中文美容用品廣告詞之社會語用分析 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學語言學研究所碩士論文 National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of Linguistics Master Thesis. 政治大立Advisor: Dr. Hui-chen Chan 指導教授：詹惠珍博士. sit. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Nat. 中文美容用品廣告詞之社會語用分析. er. io. Analyzing Advertisements of Beauty Products in Mandarin Magazines:. n. a l Sociopragmatic Approach i v n Ch U engchi. 研究生：簡湘澐撰 Student: Shiang-yun Chien 中華民國一百零二年七月 July, 2013.

(2) ANALYZING ADVERTISEMENTS OF BEAUTY PRODUCTS IN MANDARIN MAGAZINES: SOCIOPRAGMATIC APPROACH. BY Shiang-yun Chien. 立. 政治大. n. sit. er. io. al. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Nat. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Institute of Linguistics In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. Ch. engchi. July, 2013. i n U. v.

(3) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. Copyright © 2013 Shiang-yun Chien All rights Reserved. iii. i n U. v.

(4) Acknowledgements. 大學讀外交的我，因緣際會來到了語言所求學。還記得初次接觸到語言分析時興奮的感覺，有一種他鄉遇故知的親切，打從心底喜歡這個領域的知識。後來研究所的課程讓我收穫更多，也很享受與同學共同組讀書會討論的感覺，這些都變成是美好的回憶。現在完成了論文，回首來時路，才發現自己已經走了這麼遠，心裡是充滿感動與感謝的。也曾一度想要放棄，但是內心有一個聲音說：「你要勇敢完成。」有時候會希望時間能快轉到畢業的那天，但是沒有痛苦的付出又怎會有收成的喜悅呢？因著對自己的期許，在掙扎中我終於完成了這篇論文。這篇論文可以完成要感謝許多人，首先是我的指導教授詹惠珍老師，第一次上老師的課時就非常喜愛，無論是課程內容，還是老師的教學方式和風格。詹老師態度嚴謹但不嚴肅，對學生又十分親切，在老師身邊寫論文的這段時間我學到很多東西，尤其是做事情的態度與堅持。感謝老師這一路對我的付出、鼓勵、還有包容。其次，我要感謝我的論文口試委員曹逢甫老師和陳振寬老師，曹老師和陳老師在兩次口試中提出許多寶貴的意見，讓這篇論文更加完善。另外，也要感謝我的碩班導師何萬順老師、蕭宇超老師、黃瓊之老師、萬依萍老師還有賴惠. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. ‧. 玲老師，感謝老師的教導和鼓勵，讓我受益匪淺。還要感謝助教學姐的幫忙和鼓勵，學姐總是充滿熱忱又很有耐心的協助學生，是語言所的靈魂人物。. y. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. 最後，我要感謝我的父母和妹妹，尤其是媽媽，就讀研究所的這段期間讓她擔心不少，感謝媽媽支持我的決定，不斷地敦促我向前進；感謝爸爸對我的關心和鼓勵，讓我更有勇氣面對挫折；感謝妹妹的熱心幫忙還有加油打氣，在我無力的時候陪伴我。我要將這篇論文獻給我最愛的家人，也很高興自己終於通過這個難關，迎向更美好的未來！. Ch. engchi. iv. i n U. v.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTS. Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... iv Table of contents ............................................................................................................ v List of tables .................................................................................................................. ix Chinese Abstract ........................................................................................................... xi English Abstract ........................................................................................................... xii. Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Advertisement as a Way of Persuasion ................................................................ 1. 政治大. 1.2 Research Questions .............................................................................................. 2 1.3 Hypotheses ........................................................................................................... 2 1.4 Outline of this Thesis ........................................................................................... 3. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Chapter 2 Literature Review .......................................................................................... 4 2.1 Advertising Aspect ............................................................................................... 4. ‧. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. 2.1.1 The model ................................................................................................... 4 2.1.2 Advertising discourse and ideology ............................................................ 5 2.1.3 Strategies for persuasion in advertising ...................................................... 8 2.2 Sociopragmatic Aspect......................................................................................... 9 2.2.1 Speech act theory ...................................................................................... 10 2.2.1.1 Components of a speech act ......................................................... 10 2.2.1.2 Felicity conditions of a speech act ............................................... 12 2.2.1.3 Indirect speech acts ...................................................................... 13 2.2.2 Cooperative Principle (CP) ..................................................................... 14. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 2.2.3 Politeness Principles (PP) ....................................................................... 16 2.3 Linguistic Aspect ............................................................................................... 20 2.3.1 Metadiscourse ........................................................................................... 20 2.3.1.1 Hedgers ........................................................................................ 23 2.3.1.2 Boosters........................................................................................ 23 Chapter 3 Methodology ............................................................................................... 25 3.1 Data Collection .................................................................................................. 25 3.1.1 Data from magazines ................................................................................ 25 3.1.2 Data from interviews................................................................................. 25 3.2 Criteria for Analyses .......................................................................................... 26 v.

(6) 3.2.1 Approaches of advertising......................................................................... 27 3.2.2 Felicity conditions (FC) .......................................................................... 28 3.2.3 Cooperative Principle (CP) ..................................................................... 29 3.2.4 Politeness Principle (PP) ......................................................................... 31 3.2.5 Ideology .................................................................................................... 32 3.2.6 Linguistic devices ..................................................................................... 33 3.2.6.1 Referential contents ....................................................................... 33 3.2.6.2 Hedgers vs. boosters ...................................................................... 34 3.2.7 Essential functions .................................................................................... 35 3.3 Measurements .................................................................................................... 37 Chapter 4 Quantitative Analyses of the Written Data .................................................. 38 4.1 Approaches of Advertising ............................................................................... 38 4.1.1 Distribution of advertising approaches in beauty products advertisements ........................................................... 38. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. 4.1.2 Comparison between types of beauty products advertisements by advertisement approaches ................................................................. 39 4.1.3 Comparison between advertising approaches. ‧. by types of beauty products advertisements .......................................... 40 4.2 Felicity Conditions in Advertisements ............................................................. 42 4.2.1 Distribution of FC in beauty products advertisements ........................... 42 4.2.2 Comparison between types of beauty products advertisements by FC ............. 43 4.2.3 Comparison among FC in two types of beauty products ........................ 44 4.3 Cooperative Principles in Advertisements ......................................................... 44 4.3.1 Distribution of CP maxim in beauty products advertisements ............... 45 4.3.2 Implementation of CP maxims in beauty products advertisements ........ 46 4.3.2.1 Comparison between ways of implementation. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. by CP maxims ............................................................................ 46 4.3.2.2 Comparison among CP maxims by ways of implementation ........................................................ 47 4.3.3 Comparison between types of beauty products advertisements by CP maxims .......................................................................................... 49 4.3.4 Comparison between ways to implement CP maxims by types of beauty products advertisements .......................................... 51 4.4 Politeness Principles in Advertisements ............................................................ 53 4.4.1 Comparison of the types of advertisements by PP maxims ..................... 57 4.4.2 Comparison of PP maxims by types of beauty products advertisements .......................................... 59 vi.

