The influence of textual analysis and images in motel advertising billboards

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis using aspects of Textual Linguistics that influence reading and interpretation of advertising motel billboards. Twelve images of advertising pieces of various motels were used as corpus of analysis. After reviewing the images, we discuss the importance and complexity of reading and understanding utterances involving images, intertextuality, and ambiguity. These textual elements, along with the reader’s knowledge of the world, are an excellent source of production of meaning for different genres, exerting influence on the effect of textual meaning and causing, in most cases, humor effects.

Keywords

• Billboards. Humor. Textual Linguistics.