THE SEMIOTICS OF MYTH TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE XXI CENTURY (on the basis of advertising discourse)

The article addresses the role of myth in modern society based on scrutinizing the myth about King Arthur that became exceptionally popular in advertising discourse. We aim to demonstrate which elements of myth are harnessed in advertising discourse and further transformed to meet the marketing demands. The paper considers the myth within the framework of cognitive-discursive paradigm applying the method of conceptual analysis and blending. The applied method of conceptual analysis allowed us to identify the main components of the Arthurian myth and their major conceptual characteristics. Each advertising event was further studied as a dynamic process of meaning making through forming a blended space of Input space 1 - an element taken from a myth and Input space 2 comprising the characteristics of an advertised object. The analysis showed that simple double blends prevail, yet there are cases with three Input spaces when two mythological elements are exploited. Although the key (core) characteristics are used most frequently, many peripheral ones open up the possibilities for further transformations. As a result, a semiotic model of myth’s transformations is proposed and several vectors it develops in modern society are outlined.