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A Research on Chinese-English Code-switching in Advertising-from the Pragmatic Perspective

Author: LuoFangChun
Tutor: ZhangRongJian
School: Chongqing Normal University
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: code-switching advertising the adaptation theory
CLC: H030
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2008
Downloads: 495
Quote: 2
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Abstract

The study of code-switching has aroused great attention of many scholars since 1970s and tremendous achievements have been made since then. Under the terms of linguistics, there are the grammatical perspective, the sociolinguistic perspective, the psycholinguistic perspective and the conversational analysis perspective. The grammatical perspective tries to find some universal constraints; the sociolinguistic perspective leads the social factors into the study of code-switching; the psycholinguistic perspective aims to explain the mental process of the usage of code-switching; while the conversational analysis perspective introduces the dynamics of code-switching through the conversation construction. All these perspectives have made great contribution to the study of code-switching and deepened our perception of this phenomenon. However, any one of these perspectives only provides a partial picture. We need a new perspective which is more powerful and more expressive to explain this phenomenon to cover the linguistic, psychological and cultural factors. And Verschueren’s pragmatic perspective is more comprehensive to study this phenomenon.Verschueren’s pragmatics is such a perspective that he defines it as“a general cognitive, social, and cultural perspective on linguistic phenomena in relation to their usage in forms of behavior”(Verschueren, 2000: 7). The present research gives a detailed analysis of the Chinese-English code-switching in advertising applying the adaptation theory under the framework of Verschueren’s pragmatic perspective. It includes linguistic, cultural and psychological factors.Code-switching is not only a linguistic phenomenon but also a social phenomenon. So it is not only constrained by language-internal but also language-external factors. Firstly, this paper quotes some examples often appearing in newspaper and magazines to analyze the main features of Chinese-English code-switching in advertising, which can be divided into intra-sentential code-switching, inter-sentential code-switching and diaglossia code-switching. Secondly, Chinese-English code-switching in advertising is communicative strategies the copywriters use to popularize the product or service. Code-switching in advertising as a natural consequence of language contact is certainly influenced by factors such as linguistic, social, and cultural elements. Specifically speaking, Chinese-English code-switching must adapt to the following elements: the linguistic reality, the social conventions and the psychological motivations. Large amount of examples are used to demonstrate a series of strategies that code-switching function as in advertising.The present study of Chinese-English code-switching in advertising as communicative strategies from the adaptation theory may not only enrich the research of code-switching but also it is helpful for copywriters and people’s right attitude to code-switching in advertising. At the same time it provides a new perspective to the study of code-switching.

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