Deixis, personificación y simulación de papeles en la publicidad técnica en inglés y español

Abstract: This article explores the differences between English and Spanish in engineering advertising texts. The use of pronouns reveals as a powerful tool to catch the reader"s attention and to provide proximity or distance to the object being advertised. This becomes personified through deixis and role-playing and introduced as a necessity in order to solve a lack or problem of the client company. The contrast between English and Spanish reveals that the latter has a direct link between personal and possessive pronouns (tú/tu), which makes the flow of information advance in a lineal way. In contrast, English has a dual structure that combines two parties playing together: you (the buyer) / our (the advantages of the selling company).

Keywords: advertising, personal deictics, personification, role-playing, progression Resumen: Este artículo explora las diferencias entre el inglés y el español en mensajes publicitarios de ingeniería. El uso de pronombres se revela como una herramienta muy útil para capturar la atención del lector y proporcionar proximidad o distancia al objeto publicitado. Éste se personifica a través de la deixis y la simulación de papeles y se presenta como algo necesario para resolver un problema o llenar una carencia de la empresa compradora. El contraste entre el inglés y el español revela que el último tiene un enlace directo entre pronombres personales y posesivos (tú/tu), lo que hace que el flujo de información avance de modo lineal. En contraste, el inglés tiene una estructura dual que combina dos partes en el mismo juego: you (comprador) / our (ventajas de la empresa vendedora).

Palabras clave: publicidad, deícticos personales, personificación, simulación de papeles, progresión.

DEIXIS, PERSONIFICATION AND ROLE-PLAYING IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH ENGINEERING ADVERTISING

1. The features of advertising

Our world is very much influenced by publicity, that is, persuasion and argumentation applied to any context (Fowler 1991, Bathia 1993, Gutiérrez 1994,1997). The main function of advertising is the conative or persuasive one, which tries to convince the target audience to buy the product in question. But phatic and emotive functions also play an important role in publicity (Cook 1992: 5) and in the purpose to establish and maintain the individual identity of the product itself. At the same time, marketing techniques try to identify the potential buyer with the product. This way, the functions of display and establishing identity lead to the same aim: persuasion. From this perspective, it becomes obvious that publicity is a semiotic science that uses, takes advantage and makes the most of any linguistic and paralinguistic factor that the thing or person being promoted may show. For these reasons, publicity tries to point the consumers" ideas in a certain direction (Vivanco 2001). The need to capture the customers" attention is the first premise in the marketing environment, for which it tries to surprise the potential reader or client (Cook 1992). Advertising is a type of discourse that plays with non real situations to achieve a communicative purpose: "creating a fusion which will imbue the characterless product with desirable properties" (Cook 1992: 105). The manipulation of language by means of ambiguity and indeterminacy shows that advertisements, in consequence, may project fictional situations which identify the consumer with the properties shown.

An added problem is that publicity is costly, and, consequently, messages are usually short. This briefness is an advantage because it is easier to accommodate short messages in the mental reservoir. Another consequence of this need for briefness is also the absence of cohesion markers (Vivanco 2005) which makes publicity seem urgent and quick in an attempt to save time both in the reading and listening to the message. Our belief is that the two main features of publicity discourse are briefness and persuasion. These characteristics seem to make the task of attracting the reader"s attention more difficult, but, for us, they turn into an ideal tool to attain the specific goal of getting information stored in the customers" mind. Briefness is a helpful tool for the cognitive purpose. Reality may be presented, looked at and interpreted in the same way by individuals and sociocultural groups, because as Cook (1992: 182) indicates: "A…reason for interest in advertising is that, as one of the major discourse types which construct our contemporary identity, it enables us to study a part of ourselves." A text is a process in which the writer and the reader interact with each other. In consequence, for Werth (1995b: 95), discourse is "a deliberate and joint effort on the part of producer and receiver to build up a "world" within which the propositions advanced are coherent and make sense". Discourse means "text and context together, interacting in a way which is perceived as meaningful and unified by the participants (who are both parts of the context and observers of it)" (Cook 1992: 2). For Duranti and Goodwin (1992) context is the difference between focal event and background, so that it becomes "a frame that surrounds the event being examined". The context is a dynamic situation, so that what is the focal event at one situation may turn into background in another situation. Other factors that influence context are the knowledge of the participants and their interaction.

