Homonymy in the impressive function

Elżbieta Awramiuk

Uniwersytet w Białymstoku

Abstract

The article discusses different ways of using the phenomenon of homonymy to realize the impressive function as exemplified by the titles (mainly press headlines from a weekly magazine “Polityka” (Politics)) and advertisements. The impressive function, which involves affecting the recipient’s behavior, by evoking specific reactions such as attitudes or beliefs as well as persuading their recipients to undertake specific actions (e.g. reading the whole text, watching the film or buying a certain product), is realized through the use of homonymic forms of common and proper names, forms originating from various languages, forms of different lexemes as well as homophony resulting from various possibilities of segmentation. Impressiveness is frequently supported by the poetic function.

Keywords:

impressive function