The Analysis of Puns in English Advertisements From the Perspective of Language Structure Adoption

向鳳雅 羅潤田

【Abstract】The use of puns in English advertisements is popular in todays world.Based on the Adaptation Theory pointed by Verschueren （1999） in Understanding of Pragmatics，we explains applied language and applied context of puns in ads to meet the mental world of consumers.We mainly analyze it from the three parts-phonetic，lexical and syntactic structures.

【Key Words】Puns in English Advertisements； Language Structure Adoption

Adaptation Theory rules that the choice and adaptation of language could happen in any level of language structure-phone，tone，words and language.That is to say，the interpretation and choices of puns in advertisements should based on the target language and conforms to the ways of language expressions of native speakers and we should adopt the proper language structure，language style and expressing ways to perfect its literal form，logic and figure of speech.

Puns could be defined as a use of words which has the same sound contains two different meanings or more than two meanings.Advertisement puns provide the consumers with multiple interpretations by using the incongruous polysemy，which aims to distract consumers attention and provokes their purchase desire.According to semiologist Barthes （1977），the use of pun in Advertisements polysemous words means has been made to convey extra meaning that they would not ordinarily have when standing alone.

Puns are very popular among advertisements for its particularly ambiguous，humorous and amusing effects hidden out of the advertisement words surface.When consumers come across some ambiguous advertisement words，they may stop and think twice to get the different explainations about them from the phonetic structure，lexical structure and syntactic structure.Here is an example：

Gillette，the best men can get.

—Gillette shaver

It is noticed that ambiguity appears not from the meaning of the words but from the function of linguistic unit “the best”，which could be regarded as a pre-modifier of “men” and a nominal group consisting of an article and an adjective.Two explainations could be offered “Gillette is the best shaver that every man should get.” or “Gillette shaver is deserved to the best man to obtain.” By knowing its two meanings，people are lured to buy the Gillette shaver whether he wants to be the best man with a good taste or owns the best shaver which couldnt be missing，which not only delivers the full information hidden in the ads but fulfills the vanity of men consumers.It is a successful pun use in ads from the syntactic structure level.Lets see another example：

Ask for More.

— More cigarette

In this ads，word “More” both refers to get more cigarettes if the consumers enjoy it and at the same time，it reminds us of the brand name of this cigarette，which could be classified as the polysemy pun from the phonetic structure level.Besides，it is clear that “more” often happens when comparing things and we know that only when people are satisfied with the goods，they want get more，which is delivered to us that More cigarette has a distinguished quality.This ads only had three short words but implies rich and meaning information.How about the use of pun in ads from the lexical structure level.For example：

Have a Pepsi day！

—Pepsi Cola

From this ads，we know that “Pepsi” is the famous cola brand.Apart from it，“Pepsi”，a polysemous word，informs us that we could become healthy and be full of energy and spirit only after drinking this Pepsi cola，which just conforms to the the psychological expectations of western people-to pursue freshness，vitality and hope.Meanwhile in China，Pepsi cola has been interpreted as “be happy for everything” for its similar pronunciation between English and Chinese，which also caters to Chinese peoples mental world for happy wish to consumer this good.

From the three above examples，we have a clear knowledge of the use of puns in English advertisements from the phonetic，lexical and syntactic structures.By analyzing the polysemous meanings of puns，we could get a better understanding of functions of figure of speech in ads，which helps to the development of translation and intercultural communication.

References：

[1]Verschueren，J.1987.Pragmatics as A Theory of Linguistic Adaption：First Working[M].Antwerp：International Pragmatics Association.

[2]Verschueren，J.1999.Understanding of Pragmatics[M].London： Edword Arnold.

[3]黃國文.2001.語篇分析的理論與實踐：廣告語篇研究[M].上海：上海外語教育出版社.

[4]鐘守滿，王凌.廣告英語模糊現象探析[J].山東外語教學，2000. 3：23-26.

作者簡介：向鳳雅（1988.6-），女，四川內江人，碩士研究生在讀，研究方向：應用語言學。