Chapter One Introduction
1.1Research Background
In the global information age，with the rapid development of modem economy,information industry and acceleration of globalization, the enterprises become abundant.Because of its abundance, the competition among the business world is becoming more andmore violent. Whether a business has the capability or potential to win in the cruelcompetition is not the only criterion of product quality. It is not that simple. It is veryimportant that the enterprise should carry out various sales promotion to make the productmore attractive and more and more people can know it. For this reason, the advertisementnot only plays a significant role in the economic life，but also in our daily-life. There arethousands of commercial advertisements surrounding us everyday，and the types of theseadvertisements are different, including video advertisements, radio advertisements,traditional posters and so on. Because of the large amount of advertisements which the goodand the bad intermingled，some people are sick of them. And with the double-quick rhythmof life driving forward in modem society, many people do not have enough time to notice it.Even some people show total disregard for it. How to create a wonderful advertisementgather more people's and consumer's attention in a short period of time and arouse extensiveand nice response becomes the essential issue to the enterprise.
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1.2Aims of the Present Study
The purpose of this thesis is aimed at offering a new angle to deal with theestablishment and development of enterprise slogans. Nowadays, in such a huge economicworld, there is no doubt that enterprise slogan plays a very important role. We are immersedin numerous advertising messages, it is becoming more and more tough to draw consumer'sattention. The enterprise slogan regards as “the eye of publicity", it is more than somewhatimportant in any publicity campaign. It can catch customers' and business partners' attentionin a second to leave a good and deep impression on their excellent products and services.The status quo of enterprise slogan is not enough and far from satisfying. Althoughsome researches and paper can be found which it cannot be denied, it seems unavailable thatthere is no enough comprehensive and systematic studies which are supported by a uniformtheoretical framework. A large part of the slogans are really boring, so there is an urgentneed to conduct researchers on enterprise slogans.For the last reason, the foregrounding theory opens a new area on the study ofenterprise slogans. The enterprise slogans could be more attractive and competitive whichare acted on by foregrounding theory. The foregrounding research of enterprise slogan is just2like a virgin soil which is seldom analyzed specifically before. Hopefully a systematic andcomprehensive outline can be constructed at the end of this thesis, which may help us to geta better understanding of how the foregrounding theory can influence the quality ofenterprise slogans.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Introduction to Enterprise Slogan
Nowadays, with the rapid development of economic globalization and informationtechnology，as an important part of enterprise culture, enterprise slogan provides a way todisplay its image, create its culture and to improve its competitiveness. It also offers a lot ofresources for enterprises to communicate with each other. So the well-designed enterpriseslogan is more like a business card of the enterprise to draw more people's attentioninstantaneously.There are many kinds of slogans within different fields in our daily life. In a broadsense，a slogan could be a maxim in the contexts of politics，commerce and so on. In thenarrow sense，a slogan an integral portion of consumer advertising which is called theadvertising slogan. This part introduces the definition，characteristics and functions ofenterprise slogan. According to the explanation on tiie free encyclopedia, the word slogan was originatedfrom slogom which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-gairm tanmay. In thissentence，sluagh means "army" or "hot" and gainn means “cry". A slogan is a remarkablephrase used in different areas, such as politics, religion, etc. And other context as a repeatingexpression of an idea or purpose. Slogms vary from the written and the visual to the chantedand vulgar.
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2.2 Research of Foregrounding
The term "foregrounding" was originated from the art form of painting which wascontrasted with background, automation and convention. We are usually attracted by theoutstanding part when we admire a painting, they are just also the specifics of the painting.The other portions of the painting form the background. In the same way, we are easilyattracted by impressive part of the writing when we read something, just like admiring apainting. But the distinction is only that the foregrounding is achieved through languagephenomenon here. The concept of foregrounding has its roots in Russian Formalism and the representativeis Shklovsky who is the major speaker of Russian Formalism. At the beginning of 20^^century, according to the opinions of the scholars of Russian Formalism, the purpose ofliterary studies is "literariness" which focuses on the unique use of language with a literarywork. Shklovsky holds that we are so used to the things around us in daily life so ourfeelings to these things including language becomes automatic. We cannot realize the specialand unique part around us. And the target of literature is to make people feel the world in adifferent and fresh way. So he put forward "Defamiliarization" and “Deautomation”. A workof art can be made out of regulation through defamiliarizing.
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Chapter Three Theoretical Framework..........12
3.1 The Foregrounding Theory........12
3.1.1Definition of Foregrounding ........13
3.1.2Types of Foregrounding........14
3.1.2.1Deviation........14
3.1.2.2Overregularity........14
Chapter Four Data Collection and Methodology........15
4.1Research Methods........15
4.2Data Collection?........16
4.3Data Description.........16
4.4Data Analysis........18
Chapter Five Foregrounding Devices in English Enterprise Slogans........20
5.1 Graphological Deviation........21
5.2Semantic Deviation........25
5.3Lexical Deviation........30
5.4Syntactic Deviation........35
5.5Phonological Overregularity........37
5.6Lexical Overregularity........39
5.7Syntactical Overregularity........40
Chapter 6 The Features of Enterprise Slogans Reflected ByForegrounding Devices
6.1 Simplicity of Enterprise Slogans
People use language every day and it is very important to us in our daily life. Becauselanguage is the simplest way to express our opinions, people always choose it as a tool toexpress complex ideas. All the people will not use language if it has become more complexthan thought. Generally speaking, the simpler the language structure is, the more likely it isremembered. Even though language has an infinite recursion in theory, people like a shortand simple way in real life. Cognitive psychologists found that human beings havelimitations in working memory, because it can only accommodate about 5 to 9 words blocks(blocks are the units of word meaning, which can be numbers, words, proverbs, and poetry,etc.). As a result, advertising designers require the advertising slogans to be concise in orderto solve the limitations of human memory. They tend to simplify the forms of expression ofslogans as possible as they can, and attempt to use the least effort to communicate withcustomers.
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Conclusion
Nowadays, with the rapid development of economic globalization and progressivelyrecurrent international communication, the English enterprise slogan become more and morecommon. It is very helpful for more people to get the core value or products of the enterprise.A successful and impressive enterprise slogan can also help the company to establish a niceimage in society. So the study of it is very important and necessary.The language of English enterprise slogans, as a sub-type of the language of advertising,it has its special stylistic features. And based on the functional-stylistic theory offoregrounding, this thesis has analyzed the foregrounded stylistic characters of Englishenterprise slogans at some different linguistic levels.There are two kinds of foregrounding, one is deviation and the other is overregularity.There are also some sub-categories under these two main types. The deviation at the lexicallevel assists to shorten the meaning of information. Deviation at the syntactic level that takesoff the unessential information and stresses on the essential one. Deviation at the semanticlevel that tells viewers aesthetically. And for overregularity, through the use of alliterationand rhyme at the phonological level, through the use of short words and vivid verbs at thelexical level. It is also a good way to make the enterprise slogans melodious and dynamic.All of them work to accomplish straightforwardness and clash. It can make enterpriseslogans attractive and inform people with an attractive way.
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