A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Pharmaceutical Corporate Profiles Based on Rhetorical Appeal

Abstract

Rhetorical behavior refers to the behavior of actively using language resources around a specific audience, narrowing the distance between the two parties who had a strong sense of separation, and guiding the audience to cooperate. In this sense, the corporate profile for the purpose of communication and dissemination is also a rhetorical act. The differences in Chinese and Western cultural psychology, aesthetic concepts and value concepts affect the significant differences in rhetoric between the two. With the profiles of Chinese and American pharmaceutical companies as subject, on the basis of Aristotle's rhetorical appeals, the paper has made a contrastive analysis of the rhetorical process of realization of ethos, pathos and logos in corporate profiles between China and America. The study found that the main differences in the rhetoric process of Chinese and American corporate profiles are as follows: Chinese corporate profiles emphasize the nature of the company, the awards and honors the company has won, and product safety, so as to highlight the status of the company in the national economy. They generally take the third person form. The US corporate profiles emphasize the business scope or business objectives of the business, focuses on the interests of consumers, and adopts a specific statement of facts, usually in the first person form. Studying the profiles of Chinese and American companies from the perspective of rhetorical comparison can help people understand Western rhetorical habits, make rhetoric centered on the audience, and then more efficiently meet the needs of the audience and better enhance the competitiveness of enterprises. The study is expected to give reference to Chinese corporate international communication.