The document analyzes and compares a 2019 Romanian slogan urging people to vote in the European Parliament elections to recruitment posters from World War 1. The 2019 slogan "E.U. YES LA VOT" uses indirectness and politeness strategies like exploiting homonyms and not directly addressing the receiver. In contrast, the 1914 recruitment posters directly urged "Britons" and Americans to join their country's armies using imperative verbs and aggressive visuals like pointing fingers. The 2019 slogan avoids direct requests and maintains a low power position and social closeness to politely encourage voting in the European elections.

1. The Politeness of Advertising
E.U. YES LA VOT
ADRIANA VIZENTAL
“Aurel Vlaicu” University, Arad

2. Goal of project
- to survey how S manipulates language in order to
persuade in a non-aggressive way
i.e. to investigate S’s strategies of indirectness & politeness
Text surveyed
- a slogan urging people to participate in the
elections for the European parliament

3. The campaign
 Pro TV’s campaign slogan for the 2019 elections in Romania for the
European Parliament
o poor participation in previous polls
o the need for a powerful campaign
Discourse/type of text: written
 a slogan produced for the visual media
Political background
o elections for the European Parliament (May, 2019)
o held in the 27 member states of the European Union (E.U.)
o largest transnational elections in history
 Attitudes
 International
o increased Euroskepticism: voices in the member countries
questioning the E.U.
o Britain’s wish to exit the E.U. (Brexit)
 Romanian
o growing dissatisfaction with the governing party’s (PSD)
 disregard of the rule of law and of fundamental rights
 the party leader’s Euroskeptic and nationalistic rhetoric
o the emergence of a strong Romanian diaspora eager to preserve
their rights as European citizens
Context

4. Language (text) Eu ies la vot
Lexical creativity: Exploitation of homonymy
o homographs
 eu [ieu] (Rom. = I)
 EU [‘i: ‘ju] (Eng. = European Union)
o homophones
 ies [jes] (Rom. = I go out)
 Yes (Eng. = agreement)
Connotations
o eu – EU: the speaker/voter is presented as
 important & active (initial position, highlighted)
 a member of the E.U., a citizen of Europe
o ies – yes:
 eagerness, agreement
 voting is presented as an intentional, assumed, political act

5. Visual design
Context of the text
 inscribed on the flag of the European Union
o blue cloth
o circle of golden stars
 background: dark blue sky, some clouds (connoting trouble)
Exploitation of visual paralanguage:
 block letters
o E.U. – inscribed on the picture of a flag
• golden background, blue letters (= the E.U.)
• warm colors: to connote both Speaker/voter, and the E.U.
o YES & VOT – bright white letters; highlighted (standing out)
 size:
o E.U. – smaller in size, more personal
o YES & VOT – large letters, thus highlighted
o LA – very small letters: mere link word

6. Textness
Cohesion
 text + visual work together to convey a unitary message
Coherence
 the message (the urge to vote) is clear in spite of its indirectness
Speech Act
 Illocutionary force: an indirect urge
Cooperation
 Implicature: S flouts
• the Maxim of Quantity
o S conveys more meaning than what his/her words say
• the Maxim of Relevance
o talks about themselves, not about R
 Inferences: R will have no difficulty bridging the gap between what S says & what S means
o i.e. that S is urging him/her to go and vote, too

7. Earlier political slogans
 a British World War I recruitment poster (1914) featuring Field Marshal H.H.
Kitchener, a powerful figure in the British Army and colonial administration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Kitchener_Wants_You
 an American recruitment poster, featuring Uncle Sam (initials U.S), a common
national personification of the American government or the country in general
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam
Strategies of persuasion: a direct, aggressive approach
S addresses R directly in 3 ways:
• language
• eye contact (searing eyes)
• hand gesture (finger pointing straight at R)
Language
 Britons: Lord Kitchener Wants You. Join Your Country's Army! God save the King
• S = a high ranking official of the British army
• direct address to R: Britons (pl), You
• imperative verb: Join
• status symbols invoked: the Country’s Army, God, the King
 I Want YOU for US Army. Nearest Recruiting Station
• status symbols
• I = Uncle Sam = the U.S.; U.S. Army
• S = the character in the picture, conventionally accepted as symbolizing
the U.S.; the stars on the ribbon of his hat; the colours of the
character’s clothes (white, red, blue)
• elliptical utterances, standing for spoken language/face-to-face conversation
• [the] U.S. Army
• [Go to the] Nearest recruiting station = connoting urgency

8. Strategies of indirectness
o manipulation of person deixis:
• first person engagement (S = I go out)
• instead of 2nd person address (< You must/should go!)
o an indirect urge
• no imperative utterance
As a result:
o power position: low P: S has no power over R
o social distance: close D: S identifies with R and his/her social group; equal status
Strategies of politeness
The slogan does the FTA
 off record: i.e. gives hints/violates the Maxim
o of Quantity (says less)
o of Relevance (talks about themselves)
o of Manner (ambiguous)
 negative politeness with redress
o S doesn’t coerce R, gives him/her option not to act
 positive politeness
o insinuates that S & R share common opinions/are cooperators

9. Comparative survey:
1914
•
Context
• war, recruiting poster
Text:
• Britons: Lord Kitchener Wants You. Join Your
Country's Army! God save the King.
Indirectness
• Direct address to R
• Direct urge to join the army, imperative verb
Visual
• direct eye contact (searing gaze)
• finger pointing aggressively at R
Politeness
• FTA, on record, baldly, without redressive
action (direct address, imperative verb)
• aggressive, intrusive, power position (high P)
2019
Context
• Elections for the European parliament
• Peace time, but heated controversies
Text
• E.U. YES LA VOT
Indirectness
• No reference is made to R, only S mentioned
• No actual urge to vote
Visual
• Impersonal, but symbolic (a flag with a logo)
• Receivers could personalize it by adding their own
picture (no aggression)
Politeness
• FTA off record, vague, ambiguous
• Non-intrusive, low P, polite, elegant

10. Bibliography
Books
Vizental, Adriana. 2009. Meaning and Communication From Semantic
Meaning to Pragmatic Meaning. Arad: “Aurel Vlaicu” University Press.
Vizental, Adriana. 2008. Phonetics and Phonology: An introduction. 3rd
edition revised. Arad: “Aurel Vlaicu” University Press.
Vizental, Adriana. 2019. Interpreting texts. Parts 1 & 4. Arad: “Aurel
Vlaicu” University Press.
Online sources
•https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alegeri_pentru_Parlamentul_European_%C3%AEn
_Rom%C3%A2nia%2C_2019 (accessed on July 29, 2019)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_European_Parliament_election
(accessed on July 29, 2019)
• https://www.politico.eu/article/romanias-rulers-take-euroskeptic-turn/
(accessed on July 29, 2019)
•https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/PSD_banner.jpg