Self help books and their titles – a lexical and syntactical analysis

The article presents results of an analysis of titles of English self-help books as animportant phenomenon of pop culture. The focus was placed on the role of the title bothas a key factor for the consumer decision-making process and as a carrier of culturalthought or an element of culture. Individual titles of self-help publications were dividedaccording to, among others, their length, structural and semantic features. The lexicallayer was discussed with particular emphasis on the elements that stand out from theselected research material. A syntactic analysis was undertaken in order to identify themost common structures to determine whether there is a rule for titling self-help booksthat would ensure their commercial success. The article also mentions the problemof intertextual references and rhetorical procedures that make titles more attractiveand perform advertising functions. The subject under scrutiny spans several branchesof science, including psychology and sociology.