MOLDOVA STATE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSLATION, INTERPRETATION AND
APPLIED LINGUISTICS
PETREA GALINA
SEMANTIC - PRAGMATIC DIMENSION OF THE ADVERTIZING
DISCOURSE. TRANSLATION DIFFICULTIES.
223.1 Applied Linguistics (Eng.) Specialty.
MASTER’S DEGREE PAPER
Scientific Advisor
______________________
G. ŞAGANEAN
PhD, Associate Professor
Author
______________________
PETREA GALINA, gr. 262
Head of the Chair
______________________
A. GRĂDINARU,
PhD, Associate Professor
CHIŞINĂU 2013
1
CONTENTS
Abstract ( English) …………………………………………………………………………I
Abstract (Romanian) ………………………………………………………………………II
Introduction
…………………………………………………………………………III
Glossary of Linguistic Terms with Reference to the Paper………………………………...IV
I.
CHAPTER I. DISCOURSE. DEFINING THE BASIC CONCEPTS…………………....1
1.1
Different Perspectives to the Concept of Discourse………………………………………1
1.1.1 Text - Context and Discourse Relation. ………………………………………...4
1.1.2
1.2
The Dichotomy of Written vs Spoken Text within Discourse………………...7
Pragmatics: Language Philosophy vs Textuality (Text Pragmatics)……………………...8
1.2.1
Discourse Laws According to Grice’s and Leech’s Pragmatic Maxims
and Sub-Maxims…………………………………………………………...10
1.2.2 Peculiarities of Paul Austin’s Speech Acts in Advertizing Discourse…………15
1.3.
Analysis Tools for the Advertising Discourse…………………………………………17
Conclusions for Chapter I………………………………………………………………………19
CHAPTER II. PRAGMATIC ASPECTS APPLIED TO THE ADVERTIZING DISCOURSE
2.1 Scope of the Advertizing Discourse and Historical Background……………………….....20
2.1.1 Constituent Elements of the Advertizing Discourse. ………………………........25
2.2 Avertizing Discourse Classification According to the Communicative Aspect…………..29
2.2.1 Medium: Printed Magazine Advertisements………………………………………30
2.2.2 How Advertising Works. Functions and Hierarchy of Effects……………………38
2.2.3 Pragmatic Description of the Corpus for Analysis ……………………………......43
2.2.4 Multimodal Semiosis of Advertizing Discourse……………………………………51
2.2.5 General Presentation of the Corpus for Analysis……………………………………53
Conclusions for Chapter II……………………………………………………………………….61
CHAPTERIII. ADVERTIZING DISCOURSE. TRANSLATION PROBLEMS……………63
3.1 Translation Methods Adopted for a Multimodal Discourse…………………………………63
3.2 Case Study: Steve Jobs Unveils iPhone IV / Steve Jobs dezvăluie iPhone IV………………65
3.2.1 Pragmatic Aspects, the Deictic Framework, in the Presentation Discourse………..66
3.2.2 Linguistic peculiarities and Translation Methods………………………………….72
3.3 Translation Problems in the Case-Study……………………………………………………76
CONCLUSIONS for Chapter III……………………………………………………………….79
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General Conclusions for the Paper………………………………………………………………81
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………..82
Annex 1. Tables. Scripts.
Annex 2. Adverts.
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RESUME
The present thesis on the topic “Semantic-Pragmatic Dimension of the Advertising
Discourse. Translation Problems” is completed by the author Galina Petrea master degree
student, group 262; under the supervision of the scientific advisor Gabriela ŞAGANEAN , PhD,
Associate Professor at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Department of
Translation, Interpretation and Applied Linguistics from State University of Moldova.
The structure of the thesis comprises a glossary of main linguistic terms used in the paper, an
Introduction, Three Chapters 83 pages, including conclusions for each chapter and general
conclusions for the work; a list of bibliography of 72 sources and two annexes.
Our general objective is to trace the most modern currents and trends in textuality, text
pragmatics, and apply the knowledge to an instance of it - the advertising discourse in its
complexity and variety from printed, to the
video form advertisements; a symbiosis and
interplay of execution modes, carrying a variety of messages, with strictly defined purposes.
The First Chapter presents the theoretical background, the Second Chapter is theoreticalpractical, it attempts a comparative approach to two radically different modes of execution, the
advertising discourse through the printed medium and multimodal semiosis. The Third Chapter
represents a contrastive analysis of the discourse of a product presentation in terms of translation
difficulties from the functionalist perspective, genre specific challenges, and advantages.
Primary and secondary objectives have been successfully achieved with a coherent and
cohesive work that does convey a message, brings arguments and supports the arguments with
theoretically grounded citations and with the factual material - the corpuses for analysis chosen
and analysed, scrutinized with the scientifically proven tools quantitative, statistical methods,
tables for organization and analysis of data and the derived conclusions.
The overall allegedly decreasing place, space, role attributed to the linguistic aspect of the
advertising discourse has proven to be deceptive as in the hybridized modes of semiosis with a
more prominent role of visual and acoustic graphics, the verbal element has simply become more
diverse it comes under the form of super, of voiceover, supporting the basic dialogical form of
the advertising discourse; thus, on the contrary increasing in importance as placing the much
needed stress and emphasis on the correct decoding of the overall message of the discourse. The
results of the thesis could be applied to diverse purposes. Being a comparative contrastive study
of discoursive phenomena it could prompt to ways of perception and insight into the advertising
discourse that is also the object of sociological study a marketing promotional tool, and which is
a modern element of culture and a powerful psychological instrument of influence.
4
INTRODUCTION
The theme of the present thesis is “Semantic-Pragmatic Dimension of the Advertising
Discourse. Translation Problems.”
We proceed from the postulate stated by postmodernists that visual images in an era of
high technologies would oust and disable language, confer it a secondary role, or even cause it to
disappear, as they are referring to postmodernist cultures as being post-linguistic.
Our general objective is to trace the most modern currents and trends in (textuality) text
pragmatics, and apply the knowledge to an instance of it - the advertising discourse in its
complexity and variety from printed, to the advertising videospots; carrying a variety of
messages, with strictly defined purposes. Our analysis would focus on the discourses intended to
create awareness regarding social issues and causes; for semantic, pragmatic, functional, aspects
and finally we are going to attempt to undertake a contrastive analysis with an emphasis on
translation challenges of the product presentation/promotion discourse as a peculiar genre of the
publicistic functional style of the language that successfully combines traits from the news items
format and its functions, but is a form of communication that carries some supplementary shades
of meaning, a hybrid form of information and persuasion a component part of the colony of
advertising discourse. The aim we are going to trace is the role of textual data of words, the
verbal code of communication in the framework of the advertising discourse even in a complex
configuration of multimodality.
Other objectives that would contribute to the achievement of the purpose of our thesis are:

To define of the basic concepts of discourse, advertising discourse, pragmatics.

To make distinction between text and discourse; semantics and pragmatics.

To reveal the verbal and non-verbal forms of communication/implementation of the
advertising discourse.

To establish the hierarchy of functions and effects of the advertising discourse.

To reflect the linguistic pragmatic peculiarities and the so-called pragmatic violations in
the advertising discourse.

To identify the advantages of the multimodal semiosis in advertising discourse and the
role of the textual-copy, in all its forms of occurrence in the advertising discourse.

To compare the two types of advertising discourse according to the medium and form of
communication printed and multimodal.

To contrast the ST and the TT of the discourse of the iPhone presentation, involved in the
translation process.
5

To detect the challenges for translating the multimodal discourse and advantages.
The Linguistic
The research was done according to the scientific linguistic methods:
The classical academic methods of research analysis and synthesis have been widely applied
both in the theoretical and practical part of the thesis.
The comparative method was used in the second Chapter in order to compare the two
types of advertising discourse according to the form of communication and medium: printed and
multimodal, in order to detect the role of the verbal part, text written or spoken in the overall
context of the discourse.
The contrastive method was applied in the third Chapter to analyze contrastively the ST
and the TT involved in the translation process and identify functional inadequacies specific for
the chosen genre and for the languages involved in the translation process.
The quantitative method has been used to establish the presence or absence,
implementation of linguistic facts and phenomena researched in the paper.
The qualitative method was applied in order to establish what linguistic and stylistic
devices have been used to achieve what effect, as the advertising discourse makes use of many
linguistic and stylistic devices, considered abnormalities from the pragmatic point of view and
more exactly from the perspective of quality and manner maxims.
The statistical method was mainly used in the second chapter with the completion of tables
for organizing data that served for further directions for analysis and conclusions.
The novelty of the work consists namely in the complexity of the task undertaken: the
analysis that the advertising discourse is being subjected to, as the advertising discourse in an era
of global commercialization and consumerism is granted much attention from the part of
different sciences, psychology, sociology, marketing, linguistics, but new forms of advertising
are emerging and rapidly evolving at the pace with the new advanced technologies, new subtle
forms of persuasion are being developed that range from information offer, reiteration, invitation
to test, creating loyalty, promoting the image of a brand, changing patterns of behavior, mind
control, manipulation, deception, distortion. Also the analysis tools are becoming very variegated
with an adaptation and application of the newest theories from the domains that are concerned
with the study of advertisements, I mean Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis that are
linguistic by nature but rely heavily on psychology, sociology. Not to mention the pragmatic
analysis which is a fantastic domain and reveals so many hidden aspects and nuances that have
to be decoded through a very complicated system of deconstruction and scrutiny.
The necessity of the choice was prompted by the fact that only a linguistic perspective would
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have been very scarce and deficient in the case of the polysistem and metadiscourse of
advertising, which compiles so many forms of execution which couldn’t be entirely understood
than in their interaction and interplay. The probable or even sought effects of advertising
activities and campaigns are very well forecasted, predicted, quantified, calculated, calibrated,
tested, verified, surveyed, analyzed, by the science and domain of marketing; as for the
semantic-pragmatic-linguistic implications they are decidedly not conform to the rapidity of
evolution of the interesting domain; that’s why the present work is very up-to-date due to the
perspectives of analysis it offers. In what concerns the translation issues that the discourse of
advertising would present, in the light of new translation theories that have been developed, also
translation practical tools it becomes both, it could seem easier, more accessible to everyone to
make a translation but on the other hand it arises a more imperative need of a cultural or
functional adaptation of the ST, more knowledge and skills are required for a qualitative
translation in addition, requirements for high ethical standards and integrity from the part of a
translator or interpreter are needed.
The purpose of the present paper is to undertake a semantic-pragmatic research of a selected
corpus in order to reveal points in common and the evolution between the different forms of
advertising and especially the multimodality of execution of advertising, the implementation of
different functions and the probable effects produced by them.
The methodology of selection of the corpus for analysis is determined by the intended aim.
Chapter One deals with defining the work taxonomy which includes essential delimitations of
Discourse and Text and respectively their constitutive elements, necessarily the context and its
components, micro, mezzo, macro context.
Discourse Analysis automatically implies the pragmatic perspective of research a sister of the
semantic one, based on the linguistic stuff. Pragmatics with its main division cognitivephilosophic and text pragmatics are absolutely necessary for our work, and the most up-to-date
developments from this domain allow some fantastic possibilities of research and insight into the
most modern variations of genres and communication uses.
We have been definitely conquered by an impressive series of works by a number of
researches into the domain of Critical Discourse Analysis which is an investigation method, and
CDStudy which is already an independent discipline, which has evolved from a revisionary tool
to a means of decoding, detecting, and deconspiring ideology, prejudices, abuses.
Thus the basic sources used as theoretical background are Norman Fairclough and his work
“Language and Power”; Brown Gillian, Yule George “Discourse Analysis”; Cook Guy
7
“The Discourse of Advertising”; Dyer G. “Advertising as Communication”; Lakoff R. T.
“Persuasive Discourse and Ordinary Conversation, with Examples from Advertising”; Leech, G.
“Principles of Pragmatics Pym Antony Limits and Frustrations of Discourse Analysis in
Translation Theory”; Munday Jeremy “Introducing Translation Studies Theories and
Applications” and certainly Moeschler J., A. Reboul’s ”Encyclopedic Dictionary of Pragmatics”.
Chapter II is a theoretical-practical one, covers the extreme forms but in the most
modern realization of advertising discourse and namely the printed medium and the multimodal
semiosis of video advertisements. The corpus of analysis is collected for the first medium from
two magazines Time and Peaople 128 advertisements; for the second medium of execution the
10 video advertisements have been carefully selected from the Internet, referring to stringent and
controversial problems of modernity such as legalization of firearms or hunting, they can be
related to territorial disputes that had lead to unintended consequences – scandals the
Argentinian Falklands advert for the London Olympic Games 2012, or as a result of scandals
having acquired some unintended implications also scandalous, Nike’s motto “Just Do It” with
Oscar Pistorius the disgraced famous Olympian. Advertisements could be very beautiful tributes
to personalities who influenced, impacted changes in the world and changed mentalities and that
deserve being remembered and kept into a golden virtual database. As the corpuses for analysis
are very different, different approaches for analysis have been adopted. The results of analysis
have been prompted and enabled by the graphical representation through the quantitative and
statistical method of steps undertaken in tables presented in an annex and diagrams.
Chapter III has as object of analysis the Discourse of the Promotional Presentation of
iPhone IV by the Apple CEO innovator and visionary the late Steve Jobs. The objective is to
undertake a contrastive analysis of the discourse of the presentation in its complexity of modes
of execution and to confront the translation of the text of the discourse, pertaining to the
promotional, operational genre, so as to identify not mistakes or errors but functional
inadequacies if there are any and more exactly to reflect the possible translation problems for
such types of discourse.
The applicability of the results of such a thesis could be to diverse purposes, as in essence
this is a comparative contrastive study of discoursive phenomena it could prompt to ways of
perception and insight into the advertising discourse that is also the object of sociological study
and a marketing promotional tool, which is a modern element of culture and psychological
instrument.
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GLOSSARY OF LINGUISTIC TERMS
1.
Advertising Discourse – a persuasive discourse type within which the advertising
communication is materialized. Besides being in symbiotic relationship with the discourse of
mass / non-mass media advertising discourse is parasitic upon non-persuasive discourses (e.g.,
the discourse of ordinary conversation, literary discourses, etc.), which enable it to disguise its
persuasive intention.
2.
Communicative codes – a system of signs combined according to certain rules in order
to convey the message being communicated. Both the system of signs and the rules must be
recognizable and definable by all the participants of a communicative process. In the present
thesis, the term includes the verbal and non-verbal communicative codes.
3.
Non-verbal communicative codes – a system of non-verbal signs used for
communicating a message. In the present thesis, the term refers to the acoustic code and the
pictorial code called also the visual and acoustic graphics.
4.
Pragmatic principles – represent the set of Cooperative, Politeness principles as defined
by Grice P. and Leech G. The observance and non-observance (violation) of the principles, their
maxims and submaxims, provide for a successful development of the communicative process.
5.
Coherence is the overall quality of unity and meaning perceived in discourse.
6.
Hybridization. Media language and the new interactive forms of communication
represent hybrid forms of communication because the messages they transmit contain a
symbiosis of elements of both spoken and written language.
7.
Public colloquial style: Leech G. speaks about an evolution of the public colloquial style
as a result of synthetic personalization which makes mass interaction as accepted as a private
one. Public discourses become colloquial, plus they start to lose their formal character.
8.
Super. Geoffrey Leech defines super as “printed messages superimposed on the screen”,
which represents “a limited, supplementary means of linguistic communication”.
9.
Multimodal Discourse - Meaning making occurs through the co-deployment of a
combination of semiotic resources, visual images, gestures and sounds often accompany the
linguistic semiotic resource in semiosis.
10.
Translation mistakes - from the functionalist point of view, “mistakes” are a failure to
achieve “equivalence, adequacy, accuracy. There could be dumb/foolish mistakes, deliberate
mistakes and ignorance mistakes. They are otherwise can occur as Functional Inadequacies of
the following types: pragmatic translation errors; cultural translation errors; linguistic translation
errors; text-specific translation errors.
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I.
DISCOURSE. DEFINING THE BASIC CONCEPTS.
1.1 Different Perspectives to the Concept of Discourse.
Although the concept of discourse has been deemed ambiguous and confusing, we
consider that complexity shouldn’t be termed as such. In the mid-60s, the humanities and the
social sciences have witnessed the appearance of a cross-discipline which took place at the same
time with the emergence of other interdisciplines semiotics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics and the
study of discourse. Because the study of discourse manifests itself in virtually all the disciplines
of the humanities and social sciences it is referred to as a transdiscipline.
Discourse is differently defined from different perspectives. In a prominent work
“Discourse Analysis” by noteworthy linguists Gillian Brown and George Yule, professors at
Cambridge and respectively Louisiana Universities have defined the term of discourse as
language in use. Thus “discourse analysis wouldn’t be restricted to the study of the formal
linguistic elements independent of the purposes or functions, which functions are designed to
serve human affairs” [8, p.1].
Attempts to provide some labels for the principal functions of the language, have
resulted in vague and often confusing terminology. According to Roman Jakobson there are six
main language functions: 1) referential, oriented towards the context; 2) the emotive function
oriented towards the addresser; 3) the conative function, oriented towards the addressee; 4) the
phatic function serves to establish, prolong or discontinue communication, or control whether the
contact is still there; 5) the metalingual, used to establish agreement on the code (a definition); 6)
the poetic function, puts the focus on the message for its own sake [55,p1]. The two abovementioned authors adopted two general terms to describe the major functions of the language
and they also emphasize that this division is an analytic convenience. Starting from the premise
that it would be highly unlikely that on any occasion a natural language utterance would fulfill
only one function to the total exclusion of the other ones, the authors identify two main
functions: that perform in the expression of the content “transactional”, and that function
involved in social relations and personal attitudes, would be described as” interactional”. This
distinction of transactional / interactional, stands in general correspondence to the functional
dichotomies referential / emotive according to Jakobson’s classification [8, p.7].
Norman Fairclough in his work “Language and Power” published in 1989 referring to
the social nature of the language and how the existing conventions are the outcome of power
struggle and ideologies, mentions that language is important enough to merit the attention of all
citizens and specifically everyone that has an interest in the relationships of power cannot afford
10
to ignore it. On the other hand, the author points to a so-called “linguistic turn” in social theory,
that more recently,” writers on “postmodernism” have claimed that visual images have ousted
language, and they have referred to postmodernist cultures as “post-linguistic” [15, p.3].
The author categorically disagrees with the decadent role, and decreasing
importance of the language, he emphasizes that it has become the primary medium of social
control and power, and it is noteworthy enough that language has grown dramatically in terms of
uses it is required to serve, in terms of the range of language varieties and in terms of the
complexities of the language capacities that are expected of the modern citizen. The approach of
investigation that the British researcher undertakes is the critical language study method,
motivating that a scientific investigation of social matters is perfectly compatible with committed
and opinionated investigators, but being committed does not exclude from arguing rationally and
producing evidence for statements. The language conception that the author uses in his research
is the discourse which is language as a form of social practice.
The author returns to the definition of the term discourse as a form of social practice,
specifying that the language is a part of the society, is a social process and moreover that it is a
socially conditioned process. Language is a part of the society; linguistic phenomena are social
phenomena of a special sort, and social phenomena are in part linguistic phenomena. In order to
illustrate these precepts the author brings some examples, actually two different perspectives;
one from the common language use and another one from the political domain use. So the first
explanation is that linguistic phenomena are social in the sense that whenever people speak or
listen; or write or read, they do so in ways which are determined socially and have social effects.
People sometimes explicitly argue about the meanings of words like democracy,
nationalization, imperialism, socialism, liberation or terrorism. “More often, they use the
words in more or less pointedly different and incompatible ways examples are easy to find in
exchanges between leaders of political parties. Such disputes are sometimes seen as merely
preliminaries to or outgrowths from the real processes and practices of politics” [15, p.23]. Thus the
author is suggesting those are not disputes: they are politics. Politics partly consists in the disputes
and struggles which occur in language and over language.
Antony Pym in “Limits and Frustrations of Discourse Analysis in Translation Theory”
speaking about the discourse implications in relation with the translation theory points out some
important arguments and namely that the “…discourse theory is in a mess and probably deserves to
be abandoned the only kind of discourse analysis strictly pertinent to translation is that which sees
translation as discursive work, and translation shouldn’t passively receive derived analyses, (of
source text, as a preliminary procedure before proceeding to the translation process proper), it
11
should become a discovery procedure for the location and delimitation of discourses”[39, p.1]. That
is, the limits and frustrations of most forms of discourse analyses might profitably be overcome
through a judicious application of translation analysis. Antony Pym resorts to Hatim and Mason’s
descriptivist definition of discourse as “Discourses are modes of thinking and talking” and
completed by the normative rider “which have to be preserved in translation” [ibidem]. The
frustrations or constraints that arise with these two complementary approaches are expressed in the
question whether the notion of discourse should be limited to only the source side of the translator’s
task or should the before and after of the translator’s labour be seen in two distinct discourses. Here
referring to the authors Pecheux, Cros, Foucault who speak about discoursive formations as
sociocultural units, would seem to imply that any translation that goes to another sociocultural unit,
must enter another discoursive formation, and thus possibly become another discourse. But no one
seems very sure about this point. Further on relying on the opposite extreme that if the two
discourses involved in the translation process would not be equivalent, translation itself would
discredit itself. So that the only way to cut across this dilemma is to regard translation as the active
movement by which discourse may be extended from one cultural setting to another. What the
translation theory would then want to know about discourses is the relative degree of difficulty and
success involved in their extension and the degree to which they may undergo transformation
through translation. Namely here the translation could become a discovery procedure of some
importance to intercultural discourse analysis.
Mick Short and Elena Semino in the work “Revisiting the Notion of Faithfulness in
Discourse Presentation Using a Corpus Approach”, proceeding from Tannen’s definition of
discourse which is “language beyond the sentence, simply language as it occurs, in any context,
(including the context of linguistic analysis) in any form (including two made-up sentences in a
sequence, a tape recorded conversation, meeting or an interview; a novel or a play” [42, p.9]. It
is presumably this view that gave rise to such expressions as “political discourse”, “media
discourse”, “advertising discourse”, and according to the authors different researchers are using
the term in so many ways, that it is becoming difficult to use it without ambiguity. Discourse
re/presentation theory, unlike other uses of the term “discourse” includes thought presentation
as part of its remit. The authors motivate it with the fact that much of the work has concentrated
on the analysis of fictional prose. “In a representative discourse, each act of quotation serves two
masters. One is the original speech or thought that it represents, pushing in the direction of
maximal accuracy. The other is the frame that encloses and regulates it, pushing in the direction
of maximum efficiency. Reported discourse thus presents a classical case of divided allegiance
between original-oriented representation (with its face to the world) and frame-oriented
12
communication with its face to the reader according to a definition of Sternberg” [42, p.10].
However the thoughts of other people are never directly available to us, and even the quoting of
one’s own anterior thoughts is problematic in that it is difficult to be sure what words, if any,
were used to think those thoughts. The notion of faithfulness which is traced by the authors in a
reported speech, is therefore fundamentally problematic in relation to thought presentation, in a
way that does not apply in the cases of speech or writing (re)presentation (the authors base their
research on a corpus of texts belonging to three different genres: prose fiction; newspaper news
stories and autobiographies. They identify direct writing written seriously by outstanding
personalities versus free direct writing written by biographers writers and publicists on
command. Speech and thought representation are different in important ways which the use of
the term discourse tends to disguise. Authors give an example of a discourse using a mix of
written and spoken means. Examples of such mixed cases include multimedia web sites which
use text, sound, video and pictures of documents and TV news reporting, in which a reporter
may summarize or quote the original utterance, as well as showing a sound or video recording or
transcript of the original [42, p.11].
1.1.2 Text - Context and Discourse Relation.
The concept of text and discourse are connected by hyperonimic and hyponimic
hierarchical relations also by the concepts of process and product. Norman Fairclough defines by
comparison and contrast the terms text and discourse. The author defines the term of text just
like Michael Halliday does for both written and spoken texts, a “spoken text” is what is said in a
piece of spoken discourse, but Norman Fairclough, would use the term mostly for a written
transcription for what was said. “A text is a product rather than a process - a product of the
process of text production. But the term of discourse is used to refer to the whole process of
social interaction of which a text is just a part. The process includes in addition to the text the
process of production, of which the text is a product, and the process of interpretation, for which
the text is a resource. Text analysis is correspondingly only a part of the discourse analysis,
which also includes analysis of productive and interpretative processes” [15, p.24]. The formal
properties of a text can be regarded from the perspective of discourse analysis on the one hand as
traces of the productive process, and on the other hand as cues in the process of interpretation. “It
is an important property of the productive and interpretative processes that they involve an
interplay between properties of texts and a considerable range of “members resources” (MR)”
13
which people have in their heads and draw upon when they produce or interpret texts - including
their knowledge of language, representations of the natural and social worlds they inhabit,
values, beliefs, assumptions, and so on [Ibidem].
A different view can be noticed at the author Kress who maintains that “The relation
between discourse and text “is one of realization: Discourse finds its expression in text.
However, this is never a straightforward relation; any one text may be the expression or
realization of a number of sometimes competing and contradictory discourses.” [16, p.27]. One
of the discourses might be dominant over the other, and have a clearer expression of the
ideology. This is especially the case when verbal texts anchor visual texts. The discourses might
be different, but they anchor each other to a common ideology, which expresses their relation
according to the structuralist paradigm. However, texts can also convey different ideologies by
different discourses. This can be found, for example, in advertisements.
The MR which people draw upon to produce and interpret texts are cognitive in
the sense that they are in people's heads, but they are social in the sense that they have social
origins - they are socially generated, and their nature is dependent on the social relations and
struggles out of which they were generated - as well as being socially transmitted and, in our
society, unequally distributed. People internalize what is socially produced and made available to
them, and use this internalized MR to engage in their social practice, including discourse.
Discourse, then involves social conditions, which can be specified as social
conditions of production, and social conditions of interpretation. These social conditions,
moreover, relate to three different “levels” of social organization: the level of the social situation,
or the immediate social environment in which the discourse occurs; the level of the social
institution which constitutes a wider matrix for the discourse; and the level of the society as a
whole. What is being suggested, in summary, is that these social conditions shape the MR people
bring to production and interpretation, which in turn shape the way in which texts are produced
and interpreted. Corresponding to these three dimensions of discourse, three dimensions, or
stages, of critical discourse analysis are being distinguished:

Description is the stage which is concerned with formal properties of the text

Interpretation is concerned with the relationship between text and interaction - with
seeing the text as the product of a process of production, and as a resource in the process of
interpretation
14