(7) 4.5 Ideology of Women ............................................................................................ 61 4.5.1 Beauty product advertisements as a whole ............................................. 61 4.5.2 Comparison of types of advertisements by woman ideology ................. 63 4.5.3 Comparison of components of ideology by types of advertisements ..... 65 4.6 Linguistic Devices ............................................................................................. 67 4.6.1 Referential Contents.................................................................................. 67 4.6.2 Hedgers and Boosters ............................................................................... 71 Chapter 5 Qualitative Analyses of the Interviews........................................................ 74 5.1 Advertising Approaches ..................................................................................... 74 5.1.1 General attitudes toward advertising approaches by subjects as a whole ............................................................................. 75 5.1.2 Attitudes toward types of beauty products advertisements by subjects as a whole ................................................................................................. 76 5.1.3 Subjects’ attitude toward advertising approaches and types of. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. beauty products by subjects’ education level ......................................... 77 5.1.4 Attitudes toward advertising approaches and types of beauty products by subjects’ age ...................................................................................... 79. ‧. 5.2 Subjects’ Attitude toward the Persuasiveness of FC in Advertisements .......... 81 5.2.1 General attitudes toward FC by subjects as a whole ................................ 82 5.2.2 Attitudes toward types of beauty products advertisements by subjects as a whole ............................................................................ 83 5.2.3 Attitudes toward FC and types of beauty products by subjects’ education level ................................................................... 84 5.2.4 Attitudes toward FC and types of beauty products by subjects’ age ....... 85 5.3 Subjects’ Attitude toward the Persuasiveness of CP Maxims in Advertisements ............................................................................................. 87. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 5.3.1 General attitudes toward CP by subjects as a whole ................................ 88 5.3.2 Attitudes toward types of beauty products advertisements by subjects as a whole .............................................................................. 89 5.3.3 Attitudes toward CP and types of beauty products by subjects’ education level ..................................................................... 90 5.3.4 Attitudes toward CP and Types of beauty products by subjects’ age ....................................................................................... 92 5.4 Subjects’ Attitude toward the Persuasiveness of PP Maxims in Advertisements ............................................................................................. 94 5.4.1 General attitudes toward PP by subjects as a whole ................................. 95 5.4.2 Attitudes toward types of beauty products advertisements vii.

(8) by subjects as a whole .............................................................................. 96 5.4.3 Attitudes toward PP and types of beauty products by subjects’ education level ...................................................................... 97 5.4.4 Attitudes toward PP and types of beauty products by subjects’ age ..................................................................................... 100 Chapter 6 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 102 6.1 Summary of the Major Findings ...................................................................... 102 6.1.1 Quantitative analyses of the written data .............................................. 102 1. Approaches of advertising.................................................................. 102 2. Felicity conditions.............................................................................. 103 3. Cooperative Principle......................................................................... 103 4. Politeness Principle ............................................................................ 104 5. Ideology of women ............................................................................ 104. 政治大 6. Linguistic devices .............................................................................. 105 立 6.1.2 Qualitative analyses of the interviews .................................................. 105. ‧ 國. 學. 1. Advertising approaches ...................................................................... 105 2. Felicity conditions.............................................................................. 106. ‧. 3. Cooperative Principle......................................................................... 107 4. Politeness Principle ............................................................................ 107 6.2 Concluding Remarks ........................................................................................ 108 6.3 Limitations of This Study and Suggestions for Future Researches ................. 108. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. n. References .................................................................................................................. 110. Ch. engchi. viii. i n U. v.

(9) LIST OF TABLES. Table 1. Distribution of advertising approaches in beauty product advertisements as a whole ..................................................................................................... 38 Table 2. Types of beauty products advertisements by advertisement approaches ..... 39 Table 3. Differences between hard-sell approach and soft-sell approach in the two types of ads ................................................................................. 41 Table 4. Distribution of felicity conditions in beauty products advertisements ........ 42. 政治大. Table 5. Types of beauty products advertisement by felicity conditions ................... 43. 立. Table 6. Felicity conditions in two types of beauty products .................................... 44. ‧ 國. 學. Table 7. Distribution of CP in beauty product ads ..................................................... 45. ‧. sit. y. Nat. Table 8. Distribution of ways to implement CP maxims in beauty products advertisements ............................................................... 46. n. al. er. io. Table 9. CP maxims by Ways of Implementation ...................................................... 48. Ch. i n U. v. Table 10. Types of beauty products advertisements by CP Maxims ......................... 50. engchi. Table 11. Ways to implement CP maxims by types of beauty products advertisements ................................................................. 52 Table 12. Applicable Maxims of PP in beauty product ads ....................................... 54 Table 13. Comparison of the types of advertisements by PP maxims ....................... 58 Table 14. Comparison of PP maxims by types of beauty products advertisements ... 60 Table 15. Distribution of the three components of woman ideology ............................. 62 Table 16. Differences between two types of ads by woman ideology ....................... 63 ix.

(10) Table 17. Comparison of components of ideology by types of advertisements ........ 66 Table 18. Distribution of referential contents in beauty product ads ......................... 68 Table 19. Comparison of two types of ads by referential contents ............................. 69 Table 20. Comparison of referential contents by two types of ads ............................ 70 Table 21. Distribution of types of advertisements by types of modifiers .................. 71 Table 22. Distribution of types of modifiers by types of advertisements ................... 72 Table 23. Subjects’ attitudes toward the persuasiveness of the advertising approaches by types of beauty products ....................................................................... 75. 立. 政治大. Table 24. Subjects’ attitudes toward the persuasiveness of the felicity conditions. ‧ 國. 學. by two types of beauty products ................................................................ 81. ‧. Table 25. Subjects’ attitudes toward the persuasiveness of CP by two types of beauty products ................................................................ 88. y. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. Table 26. Subjects’ attitudes toward the persuasiveness of PP by two types of beauty products ................................................................ 95. Ch. engchi. x. i n U. v.

(11) 摘要. 本論文探討在女性時尚雜誌中，美容用品廣告所使用的社會語用策略及語言手段。在本研究中，以 Cook (2001)的廣告方法，Searle (1969)的適切條件，Grice (1975)的合作原則，以及 Leech (1983)的禮貌原則做為分析的準則。研究中分析的資料來自兩本女性時尚雜誌，Beauty 和 Elle。在語料量化分. 政治大. 析方面，收錄了 200 條廣告詞，均分為兩類美容用品：化妝品和保養品。此外，. 立. 在訪談質化分析方面，有 12 位女性受訪，以便評量 4 條選定的廣告詞之可信度。. ‧ 國. 學. 語料的量化分析顯示：(1) 不同種類的美容用品有偏好的廣告方式。(2) 合. ‧. 作原則和禮貌原則的分配情形不同。(3) 以女性意識形態來說，化妝品廣告和保. Nat. io. sit. y. 養品廣告有相異之處。(4) 不同的語言手段被用來廣告這兩類美容用品。. er. 訪談的質化分析顯示：(1) 受訪者的社會背景(教育程度和年齡)影響她們對. al. n. v i n Ch 廣告的態度。(2) 不同的廣告方式影響受訪者對廣告的態度。(3) 廣告的類別不 engchi U 影響受訪者在適切條件、合作原則、以及禮貌原則上對廣告的態度。基於以上的分析，可以發現潛在消費者對說服力的認知與廣告主不吻合。也就是說，消費者不認為所分析的廣告有說服力，這顯示廣告無法滿足消費者的需求。本研究建議廣告主應該從消費者的觀點出發並補救這個問題。. xi.

