Abstract
Advertising language has received a thorough study from different aspects. With the development of linguistics, the studies on advertising language are inclined to the relationship between language and context. In this case, pragmatic presupposition appears to be the very tool for its sensitive nature to context. In addition, common ground and appropriateness of pragmatic presupposition also make great contribution to the concise and economical advertisement. However, other properties like one-sidedness, subjectivity and latency are equally noticed. Proper exploitation of these features may develop useful market strategies. Therefore, it is of great significance to study advertising language from pragmatic presupposition perspective.
The thesis focuses on the phenomenon of pragmatic presupposition in English advertisement for beverage. Based on the foundational theory, the classifications and functions of pragmatic presupposition are exposed by qualitative study method. Meanwhile, a case study is conducted to tentatively explore the distribution and frequency of each type by quantitative analysis. Research findings show that pragmatic presupposition occurs in 94% of the collected 100 drinks advertisements; the state presupposition accounts for the largest percentage (40%) among all five classifications , followed by belief presupposition, behavior presupposition, existential presupposition and fact presupposition, for 22%, 14%, 13%, 5% respectively.
Key Words: advertising language pragmatic presupposition function classifications description