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DOI :10.26650/sdsl2019-0004   IUP :10.26650/sdsl2019-0004    Full Text (PDF)

An Intercultural Approach to Multimodality in Selected German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish Cosmetics Advertisements

Canan Şenöz Ayata, İrem Atasoy

Multimodality is a term, which refers to the co-presence and mutual linking of multiple semiotic resources at different levels in communication. Nowadays the various media such as TV, mobile phone or internet provide to create new text forms which include a variety of semiotic modes. As a result of this, today’s texts contain complex modalities. Texts are therefore seen as multimodal structures, which combine various semiotic resources such as language, image, music, sound and typography. Advertisements are one of the most ideal multimodal text examples because of their potential of combining and integrating highest levels of different semiotic modalities. Advertisements are therefore one of the most analyzed text types in multimodal oriented text researches. The aim of this study is to analyze and compare German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish print advertisements moving towards a multimodal oriented method, which is based on text linguistics. The corpus is comprised of eight cosmetics advertisements of different international brands, which were published in German, American, Italian and Turkish women’s magazines in 2016. The analyzed advertisements are derived from the following magazines: Cosmopolitan (German Edition), Vogue (USA Edition), Silhouette Donna (Italy) und Elele (Turkey). The analysis is based on multimodal oriented text analysis models of Angelika Hennecke (1999), Nina Janich (2010) and Hartmut Stöckl (2011). Furthermore the analysis include text extern and text intern criteria. Framed in multimodal analysis and intercultural comparison this paper presents the similarities and differences between these print advertisements in four different languages. 

Keywords: Multimodality, multimodal text, advertisements, cosmetics advertisements, text linguistics
DOI :10.26650/sdsl2019-0004   IUP :10.26650/sdsl2019-0004    Full Text (PDF)

Ein interkultureller Blick auf Multimodalität in ausgewählten deutschen, angloamerikanischen, italienischen und türkischen Kosmetikwerbeanzeigen

Canan Şenöz Ayata, İrem Atasoy

Unter Multimodalität versteht man die Kopräsenz und wechselseitige Verknüpfung von verschiedenen semiotischen Ressourcen auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen in einer Kommunikation. Heutzutage schaffen die verschiedenen Medien wie TV, Mobiltelefon oder Internet neue Textformen. Im Zusammenhang damit hat sich in den letzten Jahren die Erkenntnis durchgesetzt, dass neben der Bewertung der sprachlichen Zeichen, auch andere Zeichenmodalitäten wie Bilder, Musik, Geräusch und Typographie bewertet werden sollen, da die heutigen Texte unterschiedliche und komplexere Zeichensysteme beinhalten. Ideale Exemplare für multimodale Texte sind Werbungen, weil sie ein Maximum an Zeichenmodalitäten verfügbar machen können. Da Werbungen unterschiedliche und komplexere Zeichenmodalitäten beinhalten, sind sie ideale Untersuchungsgegenstände für multimodale Texte. Im Zusammenhang damit zielt dieser Beitrag darauf ab, deutsche, angloamerikanische, italienische und türkische Werbeanzeigen mit textlinguistischen Methoden zu analysieren und miteinander zu vergleichen. Das Analysekorpus besteht aus acht Kosmetikwerbungen von verschiedenen internationalen Marken, welche im Jahr 2016 in deutschen, amerikanischen, italienischen und türkischen Frauenzeitschriften erschienen. Die untersuchten Werbeanzeigen sind aus den Zeitschriften Cosmopolitan (deutsche Ausgabe), Vogue (amerikanische Ausgabe), Silhouette Donna (Italien) und Elele (Türkei) entnommen. Das Analysemodell beruht auf den Analyserastern von Angelika Hennecke (1999), Nina Janich (2010) und Hartmut Stöckl (2011) und umfasst sowohl textexterne als auch textinterne Kriterien. Von der multimodalen Analyse und dem interkulturellen Vergleich ausgehend werden Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede in den untersuchten Werbungen aus vier Sprachen festgestellt und interpretiert. 

Keywords: Multimodalität, multimodaler Text, Werbeanzeigen, Kosmetikwerbungen, Textlinguistik

EXTENDED ABSTRACT


Multimodality is a term that refers to the co-presence and mutual linking of different semiotic resources at different levels in communication. It refers to the diverse ways in which a combination of verbal, visual and non-verbal elements are used in meaning making. Nowadays various media such as TVs, mobile phones, computers, tablets or the internet provide for the creation of new text forms which include a variety of semiotic modes. As a result of this, today’s texts contain complex modalities like visual images or auditory elements. Therefore, texts are seen as multimodal structures that combine different semiotic modes such as language, image, music, sound and typography. 

Advertisements are one of the most ideal multimodal text types because of their potential for combining and integrating the highest level of multiple semiotic modalities. Thus, they are one of the most analyzed text types in multimodal oriented text researches. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze and compare German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish print advertisements with each other. Moving towards a multimodal oriented text analysis theory, this study attempts to demonstrate the multimodal structure of the selected advertisements in four languages and how the modalities are used to express meaning.

