Legal & Administrative Texts vs. Advertising: A Comparative Analysis
Legal and Administrative Texts
These writings regulate relations between citizens and public administration, employing specialized language based on rules and laws.
Classification
- Legal: Produced by the legislature (laws, decrees, resolutions).
- Justice: Issued by the judiciary (subpoenas, lawsuits).
- Administrative: Produced by public administration (records, applications, certificates).
Features
Objectivity ensures unambiguous communication. Bureaucratic language is characterized by:
- Conservatism: Archaic jargon and formulaic language.
- Impersonal and Normative: Regulatory and prescriptive.
- One-Way Communication: From institution to citizen or vice-versa.
- Written Language: Ensures reliability, validity, and durability.
- Formal Register: Cultural language.
- Representative, Appealing, and Meta-Linguistic Functions: Transmits data, influences behavior, and defines terms.
- Rigid Structure: Expository or argumentative.
Lexical Features
- Jargon: Precise and monosemic lexicon (Latin terms, technicalities, acronyms, neologisms).
- Formulas: Fixed structures for presenting information.
- Euphemisms: Avoiding strong language.
- Capitalization: Often unnecessary.
Morphological and Syntactic Features
- Impersonality: Third person singular/plural, future imperfect indicative/subjunctive, present subjunctive with imperative value.
- Formalism: Impersonal verbs, passive voice, absolute constructions.
- Nominalization and Adjectives: Abstract nouns and preposed adjectives.
Textual Features
- Recurrence: Repetition for cohesion.
- Formulas: Indicate text sections (e.g., “considering that…”, “solicito…”).
- References and Citations: Ensure verifiability.
Advertising
Persuades consumption or attitude change by showcasing characteristics, ideologies, or social values.
Types of Advertising
- Commercial: Persuades product use.
- Institutional: Persuasive with informational purposes.
- Propaganda: Ideological intent.
Elements of Communication
- Sender: Company or advertising agency.
- Receiver: Critical audience.
- Message: Persuasive and connotative.
- Channel: Written (press), audiovisual (radio, cinema).
- Code: Linguistic (verbal/written) and non-linguistic (image, typography).
Features
- Economy, Efficiency, and Freedom: Guiding principles.
- Slogan: Brief, impactful statement.
- Conciseness and Brevity: Attention-grabbing.
- Connotation: Stereotypical imagery.
- Unity: Text and image combination.
- Appellative, Poetic, Representative, and Phatic Functions: Persuasive, aesthetic, informative, and engaging.
Structure
- Introduction: Brief, highlighted statement.
- Body: Product description.
- Slogan: Memorable sentence.
Linguistic Elements
- Phonic Features: Rhyme and sound effects.
- Lexical Features: Polysemy, clichés, puns, recurrence, neologisms, figures of speech.
- Morphological and Syntactic Features: Expressive sentences (imperative, interrogative, exclamatory), ellipses, parallelism, second person singular, intensifiers.
Non-Linguistic Elements
- Images: Seductive visuals, logos, pictures, icons (color, light, angles, proxemics).
- Typography: Font and size for attention.