In Cook"s opinion (1992: 1-2), context in advertising must incorporate the features that follow, but, for us, these features are not a "must" since they do not necessarily appear in every advertisement. The first and most important feature is substance or the advertisement in itself; secondly, music and pictures; thirdly, paralanguage; also, situation of objects and people close to the text; co-text, the text that goes with the analysis; intertext or text associated with the one under consideration and which affects the addressees" interpretation; participants (senders, addressers, addressees and receivers); and, finally, function or purpose of the text.

The conversational dialogic tone in publicity is usually maintained even in the cases in which the text is not a dialogue. The addressee is not usually present in the message, but his or her existence is implicit throughout the discourse. Very often advertising combines direct address to the potential buyer with ellipsis, attracting the addressee"s attention and eliciting answers to the questions, as if the text were the simulation of a dialogue. The aim of this paper is to analyse the distinctive features of publicity discourse both in Spanish and English. We have chosen the field of technical advertising, since most of the previous research focuses on general publicity. Although English and Spanish share common features because the language of advertising is universal, our belief is that each language has specific features in regard to deictics, personification and role-playing of the characters. This way, universal and cultural features are summed up in order to build a message that tries to act on the consumer"s mind applying pragmatic characteristics that pertain to individual languages and that reveal the psychology and sociology of the target groups.

2. Deixis as a tool in advertising discourse

Evensen (1990) reveals that too many different aspects can be signalled in discourse: metatextual deixis, markers of text parts and lexical dyads, topic markers, temporal pointers and connectors used as pointers. Among the micromarkers which act as signals that either maintain or present new topics, Gumpertz (1985) mentions determinants, possessives, deictics, conjunctions, etc. For Alcaraz (2000:98), these micromarkers delimit both the topic and the subtopic. Personal pronouns, taken as deictic elements with a variable meaning assigned contextually, appear constantly and explicitly in publicity written messages in order to provide a clear location of events. The role of deixis in discourse is building the conceptual domains of space and time. Deictic terms introduce the spatial and temporal coordinates of discourse from the point of view of the sender of the message. As Green (1995: 12) points out, deictic elements are "grammaticalisations and lexicalisations of referential information which is processed contextually" and as elements which highlight the relationship between the language system, the subjectivity of the encoder and the context of utterance (Green 1995). The pronoun "you" of advertisements is used for characters in the fictional situation of the advertisement and, also, to the plurality of potential consumers: the "I" is the manufacturer and the interlocutor in the advertisement. Finally, the "he" or "she" may be the persons who will not buy the product or possible competing companies (Cook 1992: 155). Immediacy and involvement on the part of the addressee are created by means of direct address in contrast to the distance implied by the use of the third person. However, deictic terms may change to a different person, highlighting the increasing proximity or distance with respect to the product in question. That way, the first person may become third person if the potential client buys the product of a different company (and vice versa). Deictic terms provide implications of the relation between the text and the potential customer, so that they represent a type of pragmatic mark in which the first and second persons are assumed "friends", whereas the third person is a probable "enemy" to the company. The consequence of this is a counterbalance in deictics marked by two motions: the semantic, explicit and invariable meaning, which provides a neutral setting, and the pragmatic added meaning, which is implicit and lays over the neutral meaning, making the client"s mind deduce the new sense of the deictic.

3. Materials and methods

In the following section we are going to analyse publicity texts from adverts in the technical press, both from journalistic sources published in paper and also from the internet. The reason for our choice is that, first of all, publicity has creative discursive features which take it apart from other conventional genres. Secondly, we have chosen the field of industry and technology because there has been too much research in other publicity subgenres addressed to the small consumer. The publicity messages which have been chosen deal about high technology and also about traditional agricultural engineering, in an attempt to offer a complete panorama. Finally, we have selected the advertisements in question because of their middle length, which makes them apt for textual analysis. In the following lines we are going to contrast publicity texts in English and in Spanish. We will focus on deixis with the purpose of analysing how the aforementioned languages behave and see the differences between them. In order to do so, we have analysed the ratio between the number of words per text, the percentage pronouns / words, the kind of personal pronouns in use and, also the corresponding possessive pronouns since they refer to persons or enterprises which have been personified, reason for which possessives can be considered as a subclass of personal pronouns with further extensions of meaning. The analysis also shows the personal role assigned to the company, on one hand, and to the potential client, on the other hand. The analysis also deals on the topic of the text, the axiological scale it tries to enhance and the way progression makes the text advance, because these features seem to be tackled from different perspectives in English and Spanish.

