Argumentationsstrukturen in der Werbung

Abstract

The present paper deals with the fundamental level of any discourse, i.e. logical connections, as manifested in the discourse of consumer goods advertising, one of the most misleading ways of communication. Advertising is basically a combination of illocutionary acts (the “ask to buy”) and perlocutionary effects, which reach beyond given words and images, deeply affecting the consumers' way of thinking and behaving. Rhetoricians highlight a particular type of interaction between the figurative word and the network of logical judgements in the corresponding linguistic structures. The author therefore offers a point of view for a few argumentative examples identified in German and Romanian ad texts of the 90es, where we can find (the hypothetical, negative) syllogism, polysyllogism and other types of logical judgements. The ultimate function of these logical mechanisms is to create a “shortcut” in the individual thinking, activating a so called “yield-function” (acceptance, leading to liking – according to H. Stöckl 1995) of advertising.