Truth / Falsity as Properties of Advertising Discourse: AddresseeCentered Aspect

Abstract

The research featured the problem of truth / falsity as properties of advertising discourse. Advertising is described both within the linguistics of lying and the interpretive linguistics. The paper introduces a linguistic study of the phenomenon of lying from the subjectivist positions, i.e. as the interaction between two communicants: the liar and the recipient of the lies. Subjectivists interpret the text as compliant or non-compliant to one’s idea of reality, i.e. the conformity to the world of thought. Advertising discourse is the object of the recipient’s receptive and interpretive activity. The authors studied the speech behavior of the interpreter of the false discourse, i.e. how the lies affected the addressee. The research objective was to prove the thesis statement that discourse of lies is determined not only by the liar and their speech behavior, but also by the recipient of the lies. The study featured two texts that differed in the extent of false and reliable information. The lying potential of the advertising discourse was studied by the method of linguistic experiment. Each advertisement was evaluated by the recipient as containing information of various degrees of falsehood. The interpretation depended on the presumptions of the recipient and their choice of either rational-logical or emotional-sensual interpretive strategy.

Keywords

• advertising text
• interpretation
• addressee
• perception strategies
• false discourse
• communicative process
• linguistic experiment