ABSTRACT

Slogans are used to conduct propaganda and agitation by brief text. According to its nature, slogans can be divided into political slogan, advertising slogan, public slogan and personality slogan, and bumper stickers are the most common personality slogan.   

The thesis collects bumper stickers by field research and web search. This thesis using theories of stylistics and pragmatics studies bumper stickers, focusing on their stylistic features and pragmatic functions.  

The result of the study shows that: (1) Bumper stickers have stylistic features in phonology, graphology, vocabulary, syntax and sematic aspects, such as rhyming, attractive pictures, new words, various syntax, figures of speech and so on. (2) Bumper stickers have the pragmatic functions of being polite, threatening, personality showing, safe warning, and entertainment. Thus, the study of bumper stickers reveals the mentality of different groups of people, showing a variety of human culture complex.

Key words: bumper stickers; stylistic features; pragmatic functions

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One INTRODUCTION-1

1.1-Object of the Study-1

1.2-Significance of the Study-2

1.3-Structure of the Thesis-2

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW-3

2.1 Bumper Stickers-3

2.1.1 The origin of bumper stickers-3

2.1.2 Definition and classification of bumper stickers-4

2.2 Studies on Bumper Stickers-5

2.3 Summary-6

Chapter Three METHODOLOGY-7

3.1 Research Questions-7

3.2 Data Collection-7

3.3 Data Analysis-8

Chapter Four STYLISTIC FEATURES OF BUMPER STICKERS-9

4.1 Phonological Features of Bumper Stickers-9

4.1.1 Rhyme-9

4.1.2 Homophone-10

4.2 Graphlogical Features of Bumper Stickers-11

4.2.1 Eye-catching format-11

4.2.2 The use of pictures-12

4.2.3 Concise words-12

4.3 Lexical Features of Bumper Stickers-13

4.3.1 New words-13

4.3.2 Loanwords-15

4.3.3 Symbols-16

4.3.4 Hot words-16

4.4 Syntactic Features of Bumper Stickers-17

4.4.1 Declarative sentences-17

4.4.2 Interrogative sentences-18

4.4.3 Imperative sentences-18

4.4.4 Exclamatory sentences-19

4.5 Semantic Features of Bumper Stickers-19

4.5.1 Metaphor-19

4.5.2 Hyperbole-20

4.5.3 Parody-21

4.5.4 Pun-21

4.5.5 Antithesis-22

4.5.6 Personification-23

4.6 Summary-23

Chapter Five THE PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS OF BUMPER STICKERS-24

5.1 Being Polite-24

5.2 Being Threatening-25

5.3 Safety Warning-26

5.4 Personality Reflecting-27

5.5 Entertainment-28

Chapter Six CONCLUSION-29

6.1 Research Findings-29

6.2 Implications-30

6.3 Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Future Research-30

REFERENCES-32

Appendix: Bumper Stickers-34