4. Analysis

4.1. Analysis of advertising messages in English.

Text 1: On the whole, the use of pronouns as markers of proximity or distance is frequent in this text: "our" (5), "its" (1), "we" (4) and "us" (1).

The starting point in the introduction of the company is Who We Are, which presents the company in the short distance and integrates it with the would-be buyer. However, a different pattern seems to be followed in both the first and the second paragraphs. In these two instances the starting point is precisely the name of the company, which is presented somewhat distant owing to the use of the third person. Going further along the two paragraphs, it can be noted the presence of the personal deictic "we", showing a purpose of proximity and involvement: We are committed to applying… or We have developed… The use of this deictic is repeated in the third paragraph: We are current with…, and in the last paragraph: …therefore we have integrated computer technology…By means of the change from third person singular to second person plural the message acts as a kind of zoom which approximates or keeps far away from the client.

In any case, that is not the only example of recurrence in this text. It is patent the utilization of the same verb ("provide") when the clients are mentioned on three occasions: -…to provide clients with… (first paragraph), -…provide its clients with… (second paragraph) and -…providing our clients with… (third paragraph). The clients are presented in these last two cases as somebody close to the company by means of the possessives "its" and "our". Furthermore, the latter is repeated in two other instances referring to the clients: …to look with our clients… (first paragraph) and …assures our clients… (third paragraph), once again highlighting the possible proximity between company and clients. In fact, "our" is recurrent in the third and in the last paragraphs, dealing with the company expertise in computer techniques and the company primary objectives.

The fourth paragraph, as well as the two first, begins with the name of the company which is presented as third person, applying the same pattern except for the use of the objective personal pronoun "us", followed by a reference to competition represented by the third person plural: …separates us from other firms. The text advances showing a lineal type of progression, with a different beginning and ending: Who We Are: THE BERKSHIRE DESIGN GROUP, INC., / Good design and quality control.

Text 2: Throughout the two paragraphs the use of the first person plural possessive "our" is repeated in five occasions, all of them referring to the company engineers, except for the last example: Our advanced capabilities in seismic design… But in all these cases either the company engineers or the company capabilities are presented as if they were neutral, because of the third person: … our civil engineers have the knowledge… or Our advanced capabilities in seismic design and analysis of structure lend… Both the first and second paragraphs begin with the name of the company offering their services by means of the same verb ("provide"), once again showing a neutral implication.

The only example by which the company is actually involved, as first person subjective personal pronoun, is in the first paragraph: We work effectively… There is also only one instance related to the client in a very direct manner: …to bring your ideas to fruition. The first and last part of the text refer to different concepts: BERGER/ABAM provides the civil engineering necessary to integrate projects into the local setting / Our advanced capabilities in seismic design.

Text 3: In the first sentence it is noticeable the emphasis used to draw the reader"s attention: We invite you to explore the world"s leading online wholesale channel for quality building products. On the contrary, exactly in the following sentence the company does not appear anymore as directly involved as in the previous example. The third person is selected in this case: BuildDirect is a global company…This advertisement is another example in which linguistic strategies are used in order to provide motion in the text resembling, this way, a movement of equilibrium between proximity and distance.

The message sent to possible clients is exemplified by "anyone" in this sentence: Anyone meeting our minimum order size may buy from us, with the use of the possessive pronoun "our" and the objective personal "us". The former appears just on one more occasion: …our friendly product specialists and the latter is uniquely employed in that example.

The message departs from an invitation ( We invite you to explore the world"s leading online wholesale channel ) to arrive at the offer and the possibility of contacting the company ( If you have any questions, you may phone ).

Text 4: In this text the company is represented in third person, therefore as something distant. This can be noted in three sentences which begin by the name of the company.