(12) Abstract. This study aims at exploring the sociopragmatic strategies and the linguistic devices employed in the beauty product advertisements in women’s fashion magazines. In this study, Cook’s advertising approach (2001), Searle’s Felicity Conditions (1969), Grice’s Cooperative Principle (1975), and Leech’s Politeness. 政治大. Principle (1983) are the criteria for analyses.. 立. This study takes both quantitative analyses and qualitative analyses. For. ‧ 國. 學. quantitative analyses, 200 pieces of advertisements were collected from two women’s. ‧. fashion magazines, Beauty and Elle. These data are equally distributed to two types of. Nat. io. sit. y. beauty products: cosmetic products and skin-care products. In addition, for qualitative. er. analyses, twelve women were interviewed to evaluate the effectiveness of the. al. n. v i n Cofhadvertisements selected. elements contained in four pieces engchi U. Results of quantitative analyses show (1) that hard-sell approach is preferred on beauty products; (2) that the distribution of the maxims of Cooperative Principle is that Quality Maxim and Manner Maxim are obeyed most frequently, but Quantity Maxim is violated most often; (3) that the distribution of the maxims of Politeness Principle is that Tact Maxim and Modesty Maxim are implemented the most frequently; (4) that cosmetic ads and skin-care ads emphasize on different. xii.

(13) components of woman ideology; (5) different linguistic devices are used to advertise the two types of beauty products. The qualitative analyses of the data show (1) that the subjects’ social backgrounds (in this case, education level and age) do affect their attitudes of persuasiveness toward advertisements; (2) that different advertising approaches do influence the subjects’ attitudes toward the advertisements; (3) that advertisements of. 政治大. different types of beauty products do not influence the subjects’ attitudes toward the. 立. advertisements no matter by Felicity Conditions, by Cooperative Principle, or by. ‧ 國. 學. Politeness Principle. Based on the analyses given above, it is found that the subjects’. ‧. perception of persuasiveness does not match with that of the advertiser’s. To these. Nat. io. sit. y. potential consumers, those advertisements analyzed are not persuasive, which. er. indicates that the advertisements fail to satisfy the consumer’s demands. It is. al. n. v i n advertiser C takes perspective h ethe n gconsumer’s chi U. suggested that the. to promote the. persuasiveness of advertisements and the consumer’s acceptance of the commodities to be sold.. xiii.

(14) Chapter 1 Introduction. 1.1 Advertisement as a Way of Persuasion The general objective of advertising is to persuade the consumer to buy a certain product or a particular idea. To be specific, functions of advertising can be. 政治大. divided into three layers, including (1) to identify a product (or an idea), (2) to convey. 立. the characteristics of the product and differentiate it from the others, and (3) to induce. ‧ 國. 學. the potential consumer to buy the product (or the idea) advertised. In other words,. ‧. advertisements are a way to substantiate the advertiser’s persuasion.. Nat. io. sit. y. Usually, the content of an advertisement is asserted through verbal expression,. er. to present the referent which the advertiser would want the consumer to accept, to. al. n. v i n catch the consumer’ attention, C to h change their attitude, e n g c h i U and, eventually, to buy the. product. Since different consumers have different interests and needs, the advertiser, in order to reach these goals, would appeal to different strategies, linguistic as well as nonlinguistic. Since in female magazines, apparently women are the target consumers of the products advertised, it is presumed that female images would be appreciated through specific application of sociopragmatic strategies and linguistic devices related to these functional strategies.. 1.

(15) 1.2 Research Questions Since this thesis aims to explore the functional strategies and the related linguistic devices employed in the beauty product advertisements in women’s fashion magazines, the following research questions are to be answered. (1) What are the approaches of advertising adopted in beauty products advertisements? (2) What. are. the. 治 adopted 政 strategies 大. sociopragmatic. 立. advertisements?. in. beauty. products. ‧ 國. 學. (3) What are the linguistic devices used to reflect the functional requirements in. ‧. beauty product advertisements?. Nat. io. sit. y. (4) In advertisements, do different kinds of beauty products prescribe different. n. al. er. interactions between advertising approaches and sociopragmatic strategies/ linguistic devices?. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 1.3 Hypotheses In this study, it is hypothesized (1) that the approach of persuasion preferred by cosmetic ads is different from that by skin-care ads; (2) that pragmatic factors (specifically, felicity conditions, Cooperative Principle, and Politeness Principle) would give different influences to different kinds of beauty. 2.

(16) products advertisements; (3) that ideology of women would have significant influences on the ways how beauty products are advertised; (4) that the consumer’s age and education level would have a significant influence on their attitudes toward beauty products, and (5) that different linguistic devices are used to cope with the functional needs of. 政治大. different types of beauty products described in the four preceding hypotheses. 1.4 Outline of this Thesis. 立. ‧ 國. 學. This thesis contains five chapters. Chapter One gives an introductory statement. ‧. of this study, including some basic concepts of advertising, the research questions,. Nat. io. sit. y. and the related hypotheses. Chapter Two presents literature review on three aspects of. er. advertisements—the approaches of advertising, the sociopragmatic controls behind. al. n. v i n C h linguistic devices. advertisements, and the correspondent e n g c h i U Chapter Three describes the research design of this study, including methods of data collection and ways of data. analyses. Chapter Four depicts the results of quantitative analyses of the written data. Chapter Five describes the results of qualitative analyses of the interviews. Chapter Six summarizes the major findings, presents a general conclusion to this study, and offers suggestions for future studies.. 3.

(17) Chapter 2 Literature Review. This chapter reviews previous studies related to beauty product advertisements in female magazines from three aspects, including model and techniques of advertising, sociopragmatic principles, and linguistic strategies. 2.1 Advertising Aspect. 立. 2.1.1 The model. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Advertising is a form of persuasive communication. In order to persuade the. ‧. consumer to buy the products promoted, the advertiser uses various strategies to. Nat. io. sit. y. attract the consumer’s attention and to produce different effects. To understand these. er. multiple effects and the interrelationships among them, Lavidge and Steiner (1961). n. al. i n C propose a model to describe the hierarchy effects. h e nofgthese chi U. v. According to Lavidge and Steiner (1961), six steps in the procedure of communication are identified—awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase. To be specific, at first step, the customer becomes aware of the product through advertising; at second step, the customer’s knowledge about the product is secured; at third step, the customer’s liking of the product is ensured; at fourth step, the consumer’s preference of the product over other competitor brands, is confirmed;. 4.

(18) at fifth step, the customer’s desire to purchase the product is convicted; and at final step, the consumer’s purchase of the product is realized. Lavidge and Steiner (1961) suggest that these six steps can further be categorized into three dimensions— cognitive, affective, and conative, and the goal of an advertisement is to promote the merchandize through these three dimensions of attitudes. On cognitive dimension, every promotion aims at making the consumer become aware of the product, and then. 政治大. gather related knowledge of the product. On affective dimension, with the help of the. 立. promotion, the consumer establishes positive affective attachment to the product, and. ‧ 國. 學. then yields preference to this product rather than the others. On conative dimension,. ‧. after reading the ads, the consumer is convinced, and thus purchases the product. In. Nat. io. sit. y. sum, an advertisement implies a procedure to make a consumer move from the initial. er. stage of awareness to the final stage of purchase. When the final step is reached, the. n. al. i n C consumer is successfully persuaded, is sold. hand e nthegproduct chi U. v. 2.1.2 Advertising discourse and ideology Advertising ideology and discourse interact with each other. Ideology influences language use; in return, through the observation of language use, people recognize what ideology is and how it is constructed. According to Del Saz-Rubio and Pennock-Speck (2009), ideology presents the way that people perceive the world and themselves. It is the mental framework about the way that the society works.. 5.

