Perfection as a concept of hyperbolisation in English promotional discourse: A multi-dimensional linguistic analysis

Abstract

The article considers the descriptive attribute ‘perfect’ and its derivatives as a commonly used abstraction for creating persuasive emotional texts that encourage potential customers to make purchases and satisfy their needs. The study analyses the objects of reference, semantic field, and syntactic functions of the concept through the prism of its functioning in promotional brochures devoted to passenger automobiles belonging to 44 brands. The material included 115 brochures over the previous decade, 22,000 words of minimal contexts and 520 contextual occurrences of ‘perfect’ and its derivatives. The obtained results show that ‘perfect’ tends to reveal two meanings – excellence and compliance to a standard – which historically go back to its original meaning in Latin ‘per factum’ (made thoroughly). Over the period of the decade, there has been a shift from idealisation to practicality in the automotive industry under the influence of economic and environmental factors. The semantic mapping of contextual associative adjectives also indicates that ‘perfect’ is currently more oriented to highlighting practical utility of the cars rather than their excellence. In effect, such practical aspects as technological advancement, technicality, customisation, reliability, comfort, dynamics, style, noiselessness, sound, and price outnumber abstract qualities which express positive impressions, elevation, idealisation, and exaggeration of relevance, by 30%. Semantically, the concept ‘perfection’ follows the promotional principle of combining rational and emotional arguments. ‘Perfect’ is applicable to any car part – be it the exterior, interior or engine. The derivational paradigm has no limitations in syntactic distribution; however, in promotional discourse it typically occurs in nominative structures. The results contribute to the theoretical development of the linguistic worldview through the lens of valuable marketing concepts and can be practically useful in training professional writing skills to students specialising in PR and advertising and learning English for specific purposes.