Scholarly record

FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF RUSSIAN ADVERTISING AS THE BASIS FOR DETERMINING ITS LINGUISTIC STATUS

Svetlana Ledeneva

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to determine the linguistic status of advertising based on the functional (pragmasemantic) properties of Russian advertisements. This issue is topical today, when advertising is acknowledged as a crucially important part of successful business, and has to be adequately handled in teaching future business people. The problematic side of it is that advertising contaminates features of different styles and genres, and forming students’ skills of composing efficient ads requires some expertise in distinguishing such features. Advertisers have to be targeted on a certain customer, which inevitably leads to a careful choice of language means with an orientation towards the customer’s taste both in the product and in the advertisement wording. The article argues that, in terms of a linguistic status, advertising makes up a special type of media discourse. Applying methods of functional analysis to an advertising sketch and advertising slogans presented in the article, the author clarifies the basic attribute of this discourse type: whatever the structural form of an ad is, its functional essence lies in making certain psychological impacts on the recipient – sparking interest in the product thus urging to purchase it. The article discloses the specificity of Russian advertising texts and concludes that their rhetoric efficiency is ensured by persistent targeting of all speech components at the relevant communicative purport, as well as by an adequate estimate of the customer’s demands.

Publication details

Back to publication list