(19) Advertising discourse is a social and persuasive discourse which reflects and creates an ideology. In this way, advertisements play a part in the construction of meaning through the ideology built. In advertisements, as in the other kinds of communication, meaning is constructed and conveyed through a continuous process of encoding and decoding. Moreover, Williamson (1978) proposes that advertising transforms the practical use. 政治大. value into the symbolic exchange value. She calls this transformation “metastructure,”. 立. in which “meaning is not just ‘decoded’ from linguistic structure, but transferred to. ‧ 國. 學. create another.” In other words, the consumer does not just receive meaning from. ‧. advertising; they re-create it. Similarly, Hall (1997) suggests that members of the. Nat. io. sit. y. same culture must share concepts, images, and ideas, which enable them to think and. er. feel about the world in the same way, and, thus, to interpret the world in a similar way.. al. n. v i n Advertisements are constructed C andhproduced on the basis e n g c h i U of such “shared meanings.”. In addition, advertising works the best when it works with the existing ideology in the consumer. According to Hidalgo (2000), the consumer uses her knowledge to construct her own world. Advertising discourse can reinforce the existing world schema and the identity of a given social group. For example, since advertising depicts lifestyles and self-presentation which individuals use to define their roles in society, it is anticipated that gender identity is constructed in advertisements. 6.

(20) (Plakoyiannaki and Zotos, 2009). Moreover, advertising on mass media has been a major means to introduce stereotypical female role. It plays a powerful role in depicting women, not just by how they actually behave, but also by how people think women should behave. According to Goffman (1979), this depiction of women even serves to convince people how women are, should be, and want to be. In women’s magazines, it has clearly been shown that women have been assigned decorative roles. 政治大. attached with physical attractiveness, such as sex objects (Zotos and Plakoyiannaki,. 立. 2009). In other words, from the advertisements, the consumer receives not only the. ‧ 國. 學. information about the products, but also the social-cultural expectations about women.. ‧. A woman ideology constructed and represented in the advertisements consists. Nat. io. sit. y. of three elements: (1) desirable physical features for women, including a slender. er. figure and youthful, white, and clean appearance in order to be “healthy beauty,” to. al. n. v i n C hbodily conditions opposite make them feel confident; (2) any e n g c h i U to the desirable features. are considered as problematic, women with which are perceived to be lack of confidence; and (3) the belief that bodily management can be done effortlessly and effectively. These stereotypical expectations urge women to make adjustments in order to improve their looks in order to become better persons. In this way, advertisements, as a reflection of the social value system, also denote social-cultural discrimination, which implies that female is a lesser gender, and that women are. 7.

(21) intrinsically unconfident of their appearance, talent, and value. 2.1.3 Strategies for persuasion in advertising In order to persuade the consumer to buy the product, the advertiser uses a variety of advertising strategies. Cook (2001) distinguishes between hard-sell advertising and soft-sell advertising. Hard-sell advertising makes a direct appeal to the customer, while soft sell is more subtle, relying on mood and “on the implication that. 政治大. life will be better with a given product.” Another way to categorize the strategies of. 立. advertising is Simpson’s (2001) reason and tickle. According to Simpson, reason. ‧ 國. 學. advertisements suggest people why they should buy a given product, i.e. giving. ‧. reasons. On the other hand, tickle advertisements appeal to people’s emotion, mood,. Nat. io. sit. y. and humor. In other words, reason equals fact and needs, while tickle equals emotion,. er. imagination, and desires. Every advertisement contains both of the two appeals, more. al. n. v i n Cofh reason and tickleU are related concepts engchi. or less. However, the. with strength of. (in)directness. The greater the appeal to reason, the more direct the discourse is; the greater the appeal to tickle, the more indirect the discourse is. Maynard (1995) analyzes the advertising text based on a scale of intimacy and product alone. Intimacy refers to the closeness between the text and the reader. The feeling of intimacy can be enhanced when the advertisement talks in accordance with the way the consumer does. Once the intimacy between the consumer and the. 8.

(22) advertisement is obtained, the possibility of buying the product is derived. On the other hand, product alone, which pursues the least intimacy, is about the information of the product, without any emotional attachment to the consumer. On top of the concepts of intimacy and product alone in the advertisements, gender difference is an influential control. Maynard (1995) indicates that intimacy appears more often in young women’s magazines, while product alone strategy is targeted at young men.. 政治大. Moreover, Hudson (1980) indicates that language may reflect the social. 立. relations between the participants of communication, most particularly the power and. ‧ 國. 學. solidarity. The former is associated with long social distance, controlling others,. ‧. superiority, and high social status; the latter is related to closeness and friendliness.. Nat. io. sit. y. Following Hudson’s idea, in advertising, solidarity, not power, is excessively used to. er. create a sense of friendship and empathy between the advertiser and the consumer. al. n. v i n C htreated as a “closeUfriend,” the consumer becomes since it is believed that when being engchi. more emotionally involved, and thus more likely to be persuaded, more willing to buy the product. These strategies for persuasion in advertising are related to this study and will be discussed in the following chapters. 2.2 Sociopragmatic Aspect In previous section, it is proposed that the major goal of an advertisement is to persuade the consumer to buy the product. In order to reach this illocutionary goal,. 9.

(23) pragmatic principles must have been adopted, and it is in obeying or violating the principles and their maxims and submaxims, the needs of advertisement are satisfied. 2.2.1 Speech act theory 2.2.1.1 Components of a speech act According to the speech act theory proposed by Austin (1962), language users make utterances in order to perform certain actions. That is, when people say. 政治大. something, people do something at the same time. Austin indicates that three kinds of. 立. act are contained in a speech act—locutionary act, illocutionary act, and. ‧ 國. 學. perlocutionary act. First, a locutionary act is an act to say something. By saying, it. ‧. means that people perform the act of uttering a certain sentence with a certain sense. Nat. io. sit. y. and reference. Second, an illocutionary act is an act to do something, which is the. er. communicative purpose of that specific verbal expression. Third, perlocutionary act is. al. n. v i n an act that casts a psychologicalCeffect hearer. In short, when language users h eonto n gthe chi U speak, they put certain expressions together to make a meaningful utterance, with a certain intention in their mind, and certain impacts on their interlocutors. Advertising is a speech act of persuasion. In advertisements, the advertiser by saying the advertising expressions, tries to persuade and may actually persuade the readers to buy the products advertised. That is, the illocutionary purpose is to persuade the potential consumer to buy the target products, and the perlocutionary. 10.

(24) force is the effect of the advertisement in changing the consumer’s thought, their attitude, and thus their behavior (i.e. their buying the product). Following Austin, Searle (1969) classifies illocutionary acts into five categories: assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, and declarations. First, assertives illustrate what the speaker believes to be the truth or a lie. The illocutionary point of these acts is to commit the truth of the expressed proposition. The examples are. 政治大. stating, suggesting, boasting, complaining and reporting. Advertising discourse uses. 立. assertives very often because they enable the advertiser to communicate certain facts. ‧ 國. 學. about the product being advertised. Second, directives reflect the speaker’s want for. ‧. the hearer’s changes. What the speaker wants to change might be the hearer’s current. Nat. io. sit. y. condition or behavior. The purpose of these illocutionary is to produce an effect. er. through some actions which is done by the hearer. The examples are order, command,. al. n. v i n C toh persuade (i.e. persuading and advice. Advertising, as a way the consumer to buy or engchi U to accept the commodity advertised), is a member of directives. Third, commissives refer to the speaker’s intention to commit some future action which can give a beneficial or a disadvantageous effect on the hearer. In advertising discourse, commissives are used less frequently found than assertives and directives. Fourth, expressives illustrate the speaker’s state of mind and reflect the speaker’s likes and dislikes. They have a purpose to express a psychological state of the hearer in the. 11.

