The content and critical metaphor analysis of illustrated print advertisements in China.

257 Pages·2016·9.09 MB·English

by  Chun Jiang

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Electronic Theses and Dissertations
12-2010
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Chun Jiang
University of Louisville
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Jiang, Chun, "The content and critical metaphor analysis of illustrated print advertisements in China."
(2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 688.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/688
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THE CONTENT AND CRITICAL METAPHOR ANALYSIS OF
ILLUSTRATED PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS IN CHINA
By
Jiang, Chun
B.A., University ofInternational Business and Economics, 1985
M.A., Korea Development Institute, 2001
A Dissertation
Submitted to the Faculty of the
Graduate School of the University of Louisville
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Humanities
University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
December 2010
Copyright 2010 by Jiang, Chun
All rights reserved

THE CONTENT AND CRITICAL METAPHOR ANALYSIS OF
ILLUSTRATED PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS IN CHINA
By
Jiang, Chun
B.A., University ofInternational Business and Economics, 1985
M.A., Korea Development Institute, 2001
A Dissertation Approved on
Oct 15,2010
By the following Dissertation Committee:
Dissertation Director
ii
DEDICATION
This dissertation is dedicated to my parents
Jiang Fan and Zhang Minhua,
and my husband and daughter
Wang Jianwei and Wang Ye,
who have given me invaluable and selfless support.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all I would like to express my sincere and heart-felt thanks to my
adviser professor Robert N. St. Clair for his guidance, help and patience throughout
the whole writing process. Next I would also like to express my gratitude to all the
teachers in this humanities program who have given us the most enlightening
instruction and systematic knowledge. The teachers who have accompanied me in the
o. st.
past four years are: Annette Allen, Osbourne P. Wiggins, Elaine Wise, Robert N.
Clair, Pamela Beattie, Mark E. Blum, Li Jin, Youzhong Sun, Yian Wu, Zaixin Zhang,
Guohua Chen, and Jian Zhang.
In addition to that I am indebted to my family members without whose support
this dissertation can never be accomplished. My parents, my brothers, my husband
and my daughter have shown their full understanding and support during the last four
years so that I can continue to pursue this degree to the very end with courage and
confidence.
Finally I would like to show my gratitude to my university colleagues and
School of English with whom I have been working in the last twenty five years. They
allow me time and resources for academic research. Some of their names are: Lifei
Wang, Cuiping Zhang, Xiaoshu Zhu, Weilin Dou, Jieyun Feng.
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ABSTRACT
THE CONTENT AND CRITICAL METAPHOR ANALYSIS OF
ILLUSTRATED PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS IN CHINA
Jiang, Chun
Sept 18,2010
This dissertation takes Chinese advertisements as the research subjects to see in
what way a quantifiable large number of advertisements with its metaphorical nature
and instrumental mission can reflect social cultural change, in specifics, ideology and
identity change of China in the last thirty years by combining four methods of
research: content analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis, Conceptual Metaphor Analysis
and Pictorial Metaphor Analysis. The dissertation goes through the sign or ad
interpretation process of linguistic, semiotic and critical analysis of 300 sample
illustrated print advertisements collected from popular and award-winning illustrated
print advertisements in Chinese media in the three periods of 1980s, 1990s and 2000s
respectively. After comparing and contrasting the high frequency key words,
advertising appeals and metaphorical expressions and images (categories and groups)
appeared in the advertisements of the three periods the following conclusions are
made:
First, although advertisements in all the three periods belonged to the
commercial public discourse, those in 1980s were inclined towards public discourse
without much consideration for specific target groups while those in 1990s and 2000s
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tended to denote private and personal discourse with clear target groups in mind.
While the advertisements in 1980s were characterized largely by the direct
informative style, the majority of the advertisements in 1990s manifested a
hybridization of both informative and involving styles. The advertisements in 2000s
demonstrated strong involving and interacting style.
Second, it can be seen from the shift of advertising appeals from the use of
rational appeal to personal appeal that the overall society is moving up the ladder of
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Analysis from the basic need satisfaction to more
social need and personal need satisfaction.
Third, with regard to semiotic image categories used, the result shows the
tendency that China is increasingly becoming a male-dominated society with a big
increase in using male images from 1980s to 2000s and in particular adult male
images. The representational images in the ads show a decline in intimacy but an
increase in positional communication. The social setting is the dominant advertising
background for all the three periods. Meanwhile with regard to the typical types of
metaphorical images that are used as signifieds or secondary subjects to be projected
onto the signifiers or primary subjects, there is a decline in using human images as
opposed to non-human images. The dominant metaphorical image types used in
three periods are in concomitant with the ideology and identity needs of each
specific period of time.
Fourth, on the whole the critical metaphor analysis of 300 sample illustrated
print advertisements in mainland China from 1979 to 2008 has revealed
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advertisements during this period, implicitly or explicitly, have served the evolving
ruling and dominant ideology very well. The dominant ideologies have changed
from political ideology to economic ideology in 1980s, from economic ideology to
national ideology in 19 90s, and from national ideology to balanced harmonious
ideologies in 2000s. The individual consumers have transformed their identities from
political self to material social self in 1980s, from material social self to national
cultural self in 1990s, and from national cultural self to a individualized my self in
2000s.
The dissertation contributes both theoretically and practically to the advertising
research as well as visual culture research. On the one hand it confirms the critical
discourse theory that discourse change can reflect socially-constructed reality. On the
other hand, it contributes to pictorial metaphor theory by that visual metaphors are
deep-rooted in human conceptualization and are cultural-specific.
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