when a Hong Kong newspaper stopped publication in 1981,one news headline read: The Sun Sets for Last Time This headline compares the “publication-stopping” to the “eternal sunset”, and at the same time, the name of the newspaper is “Sun ”, so that the punning effects areachieved. If this premise did not exist, the headline would simply be a metaphor. Pun-metaphor, moreover, has strict requirements for context, and sometimes it recurs to the other forms of the pun.
Eg. 1 The costliest perfume in the world.
This advertising is translated from Chinese “世界上最贵的香水”. Then the customers also associate buying this perfume with being rich. If using the lower price can buy the same product, the customers will buy the lower one. Obviously, the advertisers want to give customers some information that buying this perfume prove the rich one.
2.1.4 Free-morpheme
Generally speaking, punning is just discussed on the word level. In fact, on the Level of morpheme, punning also exists.
Eg. Joe was painting in the class of the great Magister---you know his fame. His fees are high; his lessons are light---his highlights have brought him renown. The compound word “highlight” is used to describe the representation of lightin painting, and it can also be divided into two free morphemes: “high” and “light ”.“Light” with the original meaning “rays” may switch to an adjective: “easy”. So“highlight” ,in this specific context, has some other meaning---the fees are high butte lessons are easy. 2.1.5 Acronym
Sometimes, spelling of English can have some punning effects when the abbreviations of some phrases happen to form another meaningful word. For instance, the politicians in favor of Reagan’s policy of “global war”, called it by a good name of “SAFE” (Shield against Fatal Encounter/Shield America from Everything), as they believed the project would bring safety to the United States. It is not difficult to find some other interesting example: “SANE”---Strategic Anti-Nuclear Effort, and“MAD”---Mutually Assured Destruction, et.
2.2 Functions of puns in advertising
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The first task of the adman is to make sure that his advert is noticed. Also, In terms of hierarchy of effects models, effective advertising is, first of all, to catch the audience’s attention and create awareness about the advertisement .Once the readers’ attention has been caught, the advert should also hold their attention and convince them that the subject of the particular advert is of interest to them. It is assumed that puns are used pragmatically in advertisements with a multiplicity of functions. On the basis of the data collected from written printed advertisements, the present study concludes that puns have the following pragmatic functions that are to be illustrated respectively.
2.2.1 Attracting attention
The first reason why the advertiser prefers puns is that they attract attention. Attracting attention is the first and most important requirement for the advertisement. If a consumer has interest in reading an advertisement, then it means that the advertisers have got a better opportunity to influence his or her buying decision. As stated in the earlier part, headlines should draw attention. If the headline or slogan fails to draw readers ’attention immediately and forcefully, they won’t read thetext. The appearance of the headline alone is often the attention-getting device. It is printed in larger type than the rest of the advertisement. Headlines frequently use capital letters with italics and other punctuation such as quotation, question and exclamation marks. Headlines are usually short, one to six words on a single line, since readers can easily grasp a few words at one glance. Puns attract attention also because they contain ambiguity. They frustrate initial expectations of relevance and create a sense of surprise.
The humor contained in puns is another factor that attracts the audience’s Attention By offering an amusing pun, the advertiser provides his audience with the desired entertainment, and thus makes them feel congenial towards the product which he is promoting. He simultaneously overcomes some of the distrust which the audience feels towards him. The humor is its reward for more processing effort made during the process. The advertiser expects the audience to appreciate the wit and intelligence and then cultivate more favor of and more confidence in the product. Please look at the advertisements below which are considered the good examples of
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attracting attention.
Eg. Mind your own business. Move it to Milton Keynes.
It is especially important for advertisers to divert an audience’s attention away from a message which is either expected or boring. According to Tanaka, a pun attracts attention because it produces ambiguity which requires more time for processing and gets the audience more involved in the processing. An advertiser is particularly concerned with the problem of attracting and holding an audience’s attention, for it is possible that an audience does not notice the advertiser’s message at all. Puns function as the ostensive stimuli, which remain the most economical and efficient means to attract attention. 2.2.2 Making advertisements brief
Another reason why the advertiser prefers puns is that they are brief, which conforms to Economy Principle contained in the relevance theory. In communication, humans always expect to achieve the best communicative effect with the minimum processing effort. According to what is mentioned above, puns are often employed in headlines or slogans because headlines or slogans need to say something unique about the product or service. They should command attention, be more memorable, and be brief. Tanaka maintains that the use of puns is highly labor-saving because the audience only processes one word or phrase to get two or more meanings. Leech also proposes that “ When the message conveyed is short and pithy and the meaning is unabridged, the encoding and decoding will be both time-saving and labor-saving”
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However, he also proposes that it may easily lead to ambiguity owing to the limited
message. When the amount of the message contained is too small, it is likely to produce ambiguity.