(25) situation. The examples are thanking, congratulating, apologizing, threatening, and condoling. The last type of illocutionary act is declarations, speech acts that change the reality in accord with the proposition of the declaration. The examples are naming, appointing, and sentencing. Searle regards this speech act as the special one because the action can only be made by people who have an authority to do this action. In advertisements, the last two types of illocutionary acts are found less frequently. 政治大. because they are speaker-oriented. In advertising, it is the hearer, namely, the. 立. 2.2.1.2 Felicity conditions of a speech act. 學. ‧ 國. consumer, that matters.. ‧. According to Searle (1969), for a speech act to be successfully constituted, it. Nat. io. sit. y. must fulfill the requirements of the felicity conditions, which include propositional. er. content condition, preparatory condition, sincerity condition, and essential condition.. al. n. v i n For example, in the utterance “IC promise you a gift,” the propositional content h e ntoggive chi U. condition is about what the speaker intends to give to the hearer; the preparatory condition prescribes the speaker’s ability to be able to give the hearer a gift, and the hearer also wishes the speaker to do the act onto him; the sincerity condition describes the speaker’s real intention of giving the hearer a gift; the essential condition confines the speaker’s future act that he must give a gift to the hearer.. 12.

(26) In advertising, the propositional content condition indicates what the advertiser says about the merchandise advertised. The preparatory condition reveals that the advertiser believes that he or she is able to offer the product with distinctive features as described. The sincerity condition reflects the advertiser’s interest in the consumer’s benefit. However, in reality, what the advertiser wants is to gain profit from the persuasion. The essential condition is related to the advertiser’s attempt to. 政治大. motivate the consumer to buy the product. This future act is realized when the. 立. consumer actually purchases the product advertised.. ‧ 國. 學. Since advertising is a speech act of persuasion, it fulfills the requirements of the. ‧. felicity conditions, either by obeying the conditions or by violating them.. Nat. io. sit. y. 2.2.1.3 Indirect speech acts. er. Speech acts are either direct or indirect. Searle (1975: 60) describes indirect. al. n. v i n speech acts as “cases in which C onehillocutionary act U e n g c h i is performed indirectly by ways. of performing another,” implying that the form and the function of a given utterance do not need to have a direct one-to-one relationship. That is, in a direct speech act, there is a direct correspondence between the literal meaning of a structure and the speaker’s intended meaning; however, in an indirect speech act, the literal meaning does not coincide with the speaker’s intended meaning. In other words, in order to decode an indirect speech act, the hearer needs to make inference, with the help of the. 13.

(27) communicative context, to obtain the speaker’s intention (ie. the primary illocutionary point). Indirect speech acts occur when speakers, being restricted by socio-cultural conventions, are unable to express explicitly what they want to perform. In this case, in order to behave in a socially acceptable way, they execute a set of conventional rules in a particular way based on the relationship between the interlocutors and other. 政治大. contextual factors. Hearers, who share with the speakers the same social-cultual. 立. norms and the same conventional rules, should be able to derive what speakers want. ‧ 國. 學. to say. In other words, speakers imply their meaning, and hearers infer for it (Thomas,. ‧. 1995: 58).. Nat. io. sit. y. As in ordinary face-to-face conversations, advertising communication is full of. n. al. er. indirect speech acts because the advertiser hides her intention of persuading the. Ch. potential consumer to “buy the product” in. engchi. iv n various U speech. acts, such as. recommendation, offers, and promises. In this way, the potential consumer has to make inference so as to be persuaded by the advertisement and then buys the product advertised. 2.2.2 Cooperative Principle (CP) Implicature is based on the fact that whenever the interlocutors are involved in a communicative situation, it is necessary for them to act in a cooperative way. The. 14.

(28) first to describe the rules according to which participants behave in a cooperative way was Grice (1975). Based on this premise that people intend to communicate with each other successfully, Grice proposes The Cooperative Principle (hereafter, CP), proclaiming that interlocutors should “make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged” (Grice, 1975: 45). What is to say and how it. 政治大. is to be said are described by Grice as the maxims and submaxims of the CP,. 立. observing which is necessary for being cooperative in verbal communication and, thus,. ‧ 國. 學. for achieving one’s communicative goal. The following are the maxims and. ‧. submaxims of Grice’s Cooperative Principle (1975:45-46).. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. A. Maxim of Quantity (a) Make your contribution as informative as is required. (b) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. B. Maxim of Quality (a) Do not say what you believe to be false. (b) Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. C. Maxim of Relation (a) Be relevant. D. Maxim of Manner (a) Avoid obscurity of expression. (b) Avoid ambiguity. (c) Be brief. (d) Be orderly.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. In advertising discourse, the advertiser can produce an effect on an advertisement by obeying or by violating the maxims. In order to attract and to persuade the potential consumer, it is assumed that violating the maxims, which is 15.

(29) marked, is more effective and should be used more frequently than conforming to them. However, the advertiser must balance between obeying the maxims and violating them in order to avoid deceptive advertising. 2.2.3 Politeness Principle (PP) Although Cooperative Principle is powerful in describing how people act cooperatively in communication, it cannot explain why people communicate with. 政治大. each other indirectly. For example, a hearer may choose to ignore the speaker or a. 立. speaker may intentionally mention something not relevant to the on-going topic. To. ‧ 國. 學. explain why such indirect communication emerges, the notion of politeness is. ‧. proposed. In advertising, politeness is also used to attract and to persuade the. Nat. io. sit. y. consumer. In order to achieve this goal, the advertiser has to provide the consumer. er. with benefits and to satisfy their desire. Meanwhile, persuasion is a kind of speech act. al. n. v i n C h and freedom ofU action, which is regarded as that influences the hearer’s decision engchi imposition. To explain how persuasion is verbalized, Politeness Principle is needed. 2.2.3.1 Politeness Principle by Leech (1983) In a conversation, politeness works as a device that enables the interlocutors to demonstrate that they are aware of each other’s social needs, and allow them to treat each other with respect. Grice’s CP fails to explain why speakers sometimes express themselves so indirectly. Hence, in order to supplement Grice’s CP, Leech (1983). 16.

(30) introduced the Politeness Principle (PP, hereafter). Like CP, PP is based on the observance of the certain maxims and submaxims. Leech (1983: 132) proposes the following ones. (A) Tact maxim (a) Minimize cost to other (b) Maximize benefit to other (B) Generosity maxim (a) Minimize benefit to self (b) Maximize cost to self (C) Approbation maxim (a) Minimize dispraise of other (b) Maximize praise of other (D) Modesty maxim (a) Minimize praise of self (b) Maximize dispraise of self. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大. ‧. (E) Agreement maxim (a) Minimize disagreement between self and other (b) Maximize agreement between self and other (F) Sympathy maxim (a) Minimize antipathy between self and other (b) Maximize sympathy between self and other. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. n. v i n The first four maxim are C in pairs. A and Maxim B form a pair, with the h e nMaxim gchi U former focusing on the hearer’s cost and benefit, and the latter on the speaker’s. Following a similar line, in the pair of Maxim C and Maxim D, the former focuses on (dis)praise to the hearer, and the latter to the speaker. In addition, Maxim E and Maxim F focus on the interaction of the speaker and the hearer, with the former emphasizing (dis)agreement, and the latter antipathy or sympathy. Also, according to Leech, in each maxim, the first sub-maxim (a) is more important than the second one. 17.

