Application of Ambiguity in English Commercial Advertisements

刘婉蓉++王蕾

【摘要】歧義于语言已是屡见不鲜，许多语言学家从古希腊时期就开始关注歧义。本文首要目的是通过对歧义产生的原因及其在商业广告中的应用的探索进而能够全面了解歧义。将歧义这一现象论述完整是一件不容易的事，本文尝试着找寻歧义在语言各方面的产生的原因以便我们能够真正理解其中含义。

【关键词】歧义 商业广告 关联理论

【Abstract】Ambiguity is often seen as a common phenomenon in language. Many linguists laid more emphasis on ambiguity from the ancient Greece. The chief aim of this paper is to master a comprehensive understanding of ambiguity in order to obtain a deep insight of ambiguity by exploring the causes of English ambiguity and application of ambiguity in commercial advertising. It must have difficulties in covering all the fields of ambiguity. This paper will endeavor to find the causes of ambiguity in every role of languages so as to really understand ambiguity in English.

【Key words】Ambiguity； Commercial Advertisements； Relevance Theory

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

With the constant advancement of world informationization and commodities economy， competition among enterprises is getting more intense. This thesis aims at knowing how does this comprehensive art—commercial advertisements covering linguistics， phonics， literature and aesthetics impact on our life in an all-round and far-reaching way.

CHAPTER 2 Introduction of commercial advertisements and ambiguity

2.1 Introduction of commercial advertisements

2.1.1 The definition of commercial advertisements

So far， so many definitions of advertisements can be found in related works. However， the definition“Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products， services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media”（Liu2002：3） ruled by American Marketing Association has been accepted by the insiders.

2.1.2 The functions of commercial advertisements

There are two major functions exist in commercial advertisements. It is social function and culture function respectively. Ads have reached a level of high speed， wide range and frequency which occupied peoples life once for all. So ads do have influence on the psychology of recipients and make changes on their way of thinking and value orientation.

2.2 Introduction of ambiguity

Ambiguity has all along aroused a heat debate. So what is ambiguity？ Mackay and Bever made a definition that “any stimulus pattern which is capable of two and only two distinct interpretations.” More clear to say that ambiguity means that the same linguistic sentence or part of it can convey multiple meanings.

There are several modification effects which ambiguity brought to the commercial ads. Initially， it adds readability which is tend to keep readers lingering on the ads to the commercial advertising. Then， it makes ads more interesting and attractive and reaches an action of purchasing. Lastly， it is undeniable that ingenious use of ambiguity makes ads sound enjoyable in rhyme.

CHAPTER 3 Application of ambiguity in commercial advertisements

3.1 Phonological ambiguity

3.1.1 Phonological ambiguity caused by stress

Different stress may give rise to different meanings of the same word or sentences， for example “From Sharp minds， come Sharp products，” this is an ad of an company producing appliances. With the stresses on the word “Sharp”， it means that a persons mind is insight， but when the word “Products” is stressed， it means products could be produced in any factory， not only in Sharp. As you have seen， different stress on different words in the phrases and sentences can produce different meaning.

3.1.2 Phonological ambiguity caused by liaison

Liaison is considered as a link between sounds or words（Kooij1971：161）. Each word should sound smoothly and naturally in a speech.

Taking an ad of telephone as an example， it writes “Make your every hello a real good buy”. Here the seller uses the same pronunciation between good bye and good buy which was spoken together with an ingenious design. Besides， there are also an ad of oven ware， it writes that “Wear-Ever”. It is a model of frying pan. This ad can be interpreted either the word “wherever” which means this new ad is widely known to all or the abbreviated phase “wear forever” which means this appliance is lasting and enduring. Therefore， liaison between words and phrases may give rise to two or more meanings.

3.2 Lexical ambiguity

3.2.1 Lexical ambiguity caused by homonymy

Homonymy can be split into three types. The first type is perfect homonyms which means word same in pronunciation and spelling but have different meaning. For example， an ad of tape for English learning writes that “Lets learn English in a sound way.” The designer of this ad makes the most of lexical ambiguity in order to advertise their products. The word “sound” here can be either interpreted to mean perfect or vocal.

Then the second type is homophone. Homophone means that words are same in sound but different in spellings and meanings. Taking an ad of the newspaper of The Times as an example， it writes that “The Prose Without The Con.” This ad suggests that their newspaper would not confuse readers and then lied to us resorting to the similarity of the idiom “Pros and Cons.”

The last type is homograph. Homograph means that words are the same in spelling but different in sound and meaning. For example， an appliance ad named RICOH COPIER is “We lead， others copy.” There are two meaning of the word “lead.” The first meaning of lead is to guide or take， the other means a kind of easily melted mental of a dull bluish-grey color.

3.2.2 Lexical ambiguity caused by polysemy

Polysemy is the capacity for a sign （such as a word， phrase， or symbol） to have multiple meanings， usually related by contiguity of meaning within semantic field（Xiang2001：83）. In other words， it is a word or phrase with different but related senses.

Another ad of coffee called Grand Marnier Cafe writes that “Adding Grand Marnier to ones coffee can also create a stir.” Here the word “stir” can serve as a verb which either means to excite or to move a spoon， etc， round and round in liquid. It succeeded in spurring ones imagination.

3.3 Grammatical ambiguity

3.3.1 Grammatical ambiguity caused by the word class

Grammatical ambiguity may happen as a result of some sentences where words play different grammatical roles. You can find expression from an ad of Coca- Cola： “Our club demands change”. When the word “demand” is seen as a noun and “change” is viewed as a verb，then this sentence can be interpreted that the demands of our club is differentiated from the days in past. Nevertheless， if the word “demand” serves as a verb and “change” serves as a noun， then the meaning of this sentence has greatly changed. It can be explained as our club are in need of making some changes.

3.3.2 Grammatical ambiguity caused by the range of modification

Grammatical ambiguity may arise in some sentences in which some words or phrases have ambiguous modifications. This can be rectified by the following examples.

For example， a help-wanted advertisement writes that “Three-year-old teacher needed for pre-school.” This sentence confuse readers in that it seems to find a teacher who is three years old. Actually， this ad is seeking a teacher for three-year-old children. The reason why this ad make readers confused is that the modified terms of “three-year-old” make this sentence ambiguous. Sometimes， sentences with ambiguous modifiers can be interpreted in a specific context.

CHAPTER 4 Conclusion

So far， a rough analysis of the three basic types of ambiguity and its application in commercial advertisements have been discussed and dealt with respectively. Apparently， this is not ample to give a through analysis to the intricate case of ambiguity. Therefore， this drives you toward a more detailed knowledge of ambiguity and pay more attention to the analysis and employment of English ambiguity.

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