Explanation is concerned with the relationship between interaction and social context -
with the social determination of the processes of production and interpretation, and their social
effects [15, p.26].
What goes on at each of these stages is referred to as “analysis”, but the nature of
“analysis” changes as one shifts from stage to stage. In particular, analysis at the description
stage differs from analysis at the interpretation and explanation stages. In the case of description,
analysis is generally thought of as a matter of identifying and “labeling” formal features of a text
in terms of the categories of a descriptive framework. The “object” of description, the text, is
often seen as unproblematically given.
The notion of description being used, it should be said that description is ultimately
just as dependent on the analyst's “interpretation”, in the broad sense as the transcription of
speech. What one “sees” in a text, what one regards as worth describing, and what one chooses
to emphasize in a description, are all dependent on how one interprets a text. There is a positivist
tendency to regard language texts as ”objects” whose formal properties can be mechanically
described without interpretation. But still, analysts cannot prevent themselves engaging with
human products in a human, and therefore interpretative, way!
Another important point that should be made is that the terms discourse and
practice have what we might call a “felicitous ambiguity”: both can refer to either what people
are doing on a particular occasion, or what people habitually do given a certain sort of occasion.
That is, both can refer either to action, or to convention. The ambiguity is felicitous here because
it helps underline the social nature of discourse and practice, by suggesting that the individual
instance always implies social conventions - any discourse or practice implies conventional types
of discourse or practice. The ambiguity also suggests social preconditions for action on the part
of individual persons: the individual is able to act only in so far as there are social conventions to
act within. Part of what is implied in the notion of social practice is that people are enabled
through being constrained: they are able to act on condition that they act within the constraints of
types of practice - or of discourse. However, this makes social practice sound more rigid than it
is; as the author argues being socially constrained does not preclude being creative.
We find at Teun A. van Dijk in “Pragmatics, presuppositions and context
grammars”, [48, p.5], a similar framing when defining context: ”Intuitively, a context is the
linguistically relevant set of characteristics of a communicative situation, the latter being the
state of affairs in which communicative events in natural language take place”, speaks about the
fact that “a context must have exactly those properties which are sufficient and necessary for the
formulation of the conditions and rules for the adequate use of utterances. More specifically, a
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context may be characterized simply by a set of “happiness conditions” for utterances in
natural language. It can be said that a given utterance is happy or adequate with respect to a
given context. Conversely, a context will be said to be appropriate,or not, for a given utterance.
These notions are all scalar: an utterance is more or less happy, a context more or less
appropriate.
1.1.3 The Dichotomy of Written vs Spoken Text within Discourse.
Referring to the concept of text it must be distinguished between two main forms
according to the manner of production the written vs spoken text which have both similarities
and differences.
According to Vachek [52, p.412], each variety is unique, due to their natural
qualities. While the spoken variety is characterized by its immediateness and readiness, the
written one possesses the quality of surveyability and preservability. These qualities have an
impact on the flow of interaction. While an interaction realized in the spoken variety is dynamic,
the one realized in the written variety has a tendency to be rather static. Considering the hybrid
forms of communication, they are able to combine these four significant features. Owing to the
dynamic character, the spoken variety is usually constructed at the moment when the participants
meet and when their social interaction starts to develop. On the contrary, the written variety, as a
communicative mode of distant interaction, has the advantage of being well-thought-out and thus
pre-processed. In other words, the spoken variety reflects the spontaneity of a communicative
situation, while the written variety reflects the prepared version of a communicative situation. As
a result, the spoken variety can be found in discourse types in which the participants share the
same temporal and / or spatial setting. Such discourse types are: the discourse of ordinary
conversation, the discourse of spoken commentary, the discourse of in-class teaching, etc. On the
other hand, it is important to realize that their spontaneity can be apparent because the speaking
event can be, to a certain extent, pre-arranged, e.g. a teacher’s lecture. What makes the speaking
event spontaneous is not only the context itself but also what is happening within the context,
i.e., the participants verbal as well as nonverbal contributions. Hence, the level of spontaneity
depends on the authenticity and uniqueness of a communicative situation.
By contrast, the written variety is typical of communicative situations in which the
discourse field, both temporal and spatial, differs. In order to realize such a communicative
situation, it is necessary for the message to be preserved. Consequently, the written variety
functions as a preserving instrument of legal documents, literature, private correspondence.
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The message of such written documents does not reach its addressee immediately.
Unlike in the spoken variety, there is a certain temporal distance between the production and the
perception of the message. Moreover, there is usually a difference between when the
communicative situation originates and when it is perceived. Accordingly, the spatial and
temporal divergence results in the divergence of the contexts of production and of perception.
The choice of the language varieties is determined by pragmatic reasons. There are situations
that require being dealt with orally, such as meal-ordering, in-class teaching, etc. On the other
hand, there are situations in which the written form is preferred, such as public notices, official
announcements, etc. The functional approach is definitely related to the social approach. As
Tannen points out, the spoken variety is characterized by “a greater degree of „involvement”,
whereas “detachment is found in the written medium”. Consequently, the written variety is often
regarded as impersonal. The paralinguistic aspects of the language varieties are reflected in the
participants speech behavior.
Angela Goddart [18, p.50] speaks about prosodic features in both forms of the texts
spoken and written represent prosodic features – aspects of spoken language such as intonation
and stress, which are part of the overall “melody” of a language. The difference is that in the real
dialogue, these aspects were part of the general communicative force of the original interaction.
In writing up the transcript, the transcriber has made some attempt to represent these features by
specific markings (arrows, points of suspense etc.).
Another important element that had already been mentioned is the context. The
context refers to the environment, circumstances in which language is used. Any analytic
approach in linguistics which involves contextual considerations, necessarily belongs to
pragmatics. “Doing discourse analysis” certainly involves “doing syntax and semantics”, but it
primarily consists of “doing pragmatics”.
1.2.2 Pragmatics: Language Philosophy vs Textuality (Text Pragmatics).
In the introduction to the Romanian version of Jacques Moeschler and Anne Reboul’s
“Encyclopedic Dictionary of Pragmatics” it is figuratively stated that the tentacles of the
language philosophy are spreading and extending towards the boundary limits of the geography
of language studies, and each language study draws upon it in order to build up its own
theoretical background. [30, p.19]. The authors specify that the language use is being mentioned
because this usage is not a neutral one nor in its effects, or in the communication process nor in
the linguistic system itself. It is useless to note that in our verbal interaction we communicate
much more than what our speech means.
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The emergence of text linguistics had a double motivation: the sentences contain
elements that cannot be interpreted into the sentence itself, on the one hand, and the
interpretation of a given text cannot be reduced to the sum of the interpretations of the sentences
that compose it [30, p.14]. These difficulties have led to the establishment of a new object of
research, discourse (or text). Since every text consists of sentences, the meaning of the text
depends on the meaning of its constituents, the sentences that compose it. In respect with the
terms of cohesion and coherence, they are pragmatic, not syntactic or semantic.
Textuality is a pragmatic notion and, therefore, the concepts of coherence and
cohesion, do not reflect an immanent, inherent feature of a series of sentences, but only the
attitudes of the speakers (of acceptance or refusal) in regard to this series. Textuality is a
pragmatic notion and, therefore, there is only text pragmatics.
The departure points of pragmatics can be considered the works and also a series of
lectures, conferences given at the Harvard University (William James Lectures) in 1955, by the
language philosophers John Austin, and Paul Grice. Austin introduces an essential concept for
pragmatics the speech act by meaning to say that the language does not have a descriptive
function but a communicative one, by the language we produce speech acts. The hypothesis of
analytical philosophy of language that all utterances, except the interrogative, imperative and
exclamatory, describe reality, which means that they can be interpretated in terms of their truth
value. If they refer to a real fact, then are true, otherwise they are false. Austin further on
develops the theory to assert that the use of language involves the achievement of three
categories of speech acts: locutionary act, the act of saying something, illocutionary act, the act
performed in saying something, and perlocutionary act, the act performed by saying something.
Thus, we can distinguish the locutionary act “he said that...”, from the illocutionary act “he
argued that...” and the perlocutionary act “he convinced me that...”.
Austin and Grice’s works have prompted in a short time an explosion of researches
of a very different orientation: language philosophy, logics, cognitive psychology,
psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, artificial intelligence. [30, p.2].
Grice in his article “Meaning” distinguishes between literal meaning and speaker’s
meaning and the latter is defined with relation to the speaker’s communicative intention. Two
types of meaning are being differentiated: natural and non-natural meaning. At the same time,
Grice brings in his definition of meaning the members of communication, the transmitter and the
receiver, so integrating meaning into the communicative process. The transmitter’s
communicative intention of a meaning isn’t enough, it also must be recognized by the receiver in
order to ensure the success of communication. Consequently, the speaker must have a
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supplementary intention besides that of communication, a second intention to recognize first
communicative intention. Grice’s basic idea is that there are some natural principles which guide
efficiently and rationally the exchange of information through the cooperation between the users
of language, and the speakers relying on these principles can utilize sentences for conveying
information whose meaning is more than what is stated or than propositions that are semantically
expressed. Thus is formed the idea of the Cooperative Principle. Starting from this general
principle, Grice, describes a number of maxims and submaxims grouped in four categories.
1.2.1 Discourse Laws According to Grice’s and Leech’s Pragmatic Maxims and SubMaxims.
The core of the cooperative principle (CP) is as follows: “Make your conversational
contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or
direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged”. The CP has an impact on what type of
information is provided, on the amount of information, on the credibility of the information, as
well as on the way the information is delivered. In fact, what is said and how it is said is
described by Grice as the maxims and submaxims of the CP. Observing them is necessary for
being cooperative and, thus, for achieving one’s communicative goal.
Maxim of Quantity : 1. Make your contribution as informative as is required. 2. Do
not make your contribution more informative than is required.
Maxim of Quality: 1. Do not say what you believe to be false. 2. Do not say that for which you
lack adequate evidence.
Maxim of Relation: Be relevant
Maxim of Manner: 1. Avoid obscurity of expression. 2. Avoid ambiguity. 3. Be brief. 4. Be
orderly.
The Quality and Quantity Maxims. The maxim of quantity and the maxim of
quality are so closely interrelated that it is worth considering them as a joint factor. They ask for
an adequate amount of true information that is necessary for the communicative purpose. In
advertising discourse, however, the expressions „adequate amount” and „true information” are a
little inconsistent. Some problems appear and namely whether the persuadee is able to tell if a
commercial underinforms, misinforms or overinforms: additionally, if the information that is
provided is really true, and if the persuader has adequate evidence for what he or she claims.
These challenges are appropriate if we consider how many identical products are available on the
market and that advertising is one of the weapons of beating competitors.
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It is important to realize that, when the persuader enters advertising communication, it
is in his or her best interest to avoid false information, because the persuadee has a legal right to
sue the persuader for deception. Moreover, overt lying would threaten the persuader’s effort to
make the persuadee buy the product; thus, the persuader’s efforts would be futile. Furthermore,
there are certain ethical codes the persuader is required to follow.
Whenever the persuadee thinks that an advertising message is deceptive, he or she
can turn to relevant authorities who are obliged to verify whether a commercial is immoral and
unethical or whether the information provided is misleading. The persuader’s efforts to avoid
false information, plus the existence of legislative authorities, cause the persuader to endeavor to
follow the maxim of quality.
The Relation Maxim. In an ordinary conversation, the maxim of relation is connected with the
relevance of the participants contributions to the topic being discussed. The relevance of the
advertising situation used always depends on the persuader’s decision whether to follow certain
stereotypes and conventions or whether to shock by something daring, unhackneyed and
original.
The Manner Maxim. According to the maxim of manner, the speaker should use
unambiguous expressions and utterances that are clearly arranged, so that the hearer has no
problems with decoding them. However, authentic speech is full of vague and ambiguous
expressions, which results in a rather high degree of implicitness. The maxim of manner is often
violated on purpose because its violation enables the advertisement to observe other principles
applied in communication. As in ordinary face-to-face conversations, advertising communication
is full of indirect speech acts. The persuader never gives a direct order „Buy the product”. His or
her way of communicating always seems to flout the maxim of manner. According to Lakoff this
particular maxim is violated in advertising most of all because advertising is based on saying
things in ambiguous and obscure ways; therefore, “it is this very violation that is striking,
memorable – efficacious”. The persuader is forced to flout this particular maxim because it
enables him or her to disguise the persuasiveness that an advertising message has. Beyond this,
to use ambiguous expressions calls for the persuadee’s mental active involvement
Politeness Principle in Advertising. In 1983, Grice’s follower Geoffrey N.
Leech introduced the Politeness Principle (PP), which also has an indispensable function in
communication. To observes the PP means “to maintain the social equilibrium and the friendly
relations that enable us to assume that the interlocutors are being cooperative in the first place”
[25, p.82]. In an ordinary conversation the PP works as a device that enables the participants to
demonstrate that they are aware of each other’s socio-cultural needs and values. The PP, thus,
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enables the partners involved in an interaction to treat each other with respect. Like the CP, the
PP is based on the observance of the following maxims and submaxims:
Tact Maxim: 1. Minimize cost to other. 2. Maximize benefit to other.
Generosity Maxim: 1. Minimize benefit to self. 2. Maximize cost to self.
Approbation Maxim:1. Minimize dispraise of other. 2. Maximize praise of other.
Modesty Maxim: 1. Minimize praise of self. 2. Maximize dispraise of self.
Agreement Maxim: 1. Minimize disagreement between self and other. 2. Maximize agreement
between self and other.
Sympathy Maxim: 1. Minimize antipathy between self and other. 2. Maximize sympathy
between self and other.
Leech’s terms „self” and „other” refer to the parties engaged in an interaction. While „self”
normally means the speaker, „other” includes both the hearer and / or another person that might
or might not be present. However, the term „self” in the advertising discourse, includes the
persuader whose contributions are coded in the voice-over, the secondary participant, and / or the
super; the term „other” refers not only to the persuadee, but also to the product being advertised,
since the product is treated in the same way as the third party in a conversation. The observance
of the maxims and their submaxims guarantee a smooth flow of conversation that is socially
acceptable. However, the PP works under the condition that the participants are cooperative.
This means that the CP and the PP are interrelated. Depending on a culture, plus a context, the
observance of one principle can often conflict with the observance of the other principle. In order
to be socially acceptable and, thus, achieve the goal successfully, the persuader must also put the
observance of the PP above the observance of the CP.
The Tact Maxim. Its submaxims consider the minimization of the cost to other
and about the maximization of the benefit to other. Considering the nature of present-day
advertising, the persuader seems to follow this particular maxim, especially the benefit
maximization submaxim. What the persuader accentuates most are the benefits the persuadee
gets when buying the product. These benefits are mostly presented as an improvement in one’s
health as well as physical appearance.
The Generosity Maxim. Like the previous maxim, the generosity maxim
concerns the benefit and the cost. Unlike the previous one, this maxim assigns the minimization
of the benefit and the maximization of the cost to the speaker. Considering the advertising
discourse, there are hardly any commercials in which the persuader would observe these two
submaxims. In fact, the persuader seems to avoid the generosity maxim as much as he or she
can. The persuader never mentions the benefits he or she obtains from the product’s sale. No
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commercials inform the persuadee that, if millions of the products are sold, the annual income of
the company will increase by fifty percent, for example. At the same time, the persuader never
alludes to how much effort, money and work he or she has had to invest in the production of the
TV commercial.
The Approbation Maxim. This maxim refers to the minimization of dispraise
of other and to the maximization of the praise of other. Applying this maxim in advertising
communication, it means that the persuader endeavors to express strong admiration for the
persuadee, while he or she avoids criticizing the persuadee.
Like the maximization of the benefit, the maximization of the praise of the other supports the
persuader’s effort to eliminate the persuasive nature of a commercial. Being exposed to praise is
always more acceptable and more comfortable than being exposed to criticism; therefore, the
persuader looks for topics that can help him or her observe the praise submaxims to the
maximum point.
The Modesty Maxim. This maxim also refers to the notion of praise and dispraise, but to the
ones that concern the speaker. Like the generosity maxim, the persuader has a tendency to avoid
this maxim because it tells him or her to minimize his or her praise, while maximizing his or her
dispraise. As already mentioned, advertising focuses on foregrounding the personality of the
persuadee, especially what he or she does well and what other assets he or she can get when
purchasing the product. There are hardly any commercials in which the persuader would criticize
himself or herself for doing something badly.
The Agreement Maxim. According to its submaxims, the persuader should
endeavor to minimize disagreement between himself or herself and the persuadee; and on the
other hand, the persuader should strive to maximize agreement between the participants of the
advertising communication. Since the persuader prefers underlining the persuadee’s benefits and
praise, it is understandable that he or she chooses topics that enable him or her to maximize
agreement with the persuadee. The choice of such topics depends on what is being advertised to
whom.
The Sympathy Maxim. As Leech points out, this maxim is mostly applicable in
condolences and congratulations. The observance of its submaxims allows the speaker to show
that he or she minimizes antipathy between himself or herself and the hearer, or that he or she
maximizes sympathy between the two participants. Owing to its applicability in a specific
contextual situation, it can be assumed that this particular maxim tends to be rather
backgrounded in advertising discourse.
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The Phatic Maxim. In addition to Malinowski’s concept of the phatic function of
language, Leech also speaks about the Phatic Maxim, which might work as a submaxim of the
Agreement and Sympathy Maxims. Following the fact that language users prefer to keep talking
in order to avoid uncomfortable and embarrassing silences, the observance of the Phatic Maxim
enable them “to extend the common ground of agreement and experience shared by the
participants”.
Other Pragmatic Principles. However, the CP and the PP are not the only
pragmatic principles adopted by language users. There are four other principles that can also be
crucial in the communicative process. Like the CP and the PP, the Interest Principle (IP) and the
Pollyanna Principle (PoP) are first-order principles. The former makes the participants
communicate in an interesting and, thus, unpredictable way, while the latter makes them favor
pleasant topics to unpleasant one.
The other two principles are, to a certain extant, parasitic upon the first-order
principles, and that is the reason why Leech calls them higher-order principles. These are the
Irony Principle (IrP) and the Banter Principle (BP). Both principles are based on using certain
words with concrete meanings for expressing the exact opposite of what is said. The distinction
between these two principles is in the symmetrical difference between the dictionary meaning
and the utterance meaning of the words used. While words in an ironical utterance pretend to be
polite, the utterance meaning is offensive. By contrast, while words in banter utterance pretend to
be offensive, the utterance meaning is polite. Even though advertising in general prefers talking
about pleasant and enjoyable situations, there are commercials that discuss disagreeable issues,
such as health disorders, being overweight, social problems such as life insurance, drug
addiction; drunk driving etc. Whatever the topic is, it is always in the persuader’s interest to
address the persuadee in an interesting and unpredictable way, especially when consumers are
jaded with pervasive advertisements. Faced with continual competition, the persuader has to
keep searching for new, fresh, innovative and progressive ways to attract the persuadee’s
attention.
1.2.2 Peculiarities of Paul Austin’s Speech Acts in Advertising Discourse.
As Levinson claims: “The illocutionary act is what is directly achieved by the
conventional force associated with the issuance of a certain kind of utterance in accord with a
conventional procedure, and is consequently determinate. In contrast, a perlocutionary act is
specific to the circumstances of issuance and is therefore not conventionally achieved just by
uttering that particular utterance, and includes all those effects, intended or unintended, often
23
indeterminate, that some particular utterance in a particular situation may cause. The distinction
has loose boundaries”[26, p.237].
When the persuader advertises, he or she produces a number of utterances that are
communicated by the entity of the voice-over, the secondary participant and/or the super. The
illocutionary force is the appeal „Buy the product”. Since advertising is a one-way mass
communication, the perlocutionary effect is performed with a certain delay. In fact, the
command is accomplished when the persuadee purchases the product. On the other hand,
advertising discourse employs language to disguise the persuader’s intention to change the
persuadee’s consuming habits. Therefore, the persuader performs a number of speech acts the
illocutionary forces of which is to advise, to provide information, to share one’s experiences, etc.
Even though all three acts discussed above are performed simultaneously, “the term „speech act”
is generally interpreted quite narrowly to mean only the illocutionary force of an utterance”.
Following Austin, Searle distinguishes five types of acts performed via speech: 1. assertives; 2.
Directives; 3.Commissives; 4.Expressives; 5.declarations.
Assertives - illustrate what the speaker believes to be the truth or a lie. In other
words, assertives reflect the facts about the world as the speaker understands them and believes
them. Advertising discourse very often uses assertives, because they allow the persuader to
communicate certain facts about the product being advertised.
Directives - reflect the speaker’s need for changes. What the speaker wants to
change might be the speaker’s and / or the hearer’s current condition, he or she might want to
achieve certain changes in the circumstances in which the speaker or hearer is currently involved.
The person who is supposed to perform the changes is the hearer.
Commissives - reflect the speaker’s intention to commit some future action. This
action can be beneficial, such as the promise or they commit the speaker to perform an action that
has a detrimental effect on the hearer, e.g., „If you don’t turn the music down, I’ll call the police”.
Even though they are less frequent than assertives and directives, commissives can also be found
in advertising discourse. Beneficial commissives prevail.
Expressives - illustrate the speaker’s state of mind, the way he or she feels.
Therefore, expressives reflects the speaker’s likes and dislikes, his or her pain and pleasure, etc.
Since the secondary advertising situations are able to borrow any discourse type, there are
commercials in which expressives are also used.
Declarations - are special types of speech acts, since their force is valid when the
speaker has the appropriate institutional competence to change the world via his or her speech
acts. For instance, a judge could have the competence to render the judgment „I hereby sentence
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you to life imprisonment”, a comment addressed to the defendant. As already mentioned,
advertising discourse can parasite upon various discourse types, therefore it is possible that there
are commercials whose secondary situations adopt the context of some institutional ceremonies.
The locutionary act, which is one of the three acts performed. While producing
an utterance, refers to the speaker’s ability to connect word expressions into grammatically correct
sentences. In fact, there are three sentence types: declarative, interrogative and imperative. As far
as the English language is concerned, these sentence types are determined by the word order. This
means that a declarative sentence starts with a subject that is followed by an operator, etc.; an
interrogative sentence is created by switching an operator with a subject; and an imperative
sentence starts with an operator but the subject is missing. The sentence types are used by
language users in order to produce various utterances – e.g., requests, statements, orders, advice,
promises, threats, etc. – that enable the performance of certain speech acts. Declarative sentences
are ideal for performing assertives, declarations and commissives; while imperative sentences are
ideal for directives. Owing to the endeavor to disguise the persuasive intention, it can be claimed
that advertising indulges in indirectness.
Among the pragmatic aspects of meaning that are important to consider for our work are:
the reference, which is “the relationship which holds between words and things is the relationship
of reference: words refer to things”.
The presupposition, which is defined in terms of “assumptions the speaker makes about
what the hearer is likely to accept without challenge” thus, the notion of assumed “common
ground”.
The implicature used by Grice to account for what a speaker can imply, suggest, or mean,
as distinct from what the speaker literally says. These can be conventional, thus determined by
the 'the conventional meaning of the words used'; and conversational implicature which is
derived from a general principle of conversation plus a number of maxims which speakers
normally obey.
Guy Cook names coherence an “economic extravagance”. In reference to the
implementation of quantity and quality maxims in the advertising discourse he asserts that:
“Repetition makes connections in text clear, though it may be at the expense of brevity; lexical
cohesion may add new information economically while also aiding clarity; referring expressions
are brief, though they may sacrifice clarity; conjunctions make connections clear, though they also
increase length. Broadly speaking, where there is mistrust and/or an accompanying desire to
minimize ambiguity, the truth maxim will be elevated over the clarity maxim”[11, p.126].
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1.3 Analysis Tools for the Advertising Discourse.
One of the points of interest of our work is to discover and to use new methods of
analysis that could be applied to the task of describing the semantic-pragmatic scope of the
advertising discourse. As it would be seen further, the factual material, the corpus of analysis is
carefully chosen. We have focused less on the purely commercial advertisements that could be
from simple to silly, and in addition being repeatedly played and used, rapidly become trite to
annoying. The discourse analysis perspective has already been mentioned and detailed; the
pragmatics itself has a rich repertoire that allows us to have a profound insight into all the
explicit meanings (semantics) as well as hidden, implied, derived, decoded ones through the
matrix of concepts and categories belonging to the science of pragmatics – applied philosophy of
the language. Some new methods and sciences at the same time that originally have been
conceived as a propagandistic, ideological, racist scanner have gradually expanded their area of
usage or more exactly have been applied to narrower, more modest tasks, not only to reveal
hidden poison but to deconstruct meanings deception, mind control elements and foresee, predict
expected effects.
Critical Discourse Analysis. In an introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis
description Teun Van Dijk defines it as a type of discourse analytical research that primarily
studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and
resisted by text and talk in the social and political context.
Referring to the management and control power of discourse Teun van Dijk stresses
out that although most discourse control is contextual or global, even local details of meaning,
form, or style may be controlled, e.g. the details of an answer in class or court, or choice of
lexical items or jargon in courtrooms, classrooms or newsrooms. In many situations, volume
may be controlled and speakers ordered to "keep their voice down" or to "keep quiet," women
may be "silenced" in many ways, and in some cultures one needs to "mumble" as a form of
respect. Mind Control. The author [49, p.357] also suggests which are the ways that power and
dominance are involved in mind control. First, recipients tend to accept beliefs, knowledge, and
opinions through discourse from what they see as authoritative, trustworthy, or credible sources,
such as scholars, experts, professionals, or reliable media. Second, in some situations participants
are obliged to be recipients of discourse, e.g. in education and in many job situations. Lessons,
learning materials, job instructions, and other discourse types in such cases may need to be
attended to, be interpreted and learned as intended by institutional or organizational authors.
Third, in many situations there are no pubic discourses or media that may provide information
from which alternative beliefs may be derived. Fourth, and closely related to the previous points,
26
recipients may not have the knowledge and beliefs needed to challenge the discourses or
information they are exposed to!
The given author presents also an applied study of CDA to media discourse and
political discourse. As an example of ideology in the political discourse van Dijk provides the
quotation from the work of D'Souza “The End of Racism” which is the combined
implementation, at all levels of the text, of the positive presentation of the in-group and the
negative presentation of the out-group. In D'Souza's book, the principal rhetorical means are
those of hyperbole and metaphor, the exaggerated representation of social problems in terms of
illness ("pathologies," "virus"), and the emphasis of the contrast between the Civilized and the
Barbarians. Semantically and lexically, the Others are thus associated not simply with
difference, but rather with deviance ("illegitimacy") and threat (violence, attacks). Social
conflict is thus cognitively represented and enhanced by polarization, and discursively sustained
and reproduced by derogating, demonizing, and excluding the Others from the community of Us,
the Civilized.
CONCLUSIONS:
1. Discourse theory is a transdiscipline drawing upon linguistics, psychology, sociology. It is
defined as language in use, or language as social practice, or mode of thinking and talking.
Although its research method, the discourse critical analysis includes not only the linguistic
aspect but also the context, we are not witnessing a decreasing role of the language and a
post-linguistic era.
2. The relation between text and discourse is of hyperonimic hierarchical order. Discourse
refers to the total process of social interaction of which the text is only a part. The text can
have two forms of execution written and spoken one.
3. The process of description, interpretation and explanation of the discourse is a complex one,
soliciting cognitive elements known as Member Resources which include language
knowledge, and knowledge of natural social world, values, beliefs, etc. Also taking into
consideration the context so-called “felicituous ambiguity” which includes actions and
conventions performed on certain occasions, some pre-conditions, or a set of “happiness
conditions”, a set of properties of the context which are sufficient and necessary for an
adequate use of utterances.
4. The spoken form of the text is characterized by immediateness, readiness, dynamism, a
greater degree of involvement and spontaneity, being authentic and unique; the written one
is characterized by detachment, surveyability and preservability, it is static.
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5. Pragmatics studies semantic ties across the discourse through coherence and cohesion. The
communicative function of the language is achieved through speech acts of three kind:
locutory, illocutory and perlocutory. Other elements of the communication process are the
meaning, members of the communication, the transmitter and the receiver.
6. Certain Discourse Maxims are applied in the advertising discourse and namely the
Cooperative Principle and Maxims of Quantity and Quality: the receiver must be adequately
informed not over, or under nor misinformed, because the receiver could even sue the
addresser for deception. The Relation and the Manner principles could be intentionally not
applied or even violated for achieving certain effects. The Politeness Principle is important
for maintaining the social equilibrium and friendly relations with the public. The Tact and
Generosity Maxims, presuppose a certain concealment of the real aims pursued by the
advertizer (benefits), as this type of discourse is characterized from the pragmatic point of
view with indirectness. The Approbation Maxim implies making use of praise and not of
dispraise or criticism. The Interest and Pollyana Principles involve selecting, favouring
topics that present interest. The Irony and Banter Principles have to do with using certain
words so as to express irony or exactly the opposite meaning. Although the advertising
indulges in referring to pleasant situations it could also raise disagreeable issues and social
problems.
7. There are 5 types of acts performed through speech; different aspects of meaning are being
realized in discourse: reference, presupposition, implicature.
8. The critical discourse analysis researches hidden shades of meaning of abuse,
discrimination, dominance, inequalities and mind control.
9. Intertextuality refers to the dialogical form of the text, it gains meaning in connection with
other texts, the horizontal axis connects the text author with a reader and a vertical axis
connects a text with other texts.
CHAPTER II. PRAGMATIC ASPECTS APPLIED TO THE ADVERTISING
DISCOURSE
2.1 Scope of the Advertising Discourse and Historical Background.
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Guy Cook in his statement about the subject matter of the book “Discourse of
Advertising”, alleges that advertising has evolved from the historical definition of it being ‘the
promotion of goods or services for sale through impersonal media’. The term in his own words
can be interpreted more broadly, as advertizements not necessarily sell products; the noncommercials the informationals. In formulating the problems posed by advertising he adds that
the once vibrant issue whether the advertising is purely commercial or belongs to the category
of art is also rather dated.
The researcher Gillian Dyer in his book Advertising as Communication in the
introductory part cites that advertising not only sells goods and services, they are commodities
themselves, the most ubiquitous form in which we encounter commercial photography,
according to a critic Judith Williamson. He goes on to say that in a sense advertising is the
official art of the advanced industrial nations from the West. It fills newspapers and is plastered
all over the urban environment; it is a highly organized institution, involving many artists,
writers and film directors. The primary function of advertising is to introduce a wide range of
consumer goods to the public and thus to support the free market economy, but this is clearly
not the only role; over the years it has become more and more involved in the manipulation of
social values and attitudes, and less concerned with the communication of essential information
about goods and services. Some other authors argue that advertising fulfills a function
traditionally met by art and religion. Some critics of advertising have even suggested that it
operates in the same way as myths in primitive societies, providing people with simple stories
and explanations in which values and ideals are conveyed and through which people can
organize their thoughts and experiences and some to make sense of the world they live in.
Reference is made to Fred Inglis who describes the advertiser as a modern-day shaman whose
“anonymous vantage in society permits him to articulate a novel magic which offers to meet
the familiar pains of a particular society and history, to soften or sharpen ambition, bitterness,
solitude, lust, failure and rapacity” [14, p.78].
The author defines advertising in its simplest sense as drawing attention to
something, or notifying or informing somebody of something. [p.2]Some people criticize
advertising by arguing that it creates false wants and encourages the production and
consumption of things that are incompatible with the fulfillment of genuine and urgent human
needs. Broadly, advertising is a device to arrest attention.
Vestergaard and Schrodder consider advertising language a means of brand promotion
and they state that the main reason after the languages used in advertisements is the purpose of
29
increasing the familiarity and the liking towards the image of the producer rather than the
product being advertised [53,p.10].
In brief, linguists all over the world have researched on advertising language in its
different aspects and whether the concept expressed in different ways with different languages, it
comes to the conclusion that: advertising is an advanced art and commercial, promotional tool, it
operates the same function as art and religion or even as the Jungian supracultural myths, it can
mystify and deceive, it’s an attention grabber, a tool to arrest attention first and then induce
potential clients to acquire, also to persuade and create likeability.
History of advertising. Gillian Dyer makes a curious incursion into the history of
advertising that he maintains has started from the public crier from the medieval times, offering
wares; and the almost modern looking advertising that have appeared since the 17th century
Elizabethan era with the appearance of the newspapers or mercuries, that started to emerge on a
regular basis in Britain. Mercuries carried notices for the markets and fairs popular at the time.
Looking at those notices one could find a constant preoccupation with the freaks and human
curiosities that were put on public display, and also the deformities of which were relished by
the audiences of the time. The earliest examples of advertising rhetoric should be seen as a part
of a process of development from conventional recommendation to contemporary examples of
persuasion and propaganda.
A very representative example that the author produces is the type of advertising
never failing, that was being made in the period of a great plague in 1665, which gave rise to a
considerable boost of the sales of patent medicines. Street posters and handbills proliferated
harangued the public into buying “Infallible Preventative Pills” , “Sovereign Cordials against
the Corruption of the Air”, “Anti-Pestilential Pills” and “The only True Plague Water”.
With the appearance of the first, true quality English newspapers “The Tatler” and
“The Spectator” in 1709, 1711, respectively, an advertisement tax was imposed by the
government for each line or column with the aim of curbing the activities of the press. Many
newspapers closed as a result of this tax and also because of the imposition of the newspaper
stamp duty. A typical newspaper carries information about wigs, coffee, tea, books, wine,
lottery and theatre tickets and the inevitable “purges” and “cosmatiks”. In order to attract
attention adverts very rarely could use simple illustrative devices. The drawing of an anodyne
necklace, comes from an ad for the cures of children’s “fits” and “fevers” and “convulsions”. A
famous eighteenth-century figure, the critic and humorist Dr Ben Jonhson accused a similar ad,
which warned every mother that she would never forgive herself if her infant would perish
without a necklace”, in such a way trying to scare mothers into buying the product (a tactic not
30
unknown today). Ben Johnson was generally critical of the growth in advertising and of the
methods that were beginning to be used to appeal to the public. “They are very negligently
perused”, he said of advertisements,“ …it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by
the magnificence of promises, and by the eloquence sometime sublime and sometime pathetic.
Johnson appealed for higher standards and more truth in advertisements and was particularly
concerned about the practice among advertizers of “censuring their neighbours”, a practice
which today would possibly be called a “knocking copy”. [14, p.22]. Since advertising is a
phenomenon that has been affected by advances in technology, sociology, economics and other
disciplines, it is no wonder that its discourse fascinates and challenges researchers from both
physical and humane sciences. There are a number of prominent researchers from the fields of
economics, sociology and psychology, as well as philosophy. As far as linguistics is concerned,
the first to devote his or her research to advertising discourse was Geoffrey N. Leech, whose
book English in Advertising (1966) approaches the language of advertising from a traditional
linguistic point of view. Leech concentrates on the lexico-grammatical structure and points out
that advertising inclines to disjunctive grammar. Subsequently, in Investigating English Style
(1969), David Crystal and Derek Davy characterize various styles (such as language of
conversation, language of spoken commentary, etc.) that they address in regard to the language
of advertising. Their work describes the style of television as well as press advertising,
searching for unifying features.
Another crucial turning point in advertising discourse research came with Robin
Lakoff’s article “Persuasive Discourse and Ordinary Conversation with Examples from
Advertising” in 1982. As the title suggests, Lakoff studies the differences between persuasive
and non-persuasive discourses, paying particular attention to ordinary conversation and
advertising. The asset of her work is its pragmatic approach towards the role of the Cooperative
Principle in advertising. Guy Cook’s The Discourse of Advertising (1992) comprises all the
communicative codes with which this discourse is able to operate. Thus, Cook devotes more
space to paralinguistic features, especially music and pictures, than any of the other authors.
Robin Lakoff’s article “Persuasive Discourse and Ordinary Conversation with Examples from
Advertising” (1982) states that some types of discourse have been more studied, others less
attention have been paid to. And identifying some universal types and features of discourse in
order to draw up some classifications of similarities and specificities, just like in the case of
grammar is a less glamorous task. Pursuing from two basic discourses: ordinary conversation
(OC) which can be constructive or spontaneous and persuasive, the author leads us to one
important determinant of technically persuasive discourse, which is non-reciprocity by
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elucidating that discourse is defined as reciprocal, only in case both or all participants in it are
able to do the same things and if similar contributions are always understood similarly. The
example the author produces is the discourse of a lecture which on one hand is non-reciprocal
when only one participant has the choice of the topic, presentation, start and finish the
discourse; but on the other hand the audience has the right to reaction to accepting, listening,
intervening by asking questions, or refusing, even ostensibly leaving the room, or displaying
disregard and disrespect,
lack of attention[23, p.28]. From this perspective persuasive
discourse is a type of discourse that non-reciprocally attempts to effect persuasion. The intent
to persuade is recognized as such by at least one party of the discourse. By persuasion the
author means the attempt or intention of one participant to change the behavior, feelings,
intentions, or viewpoint of another through the communicative means.
The role of the audience is said to range from one totally nonparticipatory to a
conscious and active
involvement. Three examples of audience’s role are provided, an
eavesdropper who is designed and intended to remain undisclosed, a wedding audience that
has some specific roles in rituals; and the live audience of the television discourse where there
is an all-important feedback (cheering, applause, or booing off). So the relationship of power
mentioned earlier between non-participatory audience and the lecturer reverses the question of
who really has the power the deliverer of the discourse or the audience who can choose not to
listen to it [23, p.32].
Among the persuasive discourses the author makes a further distinction into two
categories: so-called truly persuasive: propaganda and advertising and political rhetoric that
make appeal to emotions and; those that have strong persuasive elements lectures,
psychotherapeutic discourse and lectures that make appeal to the intellect [23, p33]. The author
considers as violation of the Gricean’s maxims and namely cooperative principle more exactly
the
principle
of
manner
the
lexical
innovation
-
neologisms
and
grammatical
morphological/syntactical novelty in terms of category permutations; syntactic innovations
such as absence of subject or verbal auxiliaries; semantic anomaly; pragmatic novelty in the
discourse form itself. [23, p.34] The author maintains that much of the modern psychological
basis of motivational theory which leads to the persuasive function in advertising derives
directly or indirectly from Sigmund Freud’s conscious and unconscious processes. The
unconscious works by the laws of the primary processes, the conscious – by the secondary
processes. Primary process thought is preverbal: symbolic, non-sequential and visual, while
secondary process thought is considered to be more directly rational, auditory, and verbal.
32
Edward L. Bernays, [23, p.34] Freud’s nephew is considered to be the father of public
relations and hence of many forms of persuasion, spoke about the “engineering of consent”,
who referred to a relatively harmless influence of advertising but up to more baneful effects of
political rhetoric including propaganda.
We find later on at Noam Chomsky another view on manipulation by the media in
“Manufacturing Consent. A Propaganda Model.“ in which the authors define the main
functions of the media as to amuse, entertain, inform and inculcate individuals with the values,
beliefs, and codes of behavior that would integrate them into the institutional structures of the
larger society [9,p.2]. Thus the persuasive aspect and function of the advertising discourse can
range from very subtle invitation to get to know to influence feelings and intentions, change
behavior to rough, institutionalized propaganda.
2.1.2 Constituent Elements of the Advertising Discourse.
Due to the fact that the discourse views the text and context holistically, Guy Cook
for the purpose of discourse analysis has the text as linguistic forms, temporarily and artificially
separated from context for the purposes of analysis.
Context includes all of the following:
1. Substance: the physical material which carries or relays text music and pictures.
2. Paralanguage: meaningful behaviour accompanying language, such as voice quality,
gestures, facial expressions and touch (in speech), and choice of typeface and letter sizes (in
writing).
3. Situation: the properties and relations of objects and people in the vicinity of the text, as
perceived by the participants.
4. Co-text: text which precedes or follows that under analysis, and which participants judge to
belong to the same discourse.
5. Intertext: text which the participants perceive as belonging to other discourse, but which they
associate with the text under consideration, and which affects their interpretation.
6. Participants: their intentions and interpretations, knowledge and beliefs, interpersonal
attitudes, affiliations and feelings. Each participant is simultaneously a part of the context and
an observer of it. Participants are usually described as senders, addressers, addressees and
receivers.
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7. Function: what the text is intended to do by the senders and addressers, or perceived to do by
the receivers and addressees.
Discourse is text and context together, interacting in a way which is perceived as
meaningful and unified by the participants (who are both part of the context and observers of
it). The author points out that in addition to the present state of all the elements that make up an
ad on the synchronic axe now a snapshot of the moment, they are interconnected diachronically
to the history of thousands of previous ads, thus the effect of reading in the context of tradition
just like in the similar study of the literary discourse the concept of intertextuality. Many
academic studies have been slow to realize this. They read each ad in isolation, discounting the
effect of the growing tradition, and participants’ detailed knowledge of it, which is wrong.
The issue of function is complicated by the fact that it can be understood from
two perspectives. The function which the sender intends the discourse to have may not be the
same as the function it actually does have for the receiver. The sender may intend the gun ad to
persuade people to buy Galco guns but the reader may use it in a discussion of gun laws, or as
an example in a book. The further complication that there is no single sender, because ads are
not the creation of an individual, but there are, rather, many strata of senders, ranging from the
manufacturer through the agency and its creative department, to the actors and camera crews
who produce it. For each stratum, the intended function may be different. Though the
manufacturer may seek only to persuade to buy, the writer may seek to impress other
colleagues, or realize an aesthetic aim. For these reasons we shall need to distinguish different
kinds of function, such as addresser-function, sender-function, addressee-function and receiverfunction.
When referring to meaning the object of study of semantics the author focuses on
words that reflect concepts that are culturally dependent and universal, and the sense
connections and relations lead us inevitably to the hyperonymic and hyponymic dependences,
but also to connotations as opposed to denotations; connotations or metaphorical uses, both of
which are particularly important in ads. The prototypical ad will vary between individuals,
cultures and periods.
Not all ads, however, sell products or services: as well as product ads, there are
also non-product ads, including, for example, those for charities and political parties. Another
possible means of categorization is by technique. One well-worn and long-established
distinction is between the hard sell and the soft sell. Hard selling makes a direct appeal. The
prototype of a hard-sell ad involves a man in a suit, standing in front of a pile of carpets, talking
34
loudly and directly to the camera about low cost, limited availability and guaranteed reliability.
Soft selling relies more on mood and on the implication that life will be better with the product.
Guy Cook in the capacity of a university lecturer has perceived two distinct categories of
attitudes towards advertising among students. The first category toy with ideas of working in a
big advertising agency, the latter believe that by understanding advertising they will neutralize
its effects and improve the world.
Advertising is a topic which both causes and reveals existing social divisions. In an
educational setting, advertising can be a stimulus—vying with the claims made for literature in
a liberal education— for discussion of the most urgent issues of our time: the destruction of the
environment, the growth of a world culture, the decline in education and individual thinking,
stereotyping, the struggle of feminism and patriarchy, the status of art and popular culture, the
consequences use and abuses of mass communication and high technology. Few discourse
types can generate so much. The social conscience is said to have given rise to three very
different judgments. According to the first, advanced by some leading advertisers, it is possible
for advertising to influence society: for good as well as for bad. In the second view, advertising
is amoral, and merely reflects states and changes in society, whether good or bad. In the third
view, the apparent social concern and progress professed in some ads is simply fraudulent, and
ads are always bad: superficial environmental concern still cynically sells pollution. In its
strongest form, this last view may argue that a growth economy, social exploitation and
inequality, violence and the destruction of the planet are all inextricably linked to each other,
and that advertising is both an expression of this apocalyptic unity and dependent upon it.
At every level, ads are parasitic upon their situation and other discourses. Just as
the substance of an ad is often stuck to some other significant substance, so its discourse both
occurs within other discourse and also imitates it.
As with the situation, the interaction between ads and accompanying discourses
creates new meanings, either by chance, through manipulation by the advertiser, or, more
rarely, through subversive intervention against ads from outside. In the Observer magazine, an
ad for Birds-Eye Menu-Master Tandoori Chicken Masala appeared on the page before a
photograph of emaciated children in Auschwitz; an ad for Rapport parfum pour home appeared
with a photograph of dirty, emaciated prisoners emerging from eleven years in a Soviet gulag.
Another example of unintended consequences, but this time played upon is a billboard
representing an advertisement for Jumbo Muffins Obloom (won the award from Advertising for
Educational Foundation) which were so enormous and heavy that being placed above in a 3D
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box one of them smashed a car that by chance / or not stationed beneath. So, the effect is both
humorous on a road side and the overstatement is placed on a hyperbole of much quantity for
an affordable price. The exaggeration could certainly be variously interpreted.
And the most recent example of the new undesired implications and curtailed
meanings that the “JUST DO IT” NIKE’s motto acquired after the prototype hero twice
Olympic champion double amputee, the so-called “blade runner”
South African Oscar
Pistorius, that appeared in the longest ever campaign of the sports goods world producer, shot
dead his girlfriend, another local star underwear model presenter. The much controversial hero
turned out to be seriously disturbed psychologically, so that the main sponsor and insurer
subsequently had to urgently retrieve and cancel all contracts with him, and unfortunately the
video spots where he was featuring. How about the resounding, universally known message,
placed in addition in the general antigun campaign! It had acquired some monstrous
connotations.
Teun A van Dijk [48, p.61] makes reference to the mental acts and involves the
notion of intentionality. But the intention relation, is binary: we cannot merely “intend” but
intend-to-do-something. A change of external state, thus, is not an action when it does not
belong to this specific function: stumbling for example in general is not an action but a simple
bodily event. Speaking and listening qualify as actions because they result from internal acts of
intention to speak and to listen.
The semiotic theory of the American philosopher Charles Peirce provides categories
which supplement those of Saussure. Defining a sign very broadly as “Something which stands
to somebody for something else, in some respect or capacity”. Peirce suggested further types of
sign in addition to those of a purely arbitrary conventional nature. Two of these, which are
particularly useful in analyses of advertising, are the index (plural indices) and the icon.
An index is a sign which points to something else by virtue of a causal
relationship. This category can include such natural co-occurrences as smoke and fire, dark
clouds and impending rain, a human footprint and the presence of a human being, but it can
also encompass more consciously controlled meanings. The notion of the index is particularly
useful in the description of paralanguage. A slurred voice is an index of drunkenness, for
example; expensive clothing is an index of wealth. Yet the interpretation of indices is not a
process of decoding. It depends on knowledge of the world, and will vary from one languageuser to another. Sweaty palms may have quite different indexical meaning to a doctor than to a
person with no skill in diagnosing illness.
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An icon is a sign which means by virtue of resemblance to the signified. Maps and
photographs are good examples. Yet, this type of sign is almost always more complex than at
first appears. Most icons resemble their signified only in some respects. Many signs are believed
to be iconic because the perception of a connection between signified and signifier is so habitual
that it begins to seem natural.
2.3 Advertising Discourse Classification According to the Communicative Form.
Dobrosklonskaia comes to some
conclusions that the media texts can be
studied from different perspectives: typological description; functional stylistics, media format,
syntagmatic peculiarities as well as from the view of cognitive and pragmatic approaches. The
texts of mass information are being given a great importance in the light of the theory of
functional styles of the language.
In the print advertising the importance of the verbal text according to this author is
even greater as namely the word carries the semantic burden, be it a short advertising title of the
type "Blow your mind. Not your budget" or an extended advertising text. [12, p.71]. As the
advertising stands the nearest to the realization of the function of influence on the axe of
message – influence, among other types of mass-media texts, the author brings some additional
arguments to this effect, one of them exaggerates in a way that advertisements’ role in the
society could be equated to that of religion and culture: "The primary function of advertising is
to introduce a wide range of consumer goods to the public and thus support the free market
economy, but this is clearly not its only role; over the years it has become more and more
involved in the manipulation of social values and attitudes, and less concerned with the
communication of essential information about goods and services. In this respect it could be
argued that advertising nowadays fulfills a function traditionally met by art or religion" [14,
p.161].
Loosely the author proposes the following classification of the advertising texts in
accordance with the following criteria: 1. The advertised object; 2. The target audience; 3. The
mass-media that carries the advertising text.
And another point that the author mentions is that the verbal part of the advertising
text possesses an internal structure: which as a rule is composed from headline, body copy and
an echo-phrase. The advertising headline delivers the most important rationale, that
subsequently is being developed in the body of the advertising text. The advertising rationale is
37
developed in the body of the advertisement, the purpose of which is to retell in more details
about the advantages of the advertised product. The main advertising text varies in length from
comparatively short (20-30 words) to a rather developed (80-100 words). The structure of the
main advertising text reflects the communicative strategy, chosen by its designers and may be
built on the following communicative models:
1. The advertisement– comparison; 2. Dramatized advertisement; 3. Advertisement–
instruction; 4. Advertisement–dialogue; 5. Advertisement- question or puzzle, paradox;
6. Advertisement with the participation of famous people; 7. Advertisement with the
participation of common customers.
2.2.1 Medium: Printed Magazine Advertisements
Taking into consideration the media through which the advertisements are being
promoted we have undertaken an analysis of advertizements published in written press namely
two magazines “Time” and “People”, and took as point of departure the structure of the
communicative form. From the very beginning it is worth mentioning that the Time magazine is
more businesslike, more informative, read and intended for an educated public with wide
interests. While the People magazine is intended for young audience, a receptor in search of
entertainment. The content is lighter, the object of its coverage are the glamorous people from
the showbiz, it is of high quality, very much advertising for a variegated range of goods, services
from the very sophisticated, renowned trademarks products, and intended to reach the large
public.
In Time magazine the advertizements could cover a page or two with some pages in the middle
and reinforcing the point. Here we have followed the diachronic evolution, historicity of some
advertising campaigns, a coherence on the horizontal axe with reiteration and progression, the
Geico Car Insurance Company campaign for example. Very often the advertizements are very
informative, the structured information into entitled paragraphs, supplemented with statistics,
diagrams, graphical representations, detailed instructions on steps, and so on are not intended for
any public, but namely for a public that already know a lot, would see a difference would get
interested and persuaded. Also the content advertised is much more serious, insurance companies
services, advanced technology products, cars, creating awareness campaigns, energy saving
projects, research for alternative resources, charity, medical products. The inverted pyramid style
is not used, as the Russian author mentioned, this style is mostly applied for brief-news articles.
1. THE ADVERTISEMENT - COMPARISON:
“Saturn”: The given type of advertisement [60, p2-3], could have a great impact, there is a such
kind of advertisement with clearly stated comparison: for example the dealing firm and site
38
Saturn offers five different cars of different models, it is written in smaller letters that the makes
are based on the General Motors concept. The mode of execution is text and visual graphics. The
background setting represents a hilly uneven terrain and a gulf, equally uninviting, rocky and
some weird objects wrecked near the shore, that remind of a huge whale that is suggestive of a
capsized boat, a strange sea-horse looking like a sunk helicopter and a golden fish that would
categorically not fulfill any wishes at all not to say three of them, because, there on the platform
are displayed the five modern, intended to meet all kinds of requirements and tastes, cars. So the
visual description is tainted with humour, based on allusions and contrast. The textual
description is quite clear, there are the names of the makes Aura and the Sky with fuel economy:
Outlook, Vue, Astra for 8 people hybrid type. What is more is that the firm brings its part of
contribution to the clients’ service and namely helping to save money on gas. The comparison is
very advantageous, it does not compare with other makes, not aggressively criticizing or pointing
their weak points, it’s a very civilized way of presentation of an impressive circle of something
that views and has its outlook only inside their circle, so a maximum discretion, though it implies
it has huge advantages in terms of reliability and speed, room, capacity, energy efficiency which
is emphasized, comfort, for any needs and level of sophistication. The functions of the advert are
prescriptive and intended to influence behaviour, the persuasion is attempted indirectly, softly
through the means of descriptive comparison which is not at all ditstasteful. The endorser expert
that adds poise to the statement is the discrete reminder of the highly reputed expert company
General Motors models with which these offers are conform or are in accordance with. There is a
weak uncertainty avoidance in this example, humour is implied in the execution, ambiguity and
understatement. The given advertisement implies high involvement from the side of the potential
user, the decision making process should be highly rational, implying that the consumers are
active participants in the process of gathering information and making a decision. The motto of
the advertising campaign of the company is Rethink, which is repeated in the top left side of the
page, by the logo of the company and transversally in the bottom right with which the
advertising text proper starts. So the function of the advertising is clearly intended to influence
perception, change behavior.
The semantic charge of the advertising message can be presented as given information the GM
concept, the types, makes, that are already known; vs → what is really new is the
reconceptualization, the peculiar presentation, offer grouping according to features and emphasis
on advantages they give – fuel economy; hybrid type; roomy, and some fuel saving scheme
proposed by the dealer.
2. DRAMATIZED ADVERTISEMENT
39
Another advertisement that presents a “slice of life”, is about a strange incident [57, p.7],
presented by the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. The visual represents a turning curb of a
road, with a recreation park on one side, and a house on the other. The problem is that a nice red
car has suffered some damage. It is not clear whether it had happened on the way, before it was
parked against the curb, most probably that it happened after. Because the emphasis is placed
namely on the fact that it was not moving, when some other car according to the tire traces left
on the pavement, shove it, scratched it badly and broke the side mirror. There is no subject but
the shade of a man from the side of the reader, also in the bottom part of the page there is the
information about types of damage the Insurance Company covers, implying thus that the
shadow could be of the insurer who would solve the case. The entire message of the
advertisement could be that accidents happen even when not in the traffic, not driving the car,
not being guilty, consequently the necessity of the car insurance, also life and home. The
function of the advertisement is to create awareness, but also to inform, also building a bond
with the Company name. The copy includes the message: a rhetorical question in capital letters:
“WHO COULD HAVE DONE THIS?” on the roadway, on the black traces left by the tires, the
special typeform of the letters redoubled by the shadow on the pavement: “A lot goes through
your mind after an accident. But with Liberty Mutual, insurance issues won’t.” In the bottom
part of the page there is a co-text, including a table explaining types of insurance they offer and
additional details. The lack of participants at the scene, but only the allusion of the shadow,
creates the impression of a conspiring silence, that even if there were any, they are sportsmen out
for a jog in the park, under the shade of the cap, no one would cooperate. Only the Professionals,
as it is implied, would have to intervene, bring the material proofs and, present the client of the
Insurance Company with a solution. So, the implied message is that the Company is a
professional one, very effective and prompt to react. The professional co-text of the overall
advertising message is closed with a kind of conclusion an elliptical sentence: “Responsibility.”
And a last challenging question for the receptor: “What’s your policy?”According to the types of
the question the first written on the pavement on the black traces left by the burnt tires in the
speedy task – is a special question, the last question from the ad also. But they are not soliciting
information from the receptors they are challenging the receptor into thinking it carefully over,
into reasoning, and they are offering the professional response to the whole situation and an
antidote for the future. The last question is a rhetorical one addressing the receptor to decide
themselves after having been informed about the offer.
The semantic macrostructure of the advertisement can be compressed into the following formula:
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an unknown car had badly damaged, it could be possible that purposefully, the red car stationing
in front of the house. Complication- nobody had witnessed it, there is no car number, the car had
gone anonymous, we don’t know who is the owner, what is his/her intention; why he had
committed the crime, the passers-by are pretending not having seen anything, they cannot be
counted upon. So the only shadow of hope is an investigation with the professionals from the
insurance company who would research the case and by all means find the perpetrator, because
it’s in their interest too to bring the criminal in the courtroom and make him pay damages and
make him accountable of malicious intent to destroy property he can also be charged with a
criminal code article and serve a prison sentence as the individual presents a real danger for the
society. The resolution and solution for the future, as well as a very appealing offer is further
made professionally by the info in the table presented by the insurance company.)
3. ADVERTISEMENT-INSTRUCTION
The advertisement in point is an informative leaflet that is meant both to instruct and to inform
[59, p.9]. It is entitled “How to talk to your kids about drugs if you did drugs.”; it has 12
recommendation points and is proposed by Partnership P for a Drug-Free America. So the first
thing to inform about is about the existence of the organization, the other thing is to really advise
and instruct parents who have problem kids how to handle the situation. It has a II person
address style, like a real consultant or psychologist would talk to the reader, it abounds in
rhetorical questions and answers, as if it was a lecture and the listener would be present and
involved in elucidating responses to puzzles. The given advertisement is not intended to sell
something but to influence, educate. Direct communication, the problem-solving argumentative,
the motives are founded: the attention, learning, accepting or believing the advertisement, and
certainly emotion that is stimulated by the ad. Beside the 12 points instruction there is a picture
of a nice teen that stands leaning on window a jacket on, a back pack on the window, which is
small but light breaks in and he reads a book, he is able to instruct himself and take initiative
regarding his problems and does not look depressed at all. The information can be semantically
characterized as known, because those are pseudo-instructions, the advertisement does not teach
the receptor how to become a psychologist, does not offer real professional support, tricks or
solutions, it resembles more to a discussion, that encourages to further consult a site, the address
is given or orients to seek further professional assistance, in case the receptor would become
aware about how serious their problem is. So, semantically I’d describe the advertisement as
theme - given, popular information that everyone knows but is simply bullet pointed and brought
to attention vs the rheme which is the link and a recommendation to seek professional help in
41
case anyone confronts with such a serious problem as the one given or other ones related to the
topic of the serious illness and vice of drug addiction.
4. ADVERTISEMENT-DIALOGUE –
The advertisement [58, p.39] published on behalf of the Ameritrade. The Independent Spirit, a
consulting, retirement planner agency. It actually is not a dialogue but a monologue. A young
man black is shaving and watching himself in the mirror. With the razor in suspense he asks
himself the question “They say I should save $3000 a month for retirement? Great. I’ll just stop
paying all my bills.” The young man has the dilemma from where to cut his expenses to be able
to cope with his situation. The rest of the advert is in the same style questions and answers, so an
improvised dialogue with the experts: “What happens to your retirement savings if you buy a
new house? Start a college fund? Or decide to relocate?” The advertisement is meant to create
awareness, to inform about existing opportunities. The dialogic, monological form stages
reproducing a possible scene so as to prompt for the questions which would appear and push the
subject also the receptors to look for more information and support.
So, the semantic macrostructure of the advertisement can be interpreted as - given: the
individual, our character, who is kind of rebel plus rough, uninformed, uneducated, incorrect
legally and who intends to continue to act stubbornly his own way, damaging potentially to
himself, he represents a lot of other equally uninformed people; and the new information, the
possible schemes that would bring only benefits that are offered by the agency.
The semantic macrostructure can be represented by the formula:
HAPPENING + COMPLICATION + RE/SOLUTION (We have given the problem, the
complication is that the character intends to worsen the current situation not to say about the
endangering his future the resolution is a comfortable scheme offered by the agency.
5. ADVERTISEMENT- QUESTION OR PUZZLE, PARADOXThe agency Chevron on behalf of the Economist Group in [57, p. 17] presents Energyville, An
energy game developed by the Economist Group. It starts with a rhetorical question: “This is
your city. How will you power it?” This special question sounds like direct provocation for the
receivers. From the very beginning the most imposing names of companies look like being ready
to make some very serious statement, proposal, offer, breakthrough, but instead it offers the
receptors to play an online interactive game that puts users in charge of meeting the energy
demands of their city. And it’s a chance to put theories into practice. By choosing a portfolio of
energy sources to power their city through 2030. Every decision they make would affect the
environment, the economy, and the city’s security. The users should also share results and
42
challenges others to particiate. I found the advertisement very interesting. The visual represents a
city at night, the skyscrapers with lights on, lights also glittering from the trees that are seen. I
think the society game would be played by power players as well as by ordinary people, because
really great things are put on the table and because it’s up to everyone to involve, to power it.
Functions of the advertising discourse are to inform, to raise awareness, an impulse for action
and involvement and not being indifferent. The directives at the end of the advertisement “Play
it. Power it. Discuss it.” are challenging gamesters to involve in a playful way and apply their
brains to some useful cause. The last part of the advertisement comes the link willyoujoinus.com,
which could be an invented one but an expression of invitation. The structure of the advertising
text includes questions, special, rhetorical to point to the existing problems and lead to the offer
that the company makes. The offer looks businesslike, less of a game; terminological units are
used: a portfolio of energy resources: to power; meet the demands; to be in charge; put theories
into practice; know-how, solve energy problems; questions facing us all; energy problems our
planet faces. The text is very coherent: the coherent devices are the conjunctions: and; after,
because; an infinitival clause “To help encourage greater understanding and discussion toward
solutions, Chevron brings you Energyville…” the infinitival clause brings dynamism and
emphasis to the text of the advertising discourse. The given, known information theme is the
energy problems, the company Chevron which is an Economist Group; and everyone knows how
to play, the rules of the strategy game, the possible offers would be described in portfolios → the
rheme is the innovative view or combination or solution the players could devise, but also the
mode of thinking over about problems in terms of games theory.
6. ADVERTISEMENT WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF FAMOUS PEOPLE.
In this category for the first time it can be clearly seen the difference between the magazine
quality and the types of advertising they publish. “Time” is more quality, serious, informational,
intended for a highly educated public, with the higher probability to get on the already informed
audience on many matters. In the samples we’ve selected for corpus analysis we had only four
advertising pages with the presence of famous personalities and namely two locally or
internationally renowned sportsmen an ad dedicated to the political presidency campaign of
Barack Obama and a famous oil tycoon that started an awareness campaign for the alternative
energy resources. So none of the mentioned advertisements are commercial, all four present
some campaigns and the presence of famous personalities is motivated by their endorsing the
cause and supporting it, encouraging people’s attention and interest, and in their consequently
involving in the projects.
43