(31) (b). In beauty products advertising, “self” means the advertiser, and “other” refers to the potential consumer. It is presumed that observance of the maxims and submaxims ensure a smooth flow of conversation. Further, according to Leech, PP works under the condition that the participants are cooperative, which means that CP and PP are interrelated. However, in terms of contextual needs, the observance of one principle may conflict with the observance of the other principle. Therefore, in order to be. 政治大. socially acceptable, the observance of PP comes prior to the observance of CP.. 立. In advertisements, the Tact Maxim is applied to secure the minimization of the. ‧ 國. 學. potential consumer’s cost and the maximization of her benefit. As far as the nature of. ‧. advertising is concerned, the advertiser must obey this maxim, especially the. Nat. io. sit. y. submaxim of maximizing the consumer’s benefit. What the advertiser emphasizes. er. most is the benefits that the potential consumer can have on buying the product. Since. al. n. v i n Cthe the advertiser cannot directly ask h epotential h i U to buy the product, they put n g cconsumer stress on the advantages of purchasing the product, which are mostly presented as an improvement of one’s health and physical appearance. Similarly, the Generosity Maxim concerns benefit and cost as well, but it assigns the minimization of the benefit and the maximization of the cost to the. speaker (in this study, the advertiser). The advertiser seems to avoid the Generosity Maxim as much as they can. It is unwise for them to mention the benefits which they. 18.

(32) may obtain from the sale of the product. The advertiser does not want to make themselves sound selfish and concerning only with gaining profit for their own sake. The Approbation Maxim refers to the minimization of dispraise of other and to the maximization of the praise of other. Regarding advertising, the advertiser is expected to make efforts to express admiration toward her consumer, and to avoid criticizing her consumer. After all, being exposed to praise is always more pleasant. 政治大. than being exposed to criticism. As a result, the advertiser strives harder to praise than to dispraise her consumer.. 立. ‧ 國. 學. In a similar way, Modesty Maxim, which also reflects the notion of praise and. ‧. dispraise, is directed toward the speaker, i.e. the advertiser. Opposite to the. Nat. io. sit. y. implementation of Generosity Maxim, presumely the speaker should avoid this. er. maxim because it is not proper in any social conventions to praise oneself. However,. al. n. v i n in order to sell the product, theC advertiser praise the product and claim that the h e n gmust chi U product is effective and efficient to reach the consumer’s goals. In doing so, the advertiser violates Modesty Maxim. As for Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim, these two maxims take both speakers and hearers into consideration. According to the submaxims of Agreement Maxim, the advertiser should manage to minimize disagreement but to maximize agreement between herself and the consumer in advertising communication.. 19.

(33) As to Sympathy Maxim, the observance of its submaxims allows the advertiser to minimize antipathy and to maximize sympathy between herself and the consumer. In advertisements, the advertiser is expected to take the consumer’s side, showing sympathy to the consumer’s problems. Compared with the other maxims, this particular maxim is less frequently implemented in advertising discourse; after all, if the advertiser mentions too much about the consumer’s flaws, the consumer may. 政治大. mistake the advertiser’s sympathy for antipathy or dispraise.. 立. 2.3 Linguistic Aspect. ‧ 國. 學. 2.3.1 Metadiscourse. ‧. Metadiscourse refers to the ways by which writers (or speakers) project. Nat. io. sit. y. themselves in their texts to interact with their interlocutors. It plays an important role. er. in organizing a discourse, engaging the audience, and signaling the writer’s or the. al. n. v i n C het al., 2001). Writing speaker’s attitude (Fuertes-Olivera e n g c h i U and speaking are more than just ways to communicate ideas; moreover, they are social acts through which. interlocutors interact with each other to affect the ways that certain ideas are presented and understood (Hyland, 2005, and Amiryousefi and Rasekh, 2010). Hyland (2005:3) even proposes that metadiscourse involves the personalities, attitudes, and assumptions of speakers (or writers). In addition, Crismore et al. (1993) define metadiscourse as linguistic material in texts, which does not add propositional. 20.

(34) meanings to the content, but organizes texts coherently and convincingly, and helps listeners (or readers) organize, interpret, and evaluate the given information. A variety of metadiscourse taxonomies have been proposed (Vande Kopple, 1985; Crismore et al, 1993; Hyland, 2005). Vande Kopple (1985) introduces two main categories of metadiscourse—textual and interpersonal. Textual metadiscourse is composed of text connectives, code glosses, illocution markers, and narrators, while. 政治大. interpersonal metadiscourse contains validity markers, attitude markers, and. 立. commentaries. Crismore et al. (1993), following the same line, keep the two major. ‧ 國. 學. categories of textual and interpersonal. Further, according to them, the textual. ‧. metadiscourse is divided into two categories, textual markers and interpretive markers. Nat. io. sit. y. to differentiate organizational function from evaluative function. According to. er. Crismore et al., textual markers include those features that help organize the discourse,. al. n. v i n C h features used toUhelp readers to interpret and interpretive markers are those engchi. and. understand the writer’s meaning better. Hyland (2005) divides metadiscourse into two categories, interactive and interactional. Interactive metadiscourse is concerned with the writers’ awareness of their receivers and making the argument satisfactory for them; whereas interactional metadiscourse is related to the writers’ intention to make their views explicit and to engage the readers by anticipating responses to the text. The interactional elements of. 21.

(35) metadiscourse are subcategorized, according to their specific functions, into hedgers, boosters, attitude markers, self-mentions, and engagement markers—which, following Halliday’s (1994) concept of metafunctions, serve ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions. Halliday believes that when people use language, they usually fulfill these three functions. The ideational function of language use is to represent experiences and ideas, which equals the notion of propositional content; the. 政治大. interpersonal function to encode interaction, allowing interlocutors to engage with. 立. others; and the textual function to organize the text, coherently relating what is said to. ‧ 國. 學. the readers.. ‧. In Dafouz’s (2008) study, the persuasive function of metadiscourse has been. Nat. io. sit. y. widely discussed and carried out to analyze how metadiscourse markers attain. er. persuasion and how such persuasion is metadiscursively articulated. Fuertes-Olivera. al. n. v i n C h in advertising English, et al. (2001) discuss metadiscourse especially slogans and engchi U. headlines. Interlocutors, on the bases of the shared knowledge and common frame of reference, obtain the meanings of each other’s verbal expressions. As a result, it is found that there is solidarity between the writer and the reader. In order to achieve solidarity of this kind, metadiscourse is crucial in organizing the words as a coherent text and in conveying the writer’s intention and personality. In advertisements, these words are presented as texts that function between informing and manipulating. 22.

(36) (Fuertes-Olivera et al., 2001). In order to find out the functions of netadiscourse, some linguistic devices, hedgers and boosters in particular, are examined in this study. 2.3.1.1 Hedgers Hyland (2005) defines hedgers as a linguistic device to indicate the writer’s decision to present propositional information tentatively, so it withholds complete commitment to a proposition. Hedgers (such as might, probably and seem) not only. 政治大. signal a tentative assessment of referential information, but also serve as markers of. 立. interpersonal metadiscourse. The functions of them are to tone down the force of the. ‧ 國. 學. messages, to introduce some degree of uncertainty, and to assure the hearers that the. ‧. speakers do not intend to interfere with the hearers’ freedom to act (Fuertes-Olivera et. Nat. io. sit. y. al., 2001). In other words, through the use of hedgers, speakers can avoid imposition. er. on their interlocutors. With similar thought, hedgers may help the speakers avoid or. n. al. i n C alleviate the force of their disagreement hearers. h e nwithg the chi U. v. 2.3.1.2 Boosters Boosters are another category of markers of interpersonal metadiscourse. As Hyland (1998: 368) suggests, “Boosters are then rhetorical, persuasive strategies which function to mark, or rhetorically manipulate, consensual understandings based on shared community membership.” Holmes (1982) uses boosters to refer to lexical items that the writer uses to create an impression of certainty and assurance for a. 23.