The text refers to the clients on two occasions. On the one hand, by means of the possessive pronoun: …our customers both in the United States and around the world. On the other hand, with no use of pronouns: This combination benefits customers… Consequently, the text shows an involvement decrease between the company and clients. On the contrary, the text ends with an attempt of proximity with the client: We partner with you on each project… following a direct style by the use of the personal pronouns "we" and "you".

The beginning and end of the publicity message lead to different contents: WesTech is building for the future. WesTech celebrates thirty years of process engineering excellence. / Employee ownership means…

Text 5: The presence of deixis is frequent throughout this text. It refers to the company in the first and in the last paragraphs as "Dorr-Oliver Eimco", and in both occasions it is described as a piece of information showing a distant concept of the company (third person) without any involvement.

In contrast, it is surprising an example by which the company is represented by the first person subjective personal pronoun used in abbreviated form with the verb: …we"re are available 24 hrs. a day… A similar example but related to the clients is included: Regardless you"re in the chemical… In both cases it is shown a very direct and informal language which tries to eliminate the distance between the company and the buyer.

The possesive "your" is utilized in five instances, all of them referred to the clients and their requirements. The choice of the second person here could indicate an attempt of complicity with the clients.

It is noticeable the correlation between the use of first person and second person possessive pronouns: – Our industry-leading technology can upgrade your "tired old machine" to state of the art performance regardless of it"s present age and condition. (In this example a grammar mistake can be observed in "it"s", instead of "its"). – Regardless of whether you"re in the chemical, industrial, mining, municipal, pulp & paper, or food & rendering business, we"re available 24 hrs. a day, 7 days a week to help keep your plant on line. The text ends with another example in first person objective personal pronoun ("us"). The purpose of the company is described in the following direct message: …or contact us at… The progression of the advertisement is lineal, leading from one pole of information to a new one: Dorr-Oliver Eimco is staffed with specialists who can restore and optimize your liquid/solid separation equipment. / Dorr-Oliver Eimco has the drawings, specifications and pattern equipment to produce "original equipment manufacturer" spare parts.

Text 6: it shows personal pronouns in the first person (our (1)), second person (you (3)), your (4)) and third person (they (1) and it (1)). There are three parties: two are presented as enemies, and the third one is a weapon to be used by one of the parties "you". The negative interaction between the two opposing groups refers to "they", the aphids and "you" and "your" investment, rotation or greenhouse. "They" are regarded as a threat to the "you" and "your" activities. The third party Aria, "it", is the solution provided to "you" in order to fight the enemy, i.e. the aphids. In turn, there is dependence between "it" and "our", since the weapon is presented and offered to "you" by the company "our" as the necessary means to keep "your" business going.

Here both beginning and end are marked by the direct address to the potential customer, signalled through the second person pronoun you omitted in the first sentence. The problem, aphids, is highlighted in the two extremes of the message: Tired of aphids sucking the life out of your greenhouse? / So don"t let aphids keep your investment from growing. Try new Aria, today! Contact our…

Text 7: it shows personal pronouns in the first person (we (2)) and second person (you (2), your (2)). The two parties are presented as friendly groups in order to co-operate in the area of horticulture. The "we" option acknowledges that the second party"s business ("you") is understood as well as difficulties and business development ("your"). The second step of the information provided refers to the new product offered by the "we" party. This is described as up-to-date, revolutionary and well-known. These qualities are applied in the third part of the text by offering them to the second party, "your" greenhouse, with a holistic approach to customers by means of "everyone", which includes "you". The final part of the text, once again, underlines the good qualities of the product for the development and maintenance of the plants, and as a result the second party"s business may perform well in the market. Beginning and end are marked by the presence of the verb to walk and by the direct address to the would-be buyer represented by means of different persons: in the first line they and in the last line it (the whole industry), in both cases meaning industry: They all talk about roots. PRO-MIX WALKS THE TALK / THIS IS WHY THE WHOLE INDUSTRY IS TALKING ABOUT THE NEW GENERATION OF PRO-MIX.

