Language as a Manipulating Device

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In the contemporary world many dangers lie in wait for everybody. One of this danger is a phenomenon of manipulation that by dint of the development of the mass media makes it more and more popular. Manipulation is said to control someone or something to your own advantage, often unfairly or dishonestly’1, in another words it is an persuasive operation, which shapes the attitudes or behaviour in such a way that the addressee could not recognize those techniques. It also poses a special problem due to the fact, that by using some tricks the manipulation treats us in an objective way and affects our thoughts, behaviour and decisions. Language is a strong manipulative device that is mainly used in adverts, so we should be aware of some techniques that are used to control or alter our behavior. The advertisement is seen as a sender’s game with an addressee. In order to gain an effective adverts’ message it is obligatory to represent intriguingly a promise, attract customer’s attention and make it to be easily remembered. An advertisement should be concise, natural and sensible. There are some techniques used to generate our interest. After a long thought, I have decided to divided them into two sections: the interaction through the verbal message, and the interaction on emotions through stirring up feelings. The first group focuses on the verbal message produced by adverts, I mean the such things like attractiveness, ease of remembering, suggestivity, conciseness and originality of used language. The first thing is using catchy phrases. Catchy phrases are usually short and allow us to remember with ease the phrase said in advert. A good slogan have to be memorable because it makes up the most significant part of the adverts’ text, e.g... ... middle of paper ... ...ocuses on keeping the pace of advert, what causes in the lack of concentration on their essential content. There is no time to consider, what was omitted or unfinished. The result of this kind of situation is the fake clarity. Summarizing, there are lots of things not said about the language as a manipulating device. The adverts’ utterance is created only to convince the future consumers to buy this particular product or service. Among consumers it is believed that when we buy something very intensively advertised, or recommended by the panel of experts, VIPs, we feel much more appreciated or even we can feel richer. That’s why, to be not manipulated we should, as consumer, be aware of surrounding us mechanism of manipulation and persuasion and which language is used in many adverts. It will be easier to control our behavior during the shopping and in everyday life.

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