Chinese Dissertation

TABLE 1 Coding Definitions for Target Domain

Source Domain of Metaphor. The source domain of each slogan was coded into the following two categories: (a) universally embodied; (b) culturally embodied.

Importantly, as discussed, source domains for metaphor are not arbitrary. At the very heart of conceptual metaphor theory is the recognition that it is our daily experiences that form the basis of our knowledge about the world. As has been recognized from the beginning of work on conceptual metaphor, many of these experiences are related, either directly or indirectly, to the movement of our bodies through the physical world (Johnson, 1987; Lakoff and Johnson, 1999). When such sensorimotor experiences form the basis for a conceptual metaphor, we consider die source domain embodied.

We, human beings, are also the product of culture we belong to. In given languages, human perception and experience are influenced by the culture. Thus, in addition to embodied source domains, advertisements use sociocultural source domains as well. See Table2 for the coding definitions of source domains used in this study.

Chapter Four Data Analysis

4.1 Results

The general statistics are presented in the following Table 3. As we can see from the table, the advertising slogans woe grouped into two categories: 218 Chinese slogans and 200 English slogans. Each category was then coded into five subcategories: key selling idea, advertising appeal, the presence of metaphor, target domain and source domain.

Key Selling Idea. The largest segment of key selling ideas was feature-focus, with 46.9% in English slogans and 39.7% in Chinese slogans. The second biggest overall segment was benefit-focus, with 32.1% in English slogans and 37.5% in Chinese slogans. The third biggest segment was consumer-focus, with 19.7% in English slogans and 21.1% in Chinese slogans. Only 1.3% in English and 1.7% in Chinese slogans were focused on firm.

Advertising Appeal Both emotional and rational motives had been given attention in most of these collected data. However, there is a “dominant mood” in each slogan. Chinese slogans mainly appeal to emotions, as the dominant mood is emotional in 76.1% of Chinese slogans and only 23.9% focused on rational appeal. In contrast, almost equal weight had been given to both rational and emotional appeal in English slogans, as 52% were mainly rational and 48% concentrated on emotional appeal.

Presence of Metaphor. Metaphors were present in 45.5% of English auto slogans. Comparatively, the presence of metaphors in Chinese auto slogans was much higher, for metaphors present in 75.2% of slogans. The result indicates conceptual metaphors were pervasive in both English and Chinese auto slogans.

Target Domain of Metaphor. In English slogan, the largest segment of target domain was feature-focus, with a percentage of 42.6. The second biggest overall segment focused on benefit, with a percentage of 40.9%. Comparatively, the largest segment of target domain was benefit-focus, with a percentage of 41.8%. The second biggest overall segment focused on feature, with a percentage of 38.5%. The third biggest segment was consumer-focus, with 14.8% in English slogans and 17.8% in Chinese slogans. It should be noted that few slogans have focused on firm. Only 1.7% in English and 1.9% in Chinese were firm-focus.

Source Domain of Metaphor. Most of source domains were universally embodied, with 89% in English slogans and 79.3% in Chinese slogans. Meanwhile, there were culturally embodied metaphors in both Chinese and English slogans. 11% of metaphors in English and 20.7% in Chinese were culturally embodied.

42 Discussion

4.2.1Conceptual Metaphor Claims

One of the major aims of this thesis is to investigate conceptual metaphor in English and Chinese auto slogans and testify the universality of the conceptual metaphor claims. The results strongly support that the conceptual metaphor claims are universal as long as the collected data are concerned. 4.2.1.1 Ubiquity of Metaphors

A crucial characteristic of conceptual metaphor, in Lakoff and Johnson’s opinion, is its omnipresence in thought and language. Professor George Lakoff and his cognitive science colleagues at U.C.Berkeley have identified hundreds of commonly used conceptual metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; 1999; see also Conceptual Metaphor Home Page). Meanwhile, Lakoff and Johnson point out that the pervasiveness of conceptual metaphor doesn’t deny the existence of nonmetaphorical concepts. They signal the existence of a vast system of literal concepts, i.e., concepts of subjective experience and judgment that are not structured metaphorically – for instance, basic-level concepts and spatial-relations concepts. Aside from these, we can hardly think about subjective experience and judgment without having metaphor in mind, Lakoff and Johnson (1999) assert, explaining that nonmetaphorical reasoning “would never capture the full inferential capacity of complex metaphorical thought” (p-59).

With the help of Lakoff and Johnson’s guiding theory, the writer identified metaphors in slogans. As we can see from the Table 3, metaphors present in 75.2% of Chinese auto slogans and 45.5% of English auto slogans. Besides, 24.8% of Chinese and 54.5% of English slogans were utterly nonmetaphorical.

Most metaphors in advertisements utilize everyday metaphors. For example, as discussed, we use the language of JOURNEYS to speak about LIFE regularly. It is through this conceptual metaphor that we can talk about: (1) life purposes as “destinations” (e.g., “I see the light at the end of the tunnel for this project”); (2) progress as “distance traveled” (e.g., “she’s miles ahead of everyone else on completing the personnel reviews”); and difficulties as “impediments” (e.g., “she has a steep rocky road ahead to complete her work”).

A cross-domain mapping of LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor is provided in Figure 1. It is found this metaphor was utilized in 12 Chinese and 4 English auto slogans, ft is through this mapping that we can understand many slogans. Take the Audi slogan “Keeping ahead through technology” as an example. We all know keeping ahead in the journey means more distance traveled. In LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, more distance traveled means more progress made. By tapping into die familiar and visceral domain of JOURNEY, advertisers are able to more efficiently convey their selling idea (advanced technology). Moreover, there is another connotation in this slogan. The agent of this slogan may refer to those who drive Audi. On such occasion, drivers are travelers. The progress the drivers made in their life is the distance the travelers traveled. Thus, “keeping ahead” connotes the Audi drivers’ personal achievements. Obviously, it is fairly efficient for advertisers to tap into this system of meaning via metaphors instead of literally describing something meaningful about their product or service. Metaphors offer both efficiency and effectiveness, as they can quickly tap into visceral benefits that would take a great deal of time and creativity to communicate with interesting literal advertising language and visuals.

Besides this LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, many conventional metaphors identified by cognitive scholars, such as ARTIFACT IS PERSON, STATE IS LOCATION, UP IS GOOD, MIND IS BODY, were well utilized in the collected data.

In a sense, the results have provided some evidence to support Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual claim that metaphor is omnipresent in language, for metaphors were pervasive in the collected auto slogans and most of metaphors used in the slogans were conventional. The result obtained from Chinese auto slogans is especially important, for conceptual metaphor theory has hitherto been built based on the study of English with somewhat limited subsequent reference to other languages.

4.2.1.2 Embodiment of Source Domain

An important claim of Lakoff s theory of conceptual metaphors is that the metaphors themselves are embodied. In other words, our concepts are built metaphorically from direct bodily experience. Embodied experiences that are repeated in our everyday experience create what Lakoff calls “image schemas,” which can then be used to structure less embodied experiences. More abstract concepts are structured metaphorically through mappings to more direct bodily experiences. Lakoff and Johnson point out that the common conventionalized aspects of our conceptual systems tend to be structured by what our bodies have in common. They further conclude “When the embodied experiences in the world are universal, then the corresponding primary metaphors are universally acquired” (1999, p.56). That is, most of metaphors are universally embodied. Take a simple case: die MORE IS UP metaphor, as seen in expressions like: Prices rose, His income went down. There are other languages in which MORE IS UP and LESS IS DOWN, but none in which the reverse is true, where MORE IS DOWN and LESS IS UP. The reason given in the contemporary is that the metaphor is grounded in experience—pouring more fluid in a container and seeing the level go up, or adding things to a pile and seeing the pile get higher.

The writer found most of source domains in the collected data were universally embodied, with 89% in English slogans and 79.3%in Chinese slogans. The results are quite consistent with Lakoff and Johnson’s claim that most of metaphors are universally embodied. The writer found that many conceptual metaphors had been utilized in both English and Chinese slogans. For example, metaphor ARTIFACT IS PERSON, which was used 34 times in Chinese slogans, could also be found in Kia’s English slogan “The car that cares” and metaphors, such as MAKING PROGRESS IS FORWARD MOTION, STATE IS LOCATION, UP IS GOOD, were used many times in both English and Chinese slogans.

4.2.2 Cultural Influence on Metaphor and Advertising Language

The writer hypothesized at the very beginning that, as one of the most important features in language that reflects cognitive vision and epitomizes cultural context, metaphor is influenced by culture and cultural value. The results of this study have proven the correctness of this hypothesis. Based on this comparative study, the writer identified three dimensions of cultural values which were the main reasons for the difference of diction and metaphor use in die collected data. These dimensions are contextuality, harmony relationship with nature and time Orientation.

4.2.2.1 Contextuality

The writer found the difference in contextuality had greatly influenced the language in advertising slogans. The influence is mainly reflected in two aspects, namely presence of metaphor and preference of appeal in advertising.

Presence of Metaphor. The writer found metaphors were pervasive in both English and Chinese data, as they presented in 75.2% of Chinese and 45.5% of English auto slogans. Comparatively, however, the presence of metaphors in Chinese auto slogans was much higher than that in English data. In writer’s opinion, the difference in the presence of metaphors can be explained by contextuality.

According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1999), metaphors are mappings across two conceptual domains. During the coding process, die criterion for the writer to identify metaphors is the presence of a cross-domain mapping, that is, the use of one conceptual domain to describe another. In other words, metaphor is actually an indirect and implicit way of understanding another subject.

As mentioned in the literature, high-context cultures are intuitive and contemplative and tend to utilize indirect and ambiguous messages. In contrast, low-context cultures are analytical and action oriented. They tend to use clearly articulated and informative messages. Chinese culture is considered to be a typical high-context one while most of English-speaking countries were low-context. It is reasonable that a great deal of information transmitted is often implicit in Chinese communication. Among the Chinese, this feature is known as hanxu. For Chinese, the communication is contained, reserved, implicit, and indirect. Thus the indirect nature of metaphor wins favor from Chinese, especially those well-educated. And this favor is well reflected in these collected Chinese auto slogans. Compared to Chinese culture, English-speaking cultures have less liking for the indirectness of metaphors. They prefer direct and informative expressions. As a result, the presence of metaphors is much lower.

Two slogans would be illustrated here to help explain the difference. A slogan for Jetta Auto reads ISftifllS”. The key selling Idea in this slogan is the

fuel-economy. In this slogan, the auto is depicted as a camel. Metaphor “ARTIFACT IS ANIMAL” is used to strengthen the key selling idea. We all know, camels are called “the ship of the desert”. They are known as desert animals, because they can cross the desert better than any other animal and their consumption of water is much lower than other animals. By tapping into the familiar and visceral domain of ANIMAL, advertisers are able to more efficiendy convey their selling idea (fuel-economy). For Chinese, this slogan is striking. And they can receive the connoted information easily. Interestingly, the counterpart English slogan, whose key selling idea is also the fuel-economy, reads “20km per liter, 800km per tank” (Renault Twingo). No metaphor and no decorative expressions are utilized in this metaphor. All it has Is information about the fuel consumption. The fact that this slogan has been advertised in Western market for many years proves its effectiveness. It seems to prove that low-context cultures are more information-oriented.

