中英商业广告的语言幽默对比研究

论文总字数：41749字

摘 要

言语幽默作为一种语言现象，有着特殊的语用效果。目前广告商也愿意使用幽默广告等方式来吸引顾客们的注意，从而提高自己产品的知名度和销量。对于幽默广告的受众来说,这些广告还可以丰富他们的生活，给他们带去欢乐。但是不恰当的幽默语言或是误解则会让幽默广告的效果大打折扣。

为了迎合时代发展的需求，为了中国更好地建设“品牌强国”，对于中英幽默广告进行相关研究是十分有必要的。本文以言语幽默的文本特点出发，从修辞学中的辞格角度出发，结合语言幽默在商业广告中的特点等，对中外商业广告的语言幽默进行了对比研究，并探讨其背后的文化因素，旨在帮助人们理解幽默广告。

关键词：修辞学；商业广告；幽默对比

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Research on the use of humor in advertising 2

2.2 Research on foreign humor theories 4

2.3 Rhetoric 6

3. Comparison between Chinese and English Humorous Advertisements 7

3.1 Hyperbole 7

3.2 Puns 9

3.3 Parody 10

3.4 Metaphor 11

3.5 Personification 12

4. Suggestions for Building Brand Power 14

4.1 The status of Chinese brand building 14

4.2 Suggestions for Chinese companies to build brand power 15

5. Conclusion 16

Works Cited 18

1. Introduction

“A survey of foreign consumers shows significant changes of the influence of Chinese brands: in 2012, only 3% of interviewees said one Chinese brand or more. And this year, this proportion has become 32%... From 2017, May 10th becomes ‘China Brand Day’. This also conveys to the world the confidence and determination of China to promote high-quality development and brand building.” (Wang 2018) This article was published in the People’s Daily in 2018, which describes the progress and some achievements of building brand power. It is not difficult to see from the above data that the Chinese brand building has made some certain results. Moreover, the state’s emphasis on building brand power is still increasing, and even the related “brand day” has been established as a way of publicity. In order to better bring domestic enterprises out to overseas markets, it is imperative to build a more well-known Chinese brand.

In the same situation, brands are more likely to win the trust of consumers and make consumers feel better. But with the change of people’s consumption habits and the intense market competition, it is more and more difficult to retain customers. Therefore, the development of a brand is linked to the quality of its products and advertising. As a means of publicity, “the purpose of commercial advertising is to achieve maximum publicity at a lower publicity cost”. (He 152) In conclusion, commercial advertising can open up new markets and effectively consolidate the existing consumer groups. Now some big brands can publish more and better commercial advertisements to increase the influence of their brands because of a large amount of fund. Therefore, it is necessary to realize the role of commercial advertising to build a “brand power”.

Verbal humor also plays an important role in general commercial advertising. People often subconsciously remember the products promoted with laughter, and narrow the sense of rejection of new products because of the sense of relaxation brought by humor. According to Weinberger (1995), in the United States, humor advertising costs account for 10%-30% of the more than $150 billion in media advertising costs per year. (Spotts, Weinberger and Parsons 17) That is to say, American advertisers and scholars had realized that the use of humor in advertising had certain effects on promotion before 1995. It also shows that the correct use of verbal humor in commercial advertising makes positive effects on the development of Chinese brands.

Studies show that the differences between humorous advertisements at home and abroad are inextricably linked to the cultural differences. The differences are manifested in the different values and historical backgrounds of China and the West. However, according to my current literature search, most scholars who study humor advertising focus on the excellent advertisements abroad. So far, there has been little research on Chinese humorous commercial advertisements. Therefore, it is difficult to find relevant information to guide the current construction of “the demand of brand power”. This article compares the differences of the use of humor between commercial advertisements at home and abroad, hoping to help companies find new ideas for building their specific brands and promoting them.

1. Literature Review
   1. Research on the use of humor in advertising

As we all know, humor, as a kind of personality charm, plays an important role in the process of interpersonal communication. In daily conversations, proper humor can leave a good impression; in business negotiations, verbal humor can also ease tensions so that both parties can achieve win-win negotiations. In general, humor tends to soothe people"s nervous emotions, which bring people comfort and pleasure.

