Communicative framing in corporate presentations: A linguistic-pragmatic perspective

The article examines the linguistic-pragmatic aspect of communicative framing in corporate presentations aimed at attracting investment. The relevance of the study lies in the need to identify strategies of speech control and meaning construction employed in institutional communication. The theoretical framework combines the principles of frame semantics, cognitive linguistics, and pragmalinguistics, integrated into a three-level model of framing encompassing the lexical-semantic, cognitive, and communicative levels. This approach enables a comprehensive examination of the ways in which professionally significant information is represented and interpreted within corporate genres. The material for the study comprised 52 English-language investment presentations by leading technology companies, with a total corpus volume of approximately 24,000 words. The analysis was conducted within a linguistic-pragmatic approach to framing, in which a frame is viewed as a structural-discursive unit that organizes content in accordance with the speaker's communicative purpose. The study identified five stable frames: Problem, Solution, Market, Uniqueness, and Social Validation. Each frame performs a specific pragmatic function and is characterized by a distinct set of lexical means and rhetorical devices. The pragmatic purposes established in the research include the formulation of