Text 8: it shows personal pronouns in the first person (our (1)), second person (you (13), your (1)) and third person (it (1), its (1)). There is a constant dependence of the two parties in the text: TriStar and "you". The first party is presented as having human qualities, as it is able to identify the specific pest and its location. It is also "at the head of the class", as it acts immediately and lasts for weeks. Another aspect to be considered is the utility of TriStar, as it is presented as the ideal way to control both pests and the amount sprayed because this provides "you" with freedom, "you"ll love the freedom of control". The excellent qualities of TriStar are there for the second party "you", so that time and money are saved "TriStar puts you in control of achieving effective , economical insect control". Dependency of the two parties is also seen through the use of "it" and "its" in relation to "you": "… it"s easy on beneficials and your budget, as well. That"s because its insect-specific rate range puts you in control of how much you use". The final paragraph refers to the confidence the second party "you" has in the company manufacturing TriStar i.e. Clearly Chemicals. "Go with the name you trust. Clearly Chemicals …provides pests and disease solutions you can count on." This reliance of "you" on the company is highlighted through the final offer using the first person: "… visit our website".

In this text beginning and end are signalled by the key word control and by the mention to the second person, omitted in the first line and openly present in the last line: Take the Guesswork Out of Effective Insect Control / TriStar – Finally, You"re in Control!

Text 9: it shows the presence of personal pronouns in the first person (we (3), our (2), us (1)), second person (you (4), your (2), yourself(1)) and third person (it (5), them (1)). The text shows the relationship between the three parties: "it", the greenhouse which has to be strong and needs a lasting performance so that "you", the second party, and your crops are protected. The third party, "we", is responsible for designing, building and marketing "them". The text shows dependence between the three parties as "you" need protection which is provided by "it", the greenhouse which is provided by "we", which in three different occasions stands as Stuppy, the firm in charge of the greenhouse. On one occasion "we" refers to Both "you" and "we", who is presented in the second paragraph as someone who is there for "you" to inform, help and offer what "you" need, i.e. the "it" or the greenhouse which has been built to "withstand the test of time …. and … all that Mother Nature and Old Man Winter can throw at "it". Both beginning and end appear signalled by the group strong foundation, which makes the text progress following a circular pattern: Withstanding the test of time is what defines a strong foundation / STRENGTH BEGINS WITH A SOLID FOUNDATION ….

Text 10: it shows personal pronouns in the first person (we (2), our (6)), second person (you (4), your (1), and third person (them (1), (anyone (1)). The main party in the text is "we", the company called Bartlett which makes benches "them" for the second party "you". The "we" qualities are highlighted through the text several times: " we do them better than anyone else; our revolutionary Channel Bench To is a perfect example; our new, stronger panels; our strong yet simple leg system". These self-applied good qualities are offered to "you" so that you work "smarter and harder" , and you"ll be impressed with Bartlett"s record of innovation. The final dependence of both parties is expressed by the fact that they both have business: Bartlett"s will make "your" business grow.

Beginning and end follow a circular pattern signalled by an appealing sentence which makes the company seem the star of the business of making benches: At Bartlett Benches are Our Business. Benches are Our Business / From Bartlett- Benches are our Business.

4.2. Analysis of advertising messages in Spanish Text 1: This text shows deixis from the very beginning including examples of first person possessive pronouns ("nuestro/a" (3)). In the first paragraph there are two cases of second person objective pronouns referred to the possible clients ("ofrecerle" and "asegurándole", corresponding to a formal and polite Spanish expression for you). This pattern is also used in the third paragraph ("brindarle") as well as in the last sentence (Queremos trabajar con ustedes para servirles), which shows a very direct way of marketing expression.

There is only one model of possessive pronoun, third person, in asegurándole resultados que maximicen el potencial y recursos de su patrimonio.

The company is described as first person in the third paragraph(…en MAYCA trabajamos diariamente…).

The text follows a lineal type of progression moving from one concept to the other: Nuestra misión es ofrecerle el mejor servicio /

"Queremos trabajar con Ustedes y Servirles" Text 2: This sample begins with a very direct question which implies the information related to the company and represented by the first person (¿Quiénes somos?). Consequently, the text starts by answering to this question using the first person (Somos una compañía…). Nevertheless, the company turns into the third person in several cases, such as: La compañía comenzó…; …en 1999 inicializó su labor…; La compañía cuenta con… or INGEIDEAS LTDA está localizada…, changing once more to the first person in the following example: …desde entonces hemos trabajado…. Hence, there is a continuous alternation between first and third person referred to the company.

