Pragmatic aspects of persuasion and manipulation in written advertisements

One way of exerting influence is realized by the use of language. According to the communicative intention of the influencer, the thoroughly designed strategic discourse can be either persuasive or manipulative. First, the present research separates persuasion from manipulation in an interdisciplinary - pragmatic and social psychological - framework. Four possible types of manipulation are identified in the paper: withholding certain propositions, informing without ostensive communicative intention to the intended addressee, using linguistically and logically correct elements that force an unconditional and unquestioning agreement and using fallacious argumentation. The second part of the paper investigates how persuasion and manipulation work in written advertisements in Hungarian, what kind of strategies and linguistic tools are used to influence readers. A Hungarian and an American direct mail are analyzed to see whether the identified Hungarian strategies exist in English or they are language-specific. It is argued that they work in English as well

Antioxidant activity, phenolic content and colour of the Slovak cabernet sauvignon wines

Antioxidants are specific substances that oxidize themselves and in this way they protect other sensitive bioactive food components against destruction. At the same time, they restrict the activity of free radicals and change them to less active forms. Grapes and wine are a significant source of antioxidants in human nutrition. One of the most important group occuring in grapes and wines are polyphenols. Many of phenolic compounds have been reported to have multiple biological activities, including cardioprotective, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, antiviral and antibacterial properties attributed mainly to their antioxidant and antiradical activity. Therefore, it is important to know the content of polyphenols and their antioxidant effects in foods and beverages. Twenty-eight Cabernet Sauvignon wine samples, originated from different Slovak vineyard regions, were analyzed using spectrophotometry for the content of total polyphenols, content of total anthocyanins, antioxidant activity and wine colour density. Determined values of antioxidant activity in observed wines were within the interval 69.0 - 84.2% inhibition of DPPH (average value was 78.8% inhibition of DPPH) and total polyphenol content ranged from 1,218 to 3,444 mg gallic acid per liter (average content was 2,424 mg gallic acid.L-1). Determined total anthocyanin contents were from 68.6 to 430.7 mg.L-1 (average content was 220.6 mg.L-1) and values of wine colour density ranged from 0.756 to 2.782 (average value was 1.399). The statistical evaluation of the obtained results did not confirm any linear correlations between total polyphenol content, resp. total anthocyanin content and antioxidant activity. The correlations between total polyphenol content and total anthocyanin content, resp. the content of total anthocyanins and wine colour density were strong. The results confirmed very strong correlations between wine colour density and total polyphenol content, resp. antioxidant activity

SECOND CULTURE TEACHING AND LEARNING. AN INTRODUCTION.

Thomas Szende SECOND CULTURE TEACHING AND LEARNING. AN INTRODUCTION. Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, 2014. Bern. 462 olda