Odpowiedzialność za słowo w świetle współczesnego wykorzystywania języka w funkcji perswazyjnej

Ewa BADYDA

Katedra Języka Polskiego, Wydział Filologiczny, Instytut Filologii Polskiej, Uniwersytet Gdański, ul. Wita Stwosza 55, 80-952 Gdańsk, Poland , Polska

Abstrakt

The article analyzes ethical aspects of the persuasive effect of the word, as well as its social consequences, focusing on the example of promotional materials. In linguistic research, the ethical dimension of the message is usually examined within the context of a given intentional language use, with a view to delineate the boundary between morally neutral persuasion and linguistic manipulation. While evaluating promotional materials in this respect, one needs to take two factors into account, namely, that the target addressees of the commercial message in question may recognize its convention and be able to distinguish the information included in it from persuasion. The convention of advertisement assumes that the world adverts describe is not subject to verification in terms of its being true or false – the moral responsibility for judgments of this kind is shifted to the addressee of the commercial message of whom a certain cultural maturity and communicational experience may be expected. Yet the extent of the clarity of the convention of advertisement may vary. Precisely such cases are considered in the article, which focuses on somewhat less model texts, namely, promotional leaflets issued by banks. In the materials in question, the informational function is strongly present, but the distinction between information and persuasion is unclear. While persuasive elements can be detected on many levels of the text, decoding them is particularly difficult due to the fact that it is only indirectly that the persuasion focuses on the product itself, the aim of the persuasion being rather to encourage the potential customers in generally easy decision taking in financial matters and in abandoning the common sense while thinking about them. The analysis shows that in order to recognize the particular means of persuasion the potential customers should have a vast language experience which will comprise, among others, an awareness of the fuzziness of certain words and of the various degrees of meaning Abstracts 441 a given general concept may imply, as well as a sense of the meanings that may be associated with a given term. Thus the potential customers need to be able to recognize the actual position of the authors of the commercial message and the position they pretend to have, as well as the persuasion mechanisms which are at work conveying the hidden message. The ethical aspect of advertisment may be evaluated not only with respect to the intention of its author and the duties of its readers, but also with reference to utilitarian ethics, which focuses here on the evaluation of the psychosocial effects of advertisements. Statistical data and survey results point to the fact that «living on credit» has become common in Poland and that bank debts are growing. Simultaneously, bank customers have a low awareness of their rights and while deciding on particular bank services, they tend to rely on their intuition rather than make rational choices. This situation is largely determined by economic and social factors, but it should also be a reason for public anxiety about the way the word affects social life. 

 

Translated by Dorota Chabrajska

Słowa kluczowe:

persuasion, manipulation, advertising, ethical aspect of the word, utalitarian ethics