Metaphor in advertisements

张颖

【Abstract】So rapid is the development of society that more and more advertisements are raising， there is no doubt that the advertisements have became one part of our daily life. What is worth noticing is that the ads not only convey amount of information， but also enrich the connotation of language， which always catches more attention， it because that it reflect the whole language system and the thinking way of human beings. This paper is divided into four parts. First part mainly introduce the connotation and characteristic of advertising and role， and simply introduce the meaning of metaphor theory， including its classification and function. The second part classify and analysis the ads which I have collected. The third part is mainly discussing about features of metaphor in ads.The fourth part mainly analysis the function of metaphor in ads.

【Key words】advertisements； conceptual metaphor； language

1. Overview of advertising language and metaphor theory

（1）Overview of advertising language

Advertising language refers to both spoken language and written language in ads， in other words. There are many kinds of advertising language， according to the stylistic feature， it can be classified into three kinds，which including colloquial language， written language， and synthetic language. As one kind of media language， the advertising language have common features， which are artistic， economical and innovative

（2）Summary of metaphor theory

Metaphor is a kind of rhetorical device， it occurs in our daily life. As the linguistician defined metaphor：‘the essence of metaphor is under-standing and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Metaphor involves the comparison of two concepts in that one is construed in terms of the other. The metaphor can be classified into three kinds： Ontological metaphor， structure metaphor and orientational metaphor.

2.The type of metaphor in advertising language

It is clearly that the metaphor can help people understand the concept that they did not know before， in addition， the metaphor also makes contribution to the new understanding of the knowledge they have known， and find new idea. The creators of advertisements learned to use the feature of metaphor， they add a new concept to the products， so it can draw customers attention. According to the standard that provided by Lakoff， we classify the metaphor in ads into ontological metaphor， structure metaphor and orientational metaphor.

（1）Ontological metaphor in advertising language

Ontological metaphor means that human experiences with physical objects provide the basis for ways of viewing events， activities， emotions， ideas， as entities and substance.The target domain of the ontological metaphor is something that abstract.

For example：

[1]Drink Huiyuan juice， take the road to health.（Huiyuan juice）

[2]Toyotas contribution， crossing tomorrow.（Toyota）

In the first sentence， ‘health is a kind of condition of body， it was metaphor into a real rode， making people feel that they are walking on the healthy rode. For the second sentence， ‘tomorrow is a abstract concept that refers to time. However， ‘crossing make time into a container， so that emphasize the advantages of the car-----strong driving force and can across the obstacle.

（2） Structure metaphor in advertising language

Structure metaphor plays the most important role because it allows us to structure one concept according to another. In other words， it refers to using one concept to explain another concept. The ontological metaphor used in ads is widely， it can make people fee comfortable， and can make customers accept easily.

For example：

[3]Taste its strong atmosphere of milk， just like silk fly around you. （Dove chocolate）[4]True gold fears no fire.（Jin Zheng DVD）

In the sentence[3]， ‘like silk make people feel the chocolate is so soft just as silk， and the taste of the chocolate is arising. What is more， people will have the imagination of the taste. For sentence[4]， ‘gold not only refers to the object， but also refers to the name of the DVD， it is known to us that gold has high value，and good quality. The advertisement make customer connect the DVD with gold， the characteristic of gold may move to DVD.

3.The characteristic of metaphor in advertisements

（1）Containing more information

The advantages of metaphor is making the expression become more artistic， what is more important is that it can inspire peoples imagination， and make them build their different space for imagination. It is a fact that the more imagination contains， the more information can get.

（2）Contradiction and unity

[5]Partner in life， lover of phone.（Changhong mobile phone）

[6]Taste its strong atmosphere of milk， just like silk fly around you

From the two examples we learned that the metaphor using in advertising language always keep contradiction and unity， which means that the two concepts are different， but they have some same features on some degree. According to the background and experience， the same characteristics can be found， so that the connection between the two concepts can be build， and understand the meaning of the advertisements.

4.The function of metaphor in advertising language

Using the metaphor in advertisements can make the language become more vivid and and succinct， which means the language has been gave more content. The application of metaphor in ads basically improve the culture grade of advertisements， the ads not only a sentence that used to describe the products， but a sentence that give people more imagination. By this way， it can attract many customers.On a top of that， the metaphor in advertising language can promote the advertisement promotion.

Conclusion

The application of metaphor is a kind of language expression， it is also a kind of thinking way that used to reflect the users culture background and the view of value. The advertisements with its unique language and expression as a competitive practices， whose aim is to draw customers attention. So the advertisements put customers at the center， and try to meet their needs. Using metaphor can reflect customers motivation， psychological， and choice. At the same time， they can covey the information about the products， and establish the imagine of products， the result is inspiring people to buy them.

Reference：

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[3]陈慧芳.简析认知隐喻[J].南华大学学报.2000.