The Chinese high-contextuality is well reflected in the preference of lexical item life and metaphors concerning life. As we can see from Table 3,41.8% of metaphors were based on benefit. Advertisers purposefully choose to focus on the benefit certain brand of auto could bring to drivers. On many occasions, advertisers described the benefit of auto to human life. As life is quite abstract, it is usually described metaphorically. Two representative metaphors are LIFE IS OBJECT and LIFE IS JOURNEY.

As we all know, human beings can see and feel concrete, visible objects everywhere and set up a system describing these objects and their interrelations. It is relatively hard for people to describe the abstract concept, for the abstract concept is invisible, having no form. Luckily, people can describe abstract matters with the system of concrete objects. This system is also available and understandable for the abstract concepts. Thus, LIFE, a rather complicated and abstract concept, is always

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understood as a physical object The conceptual metaphor is LIFE IS PHYSICAL OBJECT. Expressions based on this conceptual metaphor could be found in many slogans, such as “fl£Mfr£i£”(Sail Auto), “g:i0r£?g”(Sail Auto) and

“(Elysee Auto). Moreover, an ordinary object may contain many relatively independent and interrelated parts. If one or more parts are absent the consequent object may not be the originally named one, or it may have some physical changes, such as weight size, etc. So when Bluebird says in its slogan “A’i'iS”, he is telling the audience that the Bluebird is part of life. If the audience wants to own a complete life, he’d better own a Bluebird. That is, without a Bluebird, the audience’s life is incomplete. This slogan is extremely powerful for those who want to pursue a perfect life.

The metaphor LIFE IS JOURNEY was utilized for 14 times in the Chinese data. The prototypical relation within JOURNEY Source Domain, which was preferred by the advertisers, was “Easier to make progress with necessary provision”. Of course, advertisers purposefully connected this necessary provision with a satisfying auto. Thus the prototypical relation was usually interpreted as “Easier to make progress with certain auto”. A slogan from Yanjing Auto reads W

¿.jj”. The connotation in the slogan is obvious: Those who drive Yanjing Autos are successful ones. With the help of Yanjing auto, they will surely be more accomplished. Thus, the slogan is rather persuasive and attractive for those who are eager to succeed.

Preference of Appeal in Advertising. In the coding scheme, writer had classified appeals into two groups, namely rational appeal and emotional appeal. Emotional appeal relates to the customers’ social and/or psychological needs for purchasing a product or service. Rational Appeals focus on the consumer’s practical, functional, or utilitarian need for the product or service and emphasize features of a product or service and/or benefits or reasons for owning or using a particular brand.

Within the emotional appeal, there are two subsets – the personal and the social. In the collected data, the personal emotions were focused on achievement pleasure, love, happiness, excitement safety, comfort and ambition. The social emotions focus on recognition, status, respect and affiliation. As to rational appeals, they often focus on product feature and benefit

Consumer purchase decisions are often made on the basis of both emotional and rational motives, and attention must be given to both elements in developing effective advertising. It is found that advertisers had paid attention to both emotional appeal and rational appeal in most of the collected data. However, there is a “dominant mood” in each slogan. The results indicate that Chinese auto slogans mainly appeal to emotions and English slogans prefer to rational appeal, as the dominant mood was «notional in 76.1 % of Chinese slogans and 52% of English were mainly rational.

English preference for rationality can be explained by the contextuality. As we mentioned before, Western cultures are low-context A great deal of information and precise details are required for achieving effective communication. People attach great importance to rationality. The evidence could be easily found in English proverbs concerning reason. Two most influential proverbs are: “Reason is the guide and light of life”, “Reason rules all things”. Undoubtedly, rational and informative advertisements are popular in Western cultures. More than half of English auto slogans were rational. Thus, Renault Twingo speaks out its selling ideas directly in its English slogan “20 km per liter, 800km per tank”. Similarly, Auto slogan reads “Surprisingly ordinary price”. It is predictable that these informative slogans are quite attractive for those rational and information-seeking Westerners.

Meanwhile, «notional appeals also play an important role in English auto slogans. 48% of English data were mainly emotional. This is due to the significance of emotional appeal in advertising. Most often, people will be unconsciously led by emotional advertisement and won’t think critically about the advertised product People might be motivated to do things which they might not for purely rational reasons.

Compare to its English counterpart, Chinese data proved to attach more importance to emotional appeal, as 76.1% of Chinese slogans. There are two reasons for this: first the significance of emotional appeal in advertising; second, contextuality. The writer would not elaborate on the first reason. More attention would be given to the second reason. As mentioned before, Chinese culture is high-context. Hanxu is a very important feature among the Chinese. It is much easier for the advertisers to achieve the purpose of persuading by arousing the resonance of feeling in the audience. That is to say, audiences in high-context culture have more liking for the emotional appeal.

The special significance of «notion for Chinese could be proved in Chinese saying “^¿.tlff, ^AMM” (appealing to emotion and appealing to reason). In Chinese society, appealing to emotion often comes before appealing to reason. In daily life, if people are in dispute, the first procedure to solve die problem is to “appeal to emotion”. Most often, consensus will be reached at this stage. If the opposite side is still not persuaded, people will choose to 1 turn to the method of “appealing to reason”. And the last resort to solve the problem is the court Actually, we can also find expressions like If MZfy”. Obviously, in these

expressions “It” is placed in front of “3″. So it is reasonable to say that emotion plays an extremely important role in Chinese society.

Among the advertisements with emotional appeal, the writer found that some conceptual metaphors are preferred by Chinese advertisers to convey their intentions. And writ«’ would like to elaborate on three representative conceptual metaphors. First ARTIFACT IS PERSON. Second, HEART IS THE CONTAINER OF EMOTION.

With the total frequency of 34 times, the metaphor ARTIFACT IS PERSON obtains the highest frequency in the collected Chinese data. In the slogans, the automobiles were depicted as persons with different personalities. Sometimes, he was considerate Alto Auto); sometimes, he was handsome and generous

&j£Jf-1i”Lexus ); sometimes, she was charming and smart ( “Mft&t 0, ^//Jf*/7″ Hafei)\ sometimes, he was strong (“£%3M#”Sagitar ); sometimes, he was a reliable companion ( ” ikft “DONGFENG FENGXING); sometimes, he was like an old friend —JOLMlik” Gol); sometimes, he was a gentleman (“#)

itfW^” Family); sometimes, he was known for his nobility ( MM”Dodge ). This metaphor had also been used 10 times in the collected data. Compared to Chinese data, this frequency is relatively much lower. In writer’s opinion, this difference could also be explained by Chinese preference for emotion. As we all know, human beings are the most emotional living being in the world. If the auto is depicted as human being, it will surely obtain human «notions. Thus, audience could have a better communication with die product It is easy to arouse audience’s feelings.

The metaphor HEART IS A CONTAINER OF EMOTION was also used frequently in Chinese slogans. An example would be provided here to help better understand the application of this metaphor. A Honda Civic’s slogan reads “ft^faJM >tt. H^l+lfcan be literally translated as “topple heart”. Since heart is the container of emotion, it tilts and falls toward the object of admiration or love. Thus Chinese expression is used to express one’s admiration or love. Despite the

fact that this metaphor holds true in both English and Chinese, it was seldom used in the collected English data. In writer’s opinion, it is because of the great significance of emotion in Chinese society. Since heart stands for all kinds of emotions, it is understandable that advertisers show special preference for the word “heart”. In contrast as mentioned before, Westerners attach more importance to reason. Meanwhile, Westerners are more direct. When advertisements are emotional, they usually focus on specific emotion, such as pleasure, achievement and love. So HEART IS A CONTAINER OF EMOTION was not used quite often in the collected English data.

It should be noted that there is another metaphor concerning heart in die Chinese data besides the metaphor HEART IS A CONTAINER OF EMOTION. It is the metaphor HEART IS COMMANDER OF MENTAL ACTIVITIES. This metaphor is quite culture-specific. It only exists in Chinese culture. According to Chinese medicine, heart is the master of the body and the emperor of the organ networks. There is the structural heart made from blood and flesh: it has the shape of a closed lotus flower and is situated underneath the lung and above the liver. And there is the luminous heart of spirit-shen, which generates qi and blood and thus is the root of life. It is the source of all our bodily parts and functions, yet it does not manifest in obvious signs and colors. Just when you want to define it and say Tiere it is,’ it is gone; whenever you forget about it however, it comes closer to you than ever. This is why it is called the ‘vacuous spirit’ Despite its elusive nature, shen commands our body’s every action and every part Material form and luminous shen must therefore be looked upon as an interdependent pair, and we have to understand that diseases of the structural heart are always caused by unbalanced emotions such as depression, anxiety, obsession, or sadness, which open up a pathway through which noxious pathogens can aiter. In short, heart in Chinese tradition is considered to be “commander” of all mental or psychological activities, including emotions. That is, heart is not only die organ of “emotion”, it is also an organ of “thinking” in Chinese (Yu, 2002). The metaphorical expression could be found in our daily communication, such as “‘friS” and The metaphor was also realized in the collected Chinese slogans. Let’s

look at Buick Regal’s slogan MB$> ^jf^n”In this slogan, it is obvious

that H’lV is an organ of thinking. Actually, it also contains the conceptual metaphor THINKING IS MOVING The advertisers are hinting Regal auto can take the audience anywhere they want to go.

In summary, contextuality influences metaphors and metaphor use in advertising. In high-context cultures, the presence of metaphor is much higher and most of metaphors are emotional, hi contrast the presence of metaphor is much lower in low-context cultures and metaphors tend to be rational. The writer also pointed out metaphor HEART IS COMMANDER OF MENTAL ACTIVITIES is Chinese-specific.

4.2.2.2 Human Relationship with Nature

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) have identified three types of relationships between humanity and nature: mastery over nature, harmony with nature, and subjugation to nature. Mastery over nature involves the perspective that all natural forces can be overcome and put to use by humans. From this perspective, man is to conquer nature. Nature should be controlled, used and taken advantage of. Harmony with nature draws no distinction among human life, nature, and the supernatural, but sees each as an extension of the other. Thus, man is to live in harmony with nature. Subjugation to nature involves the belief that nothing can be done to control nature and its fate must be accepted Therefore, man is dominated by nature.

As mentioned in die literature, Weston cultures are more prone to emphasize mastery over nature, while Chinese culture is more oriented to be in harmony with nature.