There are two instances applied to the clients: on the one hand, as first person possessive pronoun (…en ayuda a nuestros clientes.), and on the other hand, as second person objective personal pronoun, being the company represented by the first person (Nos gustaría poder ayudarlos.) The text finishes with a curious expression (Contáctenos), which is a literal translation from English and more frequently used in Colombia than in Spain), but which undoubtedly results in a very direct, even aggressive, advertisement.

Lineal progression here progresses from the introduction to the offer of help: Somos una compañía colombiana / Nos gustaría poder ayudarlos.

¡CONTÁCTENOS!

Text 3: This text shows the use of pronouns in two cases: "nuestros" (1) and "su" ( 3 ) / sus ( 6 ). The only example of the first person "nuestros" appears at the beginning of the text (…de acuerdo a las necesidades de nuestros clientes), being chosen the third person for the rest of the text. Hence, the company and its services, equipment, objectives, personnel, even clients, are presented as if someone else from outside the company itself described them.

Here a circular type of progression is shown by means of the repetition of the word calidad ( quality ): Desarrollar proyectos de ingeniería y arquitectura con altos estándares de calidad… / … guiada hacia la productividad y CALIDAD TOTAL.

Text 4: This text begins with a very direct statement: Air-rail les da la bienvenida a su página web, by which it is made evident that "anyone" who reads the information below is presented in second person (les = a ustedes) whereas the company is presented with the deictic "su" (third person).

Nevertheless, in all other cases the company turns into first person ("somos", "trabajamos") and clearly with the use of the following deictics: "nos" (3) and "nuestro/a" (5).

The only case referred to the client is regarded as third person: …lo que fortalece nuestro compromise con el cliente…, showing a formal distance between the company and its clients. On the other hand, there is a case of exemplification of the company highlighting its quality: …nos avala como empresa líder en el sector…, (third person).

Beginning and end here have different poles of information: AIR-RAIL les da la bienvenida a su página web. / Los números nos avalan…

Text 5: It can be observed a balance or equilibrium in this text between the pattern representing the company by means of "nuestra/os" (8) and, on the other hand, the use of third person possessive pronoun "su/s" (5) referring to the clients" projects, objectives, needs… On two other occasions in the second paragraph, however, the use of "su" deals with the direction, control and implementation of the work to be carried out: …como cooperar en su dirección y control, o incluso entrenar a terceros para su realización. Throughout the text, the company is clearly presented as first person ("estamos", "llevamos", "contamos", "podemos", "proveemos"), whereas any sort of external support to the company is expressed in third person: …entrenar a terceros… (second paragraph); Nuestros profesionales, con el apoyo de consultores locales y extranjeros, pueden… (third paragraph).

This message reveals a different approach in the first and last part: En obras de defensa de costas… / Su misión es proponer alternativas de provisión…

Text 6: it shows pronouns in first person (nuestras(1)), le (2), su (2) sus (4), usted(1)). It can also be observed a type of indirect and omitted deixis referred to the verbal forms in the second person "tiene, quiere, póngase," and third person "desean". There is a relation of dependence between the two parties by means of a third element: knowledge ( conocimiento ). This provides commercial power and takes anyone to the first position among possible competitors. As a consequence, knowledge is offered through the assessors of the company who wish to share their expertise. There is a kind of lineal progression between the beginning and the ending: CONTROLE MEJOR SU FUTURO / Growing power.

Text 7: shows examples of pronouns in second person (usted (2), su (2) sus (2). We can see a case of elliptic deixis in the verbal form in first person "siga", and, also, in the second person " ha, quiere". Dependance among the two parties is created right from the beginning of the message: the third person singular, "usted" , is directly involved in the action because of its implication with the usefulness of ALUMINET, as it is shown in the sentence: "¿Ha estado alguna vez en un invernadero con pantalla ALUMINET* de alta calidad?. The verbal forms "quiere" and "siga" reinforce the relation of reliance between the two parties since they summarize the sense of the text: the excellent properties of the product in question can make your work more productive. In this text both parts, beginning and end, are shown as unconnected:¿Ha estado alguna vez en un invernadero con pantalla ALUMINET* / ¿Quiere que siga?.

