Philological Sciences

Sokolova I.V.

State Higher Educational Institution

“Ukrainian Academy of Banking of the National Bank of Ukraine” (Sumy, Ukraine)

Linguistic and Extralinguistic Aspects of Advertising Texts Perception and Comprehension

Summary

The paper presents results of enquiry into linguistic and extralinguistic components of advertising texts production and perception. The study is being made on the context of Internet advertisements and aims at disclosure of principles of advertising texts perception. Detailed analysis of the target audience, creation of motivational aspects of text perception and creation of influence upon recipients’ consciousness and subconsciousness by means of different linguistic and extralinguistic means are the basis for Internet advertisements’ perception and comprehension.

Key Words: advertising perception, advertising text, linguistic means, pragmatic purpose.

I. Introduction

Advertising perception is an important part of contemporary social practice. One of the main aspects of advertising studies in modern linguistics is analysis of advertising audience perception, which is closely connected with the study of encoding / decoding processes. Modern linguists argue that decoding aspect “deal with the complexity of contextual factors contributing to the process” [5, 14]. In such a way, the process of audience decoding combines several factors, such as producer’s intent (covering different means of the intent fulfillment), recipient’s background and language experience (including personal and social experience), and contextual components of the advertising perception. This paper presents some results of enquiry into linguistic and extralinguistic components of advertising texts production and perception. The study is being made on the context of Internet advertisements and aims at disclosure of principles of advertising texts perception.

II. Tasks of the Study

The tasks of the study are:

- to analyze the linguistic means of advertising;

- to research the influence of immediate environment upon advertising perception.

The research is of topical interest of modern linguistics and further study would concentrate around other aspects of advertising perception and/or investigate other advertising contexts and environments.

III. Results of the Study

Advertising is a complex social, cultural, economic, psychological and linguistic process. Examination of these aspects of advertising in complex and in particular can give good results for understanding the processes of text perception. Advertising text integrates features of different text types and is an object of cross-disciplinary studies. Advertising text possesses a range of individual features, thus it can be defined as a particular text type. The range of AT features includes:

- clear pragmatic purpose and producer’s intent;

- clear functional load;

- linguistic means are functionally oriented and subordinated;

- supported with extra linguistic elements.

Any type of advertising is the result of collective conceptual work and production of a message is always a social process carried out in concrete situations. Advertising text is the central element in the chain production (encoding) – text – reception (decoding), all elements of which are closely interrelated. Analyzing the features of advertising texts we can make deductions as to the processes of their creation and reception. Advertizing texts are aimed at fulfillment of a certain, clear cut purpose and thus the moment of reception or decoding is the element of the process of production in its larger sense and must be appropriated as meaningful discourse and meaningfully decoded. [4, 20].

In bounds of pragmatic studies text is defined as the result and means of fulfillment of a communicative task, which is faced simultaneously by two parties – participants of communicative act: a producer is aimed at an adequate presentation of information and creating an impact, a recipient is aimed at adequate understanding (decoding) of information [2, 79]. On one hand, text is a hierarchy of communicative programs, which are subordinate to the aim of the speech act, on the other hand, communicative purpose of the text stipulates its structure and interrelation between its elements.

Text is a complex system in which reality, language and the results of speech and mental activity are presented accordingly at subject (extralinguistic information), logical (means of organizing the authors ideas) and linguistic levels [1, 102]. Text’s complex character is also realized in its two-facet orientation – a text correlates with two parties of a communicative act: a producer and a recipient. Accordingly, text semantics can be analyzed in two aspects: in relation to a producer (text concept) and in relation to a recipient (text idea).

The comprehension of meaning lies not in the text itself, but in the complex interaction between the author's intent and his/her performative ability to encode that intent, and the recipient’s intent and his/her performative ability not only to decode the author's intent but to match his/her own intent with the author's purpose. Meanings come about through interaction between producers and recipients and linguistic features come about as a result of social processes, which are never arbitrary [3, 2].

Text creation and text perception are counter processes aimed at realization of communicative purposes of both parties of a communication act. Text modeling goes in two directions: a producer creates text model in direction “extralinguistic content – language form / system – speech”, while a recipient reproduces the model: “speech – language form / system – extralinguistic content”. So, text creation and text perception are interrelated but contrary processes.

Text creation is a complex, deeply interiorized, process. This process moves from motive, intention of the text producer to the recipient’s interpretation, from illocutionary forces to perlocutionary effect. Thus, in the process of text creation it is important to account for principles of speech communication and illocutionary powers of speech acts, knowledge of different text types and terms of their usage, knowledge about target audience, etc.

Text perception and comprehension are realized at several levels simultaneously: from direct perception of sign form of the text, a recipient goes to comprehension of the utterance meaning and finally comprehends text as a closed solid structure. During this process a recipient converts lexical elements into meaningful ones by means of multiple decoding of information. In general, processes of text comprehension is based on recipient’s background knowledge, his life experience, encyclopedic knowledge, level of pragmatic strategies comprehension and also on the level of his language competence.