No matter what kind of relationship with nature is preferred in a culture, man admits die power of nature. There are many expressions describing the power of nature in both English language and Chinese language. According to cognitive linguistics, the commonalities are based on man’s similar bodily experience. So it is no surprising that many phenomena have similar connotations cross-culturally. For example, “thunder” is known for its abrupt violent loudness; “lightening” is well known for its speed and power to produce electricity (light travels at 186000 miles in a second and a typical lightning bolt contains 1 Billion Volts and contains between 10,000 to 200,000 amperes of current); “storm” is famous ft» its destructive power, “wind” is famous for its swiftness. The properties of these natural phenomena are used in many sayings and proverbs. Thus, sayings like “WififF^

RtoKZW, “ffe^^ik”, “MMS”, “Mtfi^ii” could be found in Chinese language. Comparatively, there are sayings like ” thunderous applause”, “roar of Thunder”, “as quick as lightning”, “at lightning speed” , “like the wind”, “to take by storm” in English language.

Despite the fact that man does admit the power of nature, people’s attitudes toward nature are significantly different. Based on this comparative study, the writer discovered that the advertisers focused on the humans’ mastery over nature in English auto slogans. Conceptual metaphors used in the advertisements were mainly NATURE IS A PERSON. More specifically, man is master and nature is the conquered. For example, Ssangyong’s slogan reads “Commands the road”. It is a pun. On one hand, die agent of the action may refer to the driver. It indicates that man is master. Man has the power to conquer and control nature. Of course, the commanded “road” here is depicted as a person. This logic is popular and welcome in Western cultures. So this connotation could be easily and well received by the audience, which makes the ad appealing. On the other hand, the agent of the action refers to the auto.

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That is, automobile is depicted as a commander. The automobile, created and driven by man, could conquer the nature. No matter which connotation will be chosen for audience, the ad is trying to persuade the audience to believe that if he or she drives a car of this brand, he or she won’t be tracked in any kind of road condition. In other words, die driver can drive smoothly in any road condition bad toad condition won’t become an impediment on his or her way. Actually there is another metaphor connoted in this slogan, namely, LIFE IS A JOURNEY. A prototypical relation within the source domain is that it is easier to make progress on a road without impediments. Thus, the entailment of this slogan is that man is easier to achieve his life goals with Ssangyong auto.

In Chinese, things are different Man sees himself as an extension of nature. The traditional Chinese concepts of humanity and nature envision humans living in harmony with die natural order. Thus; it is not surprising to find that there are more slogans connected with nature in the collected Chinese data. From these slogans, the writer generalized three main points of view toward nature.

First Chinese believe in the power of nature. For them, the nature is considered to be the one with infinite wisdom and power. The frequently used conceptual metaphor is NATURE IS PERSON. For Chinese, naturally formed object are most beautiful. The specific metaphor used in the collected data was NATURE IS A CRAFTED PERSON. The evidence could be found in the following two slogans: “ife (Gol Auto) and (Passat Auto). In the first slogan,

Gol auto is described as a masterpiece of “Heaven”. In die second slogan, Passat auto is said to be created by “Heaven and Earth”. These two slogans are very convincing to Chinese, for Chinese believe in the ability and power of nature.

Second, Chinese not only admit the power of nature, they also respect and admire the power in nature. They dream to own the magic power of nature. So natural phenomenon are used to describe and highlight certain properties of man-made objects. As in the collected auto slogans, natural phenomena were used to describe the properties of certain auto. The most frequently used metaphor was ARTIFACT IS NATURALLY FORMED OBJECT. Here are some examples. A Hyundai slogan read § & The key selling idea in this slogan was the swiftness of Hyundai. The auto was portrayed as wind. More specifically, the metaphor is CAR IS WIND. As mentioned before, wind is known for its swiftness. So if an auto goes like wind, it is undoubtedly speedy. A similar example could be found in Dodge’s slogan “itkY^^

In this slogan, car is described as rainbow. As rainbow is known for its beauty and color, one of the key selling ideas in this slogan is its beauty and various colors.

Third, close attention has been paid to changes occurred in the nature as Chinese see themselves as extension of nature. Changes occurred in the nature are used to describe changes occurred in the human society. For example, phrases like (Molting) and “jilMilcM” (chrysalis’s transforming itself into charming butterfly) are often used to describe dramatic and desirable change occurred in human society. The underlying conceptual metaphor is SOCIAL CHANGE IS NATURAL CHANGE. This metaphor can be found in the collected slogans. Two representative slogans come

from Zhonghua Auto: ; “tMWM

In summary, cultural difference in the relationship with nature influences die advertisers’ choice and preference of conceptual metaphors concerned with nature. Those cultures, which have harmonious relationship with nature, tend to use more nature-concerned metaphors. The writer found metaphor NATURE IS A PERSON is used frequently in both English and Chinese auto slogans. But metaphor ARTIFACT IS NATURALLY FORMED OBJECT and metaphor SOCIAL CHANGE IS NATURAL CHANGE could only be found in the Chinese data. The difference results from the fact that Chinese culture is more oriented to be in harmony with nature.

4.2.23 Time Orientation

The writer found that the difference in time orientation had also influenced metaphor use and language in advertising.

Under the influence of Confucialism, Chinese culture is more oriented to past time. Confucius believed that the human order in some way reflected the divine order, or the patterns of heaven. More than anything, according to Confucius, the ancients understood the order and hierarchy of heaven and earth; as a result, Confucius established die Chinese past as an infallible model for the present A well-accepted metaphor among Chinese is HISTORY IS TEACHER. It is believed that wisdom could be gained through experience. The experience could teach people how to solve similar problems in the future. Many Chinese believe that the longer history a company has, the better it probably is. Thus, expressions like “W^”, “ffl.lt” are preferred in Chinese advertisements. In the collected Chinese slogans, there are slogans like “ffiil^, (Chevrolet)

(Land Rover), and “if^T^W, Hli^fW” These slogans had attached great

significance to history and past experience.

In Western cultures, it is quite different Let us take a close look at Toyota’s slogan “lime, Tomorrow, Toyota”. It seems that these words make little sense. Actually, the underlying conceptual metaphor in this slogan is TIME IS A MOVING OBJECT ALONG A LANDSCAPE. In the slogan, “Tomorrow” is placed in front of “Time” and “Toyota” is placed in front of “Tomorrow”. If we are not familiar with westerners’ attitudes toward time, we still can not get a clear idea about it Actually, Western cultures are more oriented to future. Future is generally considered better than the present. Now it is clear why the words are arranged this way. It means Toyota is in front of future. That is, Toyota auto is extremely wonderful.

Notably, while Chinese culture is more oriented to past time, it seems that Chinese have paid more attention to future. Among all the slogans concerning time in the collected Chinese data, half of them focused on future. For example, one of Audi’s slogans read ^i&^ifE”. It seems to be consistent with Cheng and

Schweitzer’s view (1996) that China is a “melting pot” for cultural values.

Chapter Five Conclusions

5.1 Concluding Remarks

The writer adopted the cognitive view of metaphor (Gibbs and Steen, 1999; Johnson, 1987; Lakoff, 1987; Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, 1999) to discuss the cognitive and cultural aspects of metaphor in English and Chinese advertising slogans. A content analysis of 418 slogans was conducted.

Metaphors were pervasive in advertising, as metaphors present in 75.2% of Chinese auto slogans and 45.5% of English auto slogans. Meanwhile, most of metaphors used in the slogans (89% in English and 79.3% in Chinese) were universally embodied. The results strongly support that the conceptual metaphor claims are universal as long as the collected data are concerned. Moreover, the results obtained from Chinese auto slogans are especially important, for conceptual metaphor theory has hitherto been built based on the study of English, with somewhat limited subsequent reference to other languages.

Language is part of culture. While conceptual metaphors are usually derived from bodily experiences, cultural models do exert influence on metaphor and metaphor use in advertising slogans. Based on this comparative study, die writer identified three dimensions of cultural values which were the main reasons for the difference of diction and metaphor use in the collected data. These dimensions are contextuality, harmony relationship with nature and time Orientation.

The influence of contextuality is reflected in two aspects: presence of metaphor and preference of appeal. As the presence of metaphors in Chinese data is much higher than that in English data, it is assumed that the presence of metaphor is much higher in high-context cultures. The results also indicate that Chinese prefer emotional appeal, as 76.1% of Chinese slogans were mainly emotional and only 23.9% concentrated on rational appeal. The Chinese word appeared 16 times in the collected data, so the writer elaborated on the conceptual metaphors concerning ” heart”, namely HEART IS A CONTAINER OF EMOTION and HEART IS COMMANDER OF MENTAL ACTIVITIES. The writer also pointed out metaphor HEART IS COMMANDER OF MENTAL ACTIVITIES is Chinese-specific. Comparatively, almost equal weight had beta given to both emotional and rational slogans.

Cultural difference in the relationship with nature also influences the advertisers’ choice and preference of conceptual metaphors concerning nature. Those cultures, which have harmonious relationship with nature, tend to use more nature-concerned metaphors. The writer found metaphor NATURE IS A PERSON is used frequently in both English and Chinese auto slogans. But metaphor ARTIFACT IS NATURALLY FORMED OBJECT and metaphor SOCIAL CHANGE IS NATURAL CHANGE could only be found in the Chinese data. The difference results from the fact that Chinese culture is more oriented to be in harmony with nature.

As to time «mentation, Chinese culture is more oriented to past time while Western cultures tend to be more future time oriented. Confucius established the Chinese past as an infallible model for the present A well-accepted metaphor among Chinese is HISTORY IS TEACHER. It is believed that wisdom could be gained through experience. The experience could teach people how to solve similar problems in the future. Thus slogans like “}Eg {Chevrolet) #

{Land Rover), and “ftf^W, S^illf^fW” could be found in Chinese slogans. The writer also found that Chinese advertising looks like an emerging “melting pot” for both Eastern and Western cultural values. Some typical Western cultural values seem to gain market in Chinese slogans. For example, among all die slogans concerning time in the collected Chinese data, many of them focused on future.

In short the present study leads to the general conclusion that mind, body, language and culture are inseparable. Their co-effect makes the conceptual metaphor system operate effectively.5 J Implications

Gibbs’ theory holds that metaphor and thought should be viewed as a cognitive network. It is believed that this network surpasses an individual’s mind and penetrates into the cultural world. One reason is that our interpretation of metaphorical concepts involves some important aspects of cultural experiences. Another reason is that die common cultural token of metaphor carries an indispensable cognitive function, which eases people’s daily thinking and language using. It indicates that some substantial parts of metaphorical thoughts and language are on one side internalized psychological realization, and a part of cultural world on the other side.

Since metaphor functions as an access to the understanding of language and culture, study of conceptual metaphor can be a beneficial enterprise in classroom settings. It can help students grasp the close relationship between the workings of language and mind, and between sensorimotor experience and conceptualization. The cross-cultural study of conceptual metaphor could even broaden the perspective, which would necessarily include die role played by culture in metaphoric conceptualization and linguistic instantiations of metaphor. Thus, comparative study of metaphors present in certain cultures helps people better understand the conceptual system of those cultures.

Linguists and language teachers have carried out practical and prosperous research work. For instance, Charteris-Black (2000) investigates the implications of theoretical work on metaphor for the teaching of lexis in ESP course. Shen (2001) explores the compilation of intensive reading exercises incorporated with theories of conceptual metaphor.