Text 8: it shows a style self-contained in an only party with no counterparts: we, "nosotros", the company. There is no direct deixis but an only case of indirect one in first person plural: "somos". The rest of the text describes the features of the companies related with the same task: the elimination of residues in food. Closely related to this general target, experience and technological and legal update are mentioned as other qualities. This message shows a circular pattern of progression in which the first and last part apply to the same concept: EL CAMINO DE LA SEGURIDAD ALIMENTARIA / los protocolos de seguridad alimentaria más exigentes.

Text 9: The text shows a mixture between the descriptive and the argumentative structure. The latter is shown by one convincing argument: the power of decision the client may exert. After the introduction La nueva generación de ordenadores al instante del Grupo Informaster te da lo que nadie puede ofrecerte the expression Tú decides (You decide) is continuously repeated throughout the message up to the conclusion, which also finishes with the same repetitive expression Tú decides. The same slogan leads and introduces every new paragraph and piece of new information, so the purpose of Tú decides is to mark progression lineally because the text shows a distinct introduction and end. The Spanish deictic you is repeated 8 times enhancing the proximity between the company and the would-be buyer because of the use of the informal second person singular pronoun. This use highlights the sense of proximity with the client, situating both of them at the same level, at a level of friendship. In contrast to the second person singular, we find the third person singular, the future represented by a new generation of computers. Here, the company is not introduced in first person, as it is the usual method of advertising, but in a seemingly distant third person.

Although the text tries to persuade the reader in order to buy the product, we cannot say the slogan on which the message is based (You decide) has hidden implicatures. The company does not try to mean it is the best in any field; it simply adverts the advantages of buying their products through open explicatures. Here we enhance the straightforward and lineal progression of the structure of the message and the use of a single deictic, the informal second person pronoun tú ( you ).

Text 10: This message is marked by the use of the deictic usted (1), which represents the formal pronoun for second person singular. This is a much politer form than the one marked by tú and is habitually used to show respect to the addressee. The inclusion of Spanish personal pronoun in the morphology of the verb makes the use of deictics much more scarce in Spanish than in English.

The text advances from the introduction (le presentamos la solución ideal), to the development and the conclusion (miles de usuarios en todo el mundo) also in a straightforward way, revealing a lineal pattern of progression.

5. Findings

English and Spanish show different applications both in the use of pronouns and in the role the company and the clients play when deixis refers to them. In the Spanish texts we find a wider variety in the use of personal deixis because this language has two different morphologies for the second person pronoun: tú ( for a person one knows well ) / usted ( distant and polite form to show respect ) and vosotros / ustedes ( with the same respective uses in plural ). Also the aforementioned language can play with the omission of deictics since they are included in the morpheme of the verb.

The results for the two languages are the following:

Table 1: English pronouns

* The inclusion of a personal pronoun in parenthesis indicates it is elicited in the Spanish text Technical advertisements written in English reveal an average length of 157"6 words per text, whereas the Spanish counterpart shows an average of 130"9 words. This fact is striking since the latter tends to use a greater number of words in general written messages. The reason for this graphic economy may be in the high cost of advertising: this makes superfluous vocabulary disappear, and as a side-effect, briefness becomes a helpful tool for the cognitive purpose, for getting information stored in the consumer"s mind ( Vivanco 2005).

In regard to the number of pronouns, both personal and possessive, which may be considered as a subclass of personal pronouns with further implications, the English section uses an average of 9"7 items per advertising message. In regard to the Spanish part and taking into account the elicit pronouns which are always morphologically and semantically included in the verb, it shows only 8"3 items per advertisement. The smaller number of words and the smaller use of pronouns makes the Spanish version show a smaller tendency in the use of deictics in publicity messages. 6"57 is the percentage of the relation between words and pronouns in the Spanish part, whereas in English we find an average of 5"74 for each message.

