Rhetorical Transformations in Multimodal Advertising Texts: From General to Local Degree Zero

The use of rhetoric in advertising research has been steadily gaining momentum since the 1980’s. Coupled with an increased interest in multimodality and the multiple interactions among verbal, pictorial and auditory registers, as structural components of an ad filmic text, the hermeneutic tools furnished by traditional rhetoric have been expanded and elaborated. This paper addresses the fundamental question of how ad filmic texts assume signification from a multimodal rhetorical point of view, by engaging in a fruitful dialogue with various research streams within the wider semiotic discipline and consumer research. By critically addressing the context of analysis of a multimodal ad text in the course of the argumentation deployed by different approaches, such as Social Semiotics (Kress/Leeuwen 2001), Film Semiotics (i.e. Metz 1982, Carroll 1980, Branigan 1982), Visual Semiotics (i.e. Sonesson 2008; 2010, Eco 1972;1976;1986, Groupe " 1992), Consumer Research (i.e. Mick/McQuarrie 1999; 2004, Philips 2003, Scott 1994), the relative merits of a structuralist approach that prioritizes the distinction between local and general degree zero, as put forward by Groupe " (1992), are highlighted. Furthermore, the modes whereby rhetorical transformations are enacted are outlined, with view to deepening the conceptual tackling of degree zero of signification, while addressing its applicability to branding discourse and multimodal ad texts

Los animales sabios: secretos del oficio

A partir de la distinción entre aprendizaje y amaestramiento, los autores se suman a las críticas de H. S. Terrace y su equipo respecto a la posibilidad de enseñar lenguaje a los animales. Señalan que parece surgir una dependencia de la guía humana en los entrenamientos con antropoides, los cuales realizan producciones correctas tras descubrir indicios no intencionados en el experimentador. Esta afirmación se justifica analizando los estudios con las chimpancés Sara y Washoe, centrándose en las posibilidades de comunicación �extralingüística� de los experimentos de doble ciego realizados con esta última. Seguidamente los autores critican las investigaciones de E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh y colegas desde las mismas premisas y finalizan con algunas reflexiones en torno a la imposibilidad de realizar experimentos sin la presencia humana, subrayando que la acomodación de chimpancés, gorilas, investigadores y experimentadores a la situación experimental hace que los avances reales en la comunicación hombre-antropoide sean todavía materia de ficción.Starting from a distinction between learning and training, the authors add their critiques to those of H. S. Terrace in relation to the possibility of teaching language skills to animals. They point out that a dependency on human guidance seems to arise in anthropoid training, as they perform properly when discovering non deliberate clues from the investigators. This affirmation is justified by the analysis of the studies realized with the chimpanzees Sara and Washoe, focusing on the �extralinguistical� communication possibilities of double-blind experiments realized with the latter. With the same approach, the authors criticize then the investigations of E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and colleagues offering some reflections about the impossibility of performing experiments without the presence of humans. Finally, it is highlighted that the accommodation of chimpanzees, gorillas, investigators and researchers to the experimental environment still makes real advances in human/anthropoid communication a matter of science-fictio