The paper argues that, advertisements are applicable resources for Chinese learners to learn English. It is also held that with the development of business globalization and Chinese English learners’ pursuit of authentic language materials, advertising language is applicable learning resources both in-class and after-class. And cognitive aspects and cultural aspects of conceptual metaphor will be beneficial forESL.

5.3 Limitations:

The first limitation is due to the lack of a perfect match between the advertising slogans. Unless the samples are perfectly comparable, it is always possible to invoke alternative hypotheses to explain the results. Though the writer tried ha best, she didn’t collect enough English slogans.

The relatively small size of the English and Chinese slogans and the limited number of genres have prevented the writ« from making broad generalizations relative to the phenomena under scrutiny which constitutes a limitation of the present study. The more data researchers use, the more reliable their findings might be. Also, given the fact that genres have specific characteristics, finding out what is going on in different genres from a linguistic perspective will help linguists get a better understanding of the linguistic phenomenon in general. Further studies like the one presented here need to use wider corpora, a greater number of genres, and, if possible, a wider variety of languages to establish the reliability and the validity of findings like the ones presented in this study.

Among the framework of cognitive linguistics, there is another major perspective from which scholars approach metaphor, namely the theory of conceptual blending, attributed mainly to Fauconnier and Turner (1998). Fauconnier’s conceptual blending theory and its many-space model seem to be able to offer a better explanation to novel metaphors. Thus, more attention would be given to blending theory in future studies.

APPENDIX 1 Coding Sheet

1 Key selling idea: “what advertisers want to get audience to believe about certain product or service”

Use key words, literal language; re-use whenever possible. MORE EFFICIENT, FASTER, CHEAPER, PRESTIGE, CONTROL, VICTORY, MAKES YOU ATTRACTIVE, NEW/REVELUTIONARY, FREEDOM, HAPPINESS, OVER YOUR COMPETETION, SAFETY/SECURITY

2 Target of key selling ideas:

Product features (how the product works/its specs)

Product benefits (how the product helps you)

Firm (characteristics of the company/who they are)

Consumer (characteristics of the consumer/who you are, think of yourself as)

Other (fill-in)

3 Appeals: the approach used to attract the attention of consumers and/or to

influence their feelings toward the product /service. Rational appeals: providing information about product use, features, or

comparison with similar products Emotional appeals: Relating to the customers’ social and/or psychological needs for purchasing a product or service and persuading audiences by arousing their emotions

METAPHOR CODING

4 Lexical item

5 Conceptual metaphor at superordinate level

6 Target domain of lexical item (fill-in) (usually the product)

7 Role of lexical item (l=yes, 0=no)

linked to product features (how the product works/its specs)

APPENDIX 1 (continued)

Coding Sheet

linked to product benefits (how the product helps you)

linked to firm (characteristics of the company/who they are)

linked to consumer (characteristics of the consumer/who you are, think of

yourself as)

other (fill-in)

8 Source domain of lexical item (fill-in) (l=yes, 0=no) Universally embodied Culturally embodied

Abstract

The last decades of the 20th century (starting with late 1960′s) witnessed a significant revival of the interest in the study of metaphor. Many philosophers, linguists, cognitive scientists, and scholars in other fields recently have been working to understand metaphor in greater detail. One major stream of contemporary theory of metaphor, which is gaining increasing support from scholars working in several disciplines, is the conceptual metaphor theory. Its major features were first worked out by linguist George Lakoff with philosopher Mark Johnson (1980). Metaphor is essentially defined as the perception of one thing as another.

The conceptual view argues: (1) Metaphor is primarily a matter of thought and only derivatively a matter of language (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980). It is omnipresent in language and thought (2) Metaphors are embodied. Although these conceptual metaphor claims are meant to be true, the evidence supporting it is mainly derived from English. And most researches of conceptual metaphor have focused on everyday communication and poetry. Few have investigated conceptual metaphors in advertising Moreover, scholars (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999; Yu, 2000,2001,2003) have indicated there is a relationship between language, culture, body and cognition. However, the prior theoretical attention has focused on die relation between body, language and cognition, leaving quite a remarkable gap in knowledge about cultural aspects. One of the framing ideas of this thesis is that, besides cognitive aspects a thorough analysis of conceptual metaphor should necessarily include the cultural aspects. Therefore, the writer attempts to adopt a cognitive view to figure out the cultural influence on conceptual metaphor through a comparative study of English and Chinese auto slogans. Dimensions of cultural value orientations would be used to explain the difference of metaphor use in the collected auto slogans. Since metaphor functions as an access to the understanding of language and culture, it is also hoped that this study would throw some light on the metaphor teaching in ESL.

A content analysis of 418 advertising slogans (200 English slogans and 218 Chinese slogans) was conducted. There are five chapters in this thesis. Chapter one is a general introduction. Chapter two discusses the most important contributions to the literature of the field, which served as the underlying theoretical background for this thesis. Research questions will be proposed in this chapter. Chapter three provides a description of research method. Chapter four thai presents a detailed discussion of the data based on the established framework. And finally, the conclusions, implications and limitations of this study will be provided in Chapter five.

The results indicate that conceptual metaphor claims hold true in the collected data, as metaphors are pervasive and most of them are universally embodied. Meanwhile, culture does influence metaphor use in advertising slogans. The writer has identified three dimensions of cultural values which result in the main difference in the metaphor use in the collected data. These dimensions are contextuality, human relationship with nature and time Orientation.

Key words: Metaphor, The Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Advertising Slogans Dimensions of Cultural Value Orientation

Acknowledgements

Special thanks should go to my supervisor Shen Nana, who offered me meticulous guidance and moving encouragement in the process of writing the thesis. Without her constructive suggestions and corrections, the thesis would not have been possible. By the way, professor Shen also sets me a wonderful example as a tolerant, considerate and generous person. In short, her admirable attitudes both to academic research and to life will be of immense value to my future career.

My heart-felt thanks go to Professor Li Zhide for her enlightening lectures on research methods from which I came to have a better understanding of how to do a linguistic research. The profit I gained from her intellectual ingenuity and critical thinking will have a lasting influence on my future academic research.

I’m also grateful to Professor Yang Guangjun and Professor Ye Dingguo. I came to have a better understanding of linguistics from Prefessor Yang And Professor Ye offered me enlightening suggestions about cross-cultural study for this thesis.

Finally, I’d like to express my thanks to my kind-hearted roommates for their sincere help and encouragement throughout this research.

Chapter One 1. Introduction

1.1 Changing Rote of Metaphor In Advertising and Its Slogans

Jewler and Drewniany (1998) introduce that advertising has experienced four developmental periods chronologically. During the first stage of advertising promotion, advertisements are a by-product of other industries, and its words and space are devoted to the description of the functions and benefits of a product Later, advertisers add a new element, “description of a symbolic relationship that imbued the product with special qualities that are more abstract than utilitarian’ (ibid: 5). Often, an image of a product shown in a certain setting will transfer desirable qualities to the product That relationship matches the cognitive process of the audience and that type of advertisements becomes more and more popular. Metaphor then plays a more important role die next two stages to motivate expected interpretation. During the third stage, ‘the personalized format’ brings together the potential buyer and the advertised product in an emotional framework, by virtue of ‘emphasizing on social admiration, pride of ownership, anxiety about lack of use, etc’ (ibid:6). The update trend is ‘the lifestyle format’. Advertising language carries social messages about the effects of a product on the quality of human life. Metaphorical expressions are preferred in these cases to impose rather abstract ideas on the audience, in that these metaphorical expressions will force the audience to forge a link between the words and things implied.

Slogan is one of the most important elements in advertising It is always brief, striking, witty and easy to remember. A slogan usually sums up what the advertised product or service stands for, for instance, benefits, specialty, marketing position, and commitment. It is claimed to be, and often proven to be, the most effective means of drawing attention to the product Good slogans have the potential to reinforce companies’ images and would-be consumers’ preference. Thus the wording in a slogan is carefully chosen. In a word, it is a form of verbal logo that distinguishes advertisements from others. It is considered to be the shouts of modern commerce.

The expressions in a slogan usually go along with the whole advertisements, hi accordance with the advertising development, the expressions in slogans were more likely to be literal and nonmetaphorical during the early stages. Slogan was a relatively straightforward means of announcement and communication of the information of products available or new products. Metaphor played a relatively minor role. While later, advertising tends to flourish in societies that enjoy some level of economic abundance, that is, in which supply exceeds demand. It ts at this point that advertising moves from being a simple informational service to being a message designated to create a demand for particular brand. It has become more and more involved in the manipulation of social values and attitudes. Advertising slogans tends to cany social messages about the effects of a product on the quality of human life. Most often, metaphorical expressions are frequently applied to create fascinating impression. Metaphors are used to extend and develop the update ‘lifestyle format’.

In short, metaphor plays a more and more important role in modern advertising slogans. It is suggested studies on metaphor in advertising slogans be very significant and deserve more attention from the researchers.

1.2 Study of Metaphor in Advertising

Metaphor has engaged the intellectual mind since remote antiquity. We can trace the earliest study ultimately back to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, whose definition of metaphor as transference of lexical meaning for achieving rhetorical and poetical value set the tone for scores of generations in their metaphor study. Metaphor was considered an integral part and the constitutive form of language and simply ornamental in function. For a long time, metaphor was a topic of interest exclusively for rhetoricians, not different from any other figures of speech such as metonymy, personification, hyperbole and synecdoche.

Till now, a large number of researches on metaphor in advertising have been conducted. The modal view of metaphor among both domestic and foreign researchers is the Aristotelian view of metaphor (e.g., Leigh, 1994; McQuanie & Mick, 1996). Metaphor has been treated mostly as a poetic phenomenon and rhetorical device, to be used to give charm or emotive force to an argument While much of this work is important it falls short of recognizing the nature of metaphor and lacks the analytic tools necessary to fully understand the use and role of metaphor in advertising.

The last decades of the 20th century (starting with late 1960′s) witnessed a significant revival of the interest in the study of metaphor. The study of metaphor is no longer the unique enterprise of rhetoricians. Metaphor has been acknowledged as an indispensable and decisive feature of natural language, so ubiquitous that no study of language can be complete without an adequate account of it It has virtually become a multidisciplinary topic of consideration. Many philosophers, linguists, cognitive scientists, and scholars in other fields recently have been working to understand metaphor in greater detail.

One major stream of contemporary theory of metaphor is gaining increasing support from scholars working in several disciplines. It is the metaphor theory whose major features were first worked out by linguist George Lakoff with philosopher Mark Johnson. Other linguists- notably Eve Sweester, Joseph Grady, Christopher Johnson, Kevin Moore, Mark Turner- have collaborated with Lakoff and Johnson and elaborated on the basic theory and methods. The conceptual view argues that – metaphor is primarily a matter of thought and only derivatively a matter of language (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980). The method employed in this system for analyzing metaphor attempts to “map” the ways in which one kind of thing- a “Target Domain”-is being understood in terms of another kind of thing- a “Source Domain”.

