Deixis in advertising persuasive strategies

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology,

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology, Department of English Philology and Cross-Cultural Communication

Deixis in advertising persuasive strategies

Zadorizhna Natalia Ihorivna PhD in Linguistics, Associate Professor

Perednia Tetiana Volodymyrivna a 4th-year student majoring in English Philology and Translation, Two Western European Languages

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 statemen

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

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. pragmatic deixis strategy advertising

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:

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

the purpose and goal of communication of both participants;

message or text fragment itself;

code (system of correspondence between form and meaning);

space-time parameters of communication or conditions of communication;

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

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

Pic.2

It is an obvious fact that advertising discourse represents the complex linguistic space which is based on strategic communication with a clearly defined goal. As it comes to the definition of the strategy itself, scientists propose different versions due to the extensive dimension of communication within the frames of advertising. According to L.Bezuhla [2, p. 35] the strategy of the advertiser is understood as a cognitive-pragmatic process based on subjective motives that provides for the implementation of communicative acts in discourse.

According to F.Batsevych [1, p. 118], the strategy of speech communication is the optimal realization of the speaker's intentions to achieve the specific goal of communication, that is, control and choice of effective communication moves as well as their flexible modification in a particular situation.

However, a strategy is a very generalised term that normally depicts the entity of actions that provide its realisation on practice and approaching the set goal. In communicative linguistics, these tactics are specific speech actions aimed at achieving influence at a certain stage of strategic interaction [6, p. 96-97]. Undoubtedly, one strategy may be put into action by multiple tactics or their combination.

In our analysis of deictic pragmatic potential, we decided to follow the classification proposed by T.Biletska [3, p. 145]. The scientist outlines the strategy for differentiating a product or service and the strategy of positive focus on the addressee's actions.

For our part, we propose dividing each aforementioned approach into four realization tactics. Thus, the first one would include personality unifying (PU), offer universality (OU), producer distancing (PD) and constant presence (CP).

The second is represented by consumer challenging (CC), asserting confidence (AC), dialogical tactic (DT) and friendliness tactic (FT).

Often in the advertising units, it is impossible to separate the personality of the advertiser and the one of the consumer. In this case, happens a kind of individuality blurring, which leads to a complete semantic coincidence. This PU tactic can be observed, for example, in the slogan “Merecedesme” in which the deictic “me” makes it impossible to separate two entities (Picture 3).

Another significant factor in advertising, which producers pay thorough attention to, is its accessibility and wide audience coverage. To gain public interest and popularity the offer should match as many demands as it is possible or feature simple principles of its application. The text “Top up. Tap in. Go!” can be understandable for the majority of people regardless of their age, education or other factors (Picture 4).

Pic. 3

Pic. 4

In contrast to the first tactic described, PD functions in a different way. When this approach is realised one can clearly see the “I” of the goods creator. Such an emphasis is needed to guarantee the high quality of the product and contribute to the brand's reputation. Rolex often uses this tactic, making its customers feel proud of possessing such a valuable commodity. This effect is most often achieved by the excluding second person pronoun “we” (Picture 5).

Pic. 5

The last constituent of the strategy of differentiating a product or service is the CP tactic. Its main idea is placing the emphasis on the fact of regular need in the thing shown. The tool is realised through various elements of primarily temporal deixis like adverbs (today, tomorrow, always), nouns (summer, spring, morning), adjectives (daily), etc. (Picture 6).

Pic. 6

The strategy of positive focus on the addressee's actions is put into practice, first of all, by the tactic of CC. Such pieces of advertising are created mostly by applying interrogative forms with deictic of various typologies. Dior created an impressive example. The semantic power of the slogan “And you, what would you do for love?” is provided by setting out a new task to achieve (Picture 7).

Pic. 7

A similar, yet somewhat different tactic lies in empowering the reader by asserting confidence in their abilities, praising them and motivating them for subsequent achievements. This can be observed in the LIDL advertisement. The phrase “Just a LIDL further” gently prompts the consumer to do the last effort and get the desired goods. The deictic element of spatial deixis, the adverb “far”, is used in the comparative degree that mitigates the semantic directness of the whole expression and does not exercise pressure on the reader but rather encourages to go on (picture 8).

Pic. 8

A great amount of advertising is defined by the aim of building trust relationships with the consumer. Within this general framework function the dialogical and friendliness tactics.

For the realisation of the first one, the pronominal opposition “we (the producer) - you (the receiver) ” is the primary element (Picture 9). To become a “friend” an advertiser resorts to giving recommendations, calls you a “companion” or suggests where to have quick and delicious lunch by using the temporal adverb “fast”: “Break your fast, fast ”. The play of words used in the add makes it even more eye-catching (Picture 10).

