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A Cultural Perspective into the American and Chinese Advertising Language

Author: NongShiMin
Tutor: ZhouQuanLin
School: Guangxi Normal University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: Culture Advertising Language Reflection
CLC: F713.80
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2001
Downloads: 1826
Quote: 1
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Abstract

In a large sense, language and advertising are all parts of culture, which Taylor (1871: 1) defines as "a complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by individuals as members of a society." Chinese famous scholars Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli (1994: 5) refer culture to four aspects. Firstly, culture as all kinds of instruments. These instruments are processed by human beings through natural materials. Secondly, culture as systems. These systems are built up in social practice. Thirdly, culture as human behavior. The behavior, usually in the form of customs, is set up in social activities. Fourthly, culture as ideology, including values, thought style, and aesthetic standards.Most cultural contents related to advertising language in this thesis will be approached according to the definition given by Taylor and Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli. And, because of cultural variation and change, advertising language and its diachrony will be discussed in the sense of American culture or Chinese culture.Linguists usually think it is through its vocabulary that language reflects culture. But we try to study the relationship between language and culture in a different way by laying emphasis on the cultural contents reflected in ad slogan, headline or copy, which are usually in the form of a phrase, a sentence, or even a whole textAdmakers, marketers or scholars have studied empirically the fact that cultural contents are manifested in advertising in various countries; and advertising has been termed "the distorted mirror". But the cultural contents they study are mostly limited to cultural values (See Table 1 and Appendix 1), and these cultural contents are the ones mirrored in advertising, in which language works as an important part in most cases. Apart from some of these cultural values, the thesis will cover more other cultural contents reflected in the Chinese and American advertising language.At present, advertising in China as well as in the United States has become virtually impossible for people to avoid or escape, because ads are so pervasive, aggressive, repetitive, and intrusive. And in most cases, advertising works by using language in a given cultural environment This is one of the paper’s focal points.Generally admakers are influenced by what is happening around them. In order to reach their targets successfully, admakers pay great attention to and even study what is happening in the society. Thus, the language of some advertisements mirrors, directly or indirectly, these happenings. In other words, advertising language is a window to society in modem time. Because of the close relationship between the sociocultural realities and the economic development, advertising language in these two countries, especially in China, is affected by and mirrors the economic situations too. Meaningfully, unlike their American counterparts Chinese copywriters tend to take politics into consideration when producing their works, and this is also reflected in advertising language.Many advertisements in America and China are marked by their sexually charged or woman-involved selling appeals. But the methods by which the American and Chinese copywritersapproach gender-role portrayals in advertising language show their different cultural backgrounds and traditions. The American advertising language shows more sex with suggestive and explosive implication than the Chinese one, which has been restrained by the Chinese traditional ethic and even political and ideological factors from the beginning. And through the advertising language in their own countries, both American women and Chinese women can see, especially over the past decade or so, their great achievements in women’s movement, though the ways by which they reach the achievements are quite different.Because of their profound cultural meaning, the cultural values such as "home", "relative sentiments" in the Chinese advertising and the cultural value "individualism" in the Ame

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