The Construction of the Enunciative Scene: An Examination of Shifting Out in Advertising

Abstract

From the analysis of certain propositions, it becomes possible to identify some features that directly or indirectly relate to the instance of enunciation. These are elements that construct the image of actors, paint settings and regulate the duration of the actions developed in the text. Thus, the mechanisms of actorialization, spatialization and temporalization participate in the shifting out process, that is, a discursive movement undertaken for the introduction of people, places and times in an enunciate, resulting in diverse effects of meaning. Considering the syncretic advertising texts as very rich enunciates in terms of meanings, this work aims at verifying, in one sample, how the shifting out process is articulated in order to create simulacra of reality, which contributes to the effective manipulation of their enunciators upon their possible enunciatees. Through this procedure, the enunciative scene is set, leaving explicit on the surface of the discourse some signs, remnants of an “I”, a “here” and a “now”, which reveal the presence of subjects, places and moments whose essence goes beyond the mere producers and receivers of a text. It conveys the levels of objectivity or subjectivity adopted during the production of the advertisement, as a result of the professional’s choice of expressing proximity to or distance from his discourse, in a purely intentional action.