In China, the past few years have also witnessed the publication of dozens of papers concerning conceptual metaphor in several key academic journals on language and linguistics. Lin Shuwu (1994, 1995) is among the first group of scholars who introduced the conceptual metaphor theory into China. Shu Dingfang (2000) spares no pages to discuss the cognitive nature of metaphor, concluding that metaphor is a tool for human perception, conceptual categorization, and that metaphor provides a new perspective to the objective world. Metaphor is used not merely in poetry or other literary works but in everyday language including scientific language. Zhao Yan-fang (2001) also stresses that metaphorical language is a powerful cognitive tool for human conceptualization of new concepts and abstract categories.

Although the conceptual metaphor theory has gained wide recognition, most researches of conceptual metaphor have focused on everyday communication and poetry (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980,1999; Lakoff & Mark Turner, 1989; MM, 2003, 2005) and few researches have been conducted to examine the use of conceptual metaphors in advertising. The writer searched on die internet and only found a few articles analyzing the role of conceptual metaphor in advertising (e.g. George Spiro Babbes, 2000). Moreover, these articles are mainly written by foreign scholars and analyzed data are taken from English advertisements. Virtually no domestic work has applied the conceptual metaphor theory to the investigation of metaphor in advertising. Most of domestic researches have concentrated on introducing the conceptual metaphor theory and comparing it with other metaphor theories. This state of affairs requires that more researches need to be carried out to analyze conceptual metaphors in advertisements, especially in those non-English advertisements.

13 Culture and Its Advertising Consequences

Culture is often viewed as what members of a given society have in common (Hofstede, 1980). Hofstede also refers to culture as a society’s adaptation to its environment. Culture differs from each other because each culture has its unique cultural and social context.

At the core of culture lie values. Cultural values are the relatively enduring beliefs that a society possesses to serve as standards for guiding its members’ attitudes and behaviors toward cultural approval in the society. As a result of cultural uniqueness, rankings or priorities of cultural values vary in different cultures. Differences of cultures thus could be easily perceived by comparing their value systems (Kluckhohon & Strodtbeck, 1961).

In cross-cultural studies, some dimensions of culture, which emphasize varied cultural value orientations, have been developed as an instrument to systematically compare cultures. These cultural dimensions include individualism-collectivism, power-distance, masculinity-femininity, uncertainty-avoidance, long-term orientation (Hofstede, 1980); human relationships with nature, time orientation (Kluckhohon & Strodtbeck, 1961); contextuality, space, information flow (Hall & Hall, 1989). Among these cultural dimensions of value orientations, individualism-collectivism, human relationships with nature, time orientation, and contextuality have been often used to distinguish Eastern and Western cultures. Eastern cultures, such as China, Japan and Korea, are more prone to collectivism, harmony with nature, past-time orientation, and high-context communication. In contrast, Western cultures, especially die United States, are more oriented to individualism, mastery over nature, future-time orientation, and low-context communication. Consequently, differences of cultural values manifested in these four dimensions might have implications for cross-cultural advertising research.

Culture values are often viewed as the guiding principles for an individual’s thoughts and actions in a given society. As forms of social behavior, the individual’s consumption behavior and communication style are also strongly affected by the culture to which the individual belong (Hall & Hall, 1989). Consequently, not only do cultural values play an important role in affecting the individual’s purchasing decision and consumption behavior, but these values also strongly influence the individual’s communication styles including comprehension and perception of advertising messages. Therefore, individuals exposed to an advertising message congruent with their cultural values are likely to comprehend it better and possibly empathize with it; and in turn, this comprehension and empathy could lead to persuasion. As a result, advertising tends to depict the prevalent values of cultures in which it is advertised in order to better communicate and persuade its target audiences. In other words, cultural values tend to influence advertising language.

Since cultural values tend to influence advertising language, metaphor, as one of the most important features in language, will certainly be influenced. Lakoff and Johnson (1999) also suggest that there is a relationship between language, culture, body and cognition. But this multidimensional relationship is not focused upon in Lakoff and Johonson’s work. They take interest in the relationship between metaphor; body, cognition, and only occasionally and briefly refer to the influence culture might have on this relationship. Therefore, it is suggested more researches oil die relationship between culture and cognition should be carried out

1A Main Aims and Structure of This Thesis

To date, the conceptual metaphor theory has gained wide recognition. The fact that most researches of conceptual metaphor have focused on everyday communication and poetry has indicated the need for more studies on conceptual metaphor in other registers. To comply with this suggestion, one of the research purposes of this study is to investigate the use of conceptual metaphor in advertising and testify the universality of conceptual metaphor claims. Moreover, scholars have indicated there is a relationship between language, culture, body and cognition. However, the prior theoretical attention has focused on die relation between body, language and cognition, leaving quite a remarkable gap in knowledge about cultural aspects. One of the framing ideas of this thesis is that, besides cognitive aspects a thorough analysis of conceptual metaphor should necessarily include the cultural aspects. Therefore, this study attempts to figure out the cultural influence on conceptual metaphor through a comparative study of English and Chinese auto slogans. Furthermore, since metaphor functions as an access to the understanding of language and culture, study of conceptual metaphor can be a beneficial enterprise in classroom settings. It is hoped that this study could provide some applicable suggestions for the metaphor teaching in ESL.

In the following, we will come to the structure of this thesis. It starts with an introduction to the changing role of metaphor in advertising slogans and a brief description of cultural values and their consequential influences on advertising content. Chapter two discusses the most important contributions to the literature of

the field, which serves as the underlying theoretical background for this thesis.

i

Research questions will be proposed in this chapter. Ckapter three provides a” description of research method, including data collection and coding Chapter four then presents a detailed discussion of the data based on the established framework. And finally, the conclusions, implications and limitations of this study will be provided in Chapter five.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

The writer adopted the cognitive view of metaphor (Johnson, 1987; Lakoffj 1987; Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, 1999) to investigate the cognitive and cultural aspects of metaphor in English and Chinese auto slogans. This chapter is devoted to discussing the major contributions in the conceptual metaphor theory and cross-cultural studies, i.e. the scholarly work which helped me with analyzing and interpreting my data.

2.1 The Theory of Conceptual Metaphor

2.2.1 Body-mind relationship of the theory of conceptual metaphor

The discussion of the metaphoric nature of our conceptualization is prefaced by Lakoff and Johnson (1999) by a discussion of the embodied character of human mind. They reject the view that humans have a “faculty” of reason which has no connection to the body. They support an evolutionary view according to which reason has its roots in the human body, it is the joined efforts of our bodies and brains together with the results of the experiences we have with our environment that give us die picture of what is real. Reality, Lakoff and Johnson maintains, is dependent on our sensorimotor apparatus and the structure of our brain brought about by evolution and experience (p. 17).

If reason is embodied, it goes without saying in Lakoff and Johnson’s (1999) opinion that the concepts used in reasoning will also be embodied. The two scholars analyze the role the sensorimotor system plays in the creation of certain types of concepts, namely color concepts, basic-level concepts, spatial relation concepts, and aspectual concepts. Lakoff and Johnson point out the relationship between the use of a concept in reasoning and the neural structures in the brain that are responsible for that reasoning (p. 16). According to the above-mentioned scholars, the neural networks in our brain will determine the type of concepts, and implicitly, the type of reasoning our brain will perform.

Another consequence of our bodies’ “functioning in the world” is that we, humans, like other animals, categorize, and categorization depends on our sensing apparatuses as well as on the ability to move ourselves in the environment and to manipulate objects. Categories, then, are part of our experience (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999, p. 17). There is a relation between concepts and categories, as pointed out by Lakoff and Johnson (1999), who define concepts as “neural structures that allow us to mentally characterize our categories and reason about them” (p. 19). Lakoff and Johnson also define the embodied concepts as neural structures integrated in the sensorimotor system in our brains and maintain that most of conceptual inference is sensorimotor inference (p.20).

There is more than one way in which human categories are conceptualized, as pointed out by Lakoff and Johnson (1999). The conceptualization of categories is being achieved in terms of prototypes, which Lakoff and Johnson define as “neural structures” that allow us to perform “inferential or imaginative tasks” on the category (p.19).

The conclusion Lakoff and Johnson (1999) reach is that, if we accept the idea that concepts are embodied, then, we should also accept the idea that the locus of reason is the same as the locus of perception and motor control. In other words, the brain is the locus of reason, perception, and movement and that there is an inseparability of categories, concepts, and experience.

Experience is at the core of Lakoff and Johnson’s (1999) theory. They distinguish between subjective experience (i.e., when we conceptualize understanding an idea, when we make subjective judgments about abstract things) and sensorimotor experience (when we grasp an object); and they argue we conceptualize subjective experiences in terms of sensrimotor experiences and the mechanism that allows us to do so is conceptual metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999, p.45). Conceptual metaphor “allows conventional mental imagery from sensorimotor domains to be used for domains of subjective experience” (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999, p.45). To illustrate this mechanism, Lakoff and Johnson use the image that we generally seem to have about things we do not understand, namely that they pass by, or go over our heads. We cannot “catch” such things because they are at a certain ‘distance* from us. ‘Proximity* helps us perceive things and hence experience them and understand them, while ‘distance* brings about failure to perceive and hence failure to experience and understand.

A crucial characteristic of conceptual metaphor, in Lakoff and Johnson’s (1999) opinion, is its omnipresence in thought and language. Lakoff and Johnson do not want to give the impression that the pervasiveness of conceptual metaphor denies the existence of nonmetaphorical concepts. On the contrary, they signal die existence of a vast system of literal concepts, i.e., concepts of subjective experience and judgment that are not structured metaphorically—for instance, basic-level concepts and spatial-relations concepts. Aside from these, we can hardly think about subjective experience and judgment without having metaphor in mind, Lakoff and Johnson (1999) assert, explaining that nonmetaphorical reasoning “would never capture die full inferential capacity of complex metaphorical thought” (p.59).

2.22 Architecture of Conceptual Metaphor Theory

To help explain conceptual metaphor theory, we will introduce terms and definitions with the conceptual metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNY (see Figure 1).

Domain. A domain is an area of experience. To understand a domain usually requires understanding a frame, which is a prepositional structure that characterizes a set of participants, entities and the relationship between them. For example, journey is a frame that involves traveler, locations, distance, routes, impediments, crossroads and destination etc. To fully understand a journey domain requires understanding of the frame.

Target Domain. The target domain of a conceptual metaphor is the domain being described. In LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, the target domain is LIFE.

Source Domain. The source domain of a conceptual metaphor is the domain being used to structure the target domain. That is, instead of using the target domain (LIFE) language to say something about the target domain, die language of the source domain (JOURNEY) is used to describe the target domain (LIFE).

Cross-Domain Mapping. A cross-domain mapping is an alignment of objects in die source and target domains such that die relations, key attributes and end states of source domain can be used for reasoning and communicating about the target domains. Collectively, these are called key correspondences. Typically, the Target Domain” is more abstract and the “Source Domain” is more concrete. For example, in Figure 1, several objects in the source and target domains of metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY have been aligned such that the prototypical relations and end state of source domain can be mapped onto die target domain. As discussed, cross-domain mapping is likely to form the basis for much of the human conceptual system.