If advertisers use humor in advertising appropriately, they can make full use of the effects of advertisements and increase the audience’s attention to the products promoted. What’s more, the use of humor in advertising can reduce the cognitive defense of the audience. Thus, audience may remember products promoted easily and have a good impression on these advertisements, products and brands. Advertiser Bodis believes: “With the clever use of humor, everything can be sold.” (Yang 35) With the development of the economy, many advertisers begin to use humor to attract customers in commercial advertising. “According to Weinberger (1995), most advertisers believe that the use of humor will lead to effective advertising results.” (Spotts, Weinberger and Parsons 17) So domestic and foreign scholars do different research on the use of humor in advertising. And Western scholars have studied humorous advertising earlier and have more results.

“The attitude of the theoretical community is relatively conservative. As early as the 1960s, scholars such as Ogilvy and Reeves pointed out that it is necessary to be cautious in using humor in advertising”. (Madden and Weinberger 8) Since Sternthal and Craig (1973) published a research article on humor, humor has attracted widespread attention from advertising researchers in the following decades. But the researchers did not reach a consistent conclusion about the effects of humor in advertising. These conclusions can be roughly divided into three types: the first is that humor has a completely positive effect on advertising effectiveness (Duncan and Nelson 33); the second is that humor has both positive and negative aspects (Chat-topadhyay and Basu 466); the third is that using humor in advertising does not have any effect (Wu, Crocker and Rogers 1989). In fact, the impact of humor in advertising depends on the specific situation. The role of humor is constrained and influenced by many factors. (Sun 33)

When I searched for some statistics and research data on domestic advertisements, I found that domestic research on humorous advertising started later than foreign research. Domestic research on the use of humor is very limited. I found a study about why the verbal humor is not often used in Chinese advertising. “Firstly, there are some certain risks of using humor in advertising; secondly, the generation of humorous advertising is closely related to the characteristics of the product itself; thirdly, the large number of applications of humorous advertising is inseparable from the support of the audience and the good media environment. This also illustrates that domestic attention to humorous advertising is not enough.” (Huangamp; Hu 23)

On the other hand, most of domestic researches compare the differences between Chinese and English humorous advertisements from a cross-cultural perspective. Therefore, a comparative study of Chinese and foreign humorous advertisements is necessary. This paper mainly uses the method of description and comparison to compare the use of humor in Chinese and English advertisements.

• 1. Research on foreign humor theories

The current interpretation of humor has not yet been fully finalized. For example, in the American Encyclopedia of the New Era, “humour is everything that is funny and ridiculous.” The British Encyclopedia Britannics says: “Humor can be simply called a stimulus that can induce a laugh response.” In China, Modern Chinese Dictionary said that humor is defined as “interesting or ridiculous and meaningful.” (Chen 1987) From this, it shows that each country have different definitions of humor and are rather messy. “So far there have been more than 200 theories to explain humor. There are currently three popular ones that are accepted by everyone. They are superiority theory, relief theory and incongruity theory.” (Hu 110)

Hobbes may be the earliest founder of superiority. (William.Damp; Louis 1979) He thinks that laughter is a “sudden glory.” Ludovici further believes that humor can also be a kind of “self-glory”. That is self-superiority without demeaning others. (John 184)

Freud was not the first to propose the relief theory. As early as the end of the 19th century, the philosopher Dewey said, “suspicious or expecting a sudden end after a period of time.” As Monro commented on Freud’s theory: “Wisdom (technique) is sugar coating, which can bribe the inner review mechanism.” (John 176)

Kant is seen as the founder of incongruity theory. He claims, “The laugh comes when the intense expectation suddenly disappears, so the laugh comes from the sudden resolution of nervous thinking.” (John 147) Costler said that humor is “in the insight of a situation or perspective in two identical but uncoordinated reference systems.” (Koestler 1964)

In addition, “the linguists use the methods of form, function, cognition, etc. to study verbal humor from different perspectives such as rhetoric, semantics and pragmatics.” (Liu 152) I will introduce relevant humor theories depending on these categories.