Fill the Cup advertisement, [58, p.55] ,proposed by the World Food Programme with the
symbolic participation of Tony Romo quarterbacks for the Dallas Cowboys. The execution
includes the photograph of the sportsman in full gear, equipped, carrying the number 9, the
helmet in the right hand – just off the field; and holding a red plastic cup in, as if it is implied a
beggar’s gesture to collect the money for the underprivileged. The textual copy, headline, states
it openly: “Tony’s big goal is to tackle hunger” in the right top part of the page; and below the
demarcation line another textual copy: “Find out how you can help Tony make the ultimate
touchdown”. So the text of the advert uses terms for sport and plays with notions from the
domain in a playful way “goal” as aim and as scoring in the game, “touchdown” as part, element
of the game and an invitation to drop some funds into the account. The final argument is factual
and persuasive: “It costs just 25 cents a day to feed a child in school. A gift of hope for the
future.” The contact info a site is included.
In this case we have the following semantic structure: the given information the theme – the
personality of the sportsman, who is not a simple one but a local club hero; and the rheme the
new information is that he is collecting funds for a noble cause and pleading for his cause as he
is inviting everyone to take part.
7. ADVERTISEMENT WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF COMMON CUSTOMERS
This is another very persuasive category of ads complementary to the previous one here
implying a reverse response from the advertisement receptors, a reaction to a product’s high
quality and effect, an engagement that proves and incites the appeal of the product. This is
another kind of evaluation, if in the previous category the expected effect is potential customers
want to imitate the famous people’s habits or ways, in the present category the expected effect
would be creating awareness and informing so that customers want to associate with the other
customers of their category or social class, or that have similar tastes, needs, educational level.
Another advert for a medical product “alli” in [60, p.65] is represented entirely through the
testimony-confession of a woman who presents her story of how she solved her overweight
problem by using the medication. The advertis highly personalized, there is all the information
about the height and age and weight and also her photo before and after having taken the
medicament and showing the effects.
The execution of the advertisement is very clever, the denomination though reminds the word
ally, is not very much so, because typed in low case letters of different colours, in addition the
final “i” is nevertheless symbolic of the emphasis placed on the “i” and counting only 50% on
the effective power of the medication. Thus graphology has special role in the present
advertisement. Again, as in the previous case the advertisement calls to “join the millions of
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people losing weight with “alli” in the headline, and following the success story there is another
appeal to the receptors to access “for more “alli” success stories” at their site to associate with
the alikes. This appearance of creating a bond that unites a category of customers, creates a spirit
of belonging to a group, a sense of complicity, and an appeal for others to join. It is a persuasion
trick of the multilevel marketing, that works wonders.
The semantic structure of the advertising message follows the scheme known, theme - the
customer who retells her story, the problem, the solution to the problem was the medicine “alli”
and the conclusion in the form of a directive: “lose 50% more weight than dieting alone” and the
last textual message really informative for the one who knows to read between the lines: ”you
have the will. we have the power”, and the rheme → there is also a link that would inform about
other stories of how to achieve success and eventually obtaining moral support from being a part
of a community that struggles with the same problems.