Lakoff and Johnson (1999) point out that mappings are at the superordinate level rather than basic level. Because a mapping at the superordinate level could maximize the possibilities for mapping rich conceptual structure in the source domain onto the target domain, since it permits many basic-level instances, each of which is information rich.

Entailments. Entailments are the result of creating a cross-domain mapping and are keys to appreciating the efficacy of metaphor. An entailment is an inference made about the target domain based on relations and/or attributes of die source domain. For example, given the abstractness of life, one might assume that life would be better with necessary resources. This would be reasonable inferences, as demonstrated by the mapping.

Figure 1 demonstrates how entailments can be generated. That is, Figure 1 provides examples of statements true of the source domain (labeled as “Prototypical Relations within the Source Domain”) that can be coherently projected to the target domain by substituting target objects for source objects (see bottom of figure labeled “Entailments of LIFE IS A JOURNEY Metaphor).

Although the sources domains may be very different, they can share both some basic metaphorical entailments which, according to Lakoff and Kovecses (1987), are details of knowledge carried over from the source domain to the target domain. It is the identity of these entailments that makes it possible for them to be carried over from different source domains to the same target domain.

Invariance Principle. It’s important to reiterate that there are constraints on what will map from the source domain to the target domain. That is, mapping must obey the Invariance Principle. According to Invariance Principle, metaphorical mappings preserve the cognitive topology of the source domain, in a way consistent with the inherent structure of the target domain (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999).

What the Invariance Principle does is to guarantee that, for container schemas, interiors will be mapped onto interiors, exteriors onto exteriors, and boundaries onto boundaries; for path-schemas, sources will be mapped onto sources, goals onto goals, trajectories onto trajectories; and so on. Thanks to the Invariance Principle, people cannot freely “twist” the metaphor in hopes of mapping something from the source domain that violates an understanding of the target domain. The mapping must make sense. It requires a correlation between domains such that an alignment can occur (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999). In fact, as discussed, our facility with mappings and entailments comes from experiences using familiar and experiential domains to structure, reason and communicate about unfamiliar and abstract domains that begin in childhood (e.g., Lakoff and Johnson, 1999).

In short, metaphors are mappings across two conceptual domains. Mappings are not arbitrary, but grounded in the body and in everyday experience and knowledge. Each mapping is a fixed set of ontological correspondences between entities in a source domain and entities in a target domain. When those fixed correspondences are activated, mappings can project source domain in inference patterns onto target domain inference patterns. Metaphorical mapping must obey the Invariance Principle.

2.2.3 Support for Conceptual Metaphor Theory

A growing body of work provides theoretical and empirical support to prove that much of the human conceptual system is based on conceptual metaphors (e.g., Lakoff, 1993; Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, 1999). The most important evidence is the pervasiveness and regularity of cross-domain mappings in everyday language (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980,1999; see also Conceptual Metaphor Homepage for hundreds of examples).For example, we all use the language of VISION to communicate UNDERSTANDING (e.g., “I see your point;” “can you died more light, I don’t see what you mean?”) and the language of JOURNEYS to communicate about PURPOSEFUL LIFE ACTIVTnES (e.g. “he’s headed for great things;” “she’s at a crossroads in her life”; getting his Ph.D. was a big milestone)

When using the language of JOURNEYS to reason or communicate about PURPOSEFUL LIFE ACTIVITIES, there are several regularities. For ©cample, the individual is the “traveler,” goals are “destinations” (e.g., milestones), progress is “distance traveled” (e.g “the promotion is around the corner”), and difficulties are “impediments to motion” (e.g. “it’s a steep climb to get back in shape”). To note, the Aristotelian view offer no explanation for the ubiquity and regularity of conceptual metaphor in everyday thought and language.

It’s important to note that pervasive conceptual metaphors, such as UNDERSTANDING IS VISION and PURPOSEFUL LIFE ACTIVITY IS A JOURNEY, are not arbitrary. They are developed from childhood when words such as “see” and “run” are used to describe both embodied sensorimotor domains such as VISION and PURPOSEFUL FORWARD MOTION, and abstract nonsensorimotor domains such as UNDRSTANDING and GOAL ACHIEVEMENT as in “let’s see what’s behind the door” (Johnson, 1999) and “I will run to the end zone for a touchdown.”

Such common daily aspects or image schemas (and many others such as UP-DOWN, IN-OUT, and FRONT-BACK) are so early and thoroughly learned that we hardly even aware that they are present as the foundations of many of more abstract schematizations and conceptualizations and much of our domain knowledge of the world (e.g., Johnson, 1987). Through repeated use and repeated correlations in experience, the most basic building blocks of phenomenological experience (e.g., vision, purposeful forward motion) become the basis for thinking and communicating about abstract and unfamiliar domains. This link between mind and body is called embodied cognition.

Professor Lakoff and his cognitive colleagues at U.C. Berkeley have identified hundreds of commonly used conceptual metaphors. They hold the conceptual system contains thousands of conventional metaphorical mappings and these conventional metaphorical mappings form a highly structured subsystem of the conceptual system. With so many cross-domain mappings in the human conceptual system it’s no surprise that metaphors are easily understood “because such language is a direct, automatic, and natural reflection of the way people think, reason, and imagine” (Gibbs, 1994,p.20). This is why even novel metaphorical language is usually readily understood without being perceived as violating norms.

Some theorists argue that well-entrenched conceptual metaphors reflect permanent cross-domain neural connections that form the basis for much of the human conceptual system (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999). Whether or not this is the case, some of the most fruitful studies of embodied cognition are taking place in computer science and robotics.

For example, metaphor researchers are using connectionism to model basic level schemas for spatial prepositions such as ABOVE (Regier, 1996). In “teaching” computers to recognize a situation that qualifies as ABOVE (e.g., “the circle is above the triangle”), for example, Regier discovered that such recognition depended on the assessment of even more fundamentally physical notions such as cento1 of gravity. In such studies, the embodiment that lies at the foundations of our understanding of many word meanings is being demonstrated.

hi addition to evidence for conceptual metaphor based on everyday language and computer modeling, there is experimental evidence as well. For example, Gentner & Gentner (1983) found that metaphors can affect reasoning about electrical circuits, and Kempton found the same for reasoning about household thermostats. More recently, Allbritton et al. (1995) found that metaphor-based cognitive structure can both facilitate and inhibit reasoning. The Aristotelian view cannot account for the automaticity and systematicity with which metaphor affects cognition. fSee Gibbs (1994) for a discussion of experimental research on the conceptual view of metaphor.]

23 Conceptual Metaphor, Culture, and Language.

The hypothesized ubiquity of metaphor is considered by some scholars, especially anthropologists, as an “imperialistic conquest” In the view of these researchers, cognitive scientists are considered to claim too large an amount of “explanatory territory” to the detriment of culture (Quinn, 1991).

Anthropologists have tried to define culture from different perspectives and in different ways. For Quinn (1991), Culture is “the shared understandings that people hold and that are sometimes, bid not always, realized, stored, and transmitted in their language” (Quinn, 1991,p.57). In Shore’s opinion (1996), culture is “an extensive and heterogeneous collection of’models,’ models that exist both as public artifacts ‘in the world* and as cognitive constructs ‘in the mind’ of members of a community” (p.44). Shore maintains that humans have the ability to create mental models which are ways of interacting with the reality, with our environment He defines mental models as “creative and adaptive simplifications of reality”, containing schematic and abstract information which is socially constrained (Shore, 1996, p.47). Shore’s mental models are what cognitive scientists call “mental representations’*. Shore also asserts that the ability to create mental models has two dimensions-namely, personal and cultural/conventional. He argues that experiences are not culturally modeled to the same degree and that this represents a distinctive feature of each culture-namely, the extent to which experience is modeled for individuals.

Recently, linguists have started referring more to culture, especially from the perspective of the study of relationship between body/emotion, language, and cognition. They adopt different perspectives insisting on the semantics of words in different cultures and the cultural aspects of cognition, especially the role culture has in metaphoric conceptualization. Sweester (1991) is interested in the “systematic connections between meanings,” specifically in understanding what accounts for the association between a particular meaning in the sociophysical world with a semantic category in the abstract mental world. She maintains that the origin of our “vocabularies of mind and body” is deeply rooted in our psychosomatic system and is metaphorical in nature. She remarks, like other cognitive linguists, that there is close relationship between the physical side of the self and the inner side of it This, Sweester argues, holds true not only for English, but also in all Indo-European languages. In feet, she reiterates what cognitive linguists have emphasized in the context of conceptual metaphor, namely the correlation between sensorimotor experience and subjective experience, which seems to be universal.

Our sensorimotor experience can be acquired only through our body. That is why the human body is particularly focused upon when the correlation between sensorimotor experience and subjective experience is studied, especially with a view to analyzing how abstract concepts are understood with the help of conceptual metaphors grounded in the body. Yu(2000,2001,2003), for example, analyzes metonymic and metaphoric expressions referring to body parts (for example face, finger, palm, gallbladder).He points out that these body-part terms are used to express abstract concepts. He then argues that, although the human body or the liuman schema’ may constitute a universal source domain in conceptual metaphors, it is cultural models that set the frame for the specific interpretation and conceptualization of bodily experience. Yu (2003) concludes that there would be no understanding of the world without our body. However, he adds, “the lenses of worldviews are ‘culturally colored’ and ‘metaphorically framed’. It is through such ‘glasses’ that we cognize the world” (Yu, 2003, p.29). Once again the relationship between body, culture, language, and mind is emphasized.

The tri-dimensional relationship, i.e., body-culture-language, is approached from a similar perspective by scholars interested primarily in the study of emotions and/or senses (Kovecses, 2000; Lakoff and Kovecses, 1993; Sweester, 1991; Wierzbicka, 1992; Yu, 2002).

As far as human emotion, the internal self, is concerned, the questions that arise are quite the same, and they resolve around the role of the body in shaping our emotions, the impact of emotion on the body, and the way in which it is conceptualized in different cultures and expressed in different languages. This interest in the role of the body in the conceptualization of emotion is indicative of the almost unanimous belief that our senses and our mind are closely interrelated. The endeavor to “identify a set of fundamental emotions, universal, discrete, and presumably innate” is approached with caution by Wierzbicka (1992, p. 119). she argues that, if the universal character of human emotions is meant to be emphasized, scholars should identify emotions in terms of a language- independent metalanguage (and not in terms of English “folk words” for «notions); they should study the connection between the universal and culture-specific aspects of «notions from psychological, anthropological, and linguistic perspectives; and finally scholars should conduct a thorough semantic analysis of a large amount of data. What Wierzbicka seems to emphasize is the importance of studying die universal and culture-specific aspects of emotions from several perspectives. And Wierzbicka’s (1992) perspective seems to be the one adopted by a number of scholars (kovecses, 2000; LakofF & Kovecses, 1993; Yu, 1998).

