The Interpretation of Advertising Englishfrom the Perspective of Relevance Theory

Duan++Yao

Abstract：On the basis of optimal relevance and dynamic context etc，this paper accounted for the ostensive-inferential process of advertising，shed light on the interpretation of advertising of advertiser as well as the process of searching optimal relevance of audience，which offers a new angle of advertising interpretation.

Key words：Relevance Theory；advertisement；contextual effect；processing effort

Relevance Theory

Relevance theory was formally put forward by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in their book Relevance：Communication and Cognition in 1986 and the second edition in 1995.Relevance is defined by further two notions or the degrees of relevance depend on two notions：cognitive effects and processing effort.Sperber and Wilsions definition of relevance is：

（a） Other things being equal，the greater the cognitive effects achieved in an individual by processing some information，the greater the relevance of that information to that individual.

（b） Other things being equal，the smaller the processing effort required to achieve those cognitive effects，the greater the relevance of that information to that individual.（Sperber and Wilson：1986：30）

Their relationship can be illustrated by the following frumula：

contextual effect

Relevance=

processing effort

An utterance is optimally relevant when it is relevant when it is relevant enough to be worth processing，and is，moreover，the most relevant utterance that the speaker is willing and able to produce.Sperber and Wilson（1986：32）define the optimal relevance as follows：

Optimal relevance

An utterance，on a given interpretation，is optimally relevant if，and only if：

（a） it is at least relevant enough to be worth processing；

（b） it is the most relevant one compatible with speakers abilities and preferences.

The hearers goal in comprehension is to find an interpretation that satisfies this expectation of optimal relevance.Communicators cannot always be relied on to give the most relevant possible information，or to present it in the least effort-demanding way.In the first place，the speaker may not have the information that the hearer would find the most relevant；he may be unable to think of it；or he may be unwilling to give it.In the second place，the speaker may not have enough time to think of the best possible formation of his utterance；he may not be competent to express himself in the most economical（or least effort demanding）way；or he may have stylistic preferences which prevent him from choosing the best possible formulation.Nonetheless，from the very fact that the speaker is offering the hearer information，which requires some expenditure of processing effort，the hearer is entitled to expect the utterance to be at least relevant enough to be worth his attention.endprint

Advertising as communication

French advertising reviewer Robert Green has ever said that the air we breathe every day actually is composed of oxygen，helium and advertisements.So it is unimaginable how our developed society can be without ads.

Advertising is a specific form of communication.The two main functions of advertising are informing and persuading/influencing.They are not of equal significance.The former is subordinated to the latter.An advertiser does not inform for the sake of improving his audiences knowledge of the world，but only to sell a product of service.

In relevance theory terms，communication is successful only when（a）it attracts the attention of the target audience，（b）it indicates that the speaker wishes to convey a message of interest to the hearer，（c）the audience recognizes the speakers informative intention and finds it worthwhile to make the effort to understand what the speaker intends to tell them，and（d）the message received by the hearer is as close as possible to what the speaker has in mind.So is advertising communication.The various means that an advertiser takes are aimed at attracting an audiences attention and making him realize he needs it and finally decide to buy it.But these days，people are exposed to a great amount o information.One of the thorniest problems left to an advertiser lies in the difficulty in realizing an effective communication between him and his audience.

The success of ad communication concerns more aspects.The initial role of the advertisement is to make the audience concern with it，and find the optimal relevance through the inferring process.A successful communication will lead to the effective propaganda of the relevant products and enlarge the popularity of the products.Finally an excellent advertisement realizes its most expected role to bring great profit for the businessman.On the contrary，if an ad fails to show the advertisers intention or makes the audience be fed up with it，then it is doomed to gain a evil consequence.It is not a simple failure of this advertisement itself.Some audience even does not accept or dislikes the product due to the distasting of this ad.The economical loss is unimaginable and immeasurable.There is an example：

（1）Time can change everything…——RADO watch

時(shí)間改變一切，惟獨(dú)……——雷達(dá)表

The omission here is evidently with the ellipsis.When the audience read this ad，they think why the designer omits some words and what they are.The audience takes effort to conclude and find：endprint

（1） a.Time cannot leave any trace on Rado.

b.Rado can always be as fresh，new and accurate as when you got it.

In the end，the audience can achieve the contextual effects that are the expectation of the advertiser.The advertiser tries to guide the audience to understand the ad.Then the interpretation process comes to the point intersecting with the example.The contextual effect is arrived at，that is time cannot affect Rado，for which no change is greatly valued.There is another example：

（2） It is the taste.

Of course，the meaning of this sentence is infinite.As audience，we could give several intentional meanings according to different situations.A little girl hurried home after school，and took the biscuit to eat.Her father asked why not have lunch at school.The daughter responded：it is the taste.Obviously，the“taste”she said is not good，indeed，quite bad.That is the reason why she didnt eat at school.

But it is this sentence，“It is the taste.”that makes the Nestle Coffee wide-spread all over the world and of course，it brings Nestle Company considerable profit.Why does the same sentence make such different effects？Lets employ the concepts of the dynamic context and ostension-inferential communication of relevance theory to explain this phenomenon.From the point of view of consumers，we all know this sentence is the slogan of an ad，and all the advertisers are aimed to value his product.The advertisers purpose is to inform the audience the superior quality of his product and then persuade or influence the target audience to purchase the product to fulfill the greater profit.On the basis of these assumptions the audiences become aware of the fact that the advertiser is speaking highly of，not criticizing or depreciating his product and want the audience to share the advantage of the product.With less processing effort，the audience achieves the real contextual effect the advertiser purposed to construct.The communication processes successfully.That is the contribution of the optimal relevance.This as is for Nescaf coffee，so it is interpreted as“味道好極了！”.Till now this slogan is as famous as Nescaf coffee all over the world.It has become an outstanding model in advertising.

The essence of RT is“every act of ostensive communication communicates the presumption of its own optimal relevance”Sperber and Wilson（1995：158）

RT shows that communication is not simply a matter of encoding and decoding，but involves inference.Yet inference has only to do with the hearer.From the communicators side，communication is seen as an act of making clear ones intention to express something，which is called ostensive act.Thus，“ostensive-inferential”is a complete characterization of communication.In the communicative act of advertising，we first need to pay attention to the production of advertising messages by ad professionals，then examine the subsequent readings/understandings that the audience place upon such messages.As communicators，ads professionals or advertisers encode an intended meaning into an advertising message，they must make manifest what they want to express；while the audience are expected to infer/interpret the message in accordance with the intended or preferred meaning.Thus，advertising is a typical ostensive-inferential process.

Relevance theory appears to be an ideal tool to the interpretation of advertising communication between an advertiser and his audience.Moreover，it sheds light on the fact that the advertising is a form of communication and an ad is a tool for conveying a great deal more than is actually said.

[Bibliography]

Gutt，Ernst-August 1991，Translation and Relevance，[M]Cambridge：Basil Blackwell

[2]Sperber，Dan&Wilson，Deridre 1986/1995，Relevance：Communication and Cognition，Cambridge：Blackwell

[3]何自然，冉永平2001，《語(yǔ)用與認(rèn)知-關(guān)聯(lián)理論研究》，外語(yǔ)教學(xué)與研究出版社

[4]梁婷，夏天2003，《英文廣告手冊(cè)》，西南財(cái)經(jīng)大學(xué)出版社

（作者單位：Basic Courses Teaching Department，Chinese Peoples Armed Police Forces Academy，Langfang，Hebei，065000）endprint