advertising from a cultural perspective is emphasized, which mainly discusses cultural and social elements that affect advertising language, such as, social values, moral values and traditional customs. In addition, a variety of cultural values has been reflected in advertising language are also respectively introduced. Language is the carrier of advertising. It can propagate information and ideas rapidly though a great variety of magazines, newspapers, internet and so on. In reality, lots of scholars have studied magazines or newspaper advertisements, but hardly the internet advertisements. Nowadays, as the internet has been developed widely, the research on internet advertising might be explored as an excessively significant task.
References
[1]O'Guinn, T. C. etc. Advertising. [M].South-Western College Publishing, 1998.
[2] Rokeach, M. The Nature of Human Values. New York: Free Press, 1973.
[3]Samovar, Richard E. Porter. Communication between Cultures. [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004.
[4]戴锦华.雾中风景：中国电影界 1978-1998.[M].北京：北京大学出版社， 2000.
[5]钱穆.中国文化史导论.上海:三联书店上海分店，1994.
作者简介：李雨茜（1986.12-），女，汉族，山西太原人，山西财经大学经贸外语学院 2009级研究生，主要研究方向：英语教育。