2.2.1 Pragmatics

The Cooperative Principle proposed by H. P. Grice, and it contains four criteria—quantity, quality, relationship, and method. He said, “Our talks do not normally consist of a succession of disconnected remarks,... They are characteristically to some degree at least to some degree at least, cooperative efforts.” (Grice 43)

“The speech act theory is derived from the philosopher J.L Austin of Oxford University. He believes that the conversation contains three kinds of behaviors: illocutionary act, locutionary act and perlocutionary act. Among them, illocutionary act refers to the ability to make others do things or achieve a certain purpose by speaking. Because extra-verbal behavior is more dependent on context, some humor is produced when the listener is unable to distinguish the speaker according to the context.” (Ding 256)

Relevance theory is defined as “the speaker makes the most relevant of his words as much as possible”. (Wilson amp; Sperber 361) If the hearer deliberately misunderstands the meaning of the speaker, adding some information that is completely different from the original preset will have an unexpected effect - humor is usually in this case produced. (Ding 256)

2.2.2 Semantics

“Until the end of the 1970s, linguistics occupied an important position in many humor studies.” (Attardo 395) Raskin’s (1985) semantic script theory of humor (SSTH) is the first linguistic-based humor theory. This theory uses semantic scripts (frames, schemas) to simulate how joke recipients use linguistic and world knowledge to interpret the joke text. (Caiamp; Yin 5)

Attardo proposes a five-layer model of joke representation: the surface layer, the language layer, the target and context layer, the template layer, and the base layer (script opposition and logical mechanism). The order of the five layers is built on the theoretical arrangement of sentences from meaning to sound in linguistics. Based on the extension and revision of Raskin’s semantic script theory of humor and Attardo’s five-layer humorous representation model, Attardo and Raskin collaborated to propose the general theory of verbal humor (GTVH). (Caiamp; YIN 5)

• 1. Rhetoric

According to my survey, research on humorous advertising in China started later than foreign research, there are fewer results of research on the use of humor in advertising in China. However, there are still some humor theories in China, and rhetoric is one of them.

According to Attardo (1994), this linguistic literature regards humor as a combination of phonemes and morphemes (such as the treatment of the position and ambiguity of laughter). Many scholars in China are studying humor from this perspective. They study the rhetorical structure and techniques of humor, ignoring its deep features and the universal features common to all humor. For example, Zhang Gong (1963) pointed out that “humor is an important rhetoric in Chinese”. He and his followers regard humor as merely a rhetorical way of using language. Duan Baolin (1991) studied humor as a comedy. Hu Fanzhu (1987) believed that humor is the result of using rhetorical features to express relations of special psychological language. He mainly focused on the rhetorical expression of verbal humor. (Liu 152) It can be said that the study of humor in rhetoric mainly regards humor as a rhetoric or an art of language. In fact, this view of humor is not comprehensive, because it ignores the use of humor in language structure.

When it comes to foreign humor theories, the study of humor in advertising is inseparable from the language structure and logical relations. Many scholars think that language can only be described literally for humor, and it needs to be presented at higher levels of analysis. Thus, the general theory of verbal humor or other foreign humor theories is more suitable for translation, and there are not much classification and introduction of the language itself. Rhetoric emphasizes the effects of rhetoric in humorous language, especially the study of Hu Fanzhu focuses on the rhetorical expression of verbal humor. Most of the slogans in life are very concise, and the analysis and research at the language level is more intuitive. This paper will use the perspective of rhetoric in traditional rhetoric theory to understand the similarities and differences between Chinese and English humorous advertisements in real life through descriptive analysis.

1. Comparison between Chinese and English Humorous Advertisements

“There are many features of rhetoric used in humorous language, such as metaphor, puns, personification, hyperbole, and so on.” (Lu 21) In order to make the analysis of this article more organized, the following cases will be classified according to the rhetorical devices above.

• 1. Hyperbole

Hyperbole is “a way of describing something in order to make it sound bigger, smaller, better worse, etc. than it really is.” (Longman 751) And hyperbole in commercial advertising is often used to highlight the advantages of a certain product.

