Titles of editions: Between advertising and pragmatics

Abstract

The title, as one of the most important elements of any publication, has a dual nature. The aim of the article is to evaluate the correlation of advertising and pragmatic functions in the titles of modern mass literature publications. The study was conducted on the basis of an experiment. Thirty-four titles of fiction publications were the material for it; these are books by the Eksmo Publishing House, published in the first half of February 2022. Respondents were asked to choose no more than five titles of books that they would like to read. After that, they had to briefly describe what they thought each selected book was about. Eighty-five people took part in the survey. Successful book titles (chosen by more than 10% of respondents) and unsuccessful ones (chosen by fewer than 5% of respondents) were taken for further research. All of them were divided into three groups - depending on how accurately the respondents were able to determine the subject, genre or content of the book. The study confirmed the hypothesis that the title of the book should clearly indicate to the potential reader what kind of work awaits them. In some cases, lexical “marking” of a genre orientation is enough for this. According to these signs, the titles Soul Catchers (“souls”: fantasy, mysticism), Looking at the Sea (“sea”: romance), People Are Stronger Than Walls (heroic pathos of comparison) and even Show of Family Secrets (“secrets”: detective, thriller) were correctly interpreted. On the contrary, the title Thrice Risen was associated with mysticism, philosophy, although the genre of the work turned out to be different. The pragmatic component can also be provided by a capacious reflection of the subject matter of the work. On this basis, the problems of books with the titles When Mom is You (“Mom”: the theme of motherhood and relationships with children) and partly Chronicles of the Asylum (“Asylum”: the theme of borderline states of the psyche) were correctly “read”. But the title A Career Requires Sacrifice can be considered unfortunate, since it evoked clear (but false) associations: the difficulty of balancing a career and personal or family life. The book title can also be associated with the text by its style. Thus, the title Looking at the Sea seemed “soft” and “lyrical” to the respondents, which corresponds to the idea of a sentimental novel. In the course of the experiment, the most serious errors of publishers when approving the title were also revealed. One of them is the choice of a title similar to another well-known one (The Mentalist, The Ice Heart). Another common problem is the ambiguity of the title when it includes completely unknown words (The Pursuit of the Pankera) or using complex metaphors (Windows in the Clouds, Rapid Jelly). It is proved that a successful title should be informative and should clearly indicate the genre, thematic focus, problems and style of the work. It also should not contain excessive pathos, should not be stereotyped and should be original enough. The author declares no conflicts of interests.