The «notion tarns that have been given special attention in several studies are the anger and happiness. Lakoff and Kovecses (1993) study the cognitive model of anger in American English and conclude that comprehension of anger is based on conceptual metaphors and metonymies which, in their turn, are based on a cultural approach to the physiology of anger dominated by heat and internal pressure (Lakoff ang Kovecses, 1993, p.219).

Yu (1998) gives cross-cultural support from a Chinese perspective by studying metaphors of the same two emotions, namely anger and happiness. He concentrates on the ANGER IS HEAT metaphor, which has two subversions: ANGER IS FIRE and ANGER IS THE HOT GAS IN A CONTAINER. Whereas the former is exactly the same as its English counterpart, the latter differs from its English equivalent ANGER IS A HOT FLUID IN A CONTAINER. Insofar as happiness is concerned, Chinese and English share the conceptual metaphors HAPPY IS UP, HAPPINESS IS LIGHT, and HAPPINESS IS A FLUID IN A CONTAINER. Chinese and English also follow the same metonymic principle of talking about emotions by describing their physiological effects. Yu (1998) claims that the similarities in emotion metaphors between these two languages are grounded in the common human bodily reactions to the «notions, whereas the differences between them may be accounted for by different cultural perceptions. Yu (1998) supports and validates a commonly accepted hypothesis, according to which there should exist cognitive universal», since basic bodily experience should be common among all human beings, as well as cognitive variations across cultures and languages, since bodily experience always interacts with specific physical, social, and cultural environments.

This is exactly the conclusions Kovecses (2000) arrives at, namely that the cultural models of anger and its counterparts “are joint products of metaphor, metonymy, actual physiology, and cultural context” (pi.62). Kovecses emphasizes the role of the broader cultural context, which fills the gap left open by schematic basic structure. Kovecses’s point is very important, since a thorough and reliable cultural study needs to take into consideration both the characteristics of the mainstream culture, i.e. the broader picture and the characteristics of the subculture, i.e. the more local picture.

What linguists, whether semanti cists or cognitive linguists seem to suggest is that there is a relationship between language, culture, body and cognition. Yu (2001) proposes a hypothetical “Triangle Model” meant to emphasize the relationship between language, culture, body, and cognition.
Yu’s (2001) explains that A “stands for the bodily basis” which is in fact the knowledge we have concerning our body, its structure and its functions. The BC line stands for the level of language and the distance between B and C represents the difference between the two languages. The line DE stands for the level of culture and the distance between D and E represents the differences between the two cultures. Yu emphasizes that die distance between D and E is variable and will depend on the degree of similarity or dissimilarity between the two cultures. The cultural distance between D and E impacts the linguistic distance between B and C. On the one hand, the line of AF separates the two languages and cultures, which originates in die common architecture of the human body.

Yu’s (2001) model emphasizes that cultures and language are linked by “the very essence of humanness-the human body, more so with languages than cultures,” meaning that no matter how different two languages and cultures may be, they will always have common roots in the human body (Yu, 2001, p.30). This could be interpreted that, no matter how different two languages and cultures may be, they will have some similar conceptual metaphors due to their common roots in the human body and its interaction with the world. These metaphors are similar, but not identical, because of the cultural and linguistic differences. The culture will choose from the various aspects of bodily experience those that are considered salient in that particular culture, and the language will choose the particular formal expressions that best fit the conceptualization in that particular cultural and linguistic context.

In conclusion, what some linguists, whether semanticists or cognitive linguist, seem to suggest is that there is a relationship between language, culture, body and cognition. This multidimensional relationship is not focused in Lakoff and Johnson’s work. They take interest in the relationship between metaphor, body, and cognition, but they only occasionally and briefly refer to the influence culture might have on this relationship. For example, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) maintain that there is both a physical and a cultural experience which serve as bases for metaphors (p. 19). Although Lakoff and Johnson distinguish between these two kinds of experience, the two scholars have never analyzed the cultural experience in detail, neither have they tried to find out whether there is any relationship between the cultural and the physical sides of our experience. What they do discuss briefly is that the choice among many possible physical bases for metaphor is made according to the principles of cultural coherence, which they exemplify only by reference to American culture.

A step forward is taken by LakofF and Johnson (1999), who discuss culture—or, rath«’, cultural beliefs—in the context of complex metaphors. There is no theoretical discussion about culture or die relation between cultural beliefs and complex metaphors, though. The positive aspect is that, culture is given some weight The discussion of the differences between cultural models and cultural beliefs would have benefited the understanding of the combining mechanisms underlying complex metaphor. Specific cultural beliefs are mentioned as being part of specific metaphors.

When discussing the embodiment of primary metaphor and the fact that it is acquired unconsciously, LakofF and Johnson state, “When the embodied experiences in die world are universal, then the corresponding primary metaphors are universally acquired” (1999, p.56). We infer from this that embodied experiences can be acquired in another manner than the universal one. Can we venture to assume that some embodied experiences are culturally acquired? We do not find an answer in LakofF and Johnson (1999), but we do find an answer in other works, especially in Yu (1998; 2003).Yu analyzed the close relationship between what we experience through our body and the particular culture we belong to. In his opinion, it is exactly the locally, culturally bound type of cultural experience shaping our outlook on the world that is at the foundation of our cognition.

The fact that the theory of conceptual metaphor does not address issues of cultural cognition in sufficient detail constitutes a weakness. Recent studies have shown that along with the universal character of our perception, there is a cultural character which should no longer be denied or ignored. Thus, more attention needs to be paid to cultural perspectives in metaphor research.

2.4 Cross-cultural Study on Advertising 2.4.1 Dimensions of Cultural Value Orientations

Culture is a human constructed complex that is very difficult to study without models for understanding and clarifying the similarities and differences of the collective’s behavioral characteristics. In cross-cultural studies, a relatively small number of models have been developed to systematically compare cultures. The most useful models are those that distinguish dimensions of culture. Cultural dimensions can be used as instruments to make comparisons between cultures and to cluster cultures according to behavioral characteristics. Different cultural dimensions emphasize varied cultural value orientations. In cross-cultural studies of advertising, some dimensions have been often used to compare different cultural values depicted in advertising content, especially Eastern and Western cultures. The following sections will provide a description of those cultural dimensions and value orientations frequently used in the comparison of Western and Eastern cultures.

2.4.1.1 Individualism versus Collectivism

Individualism versus collectivism is perhaps the most basic dimension of cultural variability identified in cross-cultural research. Individualism-collectivism has been discussed across many disciplines with regard to the issue of how individuals related to one another (Hofsted, 1980) . Hofsted (1980) described individualism-collectivism as die relationship between the individual and the collectivity that prevails in a given society. In individualistic cultures, individuals tend to prefer independent relationships to others and to subordinate ingroups goals to their personal goals. In collectivistic cultures, on the other hand, individuals are more likely to have interdependent relationships to their ingroup goals. Moreover, members of these two types of culture have very different perceptions of the self. The self is defined in terms of ingroup memberships (e.g., family and ethnic identity) to a greater extent in collectivistic cultures than individualistic cultures. In collectivistic culture, an individual’s identity is based on the social system to which he or she belongs. Individuals tend to have an identity only as members of the group. In individualistic cultures, however, one’s identity is in the person. Individuals tent to have an identity through self-realization rather than being members of social groups.

Collectivism generally refers to: (1) society-centered orientation, (2) emphasis on sharing, cooperation, and group harmony, and (3) concern for group welfare.

Traditionally, in a collectivistic culture individuals are obligated to pursue the common interests of the collectivity. In contrast, individualism generally refers to: (1) self-centered orientation, (2) emphasis on self-sufficiency and control, and (3) a culture who« people derive pride from their individual accomplishments. Typically, in an individualistic cultural environment, individuals are motivated by self-interest and achievement of personal goals.

Cross-cultural research on individualism versus collectivism has consistently shown that individualistic cultures include most countries in Western Europe and North America, and collectivistic cultures are mostly found in Asia and Latin American (Hofsted, 1980). Some researchers have argued that the difference in die individualism-collectivism dimension represents a prime distinction between Chinese and American cultures (Cheng & Schweitzer, 1996). Chinese societies are typically considered to exemplify collectivistic cultures while the United States is known for its “rugged individualism”.

2.4.1.2 Human Relationship with Nature

The dimension of human relationship with nature is how a cultural group believes that human beings relate with the world around them. Kluckhohn and Strodbeck (1961) recognized a human-to-environment orientation as a fundamental cultural value. They suggest three types of relationships between humanity and nature: mastery over nature, harmony with nature, and subjugation to nature. Mastery over nature involves the perspective that alt natural forces can be overcome and put to use by humans. From this perspective, man is to conquer nature. Nature should be controlled, used and taken advantage of. Harmony with nature draws no distinction among human life, nature, and the supernatural, but sees each as an extension of the other. Thus, man is to live in harmony with nature. Subjugation to nature involves the belief that nothing can be done to control nature and its fate must be accepted. Therefore, man is dominated by nature.

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) further contend that the Western cultures are more prone to emphasize mastery over nature, while Chinese culture is more oriented

to be in harmony with nature, and many African cultures tend to be subjugated to nature. In the Western world, humanity is viewed as separate from nature. In particular, the North American relationship to nature is that nature can be conquered and controlled for human convenience. In contrast, the traditional Chinese concepts to humanity and nature envision humans living in harmony with the natural order. The Chinese traditionally believe that human beings should live in harmony with the natural order by understanding and adjusting their lives to the natural order as seen in the changes of the seasons and the landscape.

2.4.13 Time Orientation

Time is more than what the clock indicates. Different cultures have different perceptions of time. Previous research suggests that time orientation is a product of socialization and one major cultural value that varies across cultures. Time orientation refers to emphasize the past, stress living for today, or encourage investing in tomorrow. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) identified three types of time orientation: past-time orientation, present-time orientation, and future-orientation. Some cultures haw a past-time orientation where there is great respect for tradition and doing things the way they have always been done. These cultures emphasize tradition, history, past accomplishments, and maintenance of the past In cultures with present-time orientation, however, people regard the present as most important. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck stated: “They pay little attention to what has happened in the past and regard the future as both vague and unpredictable. Planning for the future or hoping that the future will be better than either the present or the past simply is not their way of life” (1961, p. 14). These cultures are thus more concerned with enjoyment in the short run, with less attention being paid to what happened in the past or what will happen in the future. Differing past-time-oriented or present-time-oriented cultures, some cultures are future-time-oriented. These cultures may respect the past and live in the present, but there is a premium placed on the future and change to meet the future. Therefore, the future-time-oriented cultures place more value on plans for the future.

In general, people from East Asian countries such as China, Japan, and Korea tend to have past-time orientations, while Latin Americans are more present-time-oriented, and Westerners such as North Americans and Northern Europeans have more of a future time (mentation (Hall, 1976; KJuckhohn and Strodtbeck, 1961).

