Reliability types and typical devices of their expression in advertisement texts

ENA speaker’s relationship with the idea spoken about is expressed by modality, which is treated as a grammatical and semantic category and performs a pragmatic communicative function: it shows the speaker’s attitude towards the expression; it stimulates the addressee to react; it signalises what reaction the addresser expects from the addressee, etc. Therefore, modality is also very important in advertisement texts. The secondary modality distinguishes the speaker’s attitude towards the reliability of the content of the expression. Numerous works in Lithuanian linguistics tend to distinguish categorical and problematic reliability. The present article is a discussion on lexical cases of problematic and categorical reliability expression taken from different advertisement texts. Their analysis reflects that words of categorical reliability are used more often. It is most probably related to the general advertisement intentions, as the main task of the language used for advertising is to persuade, disclose the benefit received from the item used, warrant that it is of a good quality, etc. Cases of problematic reliability expression are not frequent in advertisement texts. The possible reason could be that they do not have clear meaning of certainty as in the case of words expressing a categorical reliability.The most frequent items expressing categorical reliability are the particles net ‘even’ and ne ‘not’ as well as the adverb tikrai ‘really’. The negating particle ne ‘not’ is quite frequently used by employing the principle of contrast and thus making the positive sides of the advertised item or service even more prominent. Problematic reliability is most often expressed in advertisement texts by the particles ar ‘is it’, lyg ‘as if’, tarsi ‘as if’. The interrogative particle ar is aimed at catching user’s attention; meanwhile, the particles lyg and tarsi are used in figurative comparisons (similes) aiming at getting the addressee’s attention, pointing out exceptional quality of an item, etc. The research results indicate that advertisement makers are able to skilfully use words expressing reliability in order to make advertisements interesting and attractive. It is especially prominent in advertisements of Whiskas and Carlsberg, whose texts (especially slogans) have become an inseparable part of their brand names. Creation of a paradoxical situation and unexpected usage of a word marking reliability helps to get a greater share of the addressee’s attention and memorise the advertisement as well as the items promoted in advertisements of these brands.