Another advertisement both unusual and special that could also be filed for the given
category is the “ExxonMobil’s ad from “Time” [56, p.1-2] that refers to a very costly
experiment-project promoted by the named oil Company that is lead under the motto of “Taking
on the world’s toughest energy challenges”. From the introductory message “how listening can
give you more energy.” campaign implies taking on a huge responsibility and costs all in the
name of “meeting the world’s project energy needs while reducing environmental impact”. The
advertisement has the function to both inform about the new technology based on
electromagnetic fields that would listen to the ocean floor and detect the oil reserves so as fewer
wells would be drilled and less damage to the oceanic environment would be caused. Another
function of the advert is to invite other power players from the domain - to hear, involve, engage
to care more to invest more in technological breakthroughs. The endorsers are also power highly credible and trustworthy, and namely the experts, researchers that developed the
technology and that are concerned mostly about the ecological positive impact of the technology
rather than making some profit out of it, despite of the fact that this couldn’t be driven out as
option. In this case the endorsers are stakeholders, not famous people, nor target customers, but
people with a higher interest in promoting the product.
Just like in the previous advertisement the theme, given information is the company name
brand: ExxonMobil, whose activities and specialization are well-known and self-understood
from the very denomination → the rheme is the R&D project that they are involved in and that
could present interest for the other companies from the industry.
In recent years, media analysts have speculated about two trends in advertising
content. The first is an increase in visual prominence: the growing dominance of visuals at the
45
expense of verbal copy. The second is an increase in openness: providing less guidance towards
a certain message. Several researchers have signaled a number of changes in ads that may
indicate a trend towards more openness, because they all seem to imply less guidance towards a
specific message, requiring more effort on the part of the consumer to construct an interpretation.
The first change noted is the increased use of rhetorical figures, particularly those that require
closure such as puns and metaphors especially visual ones. The second change that has been
suggested is that ads have become more ambiguous. Ambiguity in ads is explained in terms of
“open to multiple interpretations” or ‘deficit of meaning’. The third change is the increase of ads
that do not provide verbal anchoring (i.e., verbal explanation of the ad’s message), therefore
allowing the consumer more freedom to interpret the message.
Researchers point out that advertising uses heavily rhetorical techniques in order to
promote persuasion. Persuasion can be achieved by means of either conviction or seduction, or a
combination of the two. Both conviction and seduction are processes that can be summed in a
relation of species and genus under the hyperprocess of persuasion. Conviction involves setting
out a series of argumentative steps. In other words, readers are supposed to be convinced about a
particular point; they are expected to arrive to a particular conclusion, via a logical process of
accepting a form of reasoning. This logical process, therefore is a cognitive process, because it
involves the activation and participation of one’s cognitive faculty. Seduction, on the other hand,
entails the emotional involvement of the reader-viewer/ listener, so that s/he adopts the
speaker’s/ writer’s perspective. In other words s/he may be lured or seduced into being
persuaded without being convinced or without even being aware that conviction has been
bypassed.
2.2.2 How Advertising Works. Functions and Hierarchy of Effects.
The researcher Levitt having undertaken a typological analysis of culture and
communication has made a comparative analysis of the phenomenon, process of the discourse of
advertising through the prism of styles of communication that are highly coulture dependent.
Levitt reminds the classical model of communication which includes the source or sender of a
message (person, organization, company, brand), the message itself (story, picture,
advertisement), the medium (any carrier of the message: a storyteller, newspaper, television,
Internet), and the receiver of the message (person, consumer). In this communication process, a
message is selected and encoded in order to transfer meaning. The receiver of the message must
46
be able to receive the message via the medium and decode it. Generally, the sender of the
message wants to get feedback to find out if the message has been received and understood. The
author warns us that in this process many things can go wrong. Even more in mass
communications than in interpersonal communication, the process is difficult to control. In the
coding and decoding process, anything may go wrong.
Consumers’ emotions were recognized as having a significant influence on purchase and
consumption decisions. As a result, “emotional,” “transformational,” “evaluative,” or “feeling”
messages are often contrasted with “rational,” “informational,” “factual,” or “thinking”
appeals. This suggests that emotions do not carry information. “Logical, objectively verifiable
descriptions of tangible product features” and “emotional, subjective impressions of intangible
aspects of the product” are viewed as contrasting.
Theories of how advertising works are based on the assumption of an active informationgathering and rational consumer who wants to solve problems. To operationalize the distinction
between informative and non-informative, the Resnik and Stern typology is usually applied, in
which the criterion for considering an advertisement informative is whether the informational
cues are relevant enough to assist a typical buyer in making an intelligent choice among
alternatives.
And the last point that is of utmost importance is the response, the feedback to the
advertising. So Levitt identifies two basic responses or effects while measuring advertising
Persuasion or Likeability. Traditional measures of advertising effectiveness are based on
persuasiveness of an advertisement. Measures include attitude toward the advertisement, brand
attitude, purchase intention, memory, and market performance.
Most models of how advertising works are based on an assumed hierarchy of effects
and on sequential thinking. The underlying assumption of how advertising works is that
advertising takes people from one stage to another. These linear or sequential or “transportation”
models are based on a logical and rational process. This hierarchy-of-effects model has strongly
influenced American advertising style and the style used by U.S. advertisers elsewhere.
One of the early sequences in theory of how advertising works was that people would
first learn something about a product or brand, then form an attitude or feeling, and consequently
take action, which meant purchasing the product or at least going to the shop with the intention
of buying. This sequence is summarized as “learn-feel-do.” It was later seen as mainly applicable
to products of “high involvement,” such as cars, for which the decision-making process was
47
assumed to be highly rational. This so-called high-involvement model assumes that consumers
are active participants in the process of gathering information and making a decision.
In contrast, there are low-involvement products, such as detergents or other fast
moving consumer goods, with related low-involvement behavior when there is little interest in
the product. The concept of low involvement is based on Herbert Krugman’s theory that
television is a low-involvement medium that can generate brand awareness but has little impact
on people’s attitudes. The low-involvement sequence was assumed to be “learn-do-feel.” Again,
knowledge comes first, after that purchase, and only after having used the product would one
form an attitude.
Miracle summarized the logic of advertising in Western societies as basically to tell the
audience the following:
a. How he or his the product is different.
b. Why his product is best, using clearly stated information and benefits.
c. Consumers then will want to buy, because they have a clear reason or justification for the
purchase.
d. If they are satisfied, consumers will like and trust the company and the product and make
repeat purchases [32, p.23].
Later models continue to follow the assumption that the advertising concept is
what classical rhetoricians call an “argument from consequence,” following the cause-effect way
of thinking. Petty and Cacioppo’s Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is one of the most
advanced U.S. models of how advertising works. Taking into account the role of involvement, it
states that persuasion follows a central route, peripheral route, or both. Within the central route, a
person engages in thoughtful consideration (elaboration) of the issue-relevant information
(arguments) within a message, so actively thinking about the arguments in the message is the
central route. When the person is not motivated to think about the arguments, the peripheral
route is followed. In the theory, the peripheral route generally includes visual cues like the
package, pictures, or the context of the message.
Because communication management is essential for Public Relations, sensitivity to
different communication styles is also essential. PR also assumes a need for information, which
is not necessarily the same in all cultures. In cultures, where power holders disperse information
as they see fit, PR is likely to have a different function, more to build relationships to achieve
trust than to inform, as in cultures where information builds trust. In individualistic cultures,
when a problem occurs, a company tends to organize a great PR effort, providing information to
48
contain the damage. In collectivistic cultures, companies have problems admitting mistakes and
see it as loss of face. Sometimes companies try to hide mistakes or tragedies because of feelings
of shame. A firm’s good reputation contributes to customer e-loyalty.
Thus from the 7 main types and forms of advertising employed in the said two
magazines, the 128 advertisements 53/75 published in the quality/informational “Time”
magazine and popular/entertaining People magazine we attempted to further distinguish between
what the author Gilian Dyer [14, p.4], provides as a very general but comprehensive
classification of advertisements:
1. Trade and Technical Advertisements, which are aimed at the expert, professional or
hobbyist. Most trade advertisements are informative and useful, the customers are usually able
to evaluate the claims of costs, value, use.
2. Prestige, business and financial advertising is a growing sector of the advertising industry.
Ads for large companies or the publishing of yearly financial results in newspapers are usually
designed to promote public confidence and favourable business image. Such advertising is not
usually intended to influence sales directly, large petrochemical firms or large clearing banks
which present themselves as disinterested pieces of public information and which are designed
to think that private corporations are benevolent, public-spirited and socially responsible. The
inherent message in this campaign is the promotion of the capitalist enterprise and the values of
the acquisitive society.
3. Small advertisements, are usually straightforward and informative and have long since been
relegated to the small print of the classified sections of newspapers.
4. Government and Charity advertising is usually non-profit making, but often uses the
persuasive techniques of commercial advertising. However, an organization like Health
Education Council has a very small amount of money to promote anti-smoking in comparison
with the giant tobacco firms who spend a great deal on encouraging to smoke, and thereby, by
all accounts, to damage customers’ health.
By conventionally distributing them on the four general, comprehensive categories, we
obtained such a table: Table1 and Table 2.
This presentation allows us some more detailed insights into the problem of the style
peculiarities and execution modes of the advertizements in both percentage proportion and
graphical representation. The graphical representation is a compilation of two diagrams
Communication Styles and Advertising Styles, that Levitt has developed from other authors, and
we adapt it for our purposes as well in our turn. Diagram 1.
49
From the second table can be seen that figures do not correspond to the ones in the
first one, this is because we have a combination of forms and modes, and for the campaigns we
had been compelled to present a separate graph as very often the campaigns are very abstractly
executed, these are highly informational serious style, the exacting explicating style, data, the
visuals represent either photographs in the field, in action, with customers and stakeholders
who are trainers, experts, representatives, or founders themselves. That’s why this type of
advertising has its place in the left top quadrant of the diagram, the form of address is personal,
the structure is standard, elaborate.
After having thoroughly studied the corpus of work we could represent the findings in the
following way: Table 3.
My final conclusion on the topic of advertising discourse in the printed form in
magazines is that they are very elaborate, use standard language, use different tropes and visual
modes in order to convey a clear message, but also to impress, to put a premium on the
emotional trigger of the image; to inform, to entertain,
to raise awareness but are very
conventional in essence, images, setting, drama, strategies and techniques used are very simple,
appeal being made to family values and entertainment, brand and company culture and stakes, as
well as it is counted on the receptors’ wish to associate with the standards and social categories
they abide by, or tend to imitate and adopt their favourite famous personalities choices, or follow
the tendencies, the bandwagon, change the patterns, modify behavior, habits, improve the quality
of their lives. The overall impression is that magazine advertisements are very elaborate, witty,
professionally executed, all details being weighted, not based on sensationalism or extraordinary
exotic things, but on the contrary, on earthly things, established ways, never shocking. In
different category and form of execution there would be followed a different proportion of
informativity: facts, data or silencing things, purposefully not saying some; different levels of
veridicity, and a different share of ambiguity, imprecision, exaggeration, thus manipulation and
distortion in order to persuade, mystify, impress, influence decision making, create loyalty with
the
audience.
The
famous
personalities,
experts
that
endorse
the
product/service/campaign/project, add much credibility and surely have an impact upon even
educated knowledgeable ones, but also educates the less educated or ignorant profane public.
2.2.3 PRAGMATIC DESCRIPTION OF THE CORPUS FOR ANALYSIS
The semantic features of the main categories of printed advertisements have already been
described. In what concerns the pragmatic dimension we need the hidden implied effects of the
discourse, and the expected effects. Here we need to start with the Grice’s maxims and
50
submaxims
and the expansion provided by Leech to it; but also the speech acts theory
elaborated by Austin and by his follower Searle. We have already mentioned that the specificity
of modern advertisement consists in the fact that less textual support is used, by opposition, the
visual support, is state-of-the-art very elaborate. Researches even talk about a visual grammar
and visual metaphors.
With reference to the Deictic Framework Coordinates we must note that regarding the Personal
Coordinate the most of the time, the majority of the advertisements are in the I person I or We or
impersonal it:
“Playing fetch with me involves two zip codes” (Iams Cats’ Food); or
“I can smell a great deal a page away” (Honda promotions campaign); or impersonal:
“It feels good to win awards. It feels better to give back to the community” (Toyota charitable
educational campaign).
In the case of the category of Advertisements with the participation of famous people or
customers speaking about themselves it goes without saying that they are speaking in their name
not on behalf of the company, or the so-called “we” of modesty-academic. The participants can
be of all ages from newly-born to respectfully aged, teens, young people, middle aged families,
cats, dogs can also be not only participants actors but also acting as leading role performers, also
occasionally some cartoon characters could also be used, such as the turtle and a rabbit as a basis
for comparison for the rapidity with which one potentially could quit smoking “cold turkey”;
robots; the Ice Age Elephant and Winy Pooh. The audience, the advertisement is intended for, is
also variegated, some are designed having the large masses in view, so that to suit the tastes of
different categories of receptors, prospective clients; some are intended for the attention of teens’
parents, some target specific social categories or people with specific needs, or having particular
interests. Examples are above in the practical part section.
The Temporal framework is neutralized as the advertisements are repeated several
issues of the magazine in a row, then they could be modified a little, or expanded, so that the
only moments captured in the visual are true, some generalized cases, summer time, Christmas
holidays or particularly critical periods of the year the beginning of summer the high allergy
time.
The Spatial coordinate is also neutralized as with globalization tendencies, all the
products or services that are produced and promoted in USA or any other country very rapidly
reach the European market network, so that it makes no difference in terms of destination
boundaries of a particular country. They are equally neutral in what they represent in case of an
51
advertisement from the drama category so that universality could be applied to any
advertisement taken apart.
The Social Coordinate is also loose both in what is represented in the visuals, from the
President, representatives of the business, to doctors and commoners, from actors and singers to
simple customers. The receptors are also more or less explicit, some campaigns by the Great
corporations having the function to promote their image of prestige and maintain the loyal
customers, inform about their charitable or R&D projects, have as receptors their partners and
competitors. But the commercials for some common consumer products have a much more
modest scope – the target audience is the mass average income consumers.
According to the speech acts theory the total number of advertisements under consideration in
the corpus of 128 advertisements we have identified 32 Directive acts reflecting the speaker’s
need for changes and he is the person who is supposed to make the transformation. Directives are
expressed by imperatives:
“Tell Congress to Protect Funding for our Nation’s Teaching Hospitals”. (The Healthcare
Education Project)
“Look totally polished. Even if the reality is a little more interesting than that.” (Office Small
Business package)
“Help make a difference in Girls’ Self-Esteem” (Raising Self-Esteem Campaign by Dove)
“Join the global diabetes handprint.” (A Diabetes Awareness Campaign)
“Use them as a concert hall – or a sanctuary” (Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones)
The Assertives, speech acts that illustrate what the speaker believes to be truth or a lie,
thus facts about the world as the speaker understands them and believes them, come on the
second place with 7 examples:
“A safe home is one of the greatest gifts you can give your child.” (An Awareness campaign for
certified products UL (Underwriters Laboratories))
“It’s time to stop America’s addiction to foreign oil.” (An alternative energy solutions
campaign).
Commissives reflecting the speaker’s intention to commit some future action, are just
two:
“I’d spend my points on art supplies. For the children’s Hospital” (Chase Freedom credit card
campaign)
Expressives illustrate the speaker’s state of mind the way he or she feels.
“We’d develop formula 410, but it would be illegal in 12 states.” (All Purpose Cleaner)
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“Nurturing skin treatments that are as gentle as a hug from Baby Pooh.” (Gentle Naturals for
babies)
“Get into a relationship where you won’t get hurt “ (Sports footwear campaign).
Although the first example seems to be neutral: we have the pronoun WE, and it’s not about
personal emotions, it’s even not even very clear what it refers to, until we examine attentively
the visual which represents the product bottle with a doser,the denomination of the product is
410 and it is placed in the very bull’s eye of the target. The implied message is that the given
product is very effective, works like a destructive gun against impurity. The allusion is made to
the gun legalization that is not adopted in 12 states, otherwise it would be equally good to
destroy human purge.
From the point of view of the cooperative principle and the quality and manner all the
grammatical manipulations of morphological or syntactic order, also all the stylistic tropes are
considered violations. So we are going to examine the morphological and syntactic deviation in
the corpus of analysis as deviance from the norm, thus markedness.
We would like to start with the questions. There are three main types of questions general,
alternative and special, also the rhetorical which has by definition another function. The use of
questions is very frequently abusive, violated as an advertisement’s function is to inform and
persuade and create an emotive bond with the audience but not ask questions. So the role and
function of the question in all the cases, they are many - 24, would be a different one. Among
them we could distinguish:
General questions:
“Is your skin thirsty? Quench it with new skin essentials.” (A delicious new drink that nourishes
the skin from within)
“Is itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny in this weekend’s forecast?” (A funny advertisement for VISA made
out of swimwear)
“Is it the price on Horton Hears a Who! In hi-def? It must be.” (Sony Bravia TV and DVD)
Special Questions:
“Your skin isn’t synthetic. So why use a moisturizer that is?” (Jergens care products)
“Guess who regretted their night cream in the morning” (Consumer research campaign)
“Guess who got a dryer that fell short of expectations?” (Consumer research campaign)
“Our nation’s teaching hospitals train tomorrow’s sorely needed doctors… in state-of-the-art
facilities. Why would we cut their capital funding by hundreds of millions of dollars?” (The
Healthcare Education Project)
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“This is your city. How would you power it?” (An alternative energy solutions campaign).
Questions are provoking to a discussion and inviting receptors to refer to themselves and puzzle
and look for an answer, that they would certainly provide.
Alternative questions:
“Colour or shine? I want it both ways.” (Hair Care products)
All three types of questions present are rhetorical as they have the function to puzzle, challenge
the receiver rather than ask him something.
Moreover there are the elliptical questions, the colloquial register, also stylistically marked in the
context of the advertising discourse the visual drama, the improvised dialogue or the dialogical
speech between the addresser and the receptor.
“Determined to quit? This could be your year.”(A non-nicotine pill for treating addiction)
“Think only a salon brand keeps you this smooth all day?” (Hair care products)
“They say I should save $3000 a month for retirement?” (A consulting retirement planner
agency campaign)
If in the first two questions we have ellipsis: the first normal part of a question, the inversion of
the auxiliary and the subject have been omitted as in familiar speech; in the last example we have
a normal topic, order of the parts of the sentence but a question mark at the end. Actually the last
example was taken from the soliloquy of a person in trouble not knowing how to solve the
problem, he could also be annoyed. All cases of abnormalities are considered as stylistically
marked.
Some other cases of grammatical peculiarities include:

The high presence of attributive groups formed from two or three elements:
Anti-aging moisturizer; weightless comfort: poor leg circulation; heart attack; tax-free funds;
performance chasing; blackout dates; a squeeze of real fruit taste; teeth grinding protection; ice
caps; tomorrow’s sorely needed doctors; state-of-the-art facilities.

The exploitation of the rich possibilities and extensions that participles may cumulate:
“How listening can give you more energy.” (ExxonMobil oceanic project)
“Nearly one third of teens admit to texting while driving. Some of them will never be heard
from again.(A very emphatic use of the passive voice)” (Allstate Insurance Campaign)
“Performance-chasing is a losing strategy.”
“Constantly rotating between one hot fund and another rarely gets you anywhere.”
“Just add you (water already included” .(Tour Agency Promotional Campaign.)
“Deliciously homemade. Delightfully Affordable.
“Introducing yet another perk of being a member.”(Tour Agency Promotional Campaign.)
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
Ellipsis belongs to cohesive devices and it is defined as “the omission of part of a
structure.” (Goddard 1998: 123). Ellipsis in advertising is used for many purposes:
We don’t inflate our promises or our prices.

For economical reasons; to save space and money because words cost money. Anaphoric
textual ellipsis:
A lot has changed in recent months. But the importance of life insurance hasn’t.
Just a squeeze of real fruit taste. No sweetenery or calories. (Caloric Drink)
Flavoured water, naturally.
The story of a simple nut. Made extraordinary. (True North 100% Natural)
At Clinique, we don’t inflate our promises. Or our prices.
It has a refrigerator. And many other ways to chill.
Might be real, but it isn’t fair. Masquerading as Champagne.
Unlimited nationwide talk, text, web & walkie-talkie. Unwronged. (Boost mobile campaign from
Motorola)
Some other reasons for using ellipsis are:
 To avoid drawing attention to features of the message which do not serve the advertiser’s
interest” [Cook 1996: 169]
 To create a sense of informality. Ellipsis is normally used in spoken language, in face-to-face
casual communication. Ellipsis in advertising creates an effect of closeness with the reader
and conversational tone; sometimes suggests immediacy.
This is a very creative campaign where all the textual messages have an internal rhythm and
rhyme which sound very dynamic like a song. And the basic advertising message which is
equally codified:
UNO’D, where UN stands for Unlimited Nationwide, the O could be a linking element so as to
convert the abbreviation into a verb that sounds like a past participle – the final D is for the –ed
ending of the Past Simple; or zero for hidden fees or wrong caused. [People, March 2009, p.75]
Actually the O is a folded hose, hung, built in the offer symbolically, because nothing is added
nor is charged for the very advantageous new option.
The stylistic peculiarities that add the flavor to the advertising message making it not all
businesslike and commercial but also creative, artistic, emotional, are actually also considered as
abuses by the Quality and Manner Principles. We’ve selected the most interesting textual verbal
intricacies so as to create an impression about the general characteristics and trends.
Phonological Devices:
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Assonance: (Repetition of vowel sounds):
I am an Iams cat. (Cats’Food)
Be in the know on the go!
Alliteration:(Sound repetitions)
Blend & Blush & Extend & Shade & Smile with glossy lips when you see the price.
Spray & Smooth & Flip & Toss your shiny hair as you tell your friends the great price.
Brighten &Tone &Cleanse &Soften & Glow radiantly thinking of how little you paid
Stacy’s Simply naked (The art of Basic) (Chips)
Wrap up a gift that does double the good.
Seeing is believing.
Do you recall when you were small.
From corporate litigator to party navigator.
All these alliterations contain an internal rhyme.
The orthographic creativity device that has already been mentioned with the play upon the
acronym UN and the inserted O is very creative. Another one is:

!deahouse, where we have a reversed I; another interesting play upon the phonetic form
two in one is:

“image ANYWARE”.
Syntactic stylistic devices are in the form of varied repetitions of words or phrases in the same
sentence:
It has a refrigerator and many other ways to chill.
It’s not a lipgloss – it’s a smile treatment.
The lipwear that does what a lipstick can’t.
Fast times call for a fast drying clear gel.
Beauty that is skin deep just went deeper.
Where there’s a red dress, there’s a way.
If you’re sick, take a sick day.
Freedom of speech. Now followed by freedom to print.
$50 means $50.