Pic. 9

Pic. 10

To measure the pragmatic potential of deictics in commercial slogans we decided to apply the method of linguistic interviewing. An interview is an interactive, jointly constructed event in which the participant's identity and position have a special hidden meaning [6, p. 79-80]. This anthropometric type of information gathering was conducted in several stages: a) choosing material; b) preparation of the questionnaire; c) collecting results; d) analysis of the obtained data; e) formulating linguistic conclusions.

Our linguistic questionnaire included ten questions of the open type with entering short answers as well as multiple choice positions. Our main aim was to investigate the persuasive efficiency of each tactic within the two outlined strategies and see which one appeals to customers more within each type of analysed advertising.

We asked 20 respondents to specify their age, gender, native language and choose the most persuasive, in their opinion, piece of advertising. The individuals questioned learned English as their second language and are native speakers of German, Lithuanian, Spanish, and Ukrainian. The age span of the respondents of the investigation is 18-50 years.

Carrying out statistical calculations and linguistic analysis of the answers received through the questionnaire has shown one tactic within each outlined strategy, which possesses the biggest semantic potential.

The tactic of constant presence (19%) turned out to be the most appealing to consumers followed by the friendliness tactic (18%).

Pic. 11

It is also possible to point out the most frequently chosen tactic according to different fields. In automobile advertising, the two leading ways of consumer persuasion are offer universality and friendliness tactic. In fashion and beauty products advertisers efficiently apply constant presence, while in gustatory advertising the most successful is the friendliness tactic.

All in all, 45% of respondents are convinced that automobile advertising has the strongest pragmatic influence. Fashion and gustatory advertisement constitute 30% and 25% respectively.

Pic. 12

Thus, it is possible to draw a conclusion that the phenomenon of deixis constitutes the forefront of modern linguistic studies, namely the field of pragmatics and investigation of anthropocentrism in the language. It is worth noticing that deixis is considered by scientists an inter subjective issue that from the linguistic point of view can be defined as lexical and grammatical units that are used in order to signify the semantic center of the utterance, participants' roles in the speech act as well as temporal and spatial characteristics, coined, to a great extent, by the type of discourse and, subsequently, the context.

Advertisement, being a variable and extensive area of mass communication, constitutes the basis of advertising discourse, which is mostly seen as a textual unit considered together with accompanying factors.

The conciseness and high semantic weight of linguistic constituents in advertising explains its wide usage of deicticals. The interpretation of deictical expressions is highly dependent on the context and communicative situation parameters. In case any component is altered, the semantic center of an utterance greatly shifts.

As advertising discourse is often dubbed as the discourse of strategies it is necessary to investigate the pragmatic efficiency of deixis application within these approaches. We investigated the persuasive effect created in advertisements by deictic words within two strategies - the strategy for differentiating a product or service and the strategy of positive focus on the addressee's actions, having also outlined four tactics within each approach.

The method of linguistic interviewing showed that the tactics, most appealing to consumers, are the tactic of constant presence and friendliness tactic. According to the opinion expressed by the majority of respondents, automobile advertisement can be considered the most persuasive.

The applied aspect of the research gives the opportunity to observe the great appealing power of deixis in English language advertising texts. That is why it is possible to draw a conclusion that this phenomenon represents a wide variety of subjects to explore in linguistic studies.

References

1. Bazevych F.S. (2010) Narysy z linhvistychnoyi prahmatyky [Essays on linguistic pragmatics]. Lviv : PAIS [in Ukrainian]

2. Bezuhla L.R. (2013) Linhvoprahmatyka dyskryminazii u publizystychnomu dyskursi [Linguopragmatics of discrimination in journalistic discourse]. Kharkiv: FOP Lysenko I.B. [in Ukrainian]

3. Biletzka T.O. (2017) Aktualizatsia katehorii deiksysu v hiperteksti (na materiali tekstiv-opysiv tovariv komerziynyh Internet-saitiv) [Actualization of the category of deixis in hypertext (on the material of product descriptive texts of commercial Internet sites)]. Kyiv: National Taras Shevchenko University [in Ukrainian]

4. Selivanova O.O. (2008) Suchasna linhvistyka: napryamy ta problemy [Modern linguistics: directions and problems]. Poltava : Dovkillya-K [in Ukrainian]

5. Makyedonova O.D. (2017) Funktsiyuvannya deyktychnykh odynyts' v anhliys'komovnomu reklamnomu dyskursi [Functioning of deictic units in English advertising discourse]. (№ 72). Zaporizhya: Nova filolohiya. Zaporiz'kyy natsional'nyy universytet [In Ukrainian]

6. Machul'ska K.Ya. (2020) Linhvoprahmatyka komerziynyh hasel v anglomovnomu internet-dyskursi reklamy [Linguopragmatics of commercial slogans in the English-language Internet discourse of advertising]. Zaporizhya [in Ukrainian]

7. Buhler K. Sprachtheorie.: Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache / K. Buhler. - 2nd ed. Stuttgart : G. Fischer, 1965. - 434 p.