The corpus of this study is comprised of eight cosmetic advertisements of cream and serum products that are produced by different international brands, which were published in German, American, Italian and Turkish women’s magazines in 2016. The analyzed advertisements are derived from the following magazines: Cosmopolitan (German Edition), Vogue (USA Edition), Silhouette Donna (Italy) und Elele (Turkey). For every language two different advertisements are chosen randomly by considering the criteria that they include the following modalities: language, image and typography. The selected brands are Clarins and Sensai (in Cosmopolitan German Edition), Lancôme and Olay (in Vogue USA Edition), Yves Rocher and Korff (in Silhouette Donna Italy), L’Oréal and Caudalie (in Elele Turkey). Target group of these advertisements are women between the ages of 30 and 60. 

The analysis is based on multimodal oriented text analysis models of Angelika Hennecke (1999), Nina Janich (2010) and Hartmut Stöckl (2011). Furthermore the analysis includes text extern and text intern criteria. The data that will be analyzed in this study is verbal, visual and design elements of the multimodal texts contained in selected advertisements. This research basically followed a multimodal oriented method with the general principles to draw the modalities existed in advertisements including language, image and typography with their sub-modalities such as color, lexemes, addressing types, gesture, font type and font size with the aim to reveal the entire meaning conveyed in cosmetic advertisements. The analysis mainly focuses on the interrelations between the modalities in selected advertisements in four languages. Framed in multimodal analysis and intercultural comparison, this paper presents the similarities and differences between these print advertisements in four languages by comparing the findings with the results of the former comparative studies based on cosmetics advertisements.

The results of this study show that the analyzed advertisements include similar verbal and visual modalities. First of all the use of words from a foreign language, especially from French is remarkable in all four languages. This can be associated with the dominance of French in cosmetics market around the world. Another conspicuous result is the use of Anglicisms in product names or product features in German, Italian and Turkish advertisements. This can be explained by the influence of English in cosmetics advertisements. As the former studies point out English words make advertisements look modern and attractive for the target group. One of the most significant differences between the analyzed four languages is the addressing type. German, Anglo-American and Italian advertisements address their target groups with personal pronouns such as ,,Sie”, ,,you” and ,,tu” whereas Turkish advertisements use indefinite forms. 

The analysis also detects that celebrities are used as brand ambassadors in AngloAmerican and Turkish advertisements, whereas non-celebrities are preferred in German and Italian advertisements. Besides an Afro-American celebrity is also remarkable in one of Anglo-American advertisements. This can be related with the target groups of the analyzed brands.

Based on the results of the analysis this study demonstrates that due to the increasing globalization, advertisements are becoming increasingly alike in their major characteristics even if they are produced in different languages. However cultural codes are still needed in advertisements to attract and convince the audience.



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APA

Şenöz Ayata, C., & Atasoy, İ. (2019). An Intercultural Approach to Multimodality in Selected German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish Cosmetics Advertisements. Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 0(41), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.26650/sdsl2019-0004


AMA

Şenöz Ayata C, Atasoy İ. An Intercultural Approach to Multimodality in Selected German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish Cosmetics Advertisements. Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur. 2019;0(41):1-23. https://doi.org/10.26650/sdsl2019-0004


ABNT

Şenöz Ayata, C.; Atasoy, İ. An Intercultural Approach to Multimodality in Selected German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish Cosmetics Advertisements. Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur, [Publisher Location], v. 0, n. 41, p. 1-23, 2019.


Chicago: Author-Date Style

Şenöz Ayata, Canan, and İrem Atasoy. 2019. “An Intercultural Approach to Multimodality in Selected German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish Cosmetics Advertisements.” Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur 0, no. 41: 1-23. https://doi.org/10.26650/sdsl2019-0004


Chicago: Humanities Style

Şenöz Ayata, Canan, and İrem Atasoy. “An Intercultural Approach to Multimodality in Selected German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish Cosmetics Advertisements.” Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur 0, no. 41 (Apr. 2025): 1-23. https://doi.org/10.26650/sdsl2019-0004


Harvard: Australian Style

Şenöz Ayata, C & Atasoy, İ 2019, 'An Intercultural Approach to Multimodality in Selected German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish Cosmetics Advertisements', Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur, vol. 0, no. 41, pp. 1-23, viewed 30 Apr. 2025, https://doi.org/10.26650/sdsl2019-0004


Harvard: Author-Date Style

Şenöz Ayata, C. and Atasoy, İ. (2019) ‘An Intercultural Approach to Multimodality in Selected German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish Cosmetics Advertisements’, Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 0(41), pp. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.26650/sdsl2019-0004 (30 Apr. 2025).


MLA

Şenöz Ayata, Canan, and İrem Atasoy. “An Intercultural Approach to Multimodality in Selected German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish Cosmetics Advertisements.” Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur, vol. 0, no. 41, 2019, pp. 1-23. [Database Container], https://doi.org/10.26650/sdsl2019-0004


Vancouver

Şenöz Ayata C, Atasoy İ. An Intercultural Approach to Multimodality in Selected German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish Cosmetics Advertisements. Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur [Internet]. 30 Apr. 2025 [cited 30 Apr. 2025];0(41):1-23. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26650/sdsl2019-0004 doi: 10.26650/sdsl2019-0004


ISNAD

Şenöz Ayata, Canan - Atasoy, İrem. “An Intercultural Approach to Multimodality in Selected German, Anglo-American, Italian and Turkish Cosmetics Advertisements”. Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur 0/41 (Apr. 2025): 1-23. https://doi.org/10.26650/sdsl2019-0004



TIMELINE


Submitted05.01.2019
Accepted08.02.2019
Published Online21.06.2019

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