(37) statement. They strengthen the utterance’s illocutionary force. Boosters, like clearly, obviously and of course, allow writers to express conviction, to show their confidence in the truth of a particular proposition, and to mark their involvement and solidarity with their audiences (Hyland, 1998). In other words, boosters offer writers a medium to engage with their readers to create interpersonal solidarity. In advertising, boosters are used as persuasion devices. Although the consumer may not believe the content of. 政治大. an advertisement, they still rely on it to make decision to purchase the products. 立. advertised. In other words, the consumer is trapped in between. Therefore, boosters,. ‧ 國. 學. by giving strength and conviction to the consumer, can persuade the consumer, and. ‧. lead them to make up their mind to buy the product.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 24. i n U. v.

(38) Chapter 3 Methodology. Based on the theories Chapter Two reviews, this chapter introduces research design, which includes data sources and quantity, criteria for analyses, essential functions, and measurements. 3.1 Data Collection. 立. 政治大. 3.1.1 Data from magazines. ‧ 國. 學. The data to be used in the thesis are from two women’s fashion magazines,. ‧. namely, Beauty and Elle, the world’s best-selling fashion magazines, from January to. Nat. io. sit. y. December in 2011, focusing on fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. The. er. potential readers of these two magazines are aged from 18 to 35.. al. n. v i n Ch In total, 200 pieces of advertisements These data are equally U e n g cwere h i collected.. distributed to two types of beauty products: cosmetic products and skin-care products. 3.1.2 Data from interviews The data from the interview are qualitative analyses, and the gap between the advertiser and the consumer is to be examined. Since it is impossible for the interviewees to evaluate all of the 200 pieces of advertisements, only four of them were used to test on the subjects’ reaction on certain data which include felicity. 25.

(39) conditions, Cooperative Principle, and Politeness Principle adopted in these advertisements. Among these four pieces of advertisements, two are cosmetic ads, and the other two are skin-care ads. For qualitative analyses in this thesis, twelve women, as potential consumers, were interviewed. All of those subjects use cosmetic products and skin-care products, and they are equally distributed to two age groups (with the older age group ranging. 政治大. from 35 to 45 years old, and the younger group ranging from 20 to 30 years old), and. 立. two education levels (with the higher education group consisting of those who have. ‧ 國. 學. received or are taking formal schooling of college education, and the lower education. ‧. group containing those who did not receive college education).. Nat. io. sit. y. The subjects were asked to rate the strength of the persuasiveness of each. er. element contained in the four selected advertisements (as given below) on a 5-point. n. al. Likert scale, with point-5. v i n C hstrongly persuasive being e n g c h i U and point-1. being strongly. unpersuasive. The whole procedure of each interview lasted for about 20 minutes. The four selected advertisements are as follows: a. 從早到晚，不泛油光不黯沉！讓底妝更加持久的救星！(蜜粉餅) b. 2011 春迷，加勒比海春妝，浪漫呈現 (眼影) c. 全效亮眼按摩精華，消除疲憊浮腫雙眼，溫和不刺激的清涼對策 (眼部精華) d. 清新的薄荷&茶種香氣與舒爽的使用感，愉悅身心 (乳液). 26.

(40) 3.2 Criteria for Analyses In quantitative analyses as well as in qualitative analyses, the data were analyzed according to the ways of persuasion, the felicity conditions, the maxims of Cooperative Principle, and the maxims of Politeness Principle adopted in the data. 3.2.1 Ways to persuade Two ways of persuasion—hard-sell approach and soft-sell approach—the. 政治大. former makes a direct appeal to the customer to purchase the product and the. 立. characteristics of the product, and the latter resorts to emotions and the closeness. ‧ 國. 學. between the advertiser and the consumer. It was predicted that the two different kinds. ‧. of beauty products—cosmetics and skin-care products—have different preferences to. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. of persuasion.. y. the two appeals of persuasion. Examples (1) and (2) are illustrations for the two ways. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. (1) 研究證實淡斑效果高達 94%，使肌膚如白瓷般淨透亮白 (2) 2011 春迷，加勒比海春妝，浪漫呈現. Example (1) is hard-sell approach, while example (2) is soft-sell approach. In example (1), the advertisement describes the physical effects of using the products. In example (2), the advertisement appeals to the psychological and emotional reactions after the consumer uses the product.. 27.

(41) 3.2.2 Felicity Conditions (FC) Persuasion, as a speech act, must satisfy the felicity conditions for it to be constituted. These felicity conditions include propositional content condition, preparatory condition, sincerity condition and essential condition. In implementing the felicity conditions, the advertisement may not always obey the four felicity conditions; instead, more than often they violate the conditions in order to create. 政治大. perlocutionary effects on the potential consumer, to attract their attention and interest,. 立. and then buy the merchandise advertised. For these reasons, it is necessary to examine. ‧ 國. 學. how the four felicity conditions are manipulated in advertisements. Four examples are. ‧. given as follows1.. sit. y. Nat. er. io. (3) 清透如紗的水感礦物粉底液，溫柔、滑順包覆著肌膚 (4) 不論你是彩妝新手或是玩妝高手，只要 NARS 晶采全效凝膠一罐在手，就. a. n. v. i l C 能輕鬆畫出多種明星般的耀眼妝容 n hengchi U (5)倩碧首席皮膚專家相信，香料和陽光傷害會刺激皮膚，我們堅持 100%不含香料 (6)這樣煥發透亮感的上質光潤肌，SKII 可以給妳. All of the above examples contain propositional contents. Example (4) presents the preparatory condition because it shows the advertiser’s ability to satisfy the consumer’s need. Example (5) displays the advertiser’s sincerity to do what is good. 1. The four examples all satisfy the four felicity conditions. However, in order to give more transparent explanations, each example illustrates only one felicity condition. 28.

(42) for the consumer. Finally, example (6) demonstrates the essential condition because it shows that the advertiser will do what she promises to do. 3.2.3 Cooperative Principle (CP) In this study, the four maxims of Grice’s CP (including Quality Maxim, Quantity Maxim, Relevancy Maxim, and Manner Maxim) were used to explain how a successful persuasion is conducted. For advertising to be a successful communication,. 政治大. the advertiser and the potential consumer must cooperate with each other. The. 立. advertiser, in order to induce certain effects on the consumer to persuade her to buy. ‧ 國. 學. the beauty products, may either obey or violate the maxims of CP. The following. ‧. examples illustrate how maxims of CP are manipulated.. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. (7) 從早到晚，不泛油光不黯沉！讓底妝更加持久的救星！ (8) 逆轉時光，重返年輕 (9) 24 小時 DNA 美白，打造 360°鑽石透白肌 (10) 2011 春迷，加勒比海春妝，浪漫呈現. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Example (7) obeys Quality Maxim because “不泛油光不黯沉” is what the advertiser believes to be true. Besides, example (7) also obey Relevancy Maxim and Manner Maxim: the word “底妝” is exactly about the cosmetics, and the description of its function is brief and clear.. 29.

(43) On the other hand, in example (7), “救星” (“saver”) violates Quantity Maxim because this is not the information required. Example (8) to (10) are examples for violating the maxims. In example (8), both “ 逆轉時光 ” and “ 重返年輕 ” are impossible and fail to be true, which violates Quality Maxim. In example (9), “DNA” and “鑽石” are not related to cosmetics or skin conditions at all, so they violate Relevancy Maxim. In example (10), Manner Maxim is violated because “春迷，加勒比. 政治大. 海春妝” is ambiguous and not clear enough for the consumer to understand.. 立. When both the advertiser’s and the consumer’s points of view are taken into. ‧ 國. 學. consideration, sometimes, there is a gap between them, as examples (11) and (12) show.. ‧. Nat. sit. y. (11) 極透、無瑕，不間斷雙重美白保養. er. io. (12) 不論你是彩妝新手或是玩妝高手，只要 NARS 晶采全效凝膠一罐. n. 在手，就能輕鬆畫出多種明星般的耀眼妝容 a. iv l C n hengchi U. From the advertiser’s point of view, examples (11) and (12) obey all the four maxims, namely Quality Maxim, Quantity Maxim, Relevancy Maxim, and Manner Maxim. However, from the consumer’s point of view, it is not necessarily true because “極透”, “無瑕”, “不間斷”, “只要…一罐”, “輕鬆畫出”and “明星般” are all exaggerative and are uneasy to achieve simply by using the product advertised; thus, the consumer may not completely believe what the advertisement says. That is, the advertisement may not. 30.