Antithesis is a figure of speech, which uses the same or similar structure to express two
opposite ideas so as to achieve the effects of emphasizing the meaning and the contrast. The
figure has the characteristics of harmonious combination of sound and rhyme, balanced
syllables, sharp rhythm. The combination of pleasant senses of vision and hearing often
stimulates the good feelings of readers and arouses consumers “buying desire.”Antithesis relates
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to words, clauses or sentences. It is based on antonyms (words of opposite meaning) or opposite
ideas:
“Performance-chasing is a losing strategy.”
“Miserable elbows can find happiness.”
“Put more of the good stuff on your table. For less than you might think”.
“I have poor leg circulation. And I have good reason to try to reduce the risk of heart attack or
stroke that comes with it.”
“Record heat melting ice caps.”

Schematic patterning: The formal schemes can be represented in various ways.
Parallelism is one of the forms of schematic pattering. It can be defined as “repetition of formal
patterns”[24 186]. Parallelism means the parallel presentation of two or more than two similar or
relevant ideas in similar structural forms. It is a rhetorical device heightening the emotional tone
of the message and its importance.
Break away from creamy to the creamiest and send your taste buds soaring.
It is what it is.
Ambien has layers to help you fall asleep and stay asleep.

Anaphora – the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of
several consecutive sentences or verses to emphasize an image or a concept.
“Better Sleep. Better Health. Better Bed.”
“No averages. No roaming charges. No contracts. No credit checks. No hidden fees”. (boost
mobile campaign from Motorola)
“Simply potatoes simply better”.

