堂姐妹关于,An Analysis of Fuzzy Words In Advertising Language

【Abstract】Nowadays, to impress and entice consumers more effectively, fuzzy words are naturally adopted by advertisers in language of advertising.
【Key words】advertising; fuzzy words
【中图分类号】F275【文章标识码】A 【文章编号】1326-3587（2012）06-0178-02

1.Introduction

In the contemporary society, advertising may be regarded as an indispensable element of our culture because it affects every aspect of our daily life. So, there is an urgent need for the systematical study of language of advertising. At the same time, fuzzy theory has been extensively applied to various fields such as psychology, philosophy and linguistics, etc. So with the rapid development of fuzzy linguistics, enormous fuzzy words are widely used in advertising, which makes advertising language more vivid and effective.
2.General Ideas of Advertising and Advertising Language

2.1 The definition of advertising

A widely quoted definition of advertising was made by the famous American Marketing Association：“Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.”
2.2 The definition of advertising language
Geis gives the definition as follows：“The language of advertising is language that is used in efforts to persuade or otherwise entice people to purchase products or services, vote for particular candidates, modify their behior(Just say‘No！’), or come to adopt a forable view of some corporate entity（We’re working to keep your trust.）”（Geis, 1994:42）
3. Brief Introduction to the Study of Fuzziness

3.1 The definition of fuzziness

“Fuzzy”is an adjective which is connected with these meanings :blurred, indistinct, unclear, vague, dim, faint, hazy, indefinite, obscure. In a broad meaning, fuzziness is the opposite side of precision. Everything that we cannot say accurately and everything that has no clearly boundaries in space or time are thought as fuzziness. In a narrow meaning, fuzziness can be considered as the indeterminate property of belongingness.
3.2 The major concept of fuzzy linguistics
From the aspect of the course of language development, the meanings of words are constantly, so the meanings of words are hard to describe in changing process, and more or less fuzzy. In other words, fuzzy is the property of natural language. From the aspect of social communication, fuzziness is umpteen in textbooks and even indispensable in our daily life. However, most speakers are usually not aware of the frequent usage of fuzzy words. For example, cousin in English indicates several relationships such as “表姐妹，表兄弟，堂姐妹，堂兄弟”.
4.Linguistic Realizations of Fuzziness in Advertising Language
4.1 The reason for fuzzy words in advertising language
Firstly, fuzziness is the property of language. On one hand, in the process of the development of human language, the meanings of words are always changing, because we he to use limited sets of vocabulary to define or explain the unlimited things or concepts, Secondly, the distance between man’s recognization and objective world is the basic cause of the fuzziness of language. The objective world is full of various fuzzy things and information, and we human beings should at any time to make decisions to recognize these things. At last, the advertisement itself allows and requires the existence of some fuzzy meanings. It’s well-known that advertisers always use a few limited words to express unlimited meanings.