8. Collinson W. E. Indication : A study of demonstratives, articles and other “indicators” / W. E. Collinson // Supplement to Language. Journal of the Linguistic Study of America. Language monographs. - Baltimore, 1937. - 242 p.

9. Fillmore Ch. J. Santa Cruz lectures on deixis 1971 / Ch. J. Fillmore. - Indiana University, 1975. - 86 p.

10. Jakobson R. Ensayos de linguistica general / R. Jakobson. - Trad. de Josep M. Pujol y Jem Cabanes. - Barcelona - Caracas - Mexico: Seix Barral, 1981, 2a ed. [1974]. - 408 p.

11. Kruk B. On deixis in English and Polish: The role of demonstrative pronouns / B. Kruk. - Frankfurt am Main : Verlag Peter Lang, 1987. - 113 p.

12. Lakoff R. Remarks on this and that / R. Lakoff. - Berkeley Studies in Syntax and Semantics. L.: The MIT Press, 1974. - P. 345-356.

13. Lyons J. Semantics / J. Lyons // Cambridge; N.-Y.; Meibourne : Cambridge University Press. - 1977. - Vol. I-II. - 897 p.

14. Rauh G. (ed.) Essays on deixis / G. Rauh. - Tubingen : Narr, 1983. - 316 p.

Література

1. Бацевич Ф. С. Нариси з лінгвістичної прагматики / Ф. С. Бацевич. - Львів : ПАІС, 2010. - 336 с.

2. Безугла Л.Р. Лінгвопрагматика дискримінації у публіцистичному дискурсі / Л.Р. Безугла, І.О. Романченко. - Харків : ФОП Лисенко І.Б., 2013. - 182 с.

3. Білецька Т.О. Актуалізація категорії дейксису в гіпертексті (на матеріалі текстів-описів товарів комерційних Інтернет-сайтів) : дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня кандидата філологічних наук : 10.02.04 - германські мови / Т.О. Білецька. - Київ, 2017. - 226 с.

4. Селіванова О. О. Сучасна лінгвістика: напрями та проблеми / О. О. Селіванова. - Полтава : Довкілля-К, 2008. - 711 с.

5. Макєдонова О. Д. Функціювання дейктичних одиниць в англійськомовному рекламному дискурсі / О. Д. Макєдонова // Нова філологія. Запорізький національний університет - 2017. - № 72. - С. 96 - 101.

6. Мачульська К. Я. Лінгвопрагматика комерційних гасел в англомовному інтернет-дискурсі реклами : дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня кандидата філологічних наук : 10.02.04 - германські мови / К. Я. Мачульська. - Запоріжжя, 2020. - 294 с.

7. Buhler K. Sprachtheorie.: Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache / K. Buhler. - 2nd ed. Stuttgart : G. Fischer, 1965. - 434 p.

8. Collinson W. E. Indication : A study of demonstratives, articles and other “indicators” / W. E. Collinson // Supplement to Language. Journal of the Linguistic Study of America. Language monographs. - Baltimore, 1937. - 242 p.

9. Fillmore Ch. J. Santa Cruz lectures on deixis 1971 / Ch. J. Fillmore. - Indiana University, 1975. - 86 p.

10. Jakobson R. Ensayos de linguistica general / R. Jakobson. - Trad. de Josep M. Pujol y Jem Cabanes. - Barcelona - Caracas - Mexico: Seix Barral, 1981, 2a ed. [1974]. - 408 p.

11. Kruk B. On deixis in English and Polish: The role of demonstrative pronouns / B. Kruk. - Frankfurt am Main : Verlag Peter Lang, 1987. - 113 p.

12. Lakoff R. Remarks on this and that / R. Lakoff. - Berkeley Studies in Syntax and Semantics. L.: The MIT Press, 1974. - P. 345-356.

13. Lyons J. Semantics / J. Lyons // Cambridge; N.-Y.; Meibourne : Cambridge University Press. - 1977. - Vol. I-II. - 897 p.

14. Rauh G. (ed.) Essays on deixis / G. Rauh. - Tubingen : Narr, 1983. - 316 p.

Размещено на Allbest.ru