Epiphora- “the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases,
clauses or sentences.”
“Point IT Shoot IT Love IT”
Semantic shifts
Metaphor: A metaphor is a word or phrase which establishes a comparison or analogy between
one object or idea and another.
Art can’t ask for a blanket. (A painting of a lightly dressed fairy in an art gallery stretched as if
outside her frame in a begging gesture)
Frame the holidays with the perfect gift.
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
Metonymy: Minds don’t just meet here. They shake hands and start working together.
(Virginia Commonwealth University) (It’s about real cooperation of academics on a field
research campaign in Africa)
Emphasis:
140° heat, 95% humidity and it hasn’t even broken a sweat. (A car cooling system)
Why trust your cheesecake to anyone but Philly?
If you haven’t heard a Bose SoundDock system, you haven’t really heard your iPod.
A lot has changed in recent months. But the importance of life insurance hasn’t.
140% heat, 95% humidity and it hasn’t even broken a sweat.
Only you can prevent wildfires. Be careful.
PUNs: The more you ADD the more plaque you SUBSTRACT. (Play upon mathematical terms;
antiplaque product)
Make your tax burden less burdensome. (Play upon the repetition of the word burden)
If the morphological mutations are used in advertising discourse, it’s done with the
purpose to imitate a colloquial style and register, to create familiarity and accessibility. The
structure of corporative advertisements is standard having a headline, body copy and an echophrase. The visuals need to be decoded in terms of execution, compositional elements,
symbolism when analyzed.
2.2.4 Multimodal Semiosis of Advertising Discourse.
In this age of the multimedia, there is an increasing awareness that meaning is rarely
made with language alone. As Kress and van Leeuwen note, we live in a multimodal society
which makes meaning through the co-deployment of a combination of semiotic resources.
“Visual images, gestures and sounds often accompany the linguistic semiotic resource in
semiosis.” Victor Lim Fei claims that “there is a pressing need to understand the dynamics of
meaning-making, or semiosis, in multimodal discourse. Academic disciplines that focus on
mono-modality, such as that of linguistics, must come into dialogue with other fields of research,
for instance, visual communication studies and media studies, to facilitate the interdisciplinary
nature of multimodal research”[36, p.220].
Generally speaking, mode refers to a distinct semiotic system for expressing meaning
using specific conventions. At the heart of most work in the area of multimodal discourse is the
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principle that communication occurs across more than a single mode and is therefore inherently
multimodal .
Each medium enables a different way of delivering a message. The delivery depends
on the technology with which a particular medium is equipped. Unlike other traditional mass
media, the priority of television lies in its ability to combine three codes of communication:
language, pictures and sound, or verbal, pictorial and acoustic codes, respectively. Each code is
able to operate with its varieties, e.g., the spoken and written language of the verbal code, or the
dynamic and static pictures of the pictorial code. Besides, each code is able to use various
effects, such as colors, logotypes, fonts, sound effects.
Leech identifies four main factors: participants, setting / social context, topic and
function – are social factors that are crucial in every social interaction, since they have an impact
on what is said and how it is said.
Verbal code. The verbal code applied in video advertising works with two varieties:
the spoken variety and the written variety. In order to work properly, however, the verbal code
has to coexist with the other communicative codes, namely the acoustic and the pictorial ones.
Voice-over. In a TV advertisement, there is usually a voice that provides a spoken
commentary. This voice belongs to a person who is not visible, since he or she speaks off-screen.
On the other hand, some commercials do not operate with a voice-over at all. The voice-over
contributions either correspond with what is happening on the screen or provide a verbal
explanation of what has just happened on the screen. The former function is used when the
strategy of product demonstration is adopted. This function corresponds with a “running
commentary”, since it provides a parallel between the verbal and pictorial codes. The latter
contribution functions as a post-scene commentary.
Super. Geoffrey Leech defines super as “printed messages superimposed on the
screen”, which represents “a limited, supplementary means of linguistic communication”.
Considering the analyzed commercials, they employ two types of super. The first type serves as
a highlighting device that draws the persuadee’s attention to the most important facts uttered by
the voice-over or the secondary participant. Those facts are predominantly the slogans, product
and company names that are superimposed in the original logotype. The super can also highlight
the product key features. The other type of super provides information that is nor uttered, which
means that its function is to enlarge the amount of information provided in the communication.
This super type informs, whether a product is approved of by an authoritative institution or not
such as “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. This
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product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease”. Due to their written, or
rather superimposed character, the supers adopt various letter sizes, fonts, shapes, colors. Their
graphic layout, design and location on the screen reflect the importance of the message they
communicate.
Synthetic Personalization. In advertising discourse, there is a tendency to approach the
persuadee as an individual. The persuader implements efficacious methods that make the
persuadee believe that the advertisement addresses just him or her and not the masses.
Fairclough calls this way of approaching a mass audience “synthetic personalization”. Synthetic
personalization makes mass interaction as accepted as a private one. As a result, public
discourses become colloquial, plus they start to lose their formal character. Owing to the
implementation of informality, Leech [24, p.75] speaks about an evolution of “public colloquial
style”.
HYBRIDIZATION. Media language and the new interactive forms of communication represent
hybrid forms of communication because the messages they transmit “contain a symbiosis of
elements of both spoken and written language” [51, p. 174]. Since media language represents the
public discourse while the interactive forms such as sms, online messengers, etc.,
representprivate discourse, it can be claimed that both discourse types are able to mingle the
features of spoken and written language varieties.
Non-verbal Codes. As already mentioned, the persuasive goal of TV advertising is supported by
the coexistence of the verbal and non-verbal codes. The non-verbal codes include acoustic and
pictorial codes. The acoustic code is represented by what we hear: the spoken utterances, music
and sound effects that are known as “acoustic graphics”, though we can also rank silence as a
special type of sound. Also the eloquent silence is considered as a linguistic sign, able to fulfill
the same functions within Jakobson’s communicative model as the verbal linguistic signs do. As
far as the music is concerned, it is believed that music is a universal language. This means that
what music expresses is understandable, regardless of the language barrier. Its „universality” lies
in the ability to concentrate emotions; and, since video advertising uses emotions as a persuading
device, music is used to evoke a certain mood.
Pictorial Code. As far as pictures are concerned, the advantage of this code is that
pictures are able to provide more information as well as more emotions in a shorter time than the
verbal code. The coexistence of music and pictures leads the persuadee towards obtaining certain
attitudes and moods. Generally, a picture that accompanies a text is a visual interpretation of the
verbal message conveyed in the text, but a picture helps readers make an interpretation, guides
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their imagination, and enriches the reading experience. In the advertising discourse, however, the
picture-text relation “is never simply one of illustration, but one of persuasion”. Unlike
advertisements in press media, a medium that can only work with photography (a static picture),
video commercials work with dynamic pictures.
2.2.5 General Presentation of the Corpus for Analysis.
The factual block is formed up of a corpus of 10 video advertisements that deal mainly with
different types of campaigns.
a) Linguistic Characteristics of the Corpus for Analysis.
This chapter provides results of the analysis of the lexico-grammatical features and the sociopragmatic features studied in the corpus of 10 video advertisements Table 4.
The tables providing the lexico-grammatical results include the symbols „plus” (+) and „minus”
(-). While „+” implies the presence of an analyzed feature, the symbol „-“ refers to its absence.
The abbreviations of the analyzed features are as follows:
Infr = Informal Expressions ([7Round pigs in square holes, 4can barely remember, 2 ; 1kicking a
door, smashing a window, national criminal guild, serial killers anonymous, absolutely, surely
would increase productivity, desperately, home invasions, some murder, occasionally; surely,
have his way with you; associates; it’s got tough out there])
Frm = Formal Expressions [7court them, glorify them]
Trm = Terms ([10, II Amendment; Comprehensive Background Checks, Drunk driving],
Dx = Deictic Expressions ([1. It’s got tough out there…; under those conditions; make all of
them illegal; if they don’t have guns… 8 I fight, deter, attack, defeat my enemies, make the
victory mine; 9 these were provided; 8 This is my weapon, this is how I fight… 2THEIR
country]
Intr = Interjections [3damn-damn,]
Hest = Hesitators ([1hm+grin; 7])
Ellp = Ellipsis [7but, once you do… (voiceover, silenced, pause, wink of the little girl + SuperThink Different; 2Not an invasion. Not even a stunt. Rather a statement])
Nfc = Non-Finite Clauses[2 offensive to the Olympic spirit] [6 no, dunking! no reeling] [1no
doubt]
Act = Active Constructions ([These people were crazy enough to change the word, 1 criminals
prefer unarmed citizens])
Pas = Passive Constructions [9 Reactions were more than encouraging, police was lauded, 1 I
face the possibility of being shot, or killed]
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b) Deictic expressions: are linguistic items that are heavily context-dependent. They are
mostly expressed by personal pronouns, determiners, adverbs, etc. Their referents change
according to the communicative situation and participants role-switching. Moreover, their
referents alternate when the setting, both spatial and temporal, is changed. Following Levinson
(1985), there are several deictic categories: besides the traditional person, place and time
deixis, he also adds discourse or text deixis and social deixis. Personal deictic expressions refer
to the participants of a communicative situation. The use of personal pronouns represents the
participants present as well as the ones who are absent. Expressions conveying the place
references are mainly represented by demonstratives such as this and that and by adverbs such as
here and there. Their task is to signal the location of the participants and objects. Temporal
deictic expressions convey time references; therefore, they are mostly expressed by time adverbs
such as now, then, yesterday, etc. Place and time deixis can also be expressed by
grammaticalized forms such as present perfect tense, present continuous tense, etc., while the
person deixis is embedded in imperatives. As far as the discourse or text deixis is concerned, it
works with the demonstrative, which helps the participants refer to particular objects without
using their appropriate names.
The following analyzed features – interjections, discourse markers, response forms
and hesitators – represent the most frequent non-clausal units known as inserts. Their
uniqueness resides in “their inability to enter into syntactic relations with other structures”. On
the other hand, they are able “to attach themselves prosodically to a larger structure” .
The term „ellipsis” refers to the initial, final and medial ellipsis found in clausal units.
This means that elliptical constructions appear in those utterances that lack a subject and/or
operator but where both the subject and the operator are distinctly derivable from the context. In
cases where participants share the same context, ellipsis represents a feature typical of ordinary
conversation, allowing the participants to omit expressions with low information value.
The „non-finite clauses” include those clauses that lack a finite verb element. In fact,
such clauses operate with non-finite verb phrases. Non-finite verb phrases are represented by
present and past participles or by a verb in its infinitive form. „Verbless clauses”, on the other
hand, are clauses constructed by nominal, adjective, adverbial or prepositional phrases that do
not operate with any verb phrase.
In cases where non-finite and verbless clauses are minor clauses subordinated to a
main clause, they represent devices of “complex condensation”. The term „active
constructions” refers to those clauses that use active voice, whereas the last item on the list,
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„passive constructions”, involves not only clauses with be + past participle, but also clauses
starting with there is/are. Table 5.
c) Pragmatic Peculiarities of Maxims and Sub-Maxims in the Corpus for Analysis.
The abbreviations of the individual maxims and principles are as follows: H-O Ps = HigherOrder Principles (Qnt = Maxim of Quantity; Qlt = Maxim of Quality; Rlt = Maxim of Relation;
Mnr = Maxim of Manner; Tct = Tact Maxim; Gnt = Generosity Maxim; Apb = Approbation
Maxim; Mdt = Modesty Maxim; Agr = Agreement Maxim; Spt = Sympathy Maxim; Ptc =
Phatic Maxim; IP = Interest Principle; PoP = Pollyanna Principle; IrP = Irony Principle
BP = Banter Principle).
Since the hypotheses considering the lexico-grammatical level concern the differences between
the commercials with the verbally active and the verbally passive secondary participants and
between the highlighting and enlarging super types, the tables employ the following devices: the
voice-over that occurs in a commercial with the verbally passive secondary participant is
marked; the enlarging type of the super is also. Table 6 and 7.
It should be mentioned from the start that we haven’t marked the participants and modes of
execution separately; we have marked the presence or markedness of the pragmatic principles in
the advertisement, but not with the character, second participant, voiceover or super separately, as
there are advertisements where only one character speaks, or only the voiceover reports, or the
super informs or a combination of three modes. Having analyzed the advertisements according to
the pragmatic laws and main principles we need to explain the findings.
Although the first advertisement 1 [62], seems to be very rich in implications it should be
mentioned from the very beginning that it is highly distorted, actually it attempts to convey a
message through a violation of all possible pragmatic principles and maxims. So even if the
rubrics are marked positive, actually they mark the presence of the principle, but on the reverse in
the negative. The speaking character is a criminal who relates very professionally about the nature
of his activity, there are a lot of slang words, he speaks what he specializes in, the nature of his
work, peculiarities of bonuses he could indulge himself in, and related occupational risks for him
and his associates. He mentions that it’s him the outlaw, an illegal, so it’s his domain to possess
arms and excel in using them, legalizing it would make his task “much more difficult”, increase
competition and risks of getting on an armed targeted victim, that could kill him. The discourse as
a whole is coherent, logically exposed: description of lifestyle, occupation, without any modesty
or tact violating the manners and interest principles, he’s fidgeting his gun while speaking,
bringing his arguments, pursuing his interest. Only the voiceover at the end explicitly points to
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normal, ordinary receptors, citizens’ true interest following with a super directive act. The purpose
of the anti-gun control campaign is dissimulated not explicitly stated, but the receptors would
have to think it over and make a choice. The vid starts with the intonation of a criminal hymn as it
is clear from the way it is interpreted, and on the screen there scrolls an entire list of 11 criminal
associations, organizations, guild and trade unions who would subscribe to what the hooded
criminal narrates. So the entire message of the advert is very strong and is untended to have an
equal effect upon the receptors. The language is colloquial – slang so that contaminated forms,
and marked vocabulary is present, the quantity, quality and manner maxims are disturbed as the
manner principle is reversed. The Semantic macro-structures can be rendered by the following
formula: Narrative → Account + Moral
In Advertizement 2 again the quantity and quality maxims are strictly observed as it should be in
a video ad which is very expensive a product, the relation principle is respected within the
discourse elements and modes of execution. The Ad sparked controversy, if not even a scandal,
because such was its original intention. So that the tact, generosity, approbation, sympathy,
modesty agreement principles are not lacking but are NEGATIVE because of the Interest
principle which was to harm the reputation, offend feelings, memory, provoke a scandal.
The semantic macro-structures could be summarized by the formula:
Episode —› Happening + Evaluation
The Phantasy Advertizement 3 campaigns against hunting is executed in a humorous manner.
Again just like in the 1 Ad the main character is a hunter, the villain from the fairy tale, who
drives his car on a wildlife territory where beasts and birds team up, cooperate, communicate in
order to avert the danger and escape death. The acoustic graphics includes sounds of birds, music
exaggerated as if preventing danger as if augmented through megaphone, speaker. So by the
definition, as we are having a phantasy the reality is an imaginary, distorted one, the villain by
definition violates all the principles of the cooperative and politeness maxims because he pursues
his own selfish interests, brutally and technically the skin of his gun, the scope pointed directly
into the eye of the deer that by magic escapes being saved by the Eye Eagle from above who sees
and in addition is endowed with high technologies and can transmit and warn his friend by the
message of distress. The Relationist principle is strictly respected within the discourse. We have
also the outcome or settlement of the drama- the villain is caught by the police so in addition to
his lack of lack at hunting he would also face a fine for illegal hunting. The semantic MacroStructures could be summarized by the formula: Happening + Complication + Resolution
In Advertizement 4 we have a very positive sample where we have an application of all the
maxims and principles in the positive way. There are 3 basic stories about people in distress that
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have gone on the streets and have nowhere to go before Christmas. The Salvation Army
Charitable Organization intervenes and solves there problems. The advertisement makes appeal to
people to contribute and donate so that more people could be helped. The language is accurate
standard, all the principles are observed. There is a hybridization of executional modes, image or
visual and acoustic graphics, there is the super that accompanies the basic narration recounted by
the narrator voiceover. The super at the end echoes the contact information and the denomination
of the organization. The semantic Macro-Structures could be summarized by the formula:
Narrative —› Account + Moral
In the Advertizement 5 we do not have a verbal support of the discourse. There are the visual
acoustic execution modes with a very coherent syntax of the visual during the performance. As
the performer is allegedly the criminal,a sniper professionally trained, dangerous, deadly - all the
maxims and principles are present and active in the negative aspect. The advert is highly
emotional, namely the emotional effect of the performing gun technically very correct and strong,
the technical noise produced by its operation on the other hand - the music and recorded
background voices (“My child has gone”… “My little girl was so full of life, isn’t coming
home…” - very charged emotionally, the broken voices with suffering; the shriek “There is a
gun!”) plus fragments of broadcast reports from the past mass shootings (“Shocked and saddened
by the news of Virginia Tech shooting…”; the voice of the president of the USA Barack Obama:
“They had the entire lives before them…”) reinforced by the sound of the dropped bullets on a
concrete floor, the rhetorical question: “How many more rounds are we going to let this go for?”
which is insisting for a response; and the projection of the final message “Moms Demand Gun
Sense in America”, urging receptors to meditate and decide to influence the outcome of the
campaign, engage and impact the future. The semantic Macro-Structures could be summarized by
the formula: Episode —› Happening + Evaluation
Although Advertizement 6 at first sight is simple, and funny, advertises the McDonalds products,
it is at the same time very creative. The performers are famous people they engage in a bet and
competition symbolically for Jordan’s lunch, but actually the stakes are much higher. So,
playfully they put to test their dexterity, but also sportsmanship, as they are friends first and
foremost. We notice the mutual admiration during execution and sparks of jealousy and the spirit
of competition. The register is familiar the contenders are taking turns both in conversation
provoking each other to a game: “ What’s in the bag? – Lunch: Big Mac, fries… -Play you for? –
You mean for my Big Mac?!” – The first one to miss – has the lunch”.The grammar is distorted,
elliptical utterances, in the forms of game rules, instructions: “…up the wall, through the window,
up the scoreboard, up the expressway, after the billboard, no dunking, no reeling, no ram”. The
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conditions go gradually up, as the luring Big Mac is being demonstrated; at the end they appear on
the top of a skyscraper targeting the basket and implicitly the delicious McDonald complete meal.
The videoad ends with the McDonald logo plus the slogan “What you see is what you get”.
Besides the two performers, participants who are having a dialogue, setting rules, playing,
complicating the rules, there is a full sports center hall intended for an audience that is absent, all
the seats are empty, which is explainable, as there wasn’t a real official competition but a friendly
match, a training session. Although the audience could be guessed as being virtually present in a
life competition that is not settled, as we didn’t see a winner at the end of the ad. The execution
modes are a combination of piano drilling at the beginning, then the sound graphics intensifies as
the competition becomes tougher. The Big Mac intervenes, is being played in the middle of the
performance, demonstrating the ingredients and making appeal. The semantic Macro-Structures
could be summarized by the formula: Account—› Setting + Episode
Advertizement 7 is a very beautiful one, is a special form of paying tribute to great personalities,
that have had an influence, have “seen things differently, crazy enough to change the world, crazy
ones, rebels, trouble-makers” what we can do is “court them, glorify, vilify, disagree with them,
but never ignore”. In this case we have another happy example with the positive realization of all
the pragmatics maxims and principles, because even the rebels, the trouble makers had challenged
systems, had pushed life, progress, among personalities that appear are: Albert Einstein, Martin
Luter King, Grace Kelly, John Lennon, Mohammad Ali, politicians and artists alike, all the
records in an image bank, that could be instantaneously be accessed through a Mac from Apple.
The Quantity, Quality, Relation maxims are respected, there is a high and sophisticated level of
coherence, the Cooperative and Politeness principles are observed, also is Informativity. The
register is standard, the voiceover reports and comments, the final point is hesitated reserved - not
utteredand presented by a super with the slogan of the campaign Think Different accompanied by
the Apple logo, all these addressed to a little curly girl who is obviously impressed by the
presentation and amazed, the rest of the discovery is up to her, she must inform herself on the only
condition to THINK DIFFERENT. The semantic Macro-Structures could be summarized by the
formula: Narrative —› Account + Moral
Advertizemen 8 is entirely reported by the voiceover on an intense musical background, the
visual execution represents different sportsmen during their routine training, performance in
competition and record setting, moments of glory. During the progression of the spot the slogan
“My body is my weapon, this is my weapon” is being repeated. The maxims of quantity, quality
and relation are well implemented, the performance at the top of capacity and verge of human
ability is obtained through power will and strength and training. The “double amputee blade
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runner” Oscar Pistorius, twice Olympic Champion is a strong point into the argument of super
human will and strength. The approbation principle could be intended, only after the last dramatic
incident that happened to him, it could change unfortunately. The advertising campaign from Nike
Company of sports goods had withdrawn the spots that had the athlete starring in. It is one
example of the development of the life span of an advertisement and its decrease in interest or
unforeseen, unintended consequences that could impact its duration and effects. The semantic
Macro- Structures could be summarized by the formula: Episode —› Happening + Evaluation
Advertizement 9 is very positive, has a realization of all pragmatic maxims and principles. The
video ad is very informative and bases its persuasive strategy on information with facts with
shocking therapy plus building credibility, changing behavior, educating. It has a very founded
grounds, the data about road accidents casualties especially because of drunk driving in the Eve of
holidays. So the campaign offers a Solution → a checking of how the Message was accepted and
worked with the analysis of Results. The ad contains interviews, opinions of the ordinary people,
the message “Celebrate Responsibly” is repeated and passes as a red thread through the advert
throughthe text of the super and the opinions of the interviewed. The execution modes are
hybridized: voiceover of the narrator, the moving images, frames and the information read by the
voiceover appears as a super on the images. The language is standard. The execution of all the
laws of discourse maxims, the advert is elaborated linguistically. The semantic Macro-Structures
could be summarized by the formula: Narrative —› Account + Moral
Advertizement 10 is executed in a lower than the standard register; the character is a simple
citizen, having a farm and kids running about, from his pick-up he presents his point of view
regarding the guns legalization campaign. He presents the perspective namely of a simple,
ordinary family man who needs his gun for hunting and protecting his family. So the arguments
are strong: protecting family values and traditions. The discourse as a whole is coherent and
informative, all the maxims of quantity and quality are respected. The man starts from himself, his
story and motives and advances his requirement: the comprehensive background checks which
should be obligatory while buying a gun, so as to exclude criminals or mentally ill people from
having access. The Politeness Principle and tact maxim are being applied, in the way that
proceeding from a personal perspective it would maximize the benefit of the entire society. The ad
could have a certain impact with
a certain category of people. The advertisement is
commissioned by “Paid for by Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund”, so that the Directives
“Tell Congress: Don’t Protect Criminals, Vote to Protect Gun Rights and our Families with
Comprehensive Background Checks” present a very strong message. The execution mode is a
combination of visual and acoustic graphics; the participants
arethe character, the
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narrator/voiceover and at the end the message is reinforced by a super that renders the read
message for explicitness and emphasis. The semantic Macro-Structures could be summarized by
the formula: Narrative —› Account + Moral
CONCLUSIONS:
1. Advertising has evolved from a promotional tool to performing a function similar to the art
and religion, from attention grabber to state-of-the-art products. It can be a powerful
promotional tool for charitable causes but at the same time it can have negative implications
and consequences like promoting the selling of cigarettes thus commercializing death in the
long run; or benefitting from pollution. It includes not only commercials but also
informationals and has become a PR form of communication for promoting the image of
prestige and being a powerful instrument of manipulation and mind control.
2. Since the Elizabethan Times in England when first forms of advertising emerged, it reflected
not only the preoccupations, freaks of the people but also the deformities of the society. Sir
Benjamin Johnson first remarked the necessity of higher standards in their elaboration and
truth value. Geoffrey Leech’s approach to advertising was linguistic. Robin Lakoff’s
approach is pragmatic while Guy Cook’s one comprises all communication approaches.
3. In Lakoff’s view one determinant of technically persuasive discourse is non-reciprocity;
discourse in general is defined as reciprocal with equal contribution of all participants.
4. Persuasion can be engineered from relatively harmless forms to serious propaganda with
unpredictable, or unintended effects. Persuasion can be manufactured, inculcating beliefs,
values to people through a series of filters that include access or restricted access to genuine
sources of information. Adverizing can influence society for good or for bad, it can be
cynical, profit-oriented, disregarding values or moral.
5. Semantics includes meaning of linguistic forms, denotation and connotation, coherence and
cohesion ties. However from the pragmatic point of view and namely the Maxim of Manner
all the linguistic and stylistic elaboration, grammatical shifts are considered as violations
from the norms. For example the questions, that in the advertising discourse are all infringing
their basic premises and are becoming personalized devices. Or the puffery “poetic license”
exaggerations, hyperboles that could potentially be wrongly interpreted by a not very
informed and aware audience, thus deceive; would give the reason to some unsatisfied users
even to sue the advertizer for deception.
6. In the corpus for research of 128 printed advertisements from Time and People magazines, it
can be clearly seen that the Prestige, Business and Financial category in Time magazine is
present by 19 samples while People magazine abounds in Small Ads Commercials – 36. This
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fact speaks about the nature and quality of the magazine. Time is more informative designed
for a more educated class of professionals. People is for the large masses intended mostly for
entertainment purposes. As for the execution forms in Time we have a clear priority for the
Dramatized ads, while the People magazine has a preponderance of Ads-Instruction and
Dramatized ones a preference of slice of life drama and instruction-demonstration drama.
7. The visual metaphors lead to a higher degree of ambiguity and openness to multiple
interpretations, or a deficit of meaning, which is completed by the headline, body-copy, the
echo-phrase so the textual form of execution of the discourse. Researchers assert that not
only the informative and persuasive functions find expression and are employed in
advertising discourse but the emotive-expressive one is equally important with a hyperonimic
relation between conviction and seduction, in many cases customers being seduced by bypassing the reasonable, conscientious stages along the process of persuasion (manipulation).
8. Advertising works through a hierarchy of effects through three stages learn-feel-do in the
case of expensive goods when customers inform themselves and form a likeability with the
product they want to buy. But learn-do-feel sequence is specific for the low-involvement
consumer products.
9. There are a great number of questions and declarative speech acts. The special framework is
characterized with universality. Participles, ellipsis, attributive groups are in abundance
which speaks about a dynamic concise language, economical as very expensive and the
public colloquial style.
10. In the case of rich media or multimodal advertising discourse one combines the advantages
of spoken, written modes of execution (superimposed on the image - super), and visualacoustic graphics, (voiceover, participants).
11. The corpus of 10 vidads was analyzed from the grammatical point of view for markers
present in a table; also the pragmatic point of view and description. The thematic is: social
problems, gun legalization, drunk driving, territorial conflicts, sports achievements, a DB
with tribute paid to great personalities, anti hunting, charity campaigns. The narrative
structure applied is lifestyle, drama, phantasy through an artistic combination of visual and
acoustic graphics, voiceover + super for reinforcement. Irony is largely employed and the
Banter principle in Ad 1 which is actually targeting the opposite effect from the message
conveyed by the advertizement, because the character is an antisocial element, a criminal
explaining in slang form his professional concerns.
12. The grammatical aspect of the vidads is characterized by ellipsis and contracted forms;
inserts as hesitating devices, interjections or just empty words, pauses, suspense, silences
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with highly emotional value. The overall form of the language ranges from colloquial public
style to low familiar, slang and standard.
CHAPTERIII. ADVERTISING DISCOURSE. TRANSLATION PROBLEMS.
The object of our semantico-pragmatic-functional analysis in Chapter III is a case
study of a famous Steve Jobs promotional presentation of an Apple product - iPhone IV, as
contrasted with the Romanian translation. From the point of view of the discourse theory this is a
multimodal sample, a versatile, dynamic hybrid of persuasive discourse that presents huge
interest for analysis but also poses a set of specific challenges for the translator.
Bhatia Vijay K. speaks about the invasion of the promotional values as one essential
feature that has influenced the nature and function of the discourse, even to some extent those
from the academic genres. “Promotional genres have become the most versatile and fast
developing types of discourse.” [3, p.213.] This, as the author explains, has been the result of
several factors some of which include the availability of technology in mass communication and
a massive information explosion as a result of this, the compulsive nature of advertising and
promotional activities in business and other areas of social concerns, the essentially competitive
nature of much of professional and academic activities.
The above mentioned author in what follows calls an “advertising colony the
variety of promotional genres, which will serve a range of communicative purposes, having the
main function the persuasive one” [4, p.219]. The author, reminds that genres operate within
their genre boundaries, displaying so-called “generic integrity” which is recognizable by
reference to both text-internal and text-external aspects of the genre [ibidem]. Text internal
aspects cover lexico-grammatical, rhetorical and discursive or the textualization of the genre.
Conversely, text-external aspects, constitute socio-rhetorical, contextual and procedural elements
which make the genre possible.
3.1 Translation Methods Adopted for a Multimodal Discourse.
The author Agnieszka Szarkowska [43, p.1] introduces the subject of her article with
a very evocative quotation from Mona Baker: “Whether domesticating or foreignizing in its
approach, any form of audiovisual translation ultimately plays a unique role in developing both
national identities and national stereotypes.” [43, pag.1] The decision as to which translation
mode to adopt in audiovisual translation is by no means arbitrary, highly dependent upon several
factors: such as historical circumstances, traditions, the technique to which the audience is
accustomed, the cost, as well as on the position of both the target and the source cultures in an
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international context. In what follows the author refers to two main types of audiovisual
translation: dubbing and subtitling; each of them interferes with the original text to a different
extent. Dubbing is known to be the method that modifies the source text to a large extent and
thus makes it familiar to the target audience through domestication. It is the method in which
"the foreign dialogue is adjusted to the mouth and movements of the actor in the film" and its
aim is seen as making the audience feel as if they were listening to actors actually speaking the
target language. Subtitling, supplying a translation of the spoken source language dialogue into
the target language in the form of synchronized captions, usually at the bottom of the screen, is
the form that alters the source text to the least possible extent and enables the target audience to
experience the foreign and be aware of its 'foreignness' at all times.
Katarina Reiss builds up her translation equivalence theory on the functionality of
text types. She identifies four main types of types:1. informative; 2. expressive; 3. operative; 4.
Audiomedial . The operative and audiomedial types are the ones that interest us for our task. She
suggests specific translation methods according to text type which we find important to
reproduce in our paper: respectively explicitation; the identifying method; adaptive method;
supplementary method[33, p.72].
Reiss also lists a series of intralinguistic and extralinguistic instruction criteria by which
the adequacy of a TT may be assessed. These are:
1) Intralinguistic criteria: semantic, lexical, grammatical and stylistic features;
2) Extralinguistic criteria: situation, subject field, time, place, receiver, sender and ‘affective
implications’ (humour, irony, emotion, etc.) [ibidem, pag. 74].
The Skopos theory elaborated in the 1970s by Hans J. Vermeer with Katharina Reiss
focuses on the purpose of the translation, which determines the translation methods and
strategies that are to be employed in order to produce a functionally adequate result.
Every translation presupposes a scopos or commission which is largely determined
by the commissioner or client - a person, a group, or an institution. The skopos of the TT and the
mode in which it is to be realized are negotiated between the commissioner and the translator.
The translator as the "expert" in translational action is responsible for the final translation. The
skopos / purpose of TT determines translation strategies and methods, but one of the most
important factors determining the purpose of a translation is the addressee.
According to Christiane Nord, "translation brief" [33, p.82] (which refers almost to
the same thing as "commission") should contain information about the intended text function
both informative (giving information) and operative (promoting
international image and
reputation), the target audience, the medium for text transmission.
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She also distinguishes between Documentary translation that serves as a document of a
source culture communication between the author and the ST recipient. Examples of documentary
translation given by Nord are word-for-word and literal translation and ‘exoticizing translation’. In
the latter, certain culture-specific lexical items in the ST are retained in the TT in order to maintain
the local colour of the ST.
An Instrumental translation serves as an independent message transmitting instrument in
a new communicative action in the target culture, and is intended to fulfill its communicative
purpose without the recipient being conscious of reading or hearing a text which, in a different
form, was used before in a different communicative situation’. Nord calls these ‘function-preserving
translations’ [ibidem.pag 82].
3.2 Case Study: Steve Jobs Unveils iPhone IV / Steve Jobs dezvăluie iPhone IV.
The object of our study is a historic, from my point of view, promotional presentation
from the domain of technologies. We consider the genre as directly belonging to the advertising
colony and more exactly, corporative discourse, the rationale being promoting a product but also
the public image and prestige, for making a statement in the competitional race, for conquering
new segments of the market, new clients and fidelizing the existent ones. It is a historic
presentation, because the last one made by Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple Company, one of its
founders, the visionaire and champion, revolutionary, as he liked to qualify the products of his
company. A very impressive presentation, and good one in the series of other presentations
made by him for different products of the company. But a shade of reserve and deception could
be felt, because he was losing his personal battle with a longlasting and ruthless illness, and
because the public were actually waiting for iPhone V but not for a variation, modification of the
already existing model, and also because at a promotional event of such a format, technical
problems occured, WiFi could not be used to access the Internet, supposedly becuse of the great
number of people that wanted to access at that very moment; a demonstration of the headset
failed. We can recognize a hybridization not only of modes of execution and presentation but
also of genres. I distinguished clearly the structural elements of the advertising discourse format
which was canonized by Steve Jobs: tracing a historical background and evolution, the
presentation proper of new features, functions; reinforcement with arguments; consolidation by
reiteration; feedback, all the stages of a 4.58 minutes presentation with a constant interactive
check of the impact upon the auditorium. To me it looked very much similar to the didactic
structure of a lesson. A great lesson by the master.
As it has already been specified, the presentation combines a number of modes: it is
audio visual, there is the live presenter, there is a lateral screen with different angles and zooms
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of the presenter during the talk and finally, there is the central 3D screen, where at the beginning,
the bulleted text of the presentation is projected, then parts, corners of the new iPhone, sides, the
rear and finally the entire faceside with the display full of operable icons.
The translation form adopted is undoubtedly the subtitling method, written, placed on
the bottom side of the video record. It should be pointed down that the recuperation of the entire
text both in original Source Language - English and in the language we are interested in- Target
Language – Romanian, was a very tedious long hours of work, because it was done by special
text-to-speech aplication for the SL text, and there were a lot of omissions of text and
inacuracies. The translation was a rough word-for-word variant of the English version. We
applied all our knowledge and assumed full responsibility for the quality and quantity
improvement that we have operated upon that variant of the discourse of the presentation.
3.2.1 Pragmatic Aspects, the Deictic Framework of the Presentation Discourse.
Personal coordinates. According to Hallidayan terminology the tenor, or the addresser
the participants of the discourse are the presenter Steve Jobs, CEO, fonder, stockholder, the main
animator and innovator and on the stage - in the role of promoter. Thus, the identity and
testimonials, credentials of the presenter make the value of the presentation to have a highest
impact upon the audience with a similar echo in the media and industry environment. The
audience, immediately present at the event, is composed of the luckiest and most successful
representatives from the field of advanced technologies, experts in different domains,
competitors, stakeholders, clients, representatives of mass media, and there could be guessed the
presence of the internet community, as that was a event announced beforehand and that was
much expected. The speech is delivered in the I person plural
(WE added; don’t have time to; are going to; are introducing; we have ...; we’ve
got... if we look at / Noi am adăugat; nu avem timp să; intenţionăm; prezentăm; avem...; ) as the
presenter represents the corporation, speaks on behalf of the board of administration and group
of researchers and developers. But there are many utterances in the I person singular I/me–
Eu/mă (I’ve got to cover...; stop me if...; believe me; I don’t think…/ Eu/mă trebuie să...; opriţimă dacă... credeţi-mă; nu cred că...). Another specific feature of the discourse is the „You” form
of address, in a paricular moment the presentation looked like a casual conversation,
conversational, dialogical style: („Believe me, you haven’t seen this before. You’ve got to see
this in person. You’ve got the most beautiful design, you have ever seen, Yes, he is, beyond a
doubt the most precise, beautiful thing we’ve ever made”/ Credeiţi-mă nu aţi mai văzut aceasta.
Trebuie să vedeţi aceasta în persoană. Aveţi cel mai frumos design pe care l-aţi văzut vre-odată.
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Da este dincolo de orice dubii, cel mai precis şi frumos lucru pe care l-am produs vre-odată.)
This is a way to engage the audience, to create a friendly atmosphere.
But we have in the text of the discourse a III-rd person singular other/s present („
Somebody would say, this doesn’t seem like Apple”/ „Cineva ar spune că nu seamănă cu
Apple”(the loggo or maybe absolutely new, not noticed up to then with Apple products) ; in
terms of expert addresser – addressee, people from the industry who are supposed to know or
infer the gradually introduced details, the unaware, uninformed or ignorant public, common
people, a non-customer or an external person would be represented by a puzzled somebody, who
was also reserved a place in the auditorium.
Temporal framework. The presentation took place on 7 June 2010, lasts 4.58 minutes
on average ± 2 min., as the raw presentation has been processed later by different agents
differently. The predominant mood, from the linguistic point of view, is Indicative, objective,
factual, the tenses are Past simple used at the beginning of the presentation in the historical
background part and Present Simple in the rest of it.
Spacial Coordinates. The presentation is axed on a stage at the World Wide
Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, where the official launch of the product took
place. Thus, a highly professional invironment with demonstration of possibilities of technical
features of breakthrough innovations and press conferences.
Social Coordinate represents an Expert to Expert auditorium as that is an official
presentation and launch, because experts, journalists from specialized technology magazines,
sites were present. The presentation was largely promoted that is why the highly popular with the
public company was targeting to conquer new customers. The receptors or persuadee constitute
