Presupposition, Persuasion and Mag Food Advertising: A Preliminary Study.

Abstract

In this study presupposition is examined from the point of view of the type of information assumed by advertisers (Levinson 1983; Goddard 1998) and the functions they ful fi l in achieving persuasion in nutritional advertising. Thus, 25 headlines from 5 health and fitness magazines (2012) have been classi fied according to the type of covert information. The results indicate that there are gender differences as regards this form of inferential information as well as the linguistic items that trigger these presuppositions. Whereas commercials addressed to men are more competitive, those addressed to women appeal more to their emotions.