Overall cycle of text comprehension covers not only decoding the meanings of lexical units, which make the text, but building a coherent meaningful text structure and its integration into the existing in the recipient’s mind “picture of the world”.

A new form of advertising – Internet-advertising – appeared not so long ago, but took the advanced position among other types of advertising as a result of rapid development of the Internet. In our study Internet advertising is referred to as a type of discourse with its special features. We are able to define Internet advertising as a type of discourse as it combines the following features: the purpose of the speech act, reflected features of participants of the speech act, and topical information. Communicative purposes of advertisements’ producers are realized in discourse strategies and correlate with mental concepts and language means of their representation. As a type of discourse, Internet advertising is influenced by general cooperative principles of quality, quantity, relation and manner.

One of the types of Internet advertising, according to the form of its realization, is contextual advertising. Contextual advertising is a form of targeted advertising for advertisements appearing on websites or other media, such as content displayed in mobile browsers. The advertisements themselves are selected and served by automated systems based on the content displayed to the user. A contextual advertising system scans the text of a website for keywords and returns advertisements to the webpage based on those keywords. The advertisements may be displayed on the webpage or as pop-up ads. Contextual advertising is considered to be the most effective in the present way to attract customers to the site.

Internet adverts (IA) differ greatly in objects of advertizing, style, structure, the use of text and connotation. One of the common features for these samples of advertizing is common environment, which has certain influence upon the other features of IT. Functional environment is considered to be a key factor organizing the text. It defines the usage of linguistic and extralinguistic means of influence upon the audience. Advertisements are becoming increasingly more complex and sophisticated. Due to the large scale production of goods there is an increased need to create a market for products that people do not really need. Communicative purpose of IA producers is to motivate purchasing of a definite product by linguistic and extralinguistic means, which in this case are provided by sophisticated hardware and software.

Internet advertising, as well as any other type of advertising, is mostly one-way communication process, though Internet environment provides the opportunity for interactivity. Interactivity, combined with multimedia potential, provides enhanced opportunities for advertising perception and comprehension. The structure of modern IA is complex and multilayer. Information is presented at the linguistic level, as well as at levels of graphical images (fixed and moving) and sound. In general, presented information makes the highest possible impact upon the audience, which was actually aimed at by IA producers.

In our paper we mostly deal with IA containing essential textual abstract, providing the opportunity to analyze linguistic means of advertising. We argue that textual component is the most informative part of advertising, fulfilling the biggest part of meaningful load of IA. Adverts from the site www.vibrantmedia.com (the leader of contextual ad solutions, as they present themselves) and other pop-up Internet advertisements were put under our analysis. They represent the samples of collective copyright work and promote different types of products. Each advertisement, as a rule, combines image (graphical information and sound), display and bar (software, providing possibilities for navigation), and textual information. They work simultaneously and in complex provide recipient with necessary information. Display and bar, as unique possibilities of Internet advertising, provide such opportunity as linking to social networks (facebook, twitter, myspace, etc.) and to company and other related websites. This opportunity expands the advertisement, enriching it with additional related information.

Textual information in IAs is presented in the form of in-texts and short texts-slogans. In-texts are extended in space texts, depicting up-to-date problems, closely connected with the product. For example, advert of AXE deodorants and shampoos contains the in-text about first dates, “Chest 3D white” – about job interviews, “Jeep automobile” – about bad whether problems. This method of indirect advertising stimulates cognitive processes thus stipulating the process of advert perception. It is based on the psycho-linguistic model of conceptual fields.

Linguistic analysis of short texts-slogans shows that the range of linguistic means used is basically the same as in other advertising texts. This range mostly includes different types of repetitions (on the explicit and implicit text levels), usage of imperative mood, estimating vocabulary. Besides, practical absence of space limits provides opportunities for presentation of additional information, such as references to experts, information about competition awards, statistics of sales, etc. This useful information, combined with the above mentioned in-texts, increases the information load of each advertisement, providing versatile treatment of the problem and stipulating the process of perception.

As an example, the following slogan can be analyzed:

“Ready to keep up?

Be it a competitive Sporty Girl, e tireless Party Girl, or a High Maintenance Girl, the hottest girls are the most demanding. So recharge with AXE Shower gel, including the all new AXE Sport Blast 2-in-1, and stay at your best!” [ad of AXE products]

Numerous lexical repetitions of the same lexeme, provoking question, imperative mood and usage of pronoun “you – your” are aimed at intensification of the process of information perception through the means of direct and indirect influence upon a recipient’s consciousness. Direct means of influence are on the surface of the text, while indirect influence is achieved by means used on the implicit layer of the text. According to Van Dijk the text is like "an iceberg of information," and it is really only the "tip" which is "actually expressed in words and sentences. The rest is assumed to be supplied by the knowledge scripts and models of the media users, and therefore usually left unsaid." Van Dijk concludes, therefore, that "the analysis of the implicit...is very useful..."

