On the construction of the social semiotics of advertising communication: the cultural context (on the example of the Republic of Belarus)

Abstract

The article considers advertising communication as a collective information environment that reflects a certain stage of society's development on the one hand, and can transform society, on the other. In the aspect of building social semiotics, a theoretical and methodological analysis of the operationalization of contextual possibilities was carried out, because of which it was shown that the dominant discourses always realize their potential taking into account the context. The dual interpretation of the term “cultural context” is justified: as a set of culturally significant and culturally conditioned knowledge objectified in various text parameters; as a
set of units of cultural semantics of different levels. Using the example of Belarusian advertising communications, two multidirectional trends in the construction of social semiotics are shown. It is showed how advertising narratives become reference points for the formation and transformation of social and cultural life, and how the national socio-cultural historical context becomes an integral component of advertising communication aimed at creating a modern Belarusian identity. Based on the analysis, the author concludes that advertising communication is not so much economic information as a social mirror that performs a normative function as a point of demonstrating the truth of the world, culture, lifestyle, status, stereotypes, ways of thinking and behavior. It is established that the relevance of the context is not provided only by linguistic methods of analysis, but also based on the significance for communicators of one or another aspect of the represented situation