PRAGMALINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF GERMAN-LANGUAGE RADIO ADVERTISING: THE SUBSTITUTION OF THE VISUAL PARTIAL TEXT BY THE AUDITORY ONE (BASED ON THE ADVERTISING OF THE CRUISE COMPANY HURTIGRUTEN)

The article is devoted to the pragmalinguistic analysis of a German-language radio advertising text. The aim of the study is to show how, in radio advertising, the auditory partial text substitutes for the absent visual one, and which linguistic means provide persuasive influence in doing so. The material is a German-language radio commercial for the Norwegian cruise company Hurtigruten (duration 17 sec., two male voice-overs). The analysis is carried out using a reconstructed version of N. Janich’s model of advertising-text analysis, with reference to speech-act theory, M. Baumgart’s typology of slogans and U. Pörksen’s notion of “plastic words”. It is shown that the slogan of the advertised company combines the features of all three types distinguished by Baumgart (orientation towards the product, the enterprise and the consumer); the text is built on high-value words (perfekt, legendär), key words (Erlebnis, Traum, Reise) and one plastic word (Entdecker); coherence is provided by explicit and covert recurrence; the argumentation is enthymematic in character, while the inducement to purchase remains implicit and is completed by the addressee deductively. It is established that the change in the dynamics of the melody (from soft to loud sounding) directly participates in the realisation of the perlocutionary act. The main conclusion is that the text under study achieves a successful substitution of the visual partial text by the auditory one, which increases the chances of attaining the communicative goals of the advertisement.