Direct appeal to a recipient combined with the forms of personal pronoun you make the process of communication more intimate and thus influencing:

“Extend the life of your clothing and reduce the chance of color fading at the same time. Properly sorting and washing your clothes can make a huge difference in the quality of your garments' color. Using simple household items like vinegar, salt and a drying rack can also help keep your clothes looking vibrant and fresh. Always read the label of your linens and clothes before washing, and use the gentle cycle on your washer and dryer whenever possible.” [ad of Unilever Comfort Brights]

Indirect influence is realized through rhetorical / provoking questions and presentation of personal experience of the author:

“One of the things I love most about London is that it fosters small and independent designers. Everyone in London is looking for that individual item that no-one else has, and who better to make it than the up-and-coming creative types living in the city?” [Rommel-London]

Internet provides great opportunities for combination of several perceptive effects – sound, text and image (so called multimedia features). It is realized by means of dynamic display, when you can not only read the advertisement, by also watch a movie, get linked to other sites with additional information and references to other users of the product, make your own comments. It is the main extralinguistic factor of IAs’ functioning, which is not accessible for other types of advertisements. Actually, this feature expands boundaries of an advertisement to an unlimited scale, realizing multilayer character of information perception.

A contextual advertisement starts with a short text-slogan, the main aim of which it to attract potential recipient’s attention. The most frequent language means of attracting recipients’ attention, as our study shows, are estimating vocabulary, direct appeal to the audience my means of usage of personal pronoun “you”, modal verb “should” and imperative mood utterances.

Compare slogans:

(1) “Walden University: A Higher Degree. A higher Purpose. More than two thirds of Walden master’s graduates received a promotion within one year of earning their degree. Learn how Walden can change your future.”

(2) “Free e-books: 40 Ways to Make Your Data Center More Efficient. Cost-effectively managing your data center's myriad of interconnected systems is no easy task. But through better management and proper planning, even the most inefficient data center can change its ways. Download this eBook for 40 steps you can take to get the most out of your data center and its employees.”

(3) “There's basic security and there's VeriSign SSL and website security, now from Symantec.

In a year where multiple certificate authorities have been hacked, you want to choose a company that invests in the most rigorous security practices in the industry like VeriSign. You can’t be too safe when it comes to online security across your site. That’s why you should protect your website and your customers with VeriSign SSL, now from Symantec.”

To fix the influence it is obligatory to give important for the recipient information, which should be true and up-to-date. Internet provides opportunities for extended text files, which are linked to the main site and carry great informational load.

Compare the following advertisements:

(1) “New Era Networks

Enterprise Networking News & Reviews

New Era Networks are built to power the push by enterprises into cloud computing, mobility, virtualization and new business applications. The NEN attributes require network managers and senior IT professionals to rethink the traditional network infrastructure. Topics include virtualized storage, server and network capabilities as well as where security, privacy, and compliance fit. Also included are: mobility integration products and issues, disaster recovery and network management software as well as all the information you need to design, deploy, monitor, manage, secure and support your Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), and Wi-Fi systems.”

(2) “Manilla Has Delivered 2 Million+ Bills & Statements -- It Is the Nation's Leading Digital Mailbox Service>>About Manilla

Manilla organizes and simplifies people's lives by providing one secure access point to all household accounts and services. The free service helps consumers manage their household accounts, including financial, utilities, subscriptions, daily deals, and travel rewards programs, all through Manilla.com or via the Manilla mobile apps. Under a single password, Manilla gives customers an automated, organized view of all of their account information, text and email reminders to pay bills, renew expiring subscriptions and manage soon-to-expire daily deals, all with unlimited storage and seamless document retrieval.”

Text advertisements under our analysis are texts with simple, easily accessible structure. Their dominant syntactic features are: simple one predicate sentence, usage of Passive Voice, Participle I and II, usage of enumerations and parallel constructions. These syntactic means provide better text comprehension as they simplify the process of perception.

IV. Conclusion

The basis for Internet advertisements’ perception and comprehension is made by a detailed analysis of the target audience, creation of motivational aspects of text perception and creation of influence upon recipients’ consciousness and subconsciousness by means of different linguistic and extralinguistic means. In terms of the Internet it is achieved by combination of image (graphical information and sound), display and bar (software, providing possibilities for navigation), and textual information. Textual information carries the greatest informational load in the process of advertisements perception and comprehension. Such language means as lexical repetitions, provoking question, imperative mood sentences, usage of pronoun you and estimating vocabulary aim at direct appeal to the recipient, create motivation for the advertising text perception thus providing fulfillment of pragmatic purpose of the text.

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