2.4.1.4 Contextuality

Besides individualism versus collectivism, the contextuality of a culture is one of die most frequently used dimensions for distinguishing Asian cultures from Western ones. Hall (1976) distinguished cultures according to the degree of context in their communication styles. He described the difference between high and low contex communication in the following way:

A high-context (HC) communication or message is one in which most of the information is either in die physical context or internalized in die person, while very little is in the coded, explicated, transmitted part of die message. A low-context (LC) communication is just the opposite: i.e., die mass of the information is vested in die explicit code. Twins who have grown up together can and do communicate more economically (HC) than two lawyers in a courtroom during a trial (LC)… (P.91) According to Hall’s definition, high-context cultures are intuitive and contemplative. They tend to utilize indirect and ambiguous messages. In contrast, low-context cultures are analytical and action oriented. They tend to use clearly articulated and spoken messages.

Hall suggested that cultures are on a sliding scale with respect to contextuality. They further identified that most Asian cultures are high-context, while most Western cultures are low-context, extremes being Japan and China (high-context) and Germany, Switzerland, and the United States (low-context)

2.4.1.5 Summary

In cross-cultural studies, a relatively few cultural dimensions, which emphasize varied cultural value orientations, have been developed to systematically compare cultures. Among these dimensions, individualism versus collectivism, human relationship with nature, time orientation, and contextual ity have been often used to distinguish Eastern and Weston cultures. Eastern and Western cultures have been demonstrated to vary considerably along a bipolar continuum of cultural value orientations within these four dimensions. Eastern cultures, such as Chinese societies and Japanese, are more prone to collectivism, harmony with nature, past-time orientation, and high-context communication, hi contrast, Western cultures, especially the United States, are more oriented to individualism, mastery over nature, future-time orientation, and low context communication.

2.4.2 Cultural Difference Manifest in Advertising Content

Past studies have found that different cultures have different cultural value orientations because each culture has its unique cultural context hi addition, as a form of social communication, advertising has been viewed to be particularly reflective of certain cultural values. As a result the consequences of cultural differences on advertising content have thus become an interesting research topic in international advertising studies. To provide a foundation for die current study, this section presents a review of comparative studies of Chinese and U.S advertising.

Cheng and Schweitzer (1996) conducted a study to identify the dominant cultural values manifest in Chinese and U.S television commercials and to determine the differences between them. Research results identified eight cultural values that dominated either Chinese or U.S. television advertising. Among these eight dominant values, there were no statistically significant differences in the frequencies of family, individualism, technology, and youth. However, enjoyment and economy were used more often in U.S than in Chinese commercials. The findings of this study revealed that while U.S commercials tended to use both symbolic and utilitarian values, Chinese commercials relied more often on symbolic ones. On the basis of research findings, the researchers conclude that both Eastern and Western cultural values are playing important roles in Chinese television commercials and advertising in China is a “melting pot” for cultural values.

Zhang and Gelb (1996) investigated the effects of different advertising appeals used in the U.S. and China. This study, which focused on die match between values expressed in advertising and values in each of the two countries, also looked at the influence of product use condition. Research results demonstrated that Chinese consumers responded more favorably to a collectivistic than to an individualistic appeal.

Instead of comparing advertising content, Zhang and Neelankavil (1997) conducted an experiment to examine the influence of culture on advertising effectiveness in China and U.S. The research results showed that cultural differences existed in die liking of advertising appeals used to advertise different products. Overall, U.S. subjects preferred the individualistic appeal more than the collectivistic appeal, whereas Chinese subjects generally favored the collectivistic appeal. In addition, the results of this study demonstrated that product type might moderate cultural influence on advertising effectiveness.

As we can see from the above, content analysis is the most common method used to investigate cultural differences on advertising content The primary purpose of these studies is to investigate cultural similarities and differences manifested in advertising. These studies of cross-cultural advertising have provided empirical evidence to support the claim that cultural differences are manifest in advertising content across countries. Differences in these studies have mainly been explained by collectivism-individualism dimension. Other cultural variables, such as contextuality, human relationship with nature and time orientations, which have been viewed as important cultural characteristics to distinguish Western cultures from Eastern ones, are seldom studied. It is suggested that more cultural variable should be included in future studies on the relationship between cultural variations and advertising

2.5 Research Questions

According to the preceding literature review, the conceptual metaphor theory has gained wide recognition. The cross-domain mapping proves to be an effective method to analyze metaphors. The fact that most researches of conceptual metaphor have

focused on everyday communication and poetry has indicated the need for more studies on conceptual metaphor in other registers. To comply with this suggestion, one of the research purposes of this study will be to investigate the use of conceptual metaphor in advertising and testify the universality of conceptual metaphor claims. Moreover, scholars have indicated there is a relationship between language, culture, body and cognition. However, the prior theoretical attention has focused on the relation between body, language and cognition, leaving quite a remarkable gap in knowledge about cultural aspects. One of die framing ideas of this thesis is that, besides cognitive aspects a thorough analysis of conceptual metaphor should necessarily include the cultural aspects. Therefore, this study attempts to figure out the cultural influence on conceptual metaphor through a comparative study of English and Chinese auto slogans. Dimensions of cultural value orientations have proved to be effective and useful instruments to make comparisons between cultures. Thus, the writer attempts to explain the difference of metaphor use in the collected auto slogans by those dimensions of cultural value orientations, which have been viewed as important cultural characteristics to distinguish Western cultures from Eastern ones.

Based on the above research purposes, three research questions are formulated for die comparative study.

Ql: Do conceptual metaphor claims hold true in Chinese and English auto slogans?

Q2: What is the relationship between culture and metaphor?

Q3: Can cultural value orientations explain the difference of metaphor use in the collected auto slogans? If they can, what kinds of dimensions of cultural value orientations play more important roles?

Chapter 3 Research Method

3.1 Introduction

The major aim of this thesis is to provide a cross-cultural analysis of conceptual metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980,1999) in English and Chinese auto slogans. The interest this thesis takes in cultural aspects of conceptual metaphors is motivated by the fact that the issue of culture seldom comes up in discussion of conceptual metaphor. Prior theoretical attention has focused almost exclusively on the cognitive aspects of metaphor leaving quiet a remarkable gap in knowledge about the cultural aspects. Another reason for this study is based on the fact few researches, especially domestic researches, have investigated conceptual metaphor in advertising. It is hoped that die diesis would throw some light on the application of conceptual metaphor theory to advertising.

Content analysis is adopted to analyze the data in this study, for it is popular and frequently used in cross-cultural studies. The cultural analysis attempted in this thesis relies on the comparison of conceptual metaphors and their metaphorical expressions in auto slogans. Cultural difference would be explained by those established dimensions of cultural value orientations which have been viewed as important cultural characteristics to distinguish Western cultures from Eastern ones.

3.2 Description of Data

The data used in this thesis were 200 English auto slogan and 218 Chinese auto slogan. This choice was motivated by the observation that, to a large extent, cognitive studies on metaphor had focused mainly on the study of English with somewhat limited subsequent reference to other languages. Currently, while there are many researches on conceptual metaphor, few investigate the conceptual metaphor use in advertising.

Another important reason for the writer’s selection of slogans as data is the easy access to the data, for advertisements are pervasive in our society. Among all the ad elements (headline, picture, logo and slogan), slogan is often considered to be the battle shouts of modern commerce. Slogans are claimed to be, and often proven to be, the most effective means of drawing attention to the product Good slogans have the potential to reinforce companies’ images and would-be consumers’ preference. And the wording in a slogan is always carefully chosen, brief and witty.

Among piles of slogans, automobile slogans were selected. The preference for the category of automobile is based on Advertising Age reports. According to Advertising Age, the spending on automobile advertisements is numb«’ one. Meanwhile, according to China Association of Automobile Manufactures, China’s vehicle sales rose 25% to a record 7.2 million units in 2006. Automobile plays a more and more important role in Chinese society.

As is known, in cross-cultural research efforts must be made to ensure that the cultural samples are comparable. Otherwise one could invoke alternative explanations for any differences in results which might appear across the cultures. The writer tried the best to ensure that the samples are comparable in selecting the auto slogans. Most of these slogans are produced to advertise world famous brands, such as Audi, BMW, Buick, Chevrolet, Ford, etc. That is to say, these brands are both advertised in Chinese and English. The slogans for these brands are available in both English and Chinese. Meanwhile, some more local brands were collected for a better understanding of cultural influence. For example, slogans for HaFei, YueJin and SongHuaJiang, which are the brands mainly targeted at domestic market were collected in Chinese data.

33 Coding 33.1 Coding Sheet

A sample coding sheet will be provided at Appendix 1. This coding sheet is an adaptation of George Spiro Babbes’s coding sheet (2000). To ensure the effectiveness of the coding, the writer adopted George Spiro Babbes’s coding definitions. And each slogan was decoded on a coding template.

33.2 Coding Scheme

For the purposes of this study, five categories of coded advertising slogans will be discussed: (1) key selling ideas; (2) advertising appeal; (3) presence of metaphor; (4) target domain; (5) source domain. The categories were selected to provide useful comparisons with work-to-date in both the advertising and metaphor research streams.

Key Selling Idea. A key selling idea is what advertisers want to get audience to believe about certain product or service, such as efficiency, safety and technology. According to their focus, die key selling ideas were coded into four categories: (a) product features; (b) product benefits; (c) firm; and (d) consumer.

Advertising Appeal. An advertising appeal refers to the approach used to attract the attention of consumers and/or to influence their feelings toward the product, service, or cause. It’s something that moves people, speaks to their wants or need, and excites their interest. Often it is the underlying content of the advertisement. Appeals could be classified into two groups, namely emotional appeal and rational appeal.

Emotional appeal relates to the customers’ social and/or psychological needs for purchasing a product or service. Rational Appeals focus on the consumer’s practical, functional, or utilitarian need for the product or service and emphasize features of a product or service and/or benefits or reasons for owning or using a particular brand.

Presence of Metaphor. The criterion is the presence of a cross-domain mapping, that is, the use of one conceptual domain to describe another.

Target Domain of Metaphor. The target domain of each slogan was coded into the following four categories: (a) product features; (b) product benefits; (c) firm; and (d) consumer.

As an example, consider a 5 hp lawn mower. 5hp is a feature,; the fact that the 5 hp engine of the lawn mower helps you mow our lawn in half the time is a benefit, that the lawn mower is made by a firm that has been making lawn mowers for 100 years is a firm characteristic, and if the ad that the product is for someone who doesn’t like to mow the lawn and would rather lounge around the pool, it is about the consumer.

Occasionally, a metaphor would bridge two categories, in which case both were recorded. Take the Bajaj Pulsar slogan “Definitely male” as an example. “Male’ can refer to both the auto and die on who drives it As a result there are two interpretations for this slogan. If it emphasizes the auto is for those who are male and manly, it is about consumer. If it focuses on die auto itself and tries to tell audience that the auto possesses properties of a male, it is about feature. On this occasion, both categories were recorded. See Table 1 for a list of coding definitions of target domains used in this study.