(44) be persuasive enough for the consumer. 3.2.4 Politeness Principle (PP) Leech’s (1983) PP offers some explanations to how the maxims of PP are manipulated. However, in advertisements, not all of the six maxims (namely, Tact Maxim, Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Modesty Maxim, Agreement Maxim, and Sympathy Maxim) are equally frequently adopted. Also, it was presumed. 政治大. that Tact Maxim and Approbation Maxim, which are hearer-oriented, are used more. 立. frequently than the others because in logical thinking, the advertiser has to and would. ‧ 國. 學. want to show the potential consumer that the target merchandise is beneficial to the. ‧. potential consumer. After all, nobody would want to buy anything that is useless or. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. y. not very useful. Moreover, related examples are presented as follows.. Ch. i n U. v. (13) 我看見肌膚的改變，變得淨白、透亮、無瑕 (14) 只要 NARS 晶采全效凝膠一罐在手，就能輕鬆畫出多種明星般的. engchi. 耀眼妝容 (15) 讓肌膚如輕覆薄紗，有效改善肌膚黯沉，妝容明亮耀眼 (16) 極持色，極炫色，驚灔感官，一抹鮮明如妳 (17) 以頂級珍貴修護成分，實現渴望的年輕. Example (13), through obeying Tact Maxim, points out what benefits the potential consumer can have after using the commodity. In example (14), “只要一. 罐 ”describes the low cost to the potential consumer. Example (15) violates. 31.

(45) Approbation Maxim because it points out the consumer’s skin problem, which is undesirable, although factual, to the potential consumer. Example (16) violates Modesty Maxim, for the advertiser highly praises her own product as something extremely functional and effective. Example (17) observes Sympathy Maxim because the advertiser hopes the consumer to be beautiful as the potential consumer does. Example (13) also observe Sympathy Maxim because the use of pronoun “我” is a. 政治大. shifting of “你”, which means the advertiser takes the consumer’s side and show. 立. sympathy.. ‧ 國. 學. 3.2.5 Ideology. ‧. In women’s fashion magazines, gender ideology is prominent and vitally. Nat. io. sit. y. important. Through it, women are told how they should behave. Basically the. er. components of a woman ideology include physical appearance, psychological status,. al. n. v i n C h appearance means Physical e n g c h i U the. and social recognition.. skin condition, and. psychological status indicates emotions. Social recognition refers to role, uniqueness, identity, and beauty. According to Plakoyiannaki and Zotos (2009), women have been given decorative roles, for example, as sex objects, emphasizing physical attractiveness only. In this thesis, stereotypical impressions of women embedded in the advertisements are examined to see whether such traditional value system still functions in the modern society of Taiwan. Six examples are given below to illustrate. 32.

(46) the point.. (18) 全面守護白、淨、水嫩肌膚 (19) 讓肌膚沉浸於豐富的滋養中，舒緩於愜意的氛圍裡 (20) 精算過的 4 種不同質感蜜粉餅，能調理膚色，呈現洗練的妝感 (21) 超模訂製，量身打造雙眸奢華秀服 (22) 令人過目難忘的重量級眼妝，覺醒你的超模體質 (23) 極透、無瑕，不間斷雙重美白保養. Example (18) is about the physical appearance of ideology, reminding the. 治政 potential consumer that she should always keep white,大 clear, and soft skin. Example 立 ‧ 國. 學. (19) is related to the psychological status of woman ideology which prescribes that women should always look for comfort and relaxation. Examples (20) to (23) regard. ‧. the social recognition of ideology, role, uniqueness, identity, and beauty, respectively.. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. In example (20), “洗練” indicates a certain role as “a competent career woman.” In. i n U. v. example (21), “量身打造” means “design for you in particular,” which is uniqueness.. Ch. engchi. In example (22), “超模” is a kind of identity for women to identify with. In example (23), “美白” points out the aesthetic which women should have and care about. 3.2.6 Linguistic Devices 3.2.6.1 Referential contents There are four aspects of the referential contents in verbal representations of advertisements of beauty products—time, singularity, annexation, and scope. First, the time aspect includes instancy (such as 瞬間/一瞬，轉眼間，下一秒，立即), 33.

(47) duration (such as 日夜不間斷，全天(候) ，一整天，24 小時), and simultaneity (同. 時，同步), all of which aim at the efficiency and effectiveness of the beauty products advertised. Next, singularity is concerned with first appearance of the referent (such as 首度，第一次，第一(款) ，史上第一瓶) and exclusiveness (such as 獨家，獨特), both emphasizing the uniqueness of the product. As for of annexation, it refers to the addition of information (such as 再，更，又，也，不僅，不只), indicating that the. 政治大. product advertised is multifunctional, i.e. of greater value than the potential consumer. 立. can imagine. Lastly, The scope aspect aims to intensify the width (such as 全面，全方. ‧ 國. 學. 位，任何，所有，幾乎，每個) and the depth (such as 徹底，透徹，極，超) of the. ‧. functions of the products advertised.. Nat. io. sit. y. 3.2.6.2 Hedgers vs. boosters. er. Hedgers and boosters are linguistic devices used in interpersonal metadiscourse.. al. n. v i n Hedgers function to tone downCthe h enegative h i ofU a message and to assure the n g cforce consumer that the advertiser does not intend to interfere with their freedom to act. Opposite to hedgers, boosters are used to express the speaker’s conviction, to show confidence in the proposition, and to mark the solidarity with the hearer. In advertising, boosters are widely used to persuade the consumer. Since the consumer relies heavily on the information offered in the advertisement to decide whether to buy the product or not, boosters, powerful expressions which can help to persuade the. 34.

(48) consumer that the product is valuable and worth buying, may effectively urge the consumer to make decisions. Hedgers serve to offer suggestions for problems, while boosters give expressions with exaggerated contents. In this study, it is wondered whether these two linguistic devices are used differently in the two types of beauty product advertisements. Two examples are provided as given below.. 政治大 (24) 不論你是彩妝新手或是玩妝高手，只要 NARS 晶采全效凝膠一立罐在手，就能輕鬆畫出多種明星般的耀眼妝容 ‧. ‧ 國. 學. (25) 極透、無瑕，不間斷雙重美白保養. In Example (24), “彩妝新手” and “只要” both tone down the utterance. “彩妝. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. 新手” means “the novice of using cosmetics”, and “只要” indicates “if only.” Both of. i n U. v. them do not emphasize or exaggerate something, so they are hedgers. “多種明星般”. Ch. engchi. and “耀眼” are boosters used to exaggerate the effect of the product. In example (25), five boosters are used to enhance the functions and effect of the product. By using the boosters, the advertiser sounds certain and confident of the product advertised. 3.2.7 Essential functions To identify whether the advertisements obey the maxims of FC, CP, and PP, the essential functions of the beauty products in the data collected are defined to set a norm for judgment. More specifically, if the advertisement serves the essential 35.