“Say hello to this ad”

The persuasive rhetoric of fictive interaction in marketing

Line Brandt | Independent scholar, Denmark

Esther Pascual | Zhejiang University, China

This chapter deals with strategically motivated discourse to show the fundamental role of the conversation frame in language for specific purposes. We focus on imagined speech acts in which advertised products and/or the “problems” they tackle are fictively addressed through non-genuine yes-no responses (e.g. “Say no to wrinkles, say yes to this cream”) and non-actual greetings (e.g. “Hello wireless music. Goodbye wires”), as well as marketing slogans and brands involving intra-sentential fictive speech ascribed to a consumer, the advertiser, and/or the advertised product, service, or behavior (e.g. “I-Love-Art-Tour”). This study is based on our own database of printed advertisements, TV commercials, and brands in five different languages.

Keywords: fictive assertions/negations, marketing strategy, fictive greetings, advertisement, embedded fictive interaction

Published online: 01 November 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.55.15bra

References

Arcand, R., & Bourbeau, N.

(1995) La communication efficace. De l’intention aux moyens d’expression. Anjou (Québec): CEC.

Brandt, L.

(2008) A semiotic approach to fictive interaction as a representational strategy in communicative meaning construction. In T. Oakley, & A. Hougaard (Eds.), Mental spaces in discourse and interaction (pp. 109–148). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

(2010) Language and enunciation – A cognitive inquiry with special focus on conceptual integration in semiotic meaning construction. PhD dissertation. Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.

(2013) The communicative mind: A linguistic exploration of conceptual integration and meaning construction. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Brandt, P.A.

(2004) Spaces, domains, and meaning: Essays in cognitive semiotics. Bern: Peter Lang.

Charteris-Black, J.

(2005) Politicians and rhetoric: The persuasive power of metaphor. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Goffman, E.

(1974) Frame analysis – An essay on the organization of experience. New York: Harper & Row.

Fauconnier, G.

(1997) Mappings in thought and language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jakobson, R.

(1960) Closing statements: Linguistics and poetics. In T.A. Sebeok (Ed.), Style in language (pp. 350–377). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Langacker, R.W.

(2001) Dynamicity in grammar. Axiomathes, 12, 7–33.

Leushuis, M.

(2015) De conversationele metafoor als communicatiestrategie: Een onderzoek naar de weergave hiervan in product – en ideële reclame. Master’s thesis, University of Groningen.

McGregor, W.B.

(1994) The grammar of reported speech and thought in Gooniyandi. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 14(1), 63–92.

Pascual, E.

(2002) Imaginary trialogues: Conceptual blending and fictive interaction in criminal courts. Utrecht: LOT Dissertation Series 68.

(2006) Fictive interaction within the sentence: A communicative type of fictivity in grammar. Cognitive Linguistics, 17(2), 245–267.

(2014) Fictive interaction: The conversation frame in thought, language, and discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Pascual, E., Królak, E., & Janssen, T.A.J.M.

(2013) Direct speech compounds: Evoking socio-cultural scenarios through fictive interaction. Cognitive Linguistics, 24(2), 345–366.

Scollo, M.

(2007) Mass media appropriations: Communication, culture, and everyday social life. PhD dissertation. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA.

Tannen, D.

(1989) Talking voices: Repetition, dialogue, and imagery in conversational discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cited by

Cited by other publications

Pascual, Esther, Aline Dornelas & Todd Oakley

2017. When “Goal!” means ‘soccer’. Pragmatics & Cognition 24:3 ► pp. 315 ff.

Pascual, Esther & Emilia Królak

2018. The ‘listen to characters thinking’ novel. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 16:2 ► pp. 399 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 september 2019. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.