A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF FUZZINESS IN ADVERTISING ENGLISH

Abstract

The article tentatively explores the fuzzy expressions in advertising English to realize the ultimate goal of advertising from the perspective of pragmatics. This study is devoted to the pragmatic theories employed by the advertisers in order to make advertisements persuasive, impressive to the target audience. Equipped with the pragmatic knowledge, the target audience can understand advertising language clearly. 1. Analysis of Advertising Language Nowadays, advertising has penetrated every corner our life pervasively. However, its language is the main carrier of advertising message. Advertising may take many forms, but language is of crucial importance. Advertising language is a style of immediate impact and rapid persuasiveness. In order to "attract attention, arouse interest, stimulate desire, create conviction and get action", it is necessary for the advertisers to catch the audience's attention. The language of advertising, among other aids, is of decisive importance to the persuasiveness and effectiveness of advertisements. Fuzziness is frequently used in designing advertisements. Some scholars analyze fuzziness in advertising English from the angles of sociolinguistics, cross-cultural studies, stylistics, etc. The traditional discussion on fuzziness mainly concerns about the language features. However, it is found that few efforts has been put on the systematic analysis of the relationship between the fuzzy expressions in advertising English and the pragmatic principles.