SPECIFIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MULTIMODAL LEXICAL UNITS AND SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES IN MODERN ADVERTISEMENTS

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of multimodal lexical units and syntactic constructions. Taking into account the illustrative material which has been analysed, it has been identified that a certain portion of modern Englishlanguage lexical units as well as syntactic constructions have changed its status from monomodal to multimodal. Information revolution served as a key reason for that and made it possible to implement communication transformations at all levels, from graphic to textual. It has been shown that the number of non-verbal devices which are included in a single syntactic construction is not fixed, and varies in each case. Among these constructions there are some in which there is only one component of a non-verbal nature, or several within one lexical unit or a syntactic construction in general. Those which do not contain any verbal components have also been identified. The choice of a non-verbal unit which is appropriate in each case is determined by the subject and primarily corresponds to the content of the text. A number of non-verbal units which were identified in the corpus of the exemplifying material are very similar to the substituted lexical unit. This technique is used to ensure comprehensibility of an advertisement. It should also be noted that the multimodal lexeme often includes one non-verbal component which reflects the full name of the product which is being advertised. This indicates a change in semiotic paradigms and the need to rethink existing approaches to the consideration of signs and sign systems, as we observe the utilization of a pictorial sign within a lexical unit which duplicates the actual sense of the lexical unit itself. On the basis of the examples which have been analysed, we have a reason to conclude that multimodal lexemes are units which are formed by combining exclusively non-verbal units which correspond in form to the codified alphabetic graphemes; or verbal codified graphemes and nonverbal ones which combination forms a unit which differs from the classical one. Multimodal units not only embody a different plan of expression, but also to some extent transforms the plan of the content.