A SEMIOTIC APPROACH TO THE INTERPRETATION OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE PRINT ADVERTISING
DOI: 10.23951/2312-7899-2020-3-59-71
The article is devoted to the study of creolized, or semiotically complicated texts. Such texts consist of two non-homogeneous parts, verbal and non-verbal, in which elements different in their semiotic nature interact and generate meaning. The aim of the article is to identify and describe the specifics of the semiotic system of English-language printed advertising texts. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the study of the semiotic system (both visual and verbal) of modern English-language advertising texts supplements the interpretation of the advertising text and ensures the discursive integrity of the analysis of the analyzed phenomena. In modern linguistics, an advertising text is considered creolized; it has a multi-code character, which is why it is justified and necessary to apply a semiotic approach to its interpretation. The research material was modern English-language advertising texts published in Vogue, Elle, In Style, Tatler, Marie Claire, Wedding, and Cosmopolitan magazines in 2013–2019. The specificity of English-language advertising texts is considered in the framework of three areas of semiotics: semantics, syntactics, and pragmatics. The semantics of the advertising text contains the so-called “linguistic-visual communicative complex”. The author of the advertising text aims to create a competent combination and interaction of image and idea. Analyzing the printed advertising text in terms of syntactics, the authors note its so-called formulaic character, that is, a coherent strict sequence of its structural elements: heading, text, slogan, trademark. The authors consider the pragmatic component of the advertising text in the form of four elements of the mechanism of advertising influence: attention, interest, desire to have, action/purchase, which follow in in the strict specified order. At the semantic level, the authors establish the most frequent and effective types of visual signs used in advertising. They also analyze the color decisions chosen for affecting the recipient emotionally, psycho-physically, and symbolically in order to arouse the desire to purchase goods, which enhances the advertising impact. The article provides a number of language techniques used in creating advertising texts: allusion, metaphor, repetition, alliteration, pun, hyperbole, ellipsis, and others. As a conclusion of the research, the authors formulate justifications for the formation of ideas about the semiotic system of English-language print advertising.
Keywords: advertising text, creolized text, semiotic approach, sign, visual semiotic system, visual signs, verbal component of text, stylistic language techniques
References:
Barthes, R. (1994). Izbrannye raboty: Semiotika. Poetika [Selected Works: Semiotics. Poetics]. Translated from French. Moscow: Progress.
Fedorova, L. L. (2019). Semiotics of Advertising: The Functional-Communicative Analysis. Vestnik NGU. Seriya: Istoriya, filologiya – Vestnik NSU. Series: History and Philology, 18(6), 199–211. (In Russian). DOI: 10.25205/1818-7919-2019-18-6-199-211
Fishchenko, L. G. (2003). Struktura reklamnogo teksta [The Structure of the Advertising Text]. Saint Petersburg: Peterburgskiy institut pechati.
Golovushkina, M.V. (2019). Sociolinguistic Analysis of English Advertising Slogans. Nauka. Obshchestvo. Gosudarstvo – Science. Society. State, 7(2). Retrieved from https://esj.pnzgu.ru/files/esj.pnzgu.ru/golovushkina_mv_2019_2_22.pdf
Gorbuleva, M. S. (2018). Systematization of the Images of Animal Welfare Activists’ Goals. ΠΡΑΞΗΜΑ. Problemy vizual’noy semiotiki – ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics, 4(18), 103–124. (In Russian). DOI: 10.23951/2312-7899-2018-4-103-124
Krivonosov, A. D. (2002). RR-tekst v sisteme publichnykh kommunikatsiy [PR-Text in the Public Communications System] (2nd ed.). Saint Petersburg: Peterburgskoe Vostokovedenie.
Krivonosov, A. D., Filatova, O. G., & Shishkina, M. A. (2012). Osnovy teorii svyazey s obshchestvennost’yu [Fundamentals of the Theory of Public Relations]. Saint Petersburg: Piter.
Larina, A. V., & Matveeva, M. S. (2019). The Importance of Cultural Codes and Stereotypes in the Context of Semiotics of Media Tourist Advertisement. Mir nauki, kul’tury, obrazovaniya – The World of Science, Culture and Education, 4(77), 445–447. (In Russian).
Melik-Gaykazyan, I. V. (2006). Methodological Bases of Constructing the General Communicative Model. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta – Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin, 7(58), 37–42. (In Russian).
Melik-Gaykazyan, I. V. (2009). Intellektual’nyy salon, ideya protsessa i problema izmereniya [The Intellectual Salon, the Idea of the Process, and the Problem of Measurement]. Epistemologiya i filosofiya nauki – Epistemology, & Philosophy of Science, 20(2), 127–141.
Nazarov, M., & Gorbunova, S. (2001). Reklamnoe poslanie v zerkale semiotiki [Advertising Message in the Mirror of Semiotics]. Reklamnye tekhnologii, 8, 10–11.
Peirce, C. S. (2009). What Is Sign? Translated from English by A. A. Argamakova. Vestn. Tomskogo gos. un-ta. Ser. Filosofiya. Sotsiologiya. Politologiya – Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science, 3(7), 88–95. (In Russian).
Slyusareva, N. A. (1982). Aspekty obshchey i chastnoy lingvisticheskoy teorii teksta [Aspects of General and Specific Linguistic Theory of Text]. Moscow: Nauka.
Strong, E. K., Jr. (1925). The Psychology of Selling and Advertising. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
Terskikh, M. V., & Bykova, E. O. (2018). Advertising texts as a linguistic expertise object. Neofilologiya – Neophilology, 4(16), 5–14. (In Russian). DOI: 10.20310/2587-6953-2018-4-16-5-14
Tyurina, S. Yu. (2009). O ponyatiyakh “reklamnyy diskurs” i “reklamnyy tekst” [On the concepts “advertising discourse” and “advertising text”]. Vestnik Ivanovskogo gos. energet. un-ta – Vestnik IGEU, 1, 36–39.
( 366.17 kB ) 
( 360.32 kB )
Issue: 3, 2020
Series of issue: Issue 3
Rubric: ARTICLES
Pages: 59 — 71
Downloads: 1806