the internet community from the entire world. As the company had some very strong competitors
and some very shrewd ones, they were constantly having juridical settlements with Samsung that
were copying elements from them, enfringing the Intellectual Ownership Rights, stealing the
know-how - the commercial technological theft. That was another strong reason for such highly
promoted events – to make a statement in the technology industry world, about innovations that
belonged to them. So my conclusion is that the social coordinates include the addresser – the
company represented at its highest level by Steve Jobs and the adressee the receptors or
receivers of the discourse include persuadee loyal customers, prospective customers, experts,
journalists, competitors. The semantic macro-structures of the discourse can be graphically
represented through a formula:
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Narration (historical background, evolution) → Product Presentation (with
Arguments, Facts and 3D Demonstration
of new features) → Consolidation (through
Reiteration).
Antony Greenwald and Clak Leavitt have determined that the advertising message is
widely believed to be moderated by the audience involvement. They identify „four levels of
involvemnt from low to high; Preatention; Focal Attention; Comprehension and Elaboration”
[19, pag. 584.]. These stages could be observed in the presentation too; in the first stage of the
presentation – the preatention, persuasion is achieved through repeated stimulus or a very
familiiar message; in the focal phase the stage of sensory orienting tasks, a loud, colorful,
moving, novel, unexpected, or affect-evoking stimulus should be used; in the third phase which
is semantic - oriented, a message that has context enabling comprehension would be delivered; in
the last stage self-reference orienting tasks would be proposed and self-generation elaboration
with visual imaging would follow. We can consider the above mentioned factors in the discourse
of the presentation and namely in the preatention phase, Steve Jobs offered an incursion into the
history of the product iPhone the main turning point moments being fixed on the screen,
presented progressively by year; in the second, smoothly the presenter introduces the task for the
presentation he would have to refer to.
In the second stage the presenter starts to make more extensive use of visuals, it
starts with an improvised 3D boom of the denomination of the device, then of the image of the
iPhone projected in 3D, but only glimpses, parts, corners, sides, the top, the bottom of the device
the innovative material it is made out of, is being mentioned. In the third stage the progressive
description of the new features is being illustrated by images, with the written text beside the
image or even pointed by arrows the exact place. The frame structure is deconstructed,
demonstrated, explained the motives of the stainless steel band which turned out to be a built-in
intelligent antenna system. The audience was very receptive and cheered with enthusiasm those
really revolutionary moves from the domain of technologies. Thus, that third stage was
comprehension oriented. The last stage was a rehearsal of all the newly presented features plus
an invitation to self-reference, which in our case Steve Jobs reiterated his personal impression
and opinion, evaluation: (When you hold this in your hands, It’s unbelievable. / Când îl ţii în
mâină, este incredibil.)
Speech Acts execution in the Discourse of the Presentation.
If we start to analyse the discourse from the point of view of speech acts theory
elaborated by John Austin and his disciple Searle we could identify the following types:
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Assertives: the truth value of utterances. The relevant, objective, real utterances
referring to existing facts, they are present in the discourse as it has an informative function first
of all. Assertives are predominant in the discourse of the presentation.
The background
introductory information, the facts, the description is formulated by objective sentences in the
Indicative Mood.
Directives: are not present in the discourse except certain instances that are actualy
formal imperatives: („Let’s get back to the iPhone; „Stop me if everybody’s seen this” / „Hai să
revenim la iPhone”; „Opriţi-mă, dacă cineva a văzut aceasta”). These imperative sentences are
not directives, because the addresser does not press the receptors to undertake any steps, less of
all to change a situation; but in the first case the utterance is an invitation to reflection that is
offered by the presenter himself in the form of a succinct presentation of the evolution, so as to
place the current task of introducing new features in a context - the given information the macrotheme. In the second example, the presenter used a trick to allude that up to the moment of
official launch there had been pictures, information on specialized sites, so that many people
came at the presentation equipped with a certain amount of information. The reaction to the
provocation to dialogue was applause and laughter from an informed audience of highest class of
hackers.
Expressives: are present by occasional phrases from the part of the presenter: (This
is really hard/ Este într-adevăr dificil...) repeated; then the evaluation he gives is emotionally
charged: his favourite one (“It was a revolution”/ “A fost o revoluţie”; “You’ve got the most
beautiful design, you have ever seen. Yes it is beyond a doubt the most precise, beautiful thing
we’ve ever made”/ Aveţi cel mai frumos design pe care l-aţi văzut vre-odată. Da, este dincolo de
orice dubii, cel mai precis şi frumos lucru pe care l-am produs vre-odată”.) The escalating
evaluation by reiteration and reinforcement is expressive and persuasive, it was echoed in the
mass media articles. The escalating evaluation by comparison then repeating and reinforcing
with the superlative is present with one more example that would be analized in the stylistic part
also other hyperboles and taken apart phrases such as (“it’s unheard of; it’s unbelievable; it’s
really cool engineering; an extraordinary build quality; as a matter of fact, it is the thinnest
smartphone on the planet; it’s beyond any consumer product we’ve ever seen; just gorgeous and
it’s really thin/ este de nemaiauzit; este incredibil; este o inginerie într-adevăr grozavă; o
calitate extraordinară a calităţii construcţiei; de fapt este cel mai subţire telefon inteligent de pe
planetă; depăşeşte orice produs de consum pe care l-am văzut vre-odată; este pur şi simplu
splendid şi este într-adevăr subţire”). My conclusion and impression is that the discourse of the
presentation is emotionally charged.
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According to Biber’s three categories of modal verbs, the have got construction is
expressing obligation/necessity (I’ve got to cover eight of them with you/ eu trebuie să parcurg 8
dintre ele cu voi) and the construction to be going to expresses volition/prediction (we're going
to take the biggest leap since the original iPhone/ Noi intenţionăm să facem cel mai mare salt de
la iPhon-ul original-iniţial). So that, according to Coates’ 12 modalities which come under the
umbrella terms of deontic, dynamic and epistemic, we have one type present in the discourse of
the presentation the deontic one which includes (i) obligation (strong), (ii) obligation (weak),
(iii) permission, (iv) volition, (v) prediction, but also the epistemic one which is present by the
objective, subjective utterances.
There is an interesting case of negation which is intended for emphasizing the
reverse idea: something you didn't think to get any thinner/ ceva ce nu v-aţi gândit să devină
mai subţire.
Commissives and declarations are not present in the discourse, although the entire
presentation is a declaration of proprietorship embedded with persuasive elements.
Execution of Paul Grice and Geoffrey Leech’s Maxims in the Discourse of the
Presentation.
As is conventionally agreed, the quantity and quality maxims are examined
jointly as they are closely interrelated. In the discourse of the presentation we do have an
adequate amount of veridical information. That’s right that advertising and namely at the highest
level, as the presentation for analysis, represent a powerful weapon in the struggle with the
competition. Although leakage or theft of information is being admitted, the official launch is a
formal statement about the successful mission of the R&D department of the represented
company, it’s all about stating the facts proving that they did it, in the context of their constant
evolution, in comparison with, in our case, similar products or preceding variants of the product,
which is a noble fight with their own weapons and tools, without having to compare with similar
products by other producers, without having to resort to deception tricks or comparing
disadvantageously with the products of the competitors, or even - worse pointing to the
weaknesses and drawbacks of the competitors. This is a presentation axed on perfection and
constant excellence of the Apple products.
The manner maxim that refers to producing unambiguous clear sentences is violated in
general in advertising discourse as the main purpose of it roughly expressed in the command
“Buy the product” is veiled under many layers of linguistic expression means and stylistic tropes.
But according to the cooperative principle it’s up to the receptor to decode the hidden meanings,
to infer allusions and presuppositions, intentionality and implications so as to fully get the
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message and to be persuaded. The “you” form of address during the presentation that has already
been remarked refers to the product that you supposedly buy, “when you buy you have….” It’s
another principle in play the tact and generosity maxim: the presenter makes emphasis on the
benefits that the customer would get with the product, concealing his own interest in it.
Now if we refer back to the relation and again manner maxims: they are respected
from the point of view of order and mode of structuring the parts of the presentation. We have
coherence between all the parts of the presentation: narration – argument / demonstration consolidation. The first part makes reference to the evolutionary context of Apple products
development - a hyperlink; the second part, the argument / demonstration is constructed on an
enumeration and demonstration of eight new elements, features: how they perform, eventually
comparison with previous models, or constant reiteration of breakthrough elements; everything
was credible and persuasive, met with great acclaim and enthusiasm by the very receptive and
positively predisposed auditorium. We could witness moments of deep silence that in the context
of what the respected presenter was relating, proved the profound respect and support from the
part of the audience thus the politeness agreement principles, were respected. And the last part of
the presentation enclosed, all that had been covered during the presentation, a reiterative
emphasis.
Deictic Expressions that make the anaphoric references in the text for reasons of
cohesion are present in the text as demonstrative pronouns: (you haven’t seen this; I’ve got to
cover eight of them with you; the procession of which this is made; here are …; this doesn’t
seem like Apple… that stainless steel band”/ nu aţi mai văzut aceasta; trebuie să parcurg 8
dintre ele...; Aici sunt...; aceasta nu seamănă cu Apple...; acea bandă de oţel anticorosiv...) on
the front; on the top; on the planet; on the back/rear; at the bottom/ pe partea din faţă; pe partea
superioară; partea inferioară; de pe planetă; pe partea din spate ).
The connective elements or so-called inserts are very frequently used: (And today...;
This is really hard...; believe me...; again...; now, because...; For what...; well it turns out...;
and there are... it turns out... as a matter of fact.../ şi astăzi. Este într-adevăr dificil; credeţi-mă;
din nou...; din nou...; acum... pentru că...; pentru ce...; ei bine se dovedeşte că; de fapt;)
The acoustic and video graphics part of the presentation was really impressive. There
was the well-known voice of the presenter with the variations of intonation, and stress for
emphasis, but the quality of the sound was impecable at a given moment when the presenter was
pointing to the integrated antennas, his voice was prolongued with an echo, which created an
unforgetable effect of a long wave resounding „WiFi”. In other moments on the contrary the
presenter’s voice was becoming weaker or just reducing purposefully the volume, again as an
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attention soliciting tool. I believe, in that context nothing was accidental, everything had a
meaning, even the fact that the headset demonstration failed because of an impossibility to
access the Internet through the WiFi. Everything was part of the overall syntax and context.
3.2.2 Linguistic peculiarities and Translation Methods.
Thus, subtitling is a form of foreignization or preserving as much as possible the form
and meaning of the ST. If we refer to Christiane Nord’s distinction between documentary and
instrumental translation, the discourse of the presentation could be an example of documentary
translation as we have many untranslatable words more exactly international terminological
phrases abbreviated that are on principle kept so because known circulated as such in the field of
advanced technologies. The presentation is first of all intended for specialists, so that a faithful
translation and exact equivalence are required.
We consider that we indirectly have already covered the translation brief, it’s a written
form of translation, in the form of subtitles at the bottom of the recording, intended for an
educated audience of knowledgeable experts who supposedly know English, would recognize in
the video presentation all the technical descriptions and denominations and need the translation
for information it provides in the form of facts, comments. The main translation methods applied
are word-for-word; explicitation; adaptation, modulation, word and above level equivalence is
preserved, grammatical structures equivalence, text level equivalence, pragmatic equivalence.
Word and Above Level Equivalence.
There are many technical terms, terminological phrases in the discourse of the presentation
and:
a. Abbreviations:
iPhone3GS; LED flash - licărire LED –( DEL-diodă emiţătoare de lumină); Bluetooth; Wi-Fi,
GPS; UMTS; GSM; mike (abr.) – microphone- microfon; app/s- application/s- aplicacaţii;
Micro SIM Tray – cuvă pentru Micro SIM;
Beside the acronyms that are being kept as in the ST, there are also abbreviations, more
exactly clippings a shortening of a word for convenience and economy’s sake: app, mike that are
translated entirely in the TL.
b. The translation of the these Terms has required a specification modulation procedure:
Speaker - difuzor; receiver – receptor; mute – mut; Rear - partea din spate - (specification –
modulation; front - partea din faţă - (specification - modulation); videorecording – înregistrarea
video
c. Attributive groups: The attributive cluster is a group of words with a key noun and a
number of attributive components modifying it. Among the attributive groups in English we
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have 15 phrases with two elements and 7 formed of three elements; the nature of the composing
elements is: N+N-6; Adj+N-8; N+Adv-2; Adj+Adv-1.
In order to correctly translate the attributive groups or clusters a componential analysis
or the analysis of immediate constituents is a must. The general rule for translating the attributive
groups is changing the word order in English - Determiner + Determined anticlockwise;
Determiner may be a qualifier or evaluator → in Romanian clockwise Determined + Determiner:
very often there is need for adding a preposition because the semantic relations between the
determiner and the determined may vary: (qualification - N+de+N: N+Adj: possession
NdeN+Ngenitiv/Dativ). We have a case when a terminological phrase from English was
translated with the addition of a supplementary word for explanation
(Volume controls – punctele de control a volumului - (N+N) → (N+de+N+NGenitiv).
For the determination meaning of the nominal phrase from English we have a possessive
report in Romanian expressed by the Genitive case, we also need an addition of a support word
for Controls from English to avoid ambiguity and to be more explicit.
Volume up – volumul tare (N+ Adv) → (N+Adv); Volume down – volumul încet(N+Adv) → (N+Adv)
In the case of the adverbs up/down from English; the Romanian variant offers a
contextual equivalent încet/ tare, as they are usually used in reference to the volume, in English
the respective adverbs are more general, in Romanian we have a specification.
Home button – butonul de revenire / pornire- (N+N) → (N+de+N)
The term “home” from the English phrase is very ambiguous it could refer to the start
function or returning back function, that’s why in Romanian it is translated namely with the
contextual equivalents and not word-for-word.
Noise cancellation- neutralizarea zgomotului- (N+N) → (N+N dativ)
In this case the nominal phrase from English was translated by an equivalent structure
in Romanian but for the determined element from it which was translated by another one in
Romanian we have a modulation procedure “cancellation” was translated with “neutralizarea”
which is different from “anularea”.
If in the previous cases the attributive groups were terminological phrases, there are also
several phrases that are qualifying ones, opinion; and contain adjectives in the positive or most
often, superlative degree:
(Brilliant engineering – inginerie remarcabilă - (Adj+N) → (N+Adj); Cool engineering
– inginerie grozavă- (Adj+N) → (N+Adj); A cool feature- o caracteristică grozavă - (Adj+N) →
(N+Adj); Closest kin – cea mai apropiată rudă- (Superlative Adj+N) → (Adj. Superlativ+N)).
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Front basic camera – camera de bază pe partea din faţă- (N+Adj+N) → (N deN+pe+N
din N) (modulation, explanation compensation)
For the three elements attributive clause in English, the Romanian variant resorted to a
modulation, explanation, compensation procedure as English is more concise on the account of
the words order that includes the reference and dependence, connection meanings between the
words which also contribute with meanings, front was translated with ” pe partea din faţă.
Sleep-wake button – butonul hibernare-veghe- (N+N+N)→ (N+N+N) – calque
The highly specialized phrase from English, expressed figuratively by sleep-wake is
calqued into Romanian by the respective equivalents hibernare-veghe.
Extraordinary build quality – calitate extraordinară a costrucţiei- (Adj+N+N) →
(N+Adj+Ngenitiv) word order shift.
In the given case we have another example of non-coincidence of the semantic relations,
the Romanian variant operated a word order shift and an addition of a preposition for rendering
the possessive relation.
Translation methods of Grammatical structures :
1. Beyond a doubt – dincolo de orice dubii; 2. beyond any consumer product we’ve ever seendepăşeşte orice produs de consum pe care l-am văzut vre-odată; 3. nothing like – nimic similar
cu; 4. twice as fast – de două ori mai rapid; 5. well over a hundred features – mai bine de o mie
de catacteristici; 6. the all new design – design-ul complet nou; 7. it’s something you didn’t think
to get any thinner – este ceva ce nu v-aţi gândit să devină mai subţire; 8. there’s not just one of
them, there’s three of them – nu este doar una, sunt trei;
There are 8 cases of emphasis in the discourse of the presentation which is not
surprising due to the mainly persuasive function of it, the procedures resorted to for their
translation into Romanian, vary we have additions and specifications in examples 1, 2, 3 and we
have an omission in the 8 example for the cohesion’s sake.
To cover all of them – să le includem pe toate; I’ve got to cover 8 of them – trebuie să
parcurg 8 dintre ele;
In the two examples above, the verb to cover is differently translated, as a result of more
exactly due to immediate constituents analysis and componential analysis of the phrases from the
discourse, the verb to cover from English is polysemantic and ambiguous it was translated with a
include and a parcurge by the use of the specification procedure.
Stainless steel running around – oţel anticorosiv de jur-împrejur.
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The second part of the phrase in English running around is translated by omitting the present
participle of the verb running with the adverbial phrase de jur-împrejur, the verb being implied
in TL.
There have been photos of this around – au circulat fotografii
In this case the Present Perfect meaning of “there have been around” was rendered by a
verb – au circulat – so the procedure employed were substitution and specification, in addition in
English the construction there is/are/have been etc. are passive ones, but in Romanian we do not
have the passive meaning in this case.
From the grammatical point of view the predominant tenses are Past Simple without a
problem have the equivalent in Romanian → Perfectul Simplu sau Imperfect: started to; it was;
we added – a începutsă; a fost; am adăugat;
The construction: to be going to – redată prin – intenţionăm;
Present Continuous is translated with Present Simple – we are introducing – prezentăm
Present Perfect constructions: you haven’t seen this; you have ever seen; we’ve ever made; we’ve
ever seen; have been photos; it’s never been done before – n-aţi văzut aceasta; pe care l-aţi
văzut vre-o dată; pe care l-am produs vre-odată; pe care l-am văzut vreăodată; au circulat
fotografii; n-a mai fost niciodată.
There are 8 emphatic constructions that presented not any problems for translation.
Degrees of comparison of adjectives are being used: superlatives: the most beautiful design; the
most precise and beautiful thing; comparatives: thinner than; a quarter thinner; the thinnest
smartphone on the planet – in both cases we are having a variation and escalation of the
comparison with a hyperbole they are exactly so preserved in translation.
Some other figures of speech are: It was a revolution, which is an exaggeration
comparison a hyperbole, some other hyperboles are: „it’s unheard of it” / „de nemaiauzit” ; ”it’s
unbelievable”/ „incredibil”; „just gorgeous” / „pur şi simplu splendid”; „brilliant
engineering”/ “inginerie remarcabilă”; „extraordinary build quality” / „calitate extraordinară
a construcţiei”.
As the constructions there is / are; there was / were a considered passive
constructions as it has already mentioned above, we must notice that there are a lot of these:
(There were a few applications...; there was no free market...; there was no application store...;
there are well over a hundred features...; the procession of which this is made...; there have been
photos of this around... and there are these three slits...; it’s never been done before…/Ro.: Erau
câteva aplicaţii...; Nu exista piaţă liberă...; nu existau stocuri de aplicaţii...; sunt mai bine de o
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mie de caracteristici...; procesarea prin care este produs; au circulat fotografii...; sunt aceste
trei fisuri pe ea...; n-a mai fost făcut niciodată...)
The passive voice is used when the presenter refers to periods, processes these one being
emphasized and not who was the actor, which is unimportant.
The abundance of contracted forms „I’ve got to... you’ve got...” the „you” form of
address creates a dialogical form as I have already mentioned, an atmosphere of trust and
confidence, it’s, in Leech’s qualification, a slight deviation from the formal public speech to a
public coloquial style.
3.3 Translation Problems in the Case-Study.
According to Antony Pym [p.3] Chapter I, translation should not use passively the
discourse analysis that it needs as a preliminary stage before proceeding to the translation
process proper. In the present chapter we have undertaken a paralel anslysis of all phenomena
that interest us and that are present in the discourse of Steve Job’s Presentation, both in the ST
and TT. The primary focus was to study all the peculiarities of the presentation as a multimodal
sample of advertising discourse, a very rich media sample of modern advertising discourse and
namely, the implementation and manifestation of all semantic and pragmatic laws of the
discourse to reach specific aims. The main function was already mentioned as being promotion
of the image of prestige, communication with their public, experts, professionals, loyal
customers; this presentation looks very much like more a summarizing reporting about activity
and namely about the breakthrough innovations applied, it looks like an annpouncement like a
statement in a very tough, close race with the competition. It also has an informative function, it
abounds in facts, and technical details and descriptions as arguments. The persuation function is
indispensable in an advertising discourse. And certainly the expressive function, the function of
impressing, creating likability, and fidelity with the products and the company, eventually
conquering new segments of the market, and the sympathy of other prospective customers.
Taking into account the type of discourse, it presents a product from the domain of technologies,
the type of translation adopted was functional.
And now we need to refer to the translation problems specific for such types of texts
and for the present discourse in particular. The first item that is absolutely untranslatable is the
peculiarities of the voice of the presenter, the emotion he had in particular instances, the
emphatic intonation and stress, the purposeful hesitation devices, inserts and the silences, that are
also considered as linguistic elements.
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There are different approaches to what should be considered as an error in
translation. Our approach is certainly functionalist. Harry Aveling marks the word “mistakes” by
inverted commas, as he considers that from the functionalist point of view, “mistakes” are a
failure to achieve “equivalence, adequacy, accuracy, etc.,” [2, p.2] So, the author considers that
there are “dumb mistakes” (foolish errors) and “deliberate mistakes”. The present author
addresses a reproach for the translation critics “We labour for years to translate a text in a
sensitive and caring way, only to be told that there is a comma missing on page 45”.
Nord defines "translation error" in terms of the purpose of the translation process and
product: "a failure to carry out the instructions implied in the translation brief"; or more
specifically, "If the purpose of a translation is to achieve a particular function for the target
addressee, anything that obstructs the achievement of this purpose is a translation error." This
broad definition is then followed by a functional model of translation errors which are classified
into four categories. Functional inadequacies occur in four ways. They may be pragmatic
translation errors, which are the result of “inadequate solutions to pragmatic translation
problems such as lack of receiver orientation”. Secondly, they may be cultural translation
errors, which are “due to an inadequate decision with regard to reproduction or adaptation of
culture-specific conventions”. Thirdly, they may be linguistic translation errors, which are
“caused by an inadequate translation when the focus is on language structures”. Fourthly, and
finally, they may be text-specific translation errors, which are “related to a text-specific
translation problem and, like the corresponding translation problems, can usually be evaluated
from a functional or pragmatic point of view” [2, pag.7]. The seriousness of these four types of
errors, Nord says, can be ranked “top-down”. Pragmatic errors are “among the most important a
translator can make”, but they are also “usually not very difficult to solve”. Nord's model, which
applies particularly to non-literary translation, is a challenge to the traditional criterion for
evaluating mistakes in literary translations, i.e. anything in the TT that is not "faithful" to the ST
is deemed as a translation mistake; Wilss, for example, describes a translation error as "an
offence against a norm in a linguistic contactsituation." Obviously, a functionalist perspective
allows us to identify many translation errors which would not be considered as such according to
the traditional approach.
In the case of our discourse we have a hybridization of modes of execution, that is
why everything is explicit, cohesive, coherent and clear even if we missed a word or did not
translated the internationalisms (abbreviations that are known as such), if the abbreviations had
been translated they would have posed a bigger problem for understanding by the target
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audience. So that the non-translation is motivated, not to mention that there are detailed visuals
for supporting comprehension.
The pragmatic equivalence is ensured also by the modes of the macrodiscourse of the
situation. The deictic markers (This is… here is… this… that…) the omission of the word:
(“people are vast, what’s this; For what are these” …. (a long pause and several steps on the
stage, then the pointer shows) - lines.”). Very emphatic pauses and omissions, that almost need
not be explained somehow, supplemented with words, or footnotes.
The text is full of terminology, the attributive groups are numerous the bi-elements
groups and three-member groups. The translation needs to be started by an analysis into
immediate constituents, first, because the semantic links do not correspond, and they are
differently expressed in the two languages. This is seen at the attributive groups description part,
also in terms of translation methods used; non-coincidence results in under-translation or
overtranslation, most often a specifying general word is used with a terminological phrase so as
to bridge the gap of non-coincidence of the linguistic form and so as to create equivalence at
syntagmatic level: volume controls - punctele de control a volumului. The there is/are
constructions are rendered simply by the verb to be- sunt, este, există.
From the functionalist approach the text represents an „offer of information” and
according to Christiane Nord, from which the receiver accepts what he wants or needs. Different
readers, depending on their previous knowledge and attitude, get quite different "messages" out
of one and the same text [35, p.2]. There are two basic principles that should guide the
translation process the principle of functionality and loyalty. The translation purpose determines
the methods and strategy adopted by the translator, the acceptability of the translation is limited
by the translator’s responsibility with regard to the commissioners. Most importantly, the
functionality of translation is not a quality of the text but it is attributed to it by the receptors of
it. The author’s view is that, “The function (or hierarchy of functions: the phatic, referential and
the expressive function) intended for, and/or achieved by, the target text may be different from
that or those intended for, and/or achieved by, the source text, as long as it is not contradictory
to, or incompatible with, the source-text author's communicative intention(s)” [35, 13].
Thus, if we reconsider the dilemma raised by Antony Pym whether the original
source discourse and the target discourse in translation coincide or represent two distinct
discourses, then we have to come to the same conclusion as this author: that claiming that the
SDiscourse and the TDiscourse represent two absolutely distinct discourses, would discredit the
process of translation. As we do not have any cultural specificities as realia / culturisms in the
ST, or this is not a literary discourse where interpretation would be accepted; the target discourse
85
suffered very little adaptation, this is a translation that suits the purpose of both highly
specialized target audience and of the wider layers of public, an audience who would pursue
other aims of being both informed, impressed, persuaded. The integrity of the Source message of
the discourse is provided and guaranteed by the qualitative, accurate translation in conformity
with the translation brief, the purpose is to render the meaning of the spoken text of the discourse
with a high degree of equivalence. The conditions for the success of this mission are very
advantageous, as the text comes in a hybridized cluster of modes, there is the audio-video
support of advanced technologies, and there is the personality of the presenter on the stage, the
determinant factor of reaching a correct hierarchy of functions.
CONCLUSIONS:
1. The discourse of the presentation represents a sample of the advertising colony:
persuasive corporative discourse; displaying recognizable generic integrity manifested
through the linguistic, semantic, pragmatic aspects.
2. Subtitling, thus the foreignizing method of translation is applied which is the most
politically correct and effective for the concrete purposes of rendering a presentation that
has functions of communication: a loud formal statement in the domain of technologies:
so, public relations, maintaining the image of prestige; detailing, bringing evidence about
the genuine and important innovation and developments; informing and persuading. The
functionalist approach in translation is applied and more exactly the scopos theory, as this
sample of translation is documentary and user-oriented.
3. There are discrepancies when it comes to the manifestation of the personal framework
coordinates of the discourse. In TL there are the IInd prs. singular and plural, for
politeness and formal register; while in Eng. there is only one form “you”. In English we
have a so-called public colloquial style, an adaptation of the public speech with a lesser
degree, a slight decline in formality, marked also by the contracted, abridged grammatical
forms.
4. The social framework is executed by the participants: the Apple Company, Steve Jobs
and receptor audience – experts, customers, competition, the public. The cooperative
principle performs excellently, a very receptive public, involved and interested.
5. We have a predominance of assertive speech acts but also some declaratives and
expressive language very emotionally present that is untranslatable because universal or
up to any sensible human being on the planet. The predominant modalities in the
discourse are deontic and epistemic.
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6. The linguistic aspect of the translation analysis is attempted from down-up smallest,
elementary units of translation: terms; attributive groups and clusters terms,
colloquialisms, grammatical structures.
7. The abbreviations are left in the original language as they are internationalisms. At the
translation of terms, some adaptive modulation-specification was applied. In the case of
attributive groups the immediate constituents analysis is necessary as the semantic links
and dependences do not correspond in the languages involved in the process of
translation and in addition we start from the fact that the determiner-determined relation
is reversed. In Romanian many prepositions are used for the precision’s sake due to a
more analytical structure of the linguistic system. The grammatical constructions do not
coincide: in Romanian there is no Present Perfect Tense; Progressive Tenses the Passive
Constructions again not always coincide, and not always are translated. But it did not
result in overtranslation overall.
8. As there is no need for a pragmatic adaptation, the translation is close to the original,
there are not any pragmatic errors from the functional point of view, the linguistic
discrepancy solicited for supplementary efforts in terms of translation methods applied to
bridge the gaps and to provide acceptable results.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS FOR THE THESIS.
1.
The theoretical background of the problem of discourse, the polemics between the
prominent researchers in the domain has established that discourse is a complex concept having an
interdisciplinary essence defined as language in use, or language as social practice, or mode of
thinking and talking. Although its research method, the discourse critical analysis includes not only
the linguistic aspect but also the context, we are not witnessing a decreasing role of the language
and a post-linguistic era.
2.
The relation between discourse and text is hyperonimic of a hierarchical order. Discourse
refers to the total process of social interaction of which the text is only a part or a product. The
text can have two forms of execution written and spoken one.
3.
The process of description, interpretation and explanation of the discourse is a complex one,
soliciting cognitive elements known as Member Resources which include language knowledge, and
knowledge of natural social world, values, beliefs, etc. Also taking into consideration the context
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so-called “felicituous ambiguity” which includes actions and conventions performed on certain
occasions, some pre-conditions, or a set of “happiness conditions”, a set of properties of the context
which are sufficient and necessary for an adequate use of utterances.
4.
Certain Discourse Maxims are applied in the advertising discourse and namely the
Cooperative Principle and Maxims of Quantity and Quality: the receiver must be adequately
informed not over, or under nor misinformed, because the receiver could even sue the addresser for
deception. The Relation and the Manner principles could be intentionally not applied or even
violated for achieving certain effects. The Politeness Principle is important for maintaining the
social equilibrium and friendly relations with the public. The Tact and Generosity Maxims,
presuppose a certain concealment of the real aims pursued by the advertizer (benefits), as this type
of discourse is characterized from the pragmatic point of view with indirectness. The Approbation
Maxim implies making use of praise and not of dispraise or criticism. The Interest and Pollyana
Principles involve selecting, favouring topics that present interest. The Irony and Banter Principles
have to do with using certain words so as to express irony or exactly the opposite meaning.
Although the advertising indulges in referring to pleasant situations it could also raise disagreeable
issues and social problems.
5.
Advertising has evolved from a promotional tool to performing a function similar to the
art and religion, from attention grabber to state-of-the-art products. It can be a powerful
promotional tool for charitable causes but at the same time it can have negative aspects and
consequences like promoting the selling of cigarettes thus commercializing death in the long run;
or benefitting from pollution. It includes not only commercials but also informationals and has
become a PR form of communication for promoting the image of prestige and being a powerful
instrument of manipulation and mind control.
6.
Semantics includes meaning of linguistic forms, denotation and connotation, coherence
and cohesion ties. However from the pragmatic point of view and namely the Maxim of Manner
all the linguistic and stylistic elaboration, grammatical shifts are considered as violations from
the norms. For example the questions, that in the advertising discourse are all infringing their
basic premises and are becoming personalized devices. Or the puffery “poetic license”
exaggerations, hyperboles that could potentially be wrongly interpreted by a not very informed
and aware audience, thus deceive; would give the reason to some unsatisfied users even to sue
the advertizer for deception
7.
The visual metaphors lead to a higher degree of ambiguity and openness to multiple
interpretations, or a deficit of meaning, which is completed by the headline, body-copy, the
echo-phrase so the textual form of execution of the discourse. Researchers assert that not only
88
the informative and persuasive functions find expression and are employed in advertising
discourse but the emotive-expressive one is equally important with a hyperonimic relation
between conviction and seduction, in many cases customers being seduced by by-passing the
reasonable, conscientious stages along the process of persuasion (manipulation).
8.
Advertising works through a hierarchy of effects through three stages learn-feel-do in the
case of expensive goods when customers inform themselves and form a likeability with the
product they want to buy. But learn-do-feel sequence is specific for the low-involvement
consumer products.
9.
In the case of rich media or multimodal advertising discourse one combines the
advantages of verbal, and non-verbal modes of execution (superimposed on the image - super),
and visual-acoustic graphics, (voiceover, participants) plus the acoustic and video graphics.
10.
The first fact demonstrated by the present thesis is that the scope and dimension of the
advertising discourse has evolved out of recognition, from the small advertisements rubric in a
local paper and street crier, to become a state-of- the-art symbiosis of modes of execution that
promotes products, services, charitable cause, the image of prestige, represents an important
form of PR public relation, keeping in touch with the receptors, customers, loyal or prospective
ones, stakeholders, experts, competition even. The highly elaborate visual grammar and
metaphors plus the acoustic graphics has become the norm in the advertising process which does
not have only the informative-persuasive function for strictly commercial aims, but also creating
empathy, likeability, impressing, creating an emotional impact, influencing and changing
behavior, propaganda, and mind control is creative, highly ambiguous, open to different
interpretations, deficient but for the text, co-text, voice-over super, thus the verbal forms of
communication that intervene to guide, orient and explain the point.
11.
The discourse of the iPhone IV Presentation by Steve Jobs is our choice for the research
of realization of the pragmatic laws of the discourse in a multimodal sample of semiosis of an
operational type of discourse and their reflection in translation into TL, Romanian. Subtitling,
thus the foreignizing method of translation is applied which is the most politically correct and
effective for the concrete purposes of rendering a presentation that has functions of
communication: a loud formal statement in the domain of technologies: so, public relations,
maintaining the image of prestige; detailing, bringing evidence about the genuine and important
innovation and developments; informing and persuading. The functionalist approach in
translation is applied and more exactly the scopos theory, as this sample of translation is
documentary and user-oriented.
89
12.
We have a predominance of assertive speech acts but also some declaratives and
expressive language very emotionally present that is untranslatable because universal or up to
any sensible human being on the planet. The predominant modalities in the discourse are deontic
and epistemic.
13.
As there is no need for a pragmatic adaptation, the translation is close to the original,
there are not any pragmatic errors from the functional point of view, the linguistic discrepancies
between the languages involved into the translation process, solicited for supplementary efforts
in terms of translation methods and procedures applied to bridge the gaps and to provide
acceptable results. The non-verbal modes of communication constitute a strong argument and by
their universality support the eventual deficiencies of progressively used subtitling and
automated translation applications that are omnipresent and indispensible in the virtual Internet
medium. Still the translators intervention is highly required, as the Internet content and not to
mention, valuable one invites translators with experience to contribute with the translation
projects for the dynamic and interested virtual community of users.
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Magazines
56.
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57.
Time September, 1, 2008
58.
Time January 19, 2009
59.
People, December,8, 2008
60.
People, December, 22, 2008
61.
People, March, 23, 2009
Video Ads:
62.
Anti-Gun Control Commercial. 2.36 min; flv.
63.
Argentina Falklands Olympic Ad. 1.31 min; flv
64.
Deer Rudolph and Eagle Eye Team up to Escape Redneck Hunter. 1.25 min; flv
65.
Homeless -The Salvation Army Christmas Advert. 1min.; flv
66.
How Many More Rounds are we Going to Let this Go on for. 0.46 min; flv
67.
Larry Bird vs. Michael Jordan McDonalds Commercial. 1.02 min; flv
68.
Mac Ad - Think Different – Apple. 1min; flv
69.
Nike - My Body is My Weapon. 1.01 min.; flv
70.
Outdoor Ad- Delhi Police- Bad News Bag. 2.09 min.; flv
71.
Responsible. 1.30 min; flv
72.
WWDC 2010. Steave Jobs Unveils iPhone IV; flv
93
Categories of Advertisements
Trade and tehnica
Pestige,business,financial
Small adverts\commercials
Government,charity,PR
AD Comparison
Dramatized AD(Functional)
Dramatized AD(Emotional)
AD Instruction
AD Dialogue
AD Question Puzzle
Paradox,Cartoon
AD With Famous People
AD With Customers
Campaign
94
Diagram 1.
Table 1.
Magazine/
Trade and Technical Prestige, Business, Small Adverts/
Government,
Category
Advertisements
Charity,
Financial
Commercials
PR
“TIME”
12
19
7
15
“PEOPLE”
14
7
36
7
TOTAL:
26
26
43
22
Table 2.
Magazine/ Ad
Dramatized Ad-Instruc
Ad
Ad
Ad with
Ad with
Campa
Form
ad
Dialogue
Question
Famous
Custo
ign
Puzzle,
People
mers
Compa
rison
tion/
Product
Paradox
Cartoon
TIME
1
36
11
PEOPLE 4
68
14
77
1
5
5
4
1
14
11
3
9
95
TOTAL: 5
104
25/77
1
19
16
7
23
Table 3.
Fo
Message
Function
rm
source
Receptor
Effect
Addresser
Ad
Informational, high uncertainty
Inform,
The firm, company,
Intended for the large Accepting,
Com
avoiding, comparing and
brand organization
public and for the
pa
contrasting advantages, factual,
call attention,
initiated, informed
message as a
ris
specific for trade and technical
Impressing,
knowledgeable
result of both
ads, and small adverts
affecting
audience.
being inform
Direct, explicit style
emotionally
Also intended for
ed
Exacting style,
Persuade by
Uninformed people and emotion
comparison,
Creating awareness nally influenced,
underlying how
For prospective
so
the product is
clients
persuasion could
on
persuade,
believing the
advantageous or
trigger an action
unique in
from the part of the
comparison with
receptor, and
others
creating a bond
creating a group
with common
tastes
Dra
Visuals symbolic or that haveAesthetic,
The firm, company,
Intended for the large Informing
ma
little connection
brand organization
public and for the
ti
with the advertised product, Evaluative,
initiated, informed
the emotional
zed
could be in
Creating
knowledgeable
appeal of the
Ad
the form of an image
Awareness,
audience
form of
metaphor
Attention
presentation
Elaborate style,
calling,
and intertext,
Indirect implicit,
Learning
co-text,
Succint style also
new
an interest
information
could
Could be applied to
trigger action, the
all four categories
potential buyer
Emotional
through
96
of ads,
could be persuaded
Promoting the
to buy, to
image of prestige,
influence his
projecting
tastes, even
loyalty
buying habits, it
could also even
seduce the
customer
The feel good of
the receptors
Ad
The message is
Inform, learn
The firm, company,
Intended for the
The receptor
-In
never presented in
Persuade,
brand organization
large public
would
Str
the form of pure
instruct
programme
Be correctly
uc-
information,
informed
tion/
transformational
And induced to
produ instructions, functional
buy
ct
rules and performance
By the allusion of
description, but with a
belonging to a
combination of
community would
drama form, the
create loyalty with
“slice of life”, or playful form of
the customers
instructing
Influence
Is applied mostly
Behavior,
for the trade and
change
technical
habits
advertisements
small adverts/
commercials
97
Ad
The form of the
The firm,
Intended for
Some patterns of
Dialo
message through a soliloque or
Impact,
company,
the large public
behavior could
gue
dialogue is very engaging, it creating a
brand
be changed,
interactively discusses with anybond
dDi
organization
An emotional
Emotional
areceptor it attempts to use
based on
Connection could
familiarity with the public,
similarity,
be established
generalizing thus the issue there
creating ,
Influence
are few examples, though the awareness,
decisions
dialogical form could be traced
informing
Change mentality
in almost all
Deceiving,

