Ideologies in Chinese Real Estate Advertising： Critical Discourse Analytical Approach

【Abstract】： Advertising plays an important role in modern society and the far-reaching consequences of the development of advertising cannot be measured. With the increasing fierce competition in real estate industry， the strategic emphasis of advertising is shifting from rationale demands to emotional demands so as to get consumers’ approbation. The real estate advertising is catering for the emotional needs of modern people while promoting the houses. To some extent， the advertising affects readers’ choices about their lifestyle and moulds readers’ attitudes towards life. The author analyzes two samples of Chinese real estate advertisements from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis， attempting to reveal the ideologies behind the advertisements.

【Key words】： Critical Discourse Analysis；real estate advertising；ideology； process

Ⅰ. Introduction

Advertising has become an indispensable part of the modern society. As a French advertising agency says that what we are breathing is oxygen， nitrogen and advertising， consumers are now plunged into an ocean of advertisements. Whether you like it or not， advertising has penetrated into every corner of our life. In the research of different kinds of business discourses， Critical Discourse Analysis （CDA） is much applied in advertising. As is known to all， the competition in property owners produces the emergence and flourish of real estate advertising. These advertisements no only become an important source of product information， but to some extent， affect the way people live， social relations and people’s concept of life. In this sense， real estate advertising has gone beyond business category and further affects people by its underlying ideologies. This author attempts to analyze Chinese real estate advertising from the view of Critical Discourse Analysis to reveal the hidden ideologies in the advertisements.

Ⅱ. Theoretical framework： Critical Discourse Analysis

Critical Discourse Analysis mainly uses Halliday’s systemic functional theory which is concerned with understanding the different purposes and different structures in different situations. One of the three general functions of language is ideational metafunction. In his words，“language serves for the expression of content” ： that is， language enables human beings to build a mental picture of reality， to make sense of the speaker’s experience of the real world， including the inner world of his own consciousness.”（胡壯麟，2001：152） The ideational function is realized as the transitivity system， in which there are six processes： material， mental， relational， behavioral， verbal and existential process.

Ⅲ. Case study of ideologies behind Chinese real estate advertising

In this section， a detailed discussion is given based on the statistical data of the frequency of 6 process types.

Case： 翡翠藍灣（Jadeite Blue Bay）

翡翠藍灣：給您寧靜的水岸生活

獨步翡翠藍灣的曲幽小徑，享受一縷清風，一片悠云，一份隨意。午后坐在自家小園里，品一杯香茗，望一窗碎月，汲吮著對岸十八羅漢山深林的味道，品讀著森林里幾十種自然植被。目光停留在粼粼水波上，河水腥濕，樹葉悠悠。如果是夏天，一不小心還可能會聽到蛙聲一片。

翡翠藍灣絕不是城市背后那些宏偉華麗的鋼筋水泥，而是我們心靈深處，時時眷念的一方凈土，洗滌著那些塵囂中的萬縷鉛華。

1）Description and quantify the frequency of the linguistics features：

The statistical data about transitivity is shown in table2-2

As can be seen in the table， the real estate sample includes 6 sentences 17 clauses and 17 processes， 6 of them are material processes accounting for 35%. And 7 are mental；4 are relational and no verbal and existential process.

2） Interpretation

The advertisement begins with a material process which gives a description of the merits and uniqueness of the estate. It maps the estate as an ideal living place for the prospective buyer’s purposes. The material process of the headline makes the advertising informative and vivid. The next 4 sentences include 7 mental processes. They are shown by the verbs of perception like： 享受enjoy，感受feel，汲吮著…的味道 sniff， 聽到 hear… And the mention of the phenomenon parts： 清風breeze， 悠云drifting cloud， 蛙聲一片frog croaking…pictures the beautiful scenery around the houses advertised and a laid-back way of living. Furthermore， these clauses attempt to position readers as the consumers who seek freedom and personal life. The last clause expresses the desire of modern people： being far away from the noisy city， embracing the world of nature， returning to spiritual Eden… It seems that the only prerequisite for the readers to turn the imaginary beautiful life into reality is to become the consumers of the Jadeite Blue Bay.

Ⅳ. Implication and Conclusion

Through Critical Discourse Analysis ， we can see that the two real estate advertisements have gone beyond their common scope of product promotion and attempt to influence the readers as prospective consumers at the level of ideologies which are manifested in the following aspects： First of all， a number of mental processes are used in the advertisements to meet people’s emotional needs such as the longing for relatively independent but harmonious family life， beautiful residential environment， peaceful life away from the turmoil of city. The mental processes have impact on the readers and mould their value or attitude of life. Secondly， the use of material and relational process not only highlights the selling points of the estate， but also affects people’s choices of lifestyle， such as enjoying family warmth， pursuit of tranquility， returning to nature， etc.

Reference：

[1]黃國文.2001.語篇分析的理論與實踐.上海：上海外語教育出版社.

[2]南方都市報.2008廣東地產金牌總評榜 Dec 26th ，2008.pp9，11.

[3]肖瑋.2007.系統功能語法視角下的房地產廣告語篇分析.南昌大學碩士學位論文.

[4]張凌云.2008.房地產廣告中的情感訴求.新聞愛好者，2008.4（上半月）.48-49.

作者簡介：顏萍，學歷 ：碩士，單位：韶關學院外語學院講師，研究方向：商務英語研究。