LAURA HIDALGO Text world creation in advertising discourse
TEXT WORLD CREATION IN ADVERTISING DISCOURSE
Figure 2 shows a text world defined
by the time deictic tonight and by
the characters in the visual component of the ad. The text world contains
several subworlds (representational, hypothetical and belief subworlds)
together with the evoked frames corresponding to the knowledge about a real
life relationship and a relationship in a movie. The figure is not complete in
the sense that further internal layers may be identified, such as the modal
subworlds which present the conclusion within the hypothetical subworlds, and
the modal subworld within the belief subworld. Figure 2 thus represents an
extremely complex pattern of embedded projected domains within a single text
world. The function advancing component of the text world is found in the
opening and closing sections (find
yourself... and just imagine). As in text 1, a relevance-based inference is
produced, by which a reader will infer that by watching Sky movies the
experiences of the movies will be felt also in the real life relationship.
Further distinctions between the
kinds of worlds that are evoked in advertisements and the consequent
differences in target audiences may be established by the choice of tu or usted as social deictics in Sp this phenomenon
is obviously not observable in English texts. Below are two examples of two
different car advertisements, each of which makes a different choice in the tu/usted system, with a consequent
difference in the target audience to whom the advertisement is addressed.
?No empieza a cansarte que lo peque?o sea siempre
peque?o? ?No crees que lo ligero debería ser resistente? ?Y por qué no puede
ser lo bello práctico? ?No piensas que va siendo hora que todo cambie? Desafía
la lógica, rompe con todo, ahora tienes el nuevo Yaris de Toyota. Lo peque?o
por fuera se hace grande por dentro. Lo ligero resulta resistente, por su
estructura interior reforzada. Y la belleza de su dise?o esconde la tecnología
más práctica y avanzada. Y ahora ?Qué es lo lógico? Lo más lógico es tener un
El nuevo YARIS
Desafía la lógica
FELICIA - LA NUEVA CARA
GRANDE, RESISTENTE Y ECON?MICO
Así es el nuevo Skoda Felicia, el mayor coche de
su categoría. Un coche hecho para durar, con la resistencia de un Skoda, fiable
y seguro, con la garantía del grupo Volkswagen, y una excelente relación
producto-precio. Pruébelo, se sorprenderá.
Text 3 is accompanied by a picture
of a small girl blowing bubbles, with further questions such as ?puede lo
peque?o ser espacioso?, which, together with the text, and,
specifically, the recurrent play with the idea of logic, evoke intertextually the world of Alice in Wonderland (at least in my own reading of the text), a
world where sizes and properties are not permanent and can change at will. The
choice of the pronoun tú, as in ?No crees...?, together with the colours
of the picture (bright and striking orange) and the challenge Desafía
la lógica seem to
indicate that the advertisement is directed at a rather young audience. The
properties of the car are introduced as presupposed information by means of
negative interrogative clauses which seek the addressee's agreement. As was
explained in section 2, this advertisement illustrates the conversational tone
of many advertisements, where the receiver is addressed directly and is
involved in a dialogic discourse structure. Significantly, most of the
properties of the car are presented as pairs of apparently incompatible terms
(not logical), which, however, are presented as possible in the car advertised
(logical): ligero y resistente, bello y
práctico.
In text 4 the pronoun chosen is usted (Pruébelo, se sorprenderá), and the properties of the car form part
of frames which have to do with giving a sense of security (grande, resistente, fiable, seguro)
which contrast with the challenging nature of the advertisement in text 3.
Similarly, a point is made of the economical price, something which is not
mentioned in text 3 and a list of the objective properties of the car is also
provided. The features of text 4 seem to indicate that the target audience is
older than that of text three, and thus presupposes that this audience will
value more highly properties that reflect security and reliability, which can
be described objectively, while text three presupposes that a younger audience
will value more highly properties which enable one to break rules and which
have a more subjective appeal.
To end, intertextuality is crucial
in the processing of many ads, as is illustrated by the advertisement which
follows. It may be argued that intertextuality is a kind of frame knowledge
evocation which brings into the discourse the knowledge of other relevant
texts. The ad which follows bases its appeal on the intertextual play with
advertisements of toys for children, while it is in fact an advertisement of
the association for the defence of children's rights Manos Unidas:
I (love) Sushila
Sushila siempre dice sí
Sin documentación
?Quieres jugar con ella?
Varios modelos
partir de 10 a?os
Explotación sexual, ni?os en la guerra, trabajo
infantil...250 millones de personas son utilizadas como objetos. Todas tienen
nombre: esclavos.
ARRI?SGATE. OYE SU VOZ
Manos Unidas
The first part of the text is
inserted in the picture of what seems to be a box with a doll, the doll-girl
Sushila. This is the part of the ad which reproduces intertextually the
features of a toy advertisement. Pronouns are used to crea
thus, the use of the first person pronoun I
invites an identification with the receiver, placing him directly in the
situation depicted as a direct participant. Then the receiver is addressed as you, in ?Quieres jugar con ella? Where a
conversational tone is introduced between sender and receiver. This (shocking)
invitation is substituted by the final invitation or plea of the advertisement,
ARRI?SGATE. OYE SU VOZ, which appeals
to the receiver's feeling of solidarity with the exploited children.
4. Conclusion
A text world model of discourse has
been proposed for the analysis and discussion of some of the textual and
discursive features of advertisements. The following concluding remarks may be
drawn: first, deictic terms play a crucial role in the establishment of a
relation between sender and addressee and in setting the situation which starts
the world- second, knowledge frames, which are evoked once the
deictic parameters are established, contribute to the fleshing out of the
worlds depicted in advertisements by evoking conceptual domains which
are structured according to the receiver?s
experience and cultural background. Both deixis and frame knowledge, together
with other linguistic-textual devices are exploited in advertising discourse in
order to create vivid situations which appeal directly to the addressee?s
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(C) Laura Hidalgo Downing. Circle of Linguistics Applied to Communication/ Círculo de
Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación 13, February 2003. ISSN . Published in Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 13, 67-88. 2000.
http://www.ucm.es/info/circulo/no13/hidalgo
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