Advertisements: Signs of femininity and their corresponding ‎color ‎meanings

Abstract

This book is submitted by Professor Mony Almalech, Dr. Habil. ‎Institute for the Bulgarian language. The monograph represents an example ‎of the unique partnership between Almalech and Prof. Sasha Weitman, ‎Ph.D., Tel-Aviv University as Almalech quotes a manuscript Weitman ‎on signs of femininity. ‎
The monograph of Almalech consists of two parts two Appendixes – the first serves ‎as a textbook on Semiotics of colors, the second is research on the color ‎meanings and their corresponding meanings to the signs of femininity in ‎advertisements.‎ Appendix 1 is the Norm of color associations and 2 is pictures of adds.
The contribution of Almalech is the development of the Semiotics of ‎colors and its application to the world of advertisements. ‎
Almalech draws our attention to the semiotic differences between ‎visual colors and linguistic color terms. He recognized two forms of ‎existence of the language of the colors – Verbalized and Visual (non-‎verbalized). The visual colors are percept by the ocular perception, i.e. all ‎colors are percept simultaneously. The verbalized form is when we use the ‎natural language to designate color. The verbalized Color language is ‎subordinate to the linear or syntax order of the natural language. ‎Almalech used the Test of Free Linguistic Associations (Kent-‎Rossanof) to form the Bulgarian Norm of associations on colors (Appendix ‎‎1). The list of word-associations (Appendix 1) is taken as a dictionary of ‎non-color meanings of colors. In his previous book in English – Balkan ‎Folk Color Language – Almalech proves a list of universal and non-‎universal color meanings of Visual colors in folklore marriage and burial. ‎Now he used the Prototype theory of Rosch and Lakoff to comment the ‎Norm of associations and the list of visual color meanings.‎
Almalech relates the verbalized associative non-color meanings of ‎different words (basic color terms white, black, red, etc.; prototype terms ‎light, darkness, sun, fire, blood, sky, sea, etc.; prototype rival terms linen, ‎cherry, duckling, ruby, wine, sapphire, etc.; terms for the basic features of ‎the prototypes clean, pure, immaculate for light; hot, warm for fire; fresh ‎for plants, etc.) to the non-color meanings of the visual colors in folklore. ‎He finds a small kern of mutual universal meanings which become a ‎semiotic key for decoding the messages of advertisements. ‎
The colors and the signs of femininity are described by Almalech as ‎independent sign systems in terms of the semiotic triangle. The previous ‎researches of Almalech on colors gave him the possibility to trace ‎semantic and semiotic links between the signs of femininity and the colors. ‎The analysis of 44 advertisements (pictures in Appendix 2) is the second ‎part of the book. ‎
Maybe the most valuable result of this book of Mony Almalech is ‎the conclusion that despite the successful use of folklore matrices such as ‎‎“saying twice the same thing” the world of advertisements misses the most ‎important intention and semantics of the ritual colors – the preserving ‎and reproducing power of their positive magic. The ads manipulate by ‎subconsciously readable messages which are not pinpointed on our ‎survival. The pragmatic principle of lie works here because, as the author ‎points out, we all know subconsciously the universal meanings of colors. ‎Almalech concludes that effective advertising works on our soul but not ‎on our pocket. ‎
The book can be used both by students of semiotics or by ‎advertisement specialists. It might be of interest to semioticians, ‎anthropologists, linguists.‎
DOI: 10.7546/9789543220205‎