COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FRENCH AND ITALIAN ADVERTISING TEXTS

In today's information-oriented society it has become very topical to study advertising texts not only by marketers, but by linguists as well. They should reveal the national and cultural identity of the country-producer. Due to the economic growth and market saturation with different goods and services, advertising texts penetrate into all spheres of social life and acquire the status of one of the most important ways of cultural self-expression. The paper discusses several approaches to the definition of advertising texts and the national character; it brings out cultural and linguistic differences in advertising and considers the interaction of language and national culture. Cultural and linguistic characteristics of advertisements deserve careful consideration because their effectiveness is based not only on the mastery of the language but on the knowledge of cultural specifics, national values, customary images, social and political views of the recipient. The article presents the results of conducted research which concerned cultural, grammatical and stylistic peculiarities of advertising texts in two kindred languages – French and Italian. The material can be useful for practical purposes – the parallel study of these languages, as the short texts of advertisements illustrate many linguistic, stylistic and cultural phenomenon.