Case 1 We buy American, so you can too!—Walt-mart Store

This is the advertising slogan of the Wal-Mart brand in the United States. Obviously, this advertisement takes advantage of the exaggeration. When people read this ad for the first time, most of them would feel astonished and funny because no one would afford the United States. But after that, they can feel the sagacity of the advertiser. First of all, Wal-Mart is a local brand in the United States, and the products it sells are mainly made in the United States, so it can boldly say, “We are all buying the United States (products).” In fact, it refers to American-made goods in the United States, and thereby makes customers curious about this advertisement. Some customers who are loyal to American brands will naturally choose to enter Wal-Mart, and other customers who are less concerned about the origin may enter Wal-Mart because of their deep impression on the slogan.

Case 2 合筑天地之美——海航地产

This is a commercial advertisement for Haihang Real Estate, which is obviously using hyperbole. The meaning of this advertisement is that the buildings such as houses built by Haihang Group contain the beauty between heaven and earth. On one hand, this hyperbole combines the beauty of architecture that Haihang Real Estate wants to highlight. On the other hand, this kind of propaganda caters to consumers’ pursuit of the quality of the house—beauty is also an important one. This attempts to incorporate the grand concept of “the world” into the slogan is indeed surprising. At the same time, there are also certain risks to promote it products in this way, as consumers tend to increase their expectations for the building. But from the point of attracting consumers and causing people to smile, this advertisement is indeed very successful. I believe that for those who want high quality of life, after seeing such an advertisement, they will be willing to go to the sales office to have a deeper understanding of the houses and see what “the beauty between heaven and earth” is.

Although both of these two advertisements use hyperbole, there are still some differences between them. Wal-Mart uses “purchase the United States” as its propaganda gimmick, while Haihang Real Estate is using the traditional Chinese pursuit of beauty to magnify the characteristics of its products. Because Chinese people are influenced by Confucianism, they pay attention to the harmony between man and man, between man and nature. They always regard heaven, earth and people as a unified whole, and pursue the “unity of man and nature”. Therefore, Case 2 is acceptable for Chinese people in the way of thinking. Western culture is based on the Ancient Greek business culture and pursues the national-centered outward expansion. Therefore, Westerners dare to embrace conflicts and seeking new ideas. At the same time, because of the different national systems, Westerners can boldly use the country as an object for humorous advertising, but it is a taboo in Chinese advertising. These differences in ways of thinking determine the different ways of humor presentation in advertising.

• 1. Puns

The pun is using homonym and polysemy of one word to express different meanings through a word or a sentence. Using puns in commercial advertisements can make the language more concise and interesting. It also helps the audience quickly remember the products or services promoted.

Case 3 From Sharp minds, come sharp products.—Sharp

This is an advertisement for the Sharp brand. It can be understood that Sharp"s products come from the idea of Sharp staff. But “sharp” means “smart, savvy” as an English word, so people can also understand that Sharp products are inspired by wisdom. This ad cleverly uses the semantic pun. At first, the audience can only understand the literal meaning, but after thinking about it, it will be known that Sharp"s products are the crystallization of wisdom.

Case 4聪明的妈妈会用锌。——葡萄糖酸锌口服液

This Chinese advertisement promotes the oral liquid of a pharmaceutical company, using a homophonic pun. Chinese characters “zinc” and “heart” have the same pronunciation “xin”, so the original intention of this advertisement is that smart mothers will add zinc to their children. After reading it, the audience will know that the real intention of the advertiser is to let the mothers care more about the child, and the best way is to buy the brand"s oral liquid. Consumers may be able to appreciate the sales of the merchants at first, and then they will laugh because of his language tricks. This advertisement clearly took advantage of the mothers’ concerns for their children naturally, so many mothers “have to” buy the oral liquid.