Eg. Ask for More.
Version: 摩尔香烟，我更满意；再来一支，还吸摩尔.
This advertising set two pun example of Moore cigarette in advertising language. They cleverly use the double meaning of the word more: one used as a verb means “more, more”; the other used as a brand name when is capital. This advertising make it easy to remember this brand of “More cigarette” and to give customers an deep impression. The using of pun make the advertising easy to understand the meaning
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and get the customers’ deeper impression.
3 Context and puns in the light of relevance theory
Relevance is just like beauty in the eye of the consumers. Great advertisements usually have an element of novelty, positive feelings, and meaning. If your advertisements do not reach out to people, then people won’t reach for your products.
3.1 Puns being situational
Puns usually play between two contexts, switching one for the other. Just because of context, puns could work well although it has a polysemous nature. This part will illustrate the importance and role of context in pun.
According to relevance theory, three cognitive effects may appear between the new information and the existing contextual assumption: strengthening existing assumptions, contradicting existing assumptions and combining with existing assumptions to yield contextual implication. This phenomenon is more obvious in puns because punsters tend to use words that people think common to express uncommon meaning. When listeners and readers find their assumption not proper in a context, they will try to adjust their cognitive context to consist with the contemporary context. Of course it will need the addressee’s extra effort By using these functions of pun, advertisers use pun to attract the attention of the potential consumers and persuade them to make purchase action, Advertisers using puns in their advertisements intend their ads to be humorous, witty thought-provoking, and memorable. And context plays a significant role in the course of achieving those effects.
Eg.1 More sun and air for your son and heir
This sentence translate from Chinese“这里有充足的阳光,清新的空气,一切为了您的子孙”后代. But this advertisement refers to the context that is referred to the bathroom of beech. It is difficult to link “son and heir” with the bathroom of beech. The sound of “sun and air” is similar to “son and heir”, so the “son and heir” is full of meaning.
Double context determines that the addresser and addressee need to select a context which he or she thinks can properly interpret the words, this interpretation
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may be the intended meaning of the addresser. Or it may violate the intention of the addresser. Anyway, they each have the right to select a context and interpret the meaning.
Eg. 2 Check?out my figures
This sentence translate from Chinese “看看我的数字”. Figure of the pun in the United States has been put to use. Because it not only refers to “digital” or “chart”, but also refers to the women’s body, it is a lot of magical effect. Like if a girl took a pile of data to show you, tell you “That's a nice figure.\you said is also a pun, can be interpreted as, \figure\you really mean is \great shape. Here take note, figure when the figure solution when the most singular? And when the numbers or charts, usually used in the plural figures. Where people clearly say that the plural of figures, you are deliberately interpreted as singular figure, clearly is To account for cheap people said.
Relevance Theory provides the best framework for analyzing the role of puns in advertising, especially in regard to the question of processing effort. Even though puns require greater processing effort than straightforward utterances, extra contextual effects are yield which outweigh the greater effort. In other words, puns achieve Optimal Relevance way to achieve a full range of contextual effects. Wordplay in advertising can be analyzed in terms of the interpretation process involved.
3.2 Used in headlines and slogans
Based on the data analysis, a pun is a most popular used figure of speech in advertising. It is often used in headlines or slogans because they need to say something unique about the product or service. They should command attention, be more memorable, and be brief. These are examples of memorable headlines. Headlines frequently use a play on words. Headlines should draw attention; 80% to 90% of readers never read beyond them if the headlines are boring.
Eg.1The Sun Sets for Last Time.
This headline compares the “publication-stopping” to the “eternal sunset”, and at the same time, the name of the newspaper is “Sun”, so that the punning effects areachieved. If this premise did not exist, the headline would simply be a metaphor. Pun-metaphor, moreover, has strict requirements for context, and sometimes it recurs
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