Speech acts in contemporary advertising

Advertising is one of the most important discourse genres of modern communication. There are various types of linguistic and non-linguistic means. The aim of advertising is to influence our perception of the world and thus our value system. In the theoretical part of this book I will deal with advertising discourse and its problems. I will discuss a variety of communication methods and linguistic means that can be found in advertising. Further I will discuss the issue of gender problems. In the practical part I will deal with analyses of speech acts. The bases of this research are print advertisements that appeared in contemporary British and American magazines. There will be a specific focus on the target groups in terms of their gender, frequency of occurrence and product focus.