Master Tropes in English Magazine Advertisements: A Semiotic Topic-Vehicle Approach

Abstract

本文討論英文雜誌廣告中的主要譬喻（明喻、隱喻、轉喻），運用符旨符徵取徑辨識、分析這三種譬喻。本文希望解答下列兩個問題：第一、符旨符徵取徑是否能說明英文雜誌廣告中的主要譬喻；第二、英文雜誌廣告中的主要譬喻是否以同樣的概念結構出現在完整的子句與獨立片語之中。結論是符旨符徵取徑大致可運用於英文雜誌廣告中的主要譬喻，且各類、各次類出現於完整子句的譬喻均可以獨立片語的語言形式呈現。

This paper investigates three master tropes (viz. simile, metaphor, and metonymy) in English magazine ads, taking a semiotic topic-vehicle approach to identify and analyze the three tropes. The purpose of the investigation is twofold: to see (i) if the topic-vehicle approach can account for the three tropes in English magazine ads and (ii) if the three tropes occur in independent phrases the same as they occur in complete clauses. It is concluded that the semiotic topic-vehicle approach, including the concept of complex tropes derived from it, is generally applicable to the three tropes in English magazine ads and that every type and subtype of a trope assuming the form of a complete clause can also take the form of an independent phrase.