Deixis in advertising persuasive strategies

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Deixis in advertising persuasive strategies

Zadorizhna Natalia Ihorivna PhD in Linguistics, Associate Professor, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology, Department of English Philology and Cross-Cultural Communication, Kyiv,

Perednia Tetiana Volodymyrivna a 4th-year student majoring in English Philology and Translation, Two Western European Languages, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology, Kyiv,

Abstract

Deixis is a phenomenon that has stayed for a long time in the investigational focus and is defined in various ways. It may be considered a referential system that defines identity, spatial and temporal location acquired by the speaker and the listener. It is the starting point of any interaction. Deixis is typical of face-to-face conversation and due to this creates the illusion of proximity, unified situational frame and convincing.

As advertising discourse is often dubbed the discourse of strategies, it is necessary to investigate the pragmatic efficiency of deixis application within these approaches. Strategies are defined as more general approaches to persuade consumers and are realised by a set of tactics. On the basis of linguistic analysis, we were able to point out tactics within each strategy. These include personality unifying, offer universality, producer distancing and constant presence together with consumer challenging, asserting confidence, dialogical tactic and friendliness tactic.

This article is devoted to investigating deixis in advertising and its role in the persuasive strategies that commercial text producers apply. The applied aspect of the research realised in the form of the linguistic interview gives the opportunity to observe the great appealing power of deixis in English advertising texts. Thus, we have revealed that deictic means are frequently used by advertisers and constitute a significant part of suggestive strategies. Having analyzed theoretical data and obtained practical results, we may suggest that the tactic of constant presence and friendliness tactic possess the most powerful pragmatic potential when it comes to the influential effect of deictic elements. By analyzing obtained data we can infer that deixis in the advertising discourse forms a novel and multifaceted phenomenon and has extensive scientific potential.

Keywords: deixis, persuasive strategy, tactic, deictic element, suggestive potential.

Анотація

Задоріжна Наталія Ігорівна кандидат філологічних наук, доцент кафедри англійської філології та міжкультурної комунікації, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка Навчально-наукового інституту філології, м. Київ

Передня Тетяна Володимирівна студентка 4го курсу спеціальності "Англійська філологія та перклад, дві західноєвропейські мови", Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка Навчально-наукового інституту філології, м. Київ

ДЕЙКСИС В РЕКЛАМНИХ ПЕРСУАСИВНИХ СТРАТЕГІЯХ

Дейксис - це явище, яке тривалий час перебувало в центрі уваги досліджень та має ряд визначень. Його можна вважати референтною системою, яка визначає ідентичність, просторове та часове розташування, обране мовцем і слухачем. Це відправна точка будь-якої взаємодії. Дейксис характерний для діалогу і завдяки цьому створює ілюзію близькості, єдиної ситуативної рамки та переконливості.

Оскільки рекламний дискурс часто називають дискурсом стратегій, необхідно дослідити прагматичну ефективність застосування дейксису в рамках цих підходів. Стратегії визначаються як більш загальні підходи до переконання споживачів і реалізуються за допомогою набору тактик. На основі лінгвістичного аналізу ми змогли виділити тактики в кожній стратегії. До них відносяться особистісна уніфікація, універсальність пропозиції, дистанціювання виробника та постійна присутність, утвердження впевненості, тактика діалогу та тактика дружелюбності.

Стаття присвячена дослідженню дейксису в рекламі та його ролі в стратегіях переконання, які застосовують виробники комерційного тексту. Прикладний аспект дослідження, реалізований у формі лінгвістичного інтерв'ю, дає можливість спостерігати високу

частотність дейксису в англомовних рекламних текстах. Було виявлено, що дейктичні засоби часто використовуються рекламодавцями і становлять значну частину сугестивних стратегій. Можна припустити, що найпотужнішим прагматичним потенціалом щодо впливу дейктичних елементів є тактика постійної присутності та тактика дружелюбності. Аналізуючи отримані дані, можна зробити висновок, що дейксис у рекламному дискурсі є новим та багатогранним явищем і має великий науковий потенціал в лінгвістичних дослідженнях та міждисциплінарних дослідженнях.

Ключові слова: дейксис, персуазивна стратегія, тактика, дейктичний елемент, сугестивний потенціал.

Problem statement

One of the most topical issues of modem linguistics is the field of semiotics, namely the paradigm of pragmatics which looks into the mechanisms of communication. As such studies are anthropologically focused, the necessary component of their realisation is the analysis of linguistic means as well as the extra-linguistic dimension. Deixis as an obligatory component of any communicative act may be seen as the starting point in the tripartite scheme of relations consisting of the sequence “addresser-time-place”.

Discussions

deixis advertising persuasive strategies

Within the frame of the linguistic investigation shift to the pragmatic issues of a language, the notion of deixis continues to attract the attention of scientists. It is worth noticing that this phenomenon has stayed under scrutiny for a long period of time and has been noticeably modified, acquiring new and more extensive linguistic characteristics. The question of deixis has been studied by prominent foreign scientists such as K.Buhler [7], W.Collinson [8], Ch.Fillmore [9], G.Rauh [14], R.Lakoff [12], R.Jakobson [10], as well as domestic, for example, T.Biletska [3], O.Makiedonova [5], K.Machulska [6], F.Batsevych [1] and others.

However, despite the increased scientific interest in the issue of deixis and the principles of online communication, modern investigations on its functioning and peculiarities in advertisement texts are scarce.

