中英广告差异

Contrast and differences Due to the influence of history and culture there exist many distinctions in Chinese and Western some of which is huge As advertisements the Chinese and English must have something in common Yet the two languages have different characteristics social backgrounds and cultural deposits which decide their dissimilitude Next I ll discuss their distinctions in four aspects 1 Language differences The differences embody in rhythm The differences of means of expression between Chinese and English advertisements embody in language The advertisement is used to deliver information of goods or service And it s the core of advertisement The language differences focus on rhythm 1 Chinese embody in rhyme and reduplicated words Chinese has always paid much attention to cadence and rhythm mainly performing in rhyme and reduplicated words The creation of advertisement is greatly influenced by the rule They generally adjust rhythmic structure consciously or unconsciously in order to increase the advertisements attraction and infection and improve the cognition degree The reduplicated words are common style to embody the beauty of music image and expression In the meantime reduplicated words specifically belong to Chinese For example 柔柔的风 甜甜的梦 soft wind sweet dream 舒舒服服入睡 清清爽爽醒来 fall asleep cozily wake up refreshingly 清凉凉的世界 暖融融的爱心 cool world warm love As mentioned above the repetition of syllable can not only increase some new grammatical meanings but also bring a language beauty In cadence and rhythm Chinese and English have great distinctions Chinese is syllable timed whereas English is stress timed Chinese advertisements rhythm and location of pause are generally decided by sense groups And their level and oblique tones accord with certain standards The catchy advertisements must rhyme and always rhyme the same tone For example 李宁领带 王者气派 Lining tie king style 浪迹天涯伴你行 与狼共舞传真情 wandering around the world with you and Dances With Wolves spreads true feelings In example two beats form a sense group and there is a little pause in two sense groups In example the former four syllables occupy two beats and the latter three syllables approximately take up two beats We can see that stressing beats has the beauty of sound leaving people a beautiful sense of music and rhythmic beauty and convenient for word of mouth In Chinese advertisements the style of using rhyme and reduplicated words is shown A large number of advertisements use rhyme and reduplicated words making their structure neat and well spaced Meanwhile they also give people a sense of earnest and credibility and bring positive effects on customers acceptation of products giving full play to their function 2 English embody in accent While in English advertisement it always deals with rhythm as the model of stressed and unstressed sound alternately emerging However stress sound is in the lead The stress sound decides rhythm and the stressed words always rhyme If the stress sounds are the trunk the tone and the loudness is higher so that it can be read more clearly and the time is longer Accordingly the unstressed sound is the branch the tone and the loudness is lower so that it can be read more quickly and weakly and the time is shorter Therefore in some English advertisements the number of syllables is unequal and the structure is asymmetric seemingly but those who have equal numbers of syllables are catchy For example Clean your breath while it cleans your teeth You can not beat The Feeling Feel good Fast food In example two stressed words main vowels are both i and in example two stressed words vowels and the last consonants are the same respectively The catchy advertisements read like poet giving people a joyful feeling Consequently people are easy to become interested in the goods and the languages with rhythmic beauty can help to memorize Although English advertisements stress beats and rhyme Chinese tone is changeable as a result Chinese rhythmic and cadential beauty are superior to English advertisements The rhythmic beauty of advertisement language also embody in structure The regular structure is people s basic aesthetics so the advertisement language should always use the same structure to embody its beauty in form in order to catch people s attention firstly The languages of both English and Chinese advertisements are simple and unadorned and structured For example 路在脚下延伸 梦在奇美成真 the road stretches underfoot and the dream realizes beautifully The quality you need the price you want Business to business person to person 11 However the English is stress timed so the orderliness and symmetry of structure is interior to Chinese Although using different structure and method the Chinese and English advertisements both pursue rhyme and symmetry giving a simple and deep impression on customers and are easy to remember and catchy 2 Thinking pattern differences Lots of comparative researches of languages show that people whose culture backgrounds of languages is different have different thinking patterns Thinking pattern that people take shape in the development of cognition is the thinking structural mode with fixed universality and stability It is a unified combination of thinking law and method As what Kaplan says English speaking and Chinese speaking people own different thinking patterns Therefore the Western advertisements take on a linear model while Chinese advertisements present a curve model 1 Chinese curve model Chinese thinking pattern is curve and is fond of thinking in a winding way The articles always present spiral model and the theme will be expressed in a roundabout way rather than a straightforward style The implicit and dialectic mode of thinking decides Chinese like to choose an indirect means of expression The merchants don t want his intention to be expressed plainly so the advertisement slogans in Chinese corporate is not targeted even enterprises in different areas can exchange their slogans Here is an example 雅士利 为你珍藏童真的滋味 Ashly treasure children innocence for you 那一年 我和妹妹去乡下姥姥家 that year my sister and I rusticated to our grandma s 我们在田野上奔跑 we ran in the field 在小河里钓鱼 we fished in the river 在收割过的麦地里拾麦穗 we gleaning in the harvested wheat field 空气里尽是迷人的清香 the charming fragrance fills the air 现在 很难找到 now it s hard to find it 那种感觉了 that feeling 田野变成了厂房 小河也不见了 the fields are displaced by workshops and the rivers also disappear 咦 这是什么 味道真特别 eh What s this The smell is so special 让我想起乡下那麦地里那迷人的清香 it remind me of the charming fragrance in that wheat fields 雅士利 为你珍藏童真的滋味 Ashly treasure children innocence for you In this Chinese advertisement the creation intention is centered in Ashly Biscuit However the first paragraph is to call the childhood to mind and has nothing to do with Ashly Biscuit The readers don t take a tumble until finishing the last sentences Obviously this advertisement takes a winding way to state its intention When talking or doing things Chinese will take back the thinking which has been spread out and avoid cutting to the point directly as far as possible We often express our idea and intention in a periphrastic and indirect way We can find this in many advertisements 2 English linear model The thinking mode of English speaking people is linear model which makes them generally consider something according to the way of point blank logic reasoning An article usually starts with a topic sentence with pointing out the main idea and then develops this idea in following ideas The Westerners prefer to get to the point straight up so that we can see such advertisement like Nike Just do it Here is an example Yes This is the original StirMaster 4000PT The one used in thousands of fitness and medical facilities worldwide is now available From this advertisement we can see that it starts with bold fonts Yes and then point out the product name through This is the original StirMaster 4000PT The thinking pattern is totally linear model It is not difficult for us to find that most English advertisements use this style In contrary to Chinese Westerners consider things are independent of each other and everything is changeable Therefore they prefer direct expression rather than indirect expression and don t cover their real viewpoints in irrelevant information It follows that t