the adverts
manipulating the

Direct explicit style
public
Ad
Very often as the category
Entertain,
The firm, company,
The large masses of The receptor
Qu
suggests
brand, organization
emotional appeal,
Potential customers is
es
The message is in the form inform, persuade
invited to
tion
of a puzzle, metaphor,
decode the
Pu
cartoon, in a direct explicit
meaning of
zz
style
the advertisement,
le
Often in a playful,
so a high
Pa
Humorous manner
level of
ra
involvement, be it
dox;
a puzzle or cartoon
car
toon
with an allusion, or
if it is a paradox,
or metaphor
it equally should
be decoded,
appeal to the
knowledge
of the receptor, the
customer
could be
98
entertained
and persua
ded to play
fully, prolon
ging the game
- to buy;
mystification
Ad
Endorsing the
with
Inform,
Companies,
Large masses of potential
Some action
persuade
Product or service or campaign
Brands
customers,
could follow
Fam
advertised
Creating
Individuals
Groups and interest
after being
ous
Or presenting their own
awareness
famous people categories
Peo
Brand product, or
Seducing,
from
Informed people,
on a problem
ple
Project in a direct
inducing
Showbiz,
Responsible
tackled by a
explicit and exacting
emotionally
sports,
Entities,
project,
style, in some cases,
politics,
Experts,
Masses
deprived of any
industry
decision makers
would be
informed
glamour, in other
informed
cases with high stakes on
Competition
emotional appeal
could also
Testimonial of endorsement
engage in the
race,
accept the
challenge
Promotion
Customers
wishing to
associate
with their
favourite
stars, would buy to
be like them
Ca
Very clear informative direct,Inform, persuadeCompanies,
Large masses of
mp
explicit message, structured, Create awareness
Brands
potential customers, Manipulation
a
complex in execution and modes
Project an
Groups and interest Mind control
Individuals
Propaganda
99
igns
employed;
image of
famous people categories
Snob appeal the
Exacting style also, using
prestige
from
Informed people,
Customer would
facts
Showbiz,
Create loyalty with
Responsible
also want to
Applied for government,
the company brand
sports, politics, Entities,
engage
charity,
industry
Change mentality
Experts,
In a popular
PR category and
Change
decision makers
idea or project,
prestige, business,
behavioural
financial
patterns
Scientific approach
Educate
trend
Table 4.
Title
Type
Topic
Participants
of
and Function
Setting
/Social Context
Narrati
ve
Struc
ture
1.Anti-Gun
Life
Anti-Gun Control
Control
style
Ostensibly pretending he is Performer –
criminal, with the modified
Commercial.
anti-gun legislation because A Criminal -
voice preparing his guns
2.36 min
he is a criminal, outlaw, and Monologue +
bringing his arguments
legalizing it, everyone else SUPER
would also possess arms, thus
to the All Society Debate
complicating
his
The
task,
Private Space, the hooded
about legalizing bearing
and keeping guns.
increasing competition, and
risking every next time “at
work”, to getting across an
armed targeted victim. A
creating awareness campaign
2.Argentina
Lifestyl
Political
Falklands
e
Dispute.
performer –
Falklands (Malvinas) Islands,
Provocation, Raising claims
A sportsman
subject of controversy
Olympic Ad.
and
Territory The
The spot is shot on the
100
1.31 min.
preparing for between Argentina and Great
the
London Britain. Allthough illegally
Olympics
there, the sportsman claims
Games.
it’s on their Argentinian
Voiceover
territory, thus an open
provocation unpleasant
surprise for the Olympic Games
even since antiquity during
Olympic Games the canons
had to be silenced!!!
3.Deer
Phantas
Anti-hunting, through a free- Redneck
A hunting scene in the woods
Rudolph and y,
hands device from Samsung, Hunter and a Due to sophisticated
Eagle
in a humorous manner
police officer
communication means
team up to e
Deer
the eagle transmits to the
escape
Redneck
Rudolph and deer the message of distress
Eagle Eye
about the danger and he
Hunter.
Voiceover
escapes being shot by the
1.25 min.
Super
hunter.In addition the police
Eye Lifestyl
officer somehow, also
by magic happens to appear
from the back of the enraged
hunter
4. Homeless Lifestyl
Charity;
Characters
The life conditions of
Helping the underprivileged
representing
vagabonds, and the social
Salvation
Collection of Funds
people
workers, shelters for
Army
Creating awareness
without
supporting such categories
Christmas
Advert.
Educating active involvement homes,
means
in helping others
1min.
Persuading
-The
e
of people homeless, or
that
had suffered
who had suffered from
domestic violence
from violence
Voiceover
101
5. How many Lifestyl
Gun control
Voiceover
Guns Control campaign
more rounds e
Creating awareness, raising Super
A rifle that shoots, in the
are we going
concerns, Persuading,
hands of the performer; on
to let this go
Shocking
each bullet there is a destination
on for.
a wounded town that has
0.46 min.
suffered from mass murder
attacks; at the end the floor
is covered with encrypted
bullets; background voices
of victims, parents of victims
6. Larry Bird Phantas
Winning over a Big Mac Larry
vs.
through fierce competition and Michael Increasingly tougher
Michael y,
Bird A Gymnasium
superhuman Jordan
Jordan
Lifestyl
and
McDonalds
e
requirements.
Voiceover
commercial.
Humour
Super
1.02 min.
Persuasive about being fit and
conditions of
competition and achievement
fighting and obtaining what
one intends to
7. Mac Ad - Lifestyl
e
think
different
–
Thinking differently
Different
Excerpts from different
Looks Craziness for some but Outstanding
recordings from different
is genius actually if it changes Personalities
times, periods, parts of
Apple.
the world
that
1min
Persuasive
changed,
different domains
Creating Awareness
influenced
Geniality that transgresses
Paying Tribute
the
had the world, with personalities
worldview
Voiceover
Super
time and space and impacts
future generations, an amazed
child at the end and the
logo of Apple, having
102
stored the database.
8. Nike - My Lifestyl
Training,
increasing
body is my e
physical force and strength of sportsmen
situations: running tracks,
weapon.
the
swimming-pools, football
1.01 min.
become like a weapon, even training
fields. Fierce competition
for disabled (Oscar Pistorius- Voiceover
in sports and a continuous
body
the
which
the Different
would performing,
double
amputee), Super
defeating, others, winning in
competitions,
difficulties,
overcoming
and
Different competitive
struggle with oneself for
being fit and strong,
overcoming disability,
setting
difficulties, for high
records
performance
Persuasive
Educational
9.
Outdoor Lifestyl
Awareness Campaigners
Different shops that sell
Campaign
Drivers
alcoholic drinks
Persuading
Voiceover
The streets and parking lots
news bag.
Educating
Super
Interviewing the drivers,
2.09 min.
Informing
Spreading
Dissuading
traffic accidents, and
ad-
Delhi e
Creating
Police-
Bad
the
information
dissuading drivers from
engaging in a trip after
having
consumed
alcohol,
during a week-end, offering
solutions
10.Responsib “Slice
le.
1.30 min.
of Life”
Anti-Gun Control
Performer
A farm and a man sitting
Persuading
Super
on the backside of his
pick-up, holding a rifle; the
discourse is pro keeping
and bearing guns, as a
tradition and necessity
being the arguments.
103
Table 5.
TITLES
INFR
FRM
TRM
D
INTR
HEST
ELLP
NFC
AC
X
PAS
T
1.
+
-
-
+
-
+
+
+
+
+
2.
-
+
-
+
-
-
-
-
+
+
3.
+
-
-
-
+
-
-
-
+
-
4.
-
+
-
+
-
-
-
-
+
-
5.
-
+
-
+
+
+
-
+
+
-
6.
+
-
-
+
-
-
+
+
+
-
7.
-
-
-
+
-
+
+
-
+
-
8.
-
-
-
+
-
-
-
-
+
-
9.
-
+
-
+
-
-
-
+
+
+
10.
-
-
+
+
-
-
-
+
+
-
Table 6.
FIRST ORDER PRINCIPLES
COOPERATIVE
H-OP
POLITENESS
PRINCIPLE
PRINCIPLE
I
P
P
o
IrP
BP
P
MAXIMS
TI
Qn
Q
R
Mn
T
G
Ap
Md
Ag
S
Pt
TL
t
lt
lt
r
ct
nt
b
t
r
pt
c
1.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
+
-
+
+
2.
+
+
+
+
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
+
-
-
-
3.
+
+
+
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
+
-
4.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
+
-
+
-
-
-
5.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
+
-
-
-
6.
+
+
+
-
+
-
-
-
-
+
-
+
+
+
-
7.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
+
-
+
+
-
-
ES
104
8.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
-
-
-
+
-
-
-
9.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
-
-
-
10.
+
+
+
+
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
+
-
-
-
Table 7.
TITLE ASSERTI DIRECTIV COMMISSIV EXPRESSIVE DECLARATIO TOTAL
S
VES
ES
ES
S
NS
1.
11
3
-
2
-
16
2.
10
-
-
2
1
13
3.
2
2
-
-
-
4
4.
8
3super
-
-
-
11
5.
-
-1super
-
6 voices
-
7
4
-
-
-
9
-
-
-
9
-
-
-
8
voiceover
6.
5
7.
8voiceove 1super
r
8.
7voiceove 1super
r
9.
18 super
2
-
-
-
20
10.
5voiceove 3
-
-
-
8
r
105
List of Advertisement from “People” and “Time” Magazines.
1. “409” All Purpose Cleaner; p.92; [People, March 23, 2009]
2. “alli” wight losing pills; p.65; [People, December 22, 2008]
3. “Allstate” Insurance Company; p.118; [People, December 22, 2008]
4. “American Eagle” payless giftcards for buying boots; p.23; [People, December 8, 2008]
5. “Armani Code” Georgio Armani; perfume; p.21-22; [People, December 8, 2008]
6.
“Beckham signature” perfume; p.95-96; [People, December 8, 2008]
7. “Benadryl” allergy medication; p.9; [People, March 23, 2009]
8. “Blue Seduction” Antonio Banderas perfume; p.9. [People, December 8, 2008]
9. “Bose” SoundDock; p.28; [People, December 8, 2008]
10. “Breakstone” sour cream; p.112; [People, March 23, 2009]
11. “Campbells”canned noodles; p.132; [People, December 8, 2008]
12. “Canon” flash memory camcorders; p.54; [People, December 8, 2008]
13. “Chantix” non-nicotine pills; p.103-104; [People, December 8, 2008]
14. “Christal Light”; Skin Essentials/ delicious nourishing drink, p.1[People, March, 2009]
15. “Citizen” Paula Creamer; watch; p.31; [People, December 8, 2008]
16. “Clinique”; skin care products; p.7; [People, March 23, 2009]
17. “Coke Diet” p.120-121; [People, March 23, 2009]
18. “Covergirl”; Drew Barrymore; p.3; lipstick [People, March 23, 2009]
19. “Crest” mouth wash; p.52; [People, December 8, 2008]
20. “Dasany” Flavoured water naturally; 19; [People, March 23, 2009]
21. “Definity” from Olay; foundation; p.17;[People, March 23, 2009]
22. “Deseo” Jenifer Lopez; perfume; p.49-50; [People, December 22, 2008]
23. “Dick’s” sporting goods; p.130; [People, March 23, 2009]
24. “Dirt Devil” from Target; vaccum cleaner; p.117; [People, December 8, 2008]
25. “Dove” care products; and campaign for girls’self esteem; p.133; [People, March 2009]
26. “Downy” Ann Taylor; fabric softener; p.88; [People, December 8, 2008]
27. “Duracell” battery; p.91; [People, December 22, 2008]
28. “Eukanuba” dogs food; p.73; [People, March 23, 2009]
29. “Euphoria” Calvin Klein; perfume; p.67-68; [People, December 8, 2008]
30. “Fresh Step” odour eliminating carbon for pets; p.101; [People, March 23, 2009]
31. “Gain”, cleaning product; laundry detergent; p.37-39- p.125; [People, March 23, 2009]
32. “Gentle Naturals” baby care products; p.97; [People, March 23, 2009]
106
33. “Godiva”Chocolatier” p.113; [People, December 8, 2008]
34. “Iams” dog food; p. 87; [People, December 8, 2008]
35. “Ikea” Norden dining table; p.123; [People, March 23, 2009]
36. “Intel” processor technology; p.4; [People, December 8, 2008]
37. “Jell-O” and COOL WHIP” deserts; p.6-7; [People, December 22, 2008]
38. “Jergens naturals” skin care product; p.51; [People, December 8, 2008]
39. “Kodak” digital frame; p.115; [People, December 8, 2008]
40. “ Lee” jeans; p.145; [People, December 8, 2008]
41. “Listerine”, and “Reach” oral care products; p.26; [People, March 23, 2009]
42. “Lubriderm” skin care products; p. 160; [People, December 8, 2008]
43. “Lunesta” sleeping pills; p.81-82; [People, December 8, 2008]
44. “M&M”; Larry Bird and Magic Johnson; p.4; [People, March 23, 2009]
45. “Memorex” portable boombox; p. 42; [People, December 22, 2008]
46. “Neutrogena”, liquid makeup; p.25. [People, March 23, 2009]
47. “Nissan Rogue” car; p.19; [People, December 8, 2008]
48. “Nivea”, daily lotion; p.29; [People, March 23, 2009]
49. “Nokia” mobile phone; p.111; [People, December 8, 2008]
50. “One Touch” device; Diabetes campaign; p.52-53-55; [People, March 23, 2009]
51. “Panasonic Lumix” digital camera; p.103; [People, March 23, 2009]
52. “Pantene PRO-V; hair care products; p.44-45; [People, March 23, 2009]
53. “Philadelphia” Kraft foods; cheesecake; p.65; [People, December 8, 2008]
54. “Prudential” Insurance Company; p.81; [People, December 22, 2008]
55. “Pur” water filter; p.26; [People, December 22, 2008]
56. “Ragu” sauce; p.50. [People, March 23, 2009]
57. “Revlon”, Halle Berry; crème gloss; p.23;[People, March 23, 2009]
58. “Saturn” car dealer; p.1-2; [People, December 22, 2008]
59. “Secret Obsession” Calvin Klein perfume; p. 29[People, December 8, 2008]
60. “Simply Potatoes” mashed potatoes; p.111; [People, March 23, 2009]
61. “SleepRight” dental guard; teeth grinding protection; p.62; [People, December 8, 2008]
62. “Sony; Bravia” DVD; p.36; [People, December 22, 2008]
63. “Starling” laptop; charitable campaign by Amazon; p.88; [People, December 22, 2008]
64. “TRESemme” hair treatment; p.142; [People, March 23, 2009]
65. “Tresor” Kate Winslet; Lancome; perfume; p.25-26; [People, December 22, 2008]
66. “Tylenol” cold treatment; p.139; [People, March 23, 2009]
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67. “UL Underwriters Laboratories” campaign for consumer rights; p. 129; [People,
December 8, 2008]
68. “UNO’D” boost mobile pack; p.75 [People, March 23, 2009]
69. “Veramyst” allergy remedy; p.115-116; [People, March 23, 2009]
70. “Visa” check card; p.135; [People, March 23, 2009]
71. “Walgreens”, brush, floss, rinse; p.27; [People, March 23, 2009]
72. “Walmart” beauty products; p.79; 86;[People, March 23, 2009]
73. “Wii Fit” balance board; p. 76; [People, March 23, 2009]
74. “Zyrtec”, allergy relief; p.36; [People, March 23, 2009]
75. Zales” celebration diamond; p.10-11; [People, December 8, 2008]
1.
“Allstate” Insurance company; p. 78; [Time, September 1, 2008]
2. “AMA” Insurance campaign; p.35; [Time, September 1, 2008]
3. “Ambien” sleeping treatment; p.43-45; [Time, July 28, 2008]
4. “Ameritrade” Wealthruler a retirement planner; p.39; [Time, January 19, 2009]
5. “Bose” quiet comfort; headphones; p.71; [Time, September 1, 2008]
6. “BP” R&D campaign; p.5; [Time, September 1, 2008]
7. “Champagne” p.7; [Time, January 19, 2009]
8. “Chase Freedom” credit card; p.29; [Time, July 28, 2008]
9. “Dodge” pick up; p.0; [Time, January 19, 2009]
10. “Dragon Naturally Speaking” Amazon; speech recognition software; p.56; [Time,
September 1, 2008]
11. “Ed’s Hardware” campaign; p.25; [Time, September, 2008]
12. “Energyville” by Chevron the Economist Group; p.17; [Time, Sept1, 2008]
13. “Essential energy” progect American chemistry; p.49; [Time, September 1, 2008]
14. “Ethanol” fuel saving scheme; p.26; [Time, September, 2008]
15. “FEMA” National Flood Insurance Campaign; p.57; [Time, September 1, 2008]
16. “Fill the cup” charity campaign; p.55; [Time, January 19, 2009
17. “Franklin Temptation Investments”; Consulting Agency, p.17; [Time, July 28, 2008]
18. “Garanti bank” Turkish bank; p.11; [Time, September 1, 2008]
19. “Geico”; Insurance Company; p.9-10; [Time, July 28, 2008]
20. “Geiko” Insurance company; p.21-22; [Time, September 1, 2008]
21. “grape-nuts” cereal; p.2; [Time, July 28, 2008]
22. “Hertz” Fuel Purchase Option; p.66; [Time, July 28, 2008]
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23. “Honda” car p. 68-69; [Time, September 1, 2008]
24. “isbank” Rurkey’s Bank; p.7; [Time, September 1, 2008]
25. “Liberty Mutual” Insurance Company; p.7; [Time, September 1, 2008]
26. “Nissan” car; p.77; [Time, September 1, 2008]
27. “ Novec” solutions for energy waste; p.20; [Time, September 1, 2008]
28. “On Star” by GM, Vehicle Diagnostics; p.39; [Time, September, 2008]
29. “Plavix” Leg circulation treatment; p.5-6; [Time, July 28, 2008]
30. “Project Earth” Discovery channel; p.19; [Time, September, 2008]
31. “Quality” bedding; p.61; [Time, September 1, 2008]
32. “Shredded Wheat” cereals with fruit; p.8-9; [Time, September, 2008]
33. “StateFarm” Insurance Company; p.65; [Time, July 28, 2008]
34. “Tempur-Pedic” mattress; p.47; [Time, January 19, 2009]
35. “The Democrats” p.28; [Time, September, 2008]
36. “Toyota” educational campaign; p.2-3; [Time, September 1, 2008]
37. “Vanguard” Investments consulting; p.52; [Time, July 28, 2008]
38. “VISA” credit card; p.39; [Time, July 28, 2008]
39. Ad Council; fire preventing campaign; p.56; [Time, January 19, 2009]
40. ADVAIR; asthma treatment; p.66; [Time, January 19, 2009]
41. Drugs-Free Campaign; p.9; [Time, January 19, 2009]
42. ExxonMobil R&D campaign; p.0-1; [Time, July 28, 2008]
43. George Mason Project; p.23; [Time, September 1, 2008]
44. HP wireless printer; p.0; [Time, September 1, 2008]
45. Johnson Controls; heating, cooling, ventilating systems; p.48; [Time, January 19, 2009]
46. Marriott Rewards; campaign; p. 37; [Time, January 19, 2009]
47. Myhomeideas.com; tour agent; p.56; [Time, July 28, 2008]
48. Office Small Business; p.2-3; [Time, January 19, 2009]
49. PickensPlan.com; alternative energy project; p.61; [Time, July 28, 2008]
50. Rosetta Stone; language teaching programme; p.12; [Time, July 28, 2008]
51. Teaching Hospitals; campaign; p.22; [Time, September 1, 2008]
52. The 2008 Honda Clearance; p.62-63 [Time, July 28, 2008]
53. Virginia University graduate collaboration programmes; p.56; [Time, September 1, 2008]
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1. Anti-Gun Control Commercial. 2.36 min; flv.
Super: Criminals for Gun Control
National Criminals Guild
United Auto Theft Workers
Association of Violent Offenders
Carjackers for Truth
Serial Killers Association
Rapists Rights Organization
Murder Incorporated
Handsome Men Who Kill Club
Dismemberment Services, Inc.
National Kidnappers Collective.
Monologue: “Yeah, it’s got tough over there. I work in home invasions, mostly, some murder,
casual rape, if she’s hot, or really bitchy. Competition is tough. Every time I kick in a door or
smash a window, I face the possibility of being shot and killed. Listen, the fact is that if the
citizens own guns, create a hating environment for me and my associates. No one should have to
work under those conditions. I say, make all of them illegal, absolutely, make all guns illegal. I
break the law for a living, I am a professional, so hm, grin… it doesn’t really bother me. I
mean…personally. If they don’t have guns, that would make me a lot more comfortable and
would surely increase productivity.
Voiceover: Your local violent criminals work hard and put their lives on the line every time they
attempt to murder, rape, abduct or assault a member of the citizenry. They desperately need your
help. With your support, there may finally come a day when a violent criminal can his way with
you or someone you love, without the fear, anxiety and stress caused by knowing there’s a
possibility his victim might be armed. Please show your support by voting for stronger anti-gun
legislation – because criminals prefer unarmed citizens.
2. Argentina Falklands Olympic Ad. 1.31 min; flv
Not an invasion, not even a raid, nor even a stunt really. A statement and a daring one.
Argentinean hockey captain Fernando Zylberberg filmed running through the capital. It was shot
in March as he passed by a war memorial of British of 1912. It was accused of aggression and it
offended people around the world; it is offensive to the Olympic spirit. Asked to pull the ad they
did not want.To compete on English soil we train on Argentinean soil.
3. Deer Rudolph and Eagle Eye Team up to Escape Redneck Hunter. 1.25 min; flv
Deer: Call you later buddy.
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Eye Eagle: Watch your six.
Sheriff: I hope you’ve got a lesson for today.
4. Homeless -The Salvation Army Christmas Advert. 1min.; flv
Voiceover: Where will you spend this Christmas?
Super: On a cold pavement. Voiceover: Tom’s got nowhere since he stepped down from home.
Super: On a park bench. Voiceover: Ausser can barely remember spending Christmas anywhere
else. In a subway tunnel. And Lizzy, Christmas here feels safer than being at home. For those
who’ve lost their way in life. People who have no one and nothing, there is only one hope this
Christmas. The Salvation Army. So please call us now and give just 19 pounds ot whatever you
can spare, your 19 pounds would provide a warm bed and a warm Chrismas meal and the
support they need to get off the streets for good. As you look forward to your own Christmas.
Think about those who have no homes and call the Salvation Army.
5. How Many More Rounds are we Going to Let this Go on for. 0.46 min; flv
Voices: My child has gone… My little girl was so full of life, isn’t coming home… There’s a
gun. Virginia Tech: What does it take for us to change what we are setting before our eyes.
How many more rounds are we going to let this go on for?
Shocked and saddened by the news of the Virginia Tech. They had the entire lives before them.
Super: Moms demand guns sense in America.
6. Larry Bird vs. Michael Jordan; McDonalds Commercial. 1.02 min; flv
Larry Bird: What’s the bag.
Michael Jordan: Lunch, Big Mac, fries.
L.B. Play you for?
M.J. You mean for my Big Mac?
L.B. The first one to miss, has it.
M.J. No dunking!
- Up the floor, up the scoreboard, up the bank board, no ram!
- Taking after: up the floor, through the window, up the wall, up the expressway, over the
camera, after the billboard, through the window, up the wall…
Slogan: What you see is what you get.
7. Mac Ad - Think Different – Apple. 1min; flv
Here’s for the crazy ones. The rebels, trouble makers, the ones who see things differently. The
round pigs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently, they are not fond of rules
and have no respect. You could court them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, a thing
you can’t do is ignore them. Because they changed things, they pushed the human race forward,
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and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because people who are crazy
enough to change the world. But if you do… Slogan: Think Different.
8. Nike - My Body is My Weapon. 1.01 min.; flv
My body is my weapon, this is how I fight, how I defend, deter, attack. This my weapon. How I
defeat my enemies, how I win my war. How I make victory mine. This is my weapon. This is
how I fight. Just Do It.
9. Outdoor Ad- Delhi Police- Bad News Bag. 2.09 min.; flv
Drunk driving accounts for about 70% of all road fatalities in Delhi, i.e. about 5265 deaths in the
last four years alone. The problem identifies on occasions like New Year Eves. Delhi police
wanted this New Year Eve to be free of any bad news.
The Solution: We collected news stories of drunk driving casualities on New Year Eves and
fabricated the “Bad News Bag”. These were provided to liquor stores in Delhi. On December 31
when people lined up to stock for their New Year parties, along with alcohol, they got a shocking
reminder of the damages of drunk driving.
The Message: Celebrate responsibly. Don’t make it to tomorrow’s headlines. The reactions were
more than encouraging. “”It’s a good initiative by the Delhi police”. “I’m sure, after seeing this I
won’t drive after drinking”. “It’s carrying all the headlines all the cases. It reminds me of drivinf
responsibly”. “It strikes right away, the blood on this thing”. “Yes, this is a very right thing that
Delhi police did. It’s been happening from the past 3-4 years now. People are losing their lives
after drinking”. “That’s a very good idea”
The bag went viral and Delhi police for the unique initiative. Leading national dailies
appreciated the effort.
The Result: A humble paper bag achieved what campaigns worth millions of rupees couldn’t.
Instead of an expected 42% growth the number of drunk driving cases actually went down. And
only one accident was reported. The numbers generated energy for the activity from the Police
Departments of neighbouring states, and prompted Delhi Police to announce a second phase
during the festival of Holy. At the start of New Year the “Bad News Bag” brought some good
news. Celebrate Responsibly.
10. Responsible. 1.30 min; flv
For me guns are for hunting and protecting my family. I believe in a IInd Amendment. And I’ll
fight to protect it. But with rights come responsibilities. That’s why I support comprehensive
background checks so criminals and the dangerously ill can’t buy guns. Guns protect my rights
and my family. Tell Congress. Don’t protect criminals, vote to protect gun rights and our
families with comprehensive background checks.
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Paid for by Mayors against illegal Guns Action Fund. Demand Action Now.
STEVE JOBS UNVEILS IPHONE IV
Let's get back to the iPhone. In 2007 iPhone reinvented what we think of, as a phone. It's hard to
remember what it was like before. IPhonecarriers controlled what was on the phone.
There were a few apps but nothing like to think about apps today. There was no free market for
apps. There was no app store.It was really different for the iPhone.And the iPhone started to
change all that in 2007. It was a revolution.In 2008 we added 3G networking and the app store.
In two 2009 - the iPhone 3G S, that is twice as fast. And we added, it's got a cool feature like
videorecording. For 2010 we're going to take the biggest leap since the original iPhone. And
today, we are introducing iPhone IV.
This is really hard, this is really hard and there are there are well over a hundred of features and
we don't have time to cover all of them today. So I’ve got to cover eight of them with you, eight
new features of the iPhone for work.
The first one - the all new design.The all new design.
Stop me if anybody’s seen this. Believe me, you haven’t seen this. You’ve got to see this in
person. You’ve got the most beautiful design, you have ever seen. Yes he is, beyond a doubt
the most precise , beautiful thing we've ever made.
Glass on for rearand stainless steel running around, and the procession of which this is made
is beyond any consumer product we've ever seen. The closest kin is like a beautiful old camera,
it's unheard of it in consumer products today.Just gorgeous and it's really thin.
This is the new iPhone4.
It’s just 9.3 mm that is 24 percent thinner than the iPhone GS. Again it’s a quarter thinner it is
something you didn't think to get any thinner. As a matter of fact it is the thinnest smartphone on
the planet, now do you have a few of the things that I feel the external things on it. Here are the
volume controls volume up, volume down and mute.
On the front we have a front basic camera. We have receiver we have a home button. We have
the MicroSim Tray. We have a camera and LED flash in the back. We look at the bottom. We've
got the microphone the 30 pin connector and the speaker. And if we look on the top we've got
the headset jack we've got a second mike for noise cancellation and a sleep-wake button.
Now because there have been photos of this aroundpeople are vast what's this !!!Somebody
would say this doesn't seem like Apple. Forwhat are these lines, in this beautiful stainless steel
band?
Well it turns out, there's not just one of them, there's three of themand they are partof the entire
structure of this phone. That stainless steel band that runsaround is the primary structural element
of the form. And there are these three slits in it. It turns out, this is part of some brilliant
engineering. Which actually uses the stainless steel band as part of the antenna system. And so,
one is the Bluetooth ,Wi-Fi, GPS. And the other is UMTS and GSM.
And it’s got these integrated antennas right in the structure. It's never been done before that's
really cool engineering. So it’s all new design.It’s the thinnest smartphone ever.Uses stainless
steel for strength. It uses glass on the front and back for optical quality and scratch resistance.
It's got integrated antennasAnd an extraordinary build quality. Again… I don't think there's
another consumer product like this. When you hold this in your hands, I’ts unbelievable. So this
is our all new designfor the iPhone 4!!!
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STEVE JOBS DEZVĂLUIE IPHONE IV
Hai să revenim la iPhone. În 2007 iPhone a reinventat ceea ce noi considerăm telefon.
Este greu să ne amintim ce prezenta acesta înainte de iPhone. Agenţii de telefonie mobilă
controlau ceea ce era în telefon. Erau câteva aplicaţii dar nimic similar cu ceea ce consideraţi
aplicaţii astăzi. Nu exista piaţă liberă pentru aplicaţii. Nu existau stocuri de aplicaţii. Era întradevăr altfel pentru iPhone. Şi iPhone a început să schimbe toate acelea în 2007. A fost o
revoluţie. În 2008 noi am adăugat operaţiunea în reţea 3G şi stocul de aplicaţii. În 2009 iPhone
3GS, care este de două ori mai rapid. Şi noi am adăugat, are o caracteristică grozavă aşa ca
înregistrarea video.
Pentru 2010, noi intenţionăm să facem cel mai mare salt de la iPhon-ul original.
Şi astăzi noi introducem iPhone IV. Este cu adevărat dificil. Şi sunt mai bine de o mie de
caracteristici şi noi nu avem timp să le includem pe toate astăzi. Deci eu trebuie să parcurg 8
dintre ele cu voi. 8 caracteristici noi ale iPhone pentru lucru.
Prima: design-ul complet nou.
Design-ul complet nou. Opriţi-mă dacă cineva a văzut aceasta (răsete, aplauze).
Credeţi-mă nu sunteţi nişte insipizi. Trebuie să vedeţi aceasta în persoană. Aveţi cel mai frumos
design pe care l-aţi văzut vre-o dată. Da, este dincolo de orice dubii, cel mai precis şi frumos
lucru pe care l-am produs vre-odată.
Sticlă pe partea din spate şi oţel anticorosiv de jur împrejur şi procesarea prin care este produs,
depăşeşte orice produs de consum pe care l-am văzut vre-odată.
Cea mai apropiată rudă este ca o cameră de luat vederi veche frumoasă. Este de nemiauzit printre
produsele de consum de astăzi. Este purşisimplu splendid şiesteîntr-adevărsubţire.
Acestaestenouliphone IV!
Are doar9.3mmceeaceeste cu 24 % maisubţiredecât iPhone GS. Din nou,este cu un
sfertmaisubţire, estecevace nu v-aţigânditsădevinămaisubţire. De faptestecelmaisubţire
smartphone de peplanetă. Acumaveţicâteva din lucrurile din exterior pe el.
Iatămecanismele de control a volumului: volumul tare, volumulîncetşimut.
Pepartea din faţăavem o camera de bază, avemreceptorulşiavembutonul local.
AvemAvem camera şi flash-licărire LEDpesuprafaţa din spate. Privim la parteainferioară avemmicrofonul;conectorul 30 pin şidifuzor.Şidacăprivim la parteasuperioarăavemfisabucşapentrucască, un al doileamicrofonpentruneutralizareazgomotului, şibutonulhibernare-activ.
Acumpentrucă au circulatfotografii, oameniisuntcurioşice-I aceasta.
Cinevaarspunecă nu seamană cu Apple.Pentrucesuntaceste…liniiînaceastăbandăfrumoasă din
oţelanticorosiv. Bine, se maidovedeştecă nu estedoaruna, sunttrei.
Şielesunt parteaîntregiistructuri a telefonului, aceabandă de oţelanticorosiv care trece de
jurîmprejursuntelementeleprimarestructurale ale formei.
Şisuntacestetreifisuriîn ea. Se dovedeştecăeste parte la o inginerieremarcabilă,
care de faptutilizeazăbanda de oţelanticorosivdrept parte a sistemuluiantenei.
ŞideciunaesteBluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS. ŞicealaltăesteUMTS şi GSM.
Şimai are acesteantene integrate direct înstructură.
N-a maifostniciodată, esteîntr-adevăr o ingineriegrozavă, decieste design-ulcompletnou:
estecelmaisubţiretelefon intelligent dintotdeauna;
utilizeazăoţelanticorosivpentrusoliditate.
Utilizeazăsticlăpesuprafaţa din faţăşiparteaversalăpentrucalitateopticăşirezistenţă la zgâriere.Are
anteneintegrate. Şi o calitateextraordinară a structuriiconstrucţiei.
Din nou
Nu cred cămaieste un alt produs de consum de felulacesta. Cândîlţiiînmâină, esteincredibil,
deciacestaeste design-ulnostrucompletnou, pentru iPhone 4.
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