In relation to content, experience (8), quality (3) and innovative character (2) are the most appreciated values in technical publicity in English, followed by other factors taken into account such as design, totality of services included, economy, durability and exclusivity. The Spanish part highlights experience (4), quality (3) and innovative character (2) and values other factors such as economy, knowledge, adaptability and friendly-use. In regard to the concept of progression of the message, the messages in English show a double tendency to follow either a lineal or a circular pattern. The latter structure which seems more often linked to the topic of traditional and agricultural engineering than to high technology. In contrast, the Spanish language reveals a clear tendency to follow a lineal pattern which makes the text show a different beginning and end, independently of the topic of the message.

6. Discussion

In the English section we find a total number of 54 personal pronouns. The second person pronoun, you, with a common and ambiguous morphology for both singular and plural, is the most often used personal pronoun with 30 items and a percentage of 55"55 %. We, the first person plural pronoun appears in the second position, with 15 items and a percentage of 27"77 %, and it is followed both by it, the third person singular pronoun, and by us, the object personal pronoun for the first person of the plural, both sharing 3 items and a percentage of 5"55 %. They are followed by subject, object and reflexive personal pronouns ( they, them, yourself ) each having 1 item and a percentage of 1"85 %.

On the other hand, a total of 44 possessive pronouns are divided among 27 items for our ( 61"36 per cent ), 15 for your ( 34"09 per cent ), and 2 for its ( 4"54 per cent ). This reveals an apparent lack of equilibrium in the relation between strictly personal pronouns and possessive pronouns since you, the second person pronoun, with a ratio of 55"55 % represents the first place in regard to persons, whereas our, the first person possessive in plural, is the most used morphology to indicate possession. The reason for the aforementioned behavior of deictics is in the interaction between the appeal to the client"s attention ( you ) and the answer the companies themselves are continuously offering: you need + our services. Technical publicity in English hammers the consumers" mind with a veiled and repetitive message that follows a flip-flop motion in which the two extremes are represented by the lack or problem the client has ( role represented by the personal pronoun you ) and the solutions the company offers. In this latter case the set formed by the group of people who work in the company and their experience becomes synthesized in the possessive pronoun our. These facts reveal that technical messages in English publicity simulate a kind of covered and biased dialogue through a motion play in which companies tell the needs or problems potential clients may have and answer anticipating solutions. In the Spanish counterpart we find a wider variety of personal pronoun morphologies (11) which contrasts the English section with a total of 7 different forms. A total number of 45 strictly personal pronouns in the Spanish part is divided in different levels of use: tú ( second person singular ) with 11 items ( 24"44 % ), usted ( second person singular polite form ) with 10 items ( 22"22 % ), nosotros ( we ) with 7 items ( 15"55 % ); ellos ( they ), te ( you: object form singular ), le ( him / her), nos ( us ), with 3 items ( 6"66 % ) for each of the morphologies; los ( them ) with 2 items ( 4"44 % ); and yo ( I ), ustedes ( you: plural and polite form ), and lo ( it: object form ), with 1 item ( 2"22 % ) for each of the morphologies.

With respect to the use of Spanish possessive pronouns we also find a wider variety of forms: 6 different items which in English are reduced to 3. The Spanish part shows a variation between the second person possessive ( our: nuestra, nuestro, nuestras, nuestros ) and the su / sus ( your / his / her ) forms which are ambiguous and may be applied both to the first person ( form of politeness ) and to the third person. A total number of 39 possessive pronouns are divided into su ( 12 items: 31"57 % ), sus ( 10 items: 26"31 % ), nuestra ( 7 items: 18"42 % ), nuestro ( 4 items: 10"52 % ), nuestros ( 4 items: 10"52 % ), and nuestra ( 1 item: 2"63 % ). The figures reveal the Spanish correspondence between personal and possessive pronouns since the polite form for second person is the most used in the first place in both cases ( usted / su ). Following the same tendency, the second higher index of use appears in both cases represented by the second person plural form nosotros ( we ), form which is directly linked to the possessives nuestra, nuestras, nuestro and nuestros, equivalent to our in all the cases. This reveals that, contrarily to technical publicity in English, the Spanish language follows a more lineal type of message in which the subject and object play the relevant role.