The rhetorical features of TV advertising language in Hong Kong

Abstract

Rhetoric features are commonly found in everyday speech. However，the current teaching of Chinese rhetoric at Hong Kong schools is always merely associated with the examples of textbooks and literature，which are considered boring and dull． From the perspective of modern rhetorical theory，this paper discusses the five common rhetorical devices based on the speech examples of television advertisements，and explains the common phenomenon of using both Cantonese and English in television advertising language is due to the geographic environment and historical background in Hong Kong． 修辞离不开我们的生活，现在香港语文科里的修辞教学只用课文和文学为例而忽略了日常习见的 例子，这难免给人枯燥死板的感觉。文章拟就香港电视广告进行实例探讨，以现代修辞学理论内的“积极修辞”为出发点，阐述电视广告里较常使用的五种修辞手法，包括夸张、双关、比拟、反复、对偶，并指出由于地缘环境与时代背景的关系，香港电视广告呈现粤方言与英语大量使用的现象，而且没有减少的趋势。