From these two advertisements, it also shows the difference between the design of Chinese and English advertisements. Because of the differences between Chinese language and English language, homonymous words can be used in large quantity in Chinese advertisements, while English advertisers use multilingual words in advertising. In addition, Case3 mainly promotes the high technology of Sharp products, while Case4 takes advantage of the care of Chinese parents. Because Westerners are more rational when thinking about problems, Sharp"s advertisements in Western countries emphasize the practicality and character of the products. But the Chinese have been influenced by collectivism, especially the traditional family values. Therefore, the propaganda method of Case 4 can attract Chinese mothers, but it does not apply to Western people who focusing on privacy.

In summary, the design of Chinese and English humorous commercial advertisements is inseparable from the needs of their respective audiences. Of course, it is also inextricably linked to local cultural traditions.

• 1. Parody

Parody often imitates some idioms, idioms, lyrics, or popular poems, so that people can find small changes in them by reading familiar sentences. Thus, they will deepen the memory of the advertisement unconsciously.

Case 5 车到山前必有路，有路就有丰田车。——丰田汽车

This is one of Toyota’s promotional advertisements in China. Through the adaptation of traditional Chinese poems, this advertisement successfully made people remember this brand immediately. Although Toyota is very popular among international market, such a fun advertisement has indeed helped Toyota to open up the market in China. In addition to conforming to the Chinese language habits, the adapted advertising words make a contextual connection with the original verses. People read and feel the humor of this advertisement without misunderstandings caused by cultural differences.

Case 6  East is east and west is west. But Brown’s meat is the best.—Brown’s meat

This is a meat advertisement from Australia, and it is adapted from the proverb “East and west, home is best.” This advertisement is also re-created from a well-known slang, and the purpose is to enable people to quickly remember it. .

Because of the difference between Chinese and Western languages, there are some differences between the two advertisements in choosing the adapted text. Because Chinese verses and idioms are used more, Chinese advertisers are often willing to choose some common and simple verses or idioms as adaptation objects. While the majority of popular English is folk proverbs. In general, both of Chinese and English humorous advertisements insist on combining products and texts in the use of parody, and try to ensure the smoothness and rhyming of sentences.

• 1. Metaphor

The use of metaphor in English advertisements can make esoteric things shallow. It also can make abstract things become concrete and make strange things become familiar to the audience. Thus, metaphor can help commercial advertisements achieve more obvious effects, and at the same time increase advertising propaganda.

Case 7 You’re better off under the Umbrella. -Umbrella travel insurance

The literal meaning of this advertisement is that people can be better protected if they buy this insurance. Because in English, “under the umbrella” means standing under a protective power, that is, being sheltered. At the same time, “Umbrella” is the name of this company. In other words, the company is compared to the umbrella in the English proverb in the slogan, so that people can have a familiarity with the company. When people read this advertisement, they will not be unfamiliar and resistant to the content promoted, and they may spend some time to understand it. Therefore, this advertisement uses metaphor to make people feel better about this advertisement invisibly, and may try to buy the products or service promoted.

Case 8 华硕品质，坚若磐石——华硕

This advertisement is a promotional advertisement for the computer brand ASUS in the Chinese market. By comparing the high quality of Asustek computer to a hard rock, it can give consumers an intuitive feeling. People may not know enough about ASUS at the beginning, but Rock is a synonym for strength in people’s minds. When Asus’s quality and meteorites are put together, people will understand that ASUS computers are trustworthy because they are durable and can stand up like a meteorite. Such an interesting language can quickly attract the young consumers, so this advertisement can also be said to be a good case of brand promotion.

When it comes to the use of rhetoric, there is few difference between Chinese and English advertisements. However, because of the different language environments, in order to help consumers understand better, humorous advertisements also need to select the objects, which the local people are familiar with. Since China is a continental country, some metaphorical images will be related to animals on land. Most European and American countries are marine countries, so the metaphor is often inseparable from animals in water or the Ocean. For example, when it comes to the description of drinking water fast, Chinese say “牛饮”（to drink like a cow), while British say “to drink like a fish”. This is a kind of language difference caused by the living environment. Thus, it is important to pay attention to this when using humorous advertisements.

• 1. Personification

The personification in the advertisement is to personalize the things that are advertised, thus giving them the emotions and feelings people have, and making them more intimate.

Case 9一握农行手，永远是朋友！——农业银行

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