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An
important aspect of any communication involves the presuppositions that are
present. Presuppositions may be even more critical in television advertising
(see Geis 1982) than in print advertising. However, even in print advertising,
presuppositions are an important component of the overall message. As the name
implies, a presupposition is a necessary precondition for the processing of
any communication. Presuppositions
typically involve the existence of some object or idea:
This presupposes
that there is something that is "this juicy", and then makes an assertion
about that thing. One important function of the presupposition here is to promote
a kind of ideology within advertising, in this case, the idea that "juiciness"
is somehow related to shampoo and hair. Most product ranges have some cultural
values imposed on them in this way, and advertising is the main mechanism for
achieving this. The
next piece of text has a similar function: This
presupposes that there are leglines, curves and compliments, and thereby implicates
that these things are related. **Can we find a jeans ad about ruggedness instead?**
A further example
of presupposition, of a fact or proposition, is evident in this text from Apple
Computer: "I used to
think it was my fault that Windows didn't work properly". The phrase "fault
that P" is presuppositional, with respect to P. Presuppositions hold constant
under what linguists call the Negation Test: negating the part of the sentence
above P still leads to the necessity of assuming P to be true. Consider the
examples in (1) and (2): (1)a. It is your
fault that I am lazy. (2)a. It is your
belief that I am lazy. In the examples
in (1), whether the positive or negative version, it is presupposed that I am
lazy. On the other hand, in (2), my laziness is the object of someone's belief,
but there is no hidden factual claim. Due to this difference, (1)c is non-sensical,
while (2)c is perfectly natural. (1)c. It is your
fault that I am lazy, but in fact I am not lazy (non-sensical). Returning to the
Apple text above, the words do not directly assert that Windows does not work
properly, but they presuppose this. And, given the Negation Test, we can see
if that if text had been "It wasn't my fault that Windows didn't work properly",
the presupposition would still be there. To
summarize, presuppositions are a crucial part of advertising as they can cause
the reader to consider the existence of objects, propositions, and culturally
defined behavioral properties: for example, "Have you had your daily vitamins?"
presupposes that you take or need "daily vitamins", thereby creating
and perpetuating the idea that the behavior of taking vitamins daily is part
of our culture. Similarly, "What's great about Chuck Wagon dog food?"
(Geis 1982, 45) presupposes that there is something great about the dog food---though
exactly what is left open.
(1)b. It is not your fault that I am lazy.
(2)b. It is not your belief that I am lazy.
(2)c. It is your belief that I am lazy, but in fact I am not lazy.
Authors' note
We
are using the text above as a linguistic example, not as an endorsement
for any product. In fact, this website was created on two laptop computers
running Microsoft Windows XP.
| References | |
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Geis,
Michael. (1982) The Language of Television Advertising. Academic
Press. New York. |
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