Thus, the profound investigation of deictic elements within the aforementioned discourse from the perspective of their typological characteristics as well as deictics' role in the construction of advertising pragmatic potential may be defined as the topicality of this article.

The aim of our research lies in detecting and analysing different aspects of deixis, paying specific attention to their communicative efficiency. The object of this article is deixis as the category of pragmatics. The subject of investigation are persuasive strategies and their structural peculiarities based on the application of deictic means in advertising texts.

The phenomenon of deixis may undoubtedly be defined as interdisciplinary and semantically extensive. Obviously, deixis belongs to the study of subjectivity in linguistics. B.Kruk [11, p. 2-3] indicates that due to its dependence on the context of the utterance deixis should be analysed as a pragmatic phenomenon.

On the other hand, its relation to reference connects it with the domain of semantics. Thus, deixis may be defined within the paradigm of semantic- pragmatic links. It is also worth mentioning that almost any linguistic item may be used deictically if it occurs in an appropriate context. Conversely, “full-fledged deictics” may be interpreted non-deictically. Deixis is then not only semantic and pragmatic, but also a grammatical notion, pertaining to both meaning and form”.

The intersubjectivity of deixis leads to multiple definitions that stem from various spheres of knowledge and prioritise a particular feature of this phenomenon. One of the clearest and most exhaustive definitions has been given by J.Lyons [13, p. 647]. The scientist emphasised that by deixis the location and identification of persons, objects, events, processes and activities being talked about, or referred to, is meant in relation to the spatio-temporal context created and sustained by the act of utterance and the participation in it, typically, of a single speaker and at least one addressee.

R.Lakoff [12, p. 347] proposes a similar definition, stating that deixis represents the location or identification of persons, objects, actions, processes and events which are being talked about or which are referred to as related to the temporal and spatial context which is created and maintained by the speech act and participation of communicative partners in it.

Similarly to the diversity of definitions, it is possible to outline several classifications of deixis. In his semiotical scheme that pertains to the pointing field of the human language K.Buhler [7, p.102] introduces the tripartite system of deixis consisting of indexicals HIER-JETZT-ICH. The concept of the Origo (O) is the starting point in the system of deictic coordinates marking temporal and spatial coordinates of orientation. According to this division “I” always stands for a speaker, “HERE” - for the location of the speaker during the communication and “NOW” - for its moment. Thus, it is possible to point out three main types of deixis - personal, local and temporal.

It is also worth mentioning the classification by Ch.Fillmore [9, p. 38]. According to the scientist, there is personal, spatial, temporal, social and discourse deixis. The last type is concerned with the choice of lexical or grammatical elements which indicate or otherwise refer to some portion or aspect of the ongoing discourse.

Undoubtedly a linguistic environment that purposefully applies deixis is the sphere of advertising. Advertisement as a multidimensional phenomenon constitutes a part of discourse that provides the contextual realisation of a speech act.

In our opinion, one of the most structured explanations of discourse has been presented by O. Selivanova [4, p. 568-570] who states that in modern scientific literature, it has mainly four meanings: 1) a coherent text in the context of numerous accompanying background factors - ontological, socio-cultural, psychological, etc.; a text “immersed” in life; 2) a closed holistic communicative situation (event), which consists of communicants and a text as a sign mediator, caused by various factors that provide communication and understanding (social, cultural, ethnic, etc.); 3) a style, implicit language of communication; 4) a pattern of speech behaviour in a certain social sphere, which has a particular set of variables.

Obviously, this discourse has peculiarities at different linguistic levels. The use of deictics belongs to the lexical and pragmatic ones.

Ch.Fillmore [9, p. 38] points out that deictical expressions are lexical and grammatical units that can be understood only if the sentences containing them are considered as tied to a certain social context, which is defined in such a way as to identify the participants in the act of communication and their location in space and time.

It is worth noticing that deictic expressions do not possess a clear fixed meaning because each time it is defined by distinct circumstances of a communicative act [1, p. 272]. Nevertheless, it is possible to define the starting point of a deictic communicative act. T.Biletska [3, p. 35-36] emphasizes that the deictic centre of discourse is the location of the speaker at the moment of utterance. She also points out the most important factors that can influence the interpretation of the deictics in the discourse:

1) participants of the discourse (subjects of speech): the addresser (source) and the addressee (recipient) in a certain configuration of social roles;

2) the purpose and goal of communication of both participants;

3) message or text fragment itself;

4) code (system of correspondence between form and meaning);

5) space-time parameters of communication or conditions of communication;

6) message channel (physical means by which the text is transmitted to the recipient);

7) non-verbal components of communication with different relevance for each type of discourse differentiated depending on the communication channel.

Results

Deicticals incorporate a wide range of grammatical categories to represent linguistic coordinates of the speech act. In advertising discourse, all types of pronouns due to their universality are used to convey a wide variety of meanings (possession, negation, substitution, uncertainty, etc). However, the most extensive is, undoubtedly, the group of personal pronouns.

We may state that this part of speech is a kind of shifter. For example, we may analyse the third-person pronoun it from various semantic perspectives. On the one hand, in the advertising slogan in Picture 1, this deictic element is used exophorically, creating a spatial reference to the bag depicted. On the other hand, however, the same pronoun may be applied endophorically, namely in the role of anaphora, like in the example “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” (Picture 2). In this case, “it” in the second sentence fully substitutes the first.

Other parts of speech such as adjectives, adverbs, verbs, nouns and numerals as well as articles pertain to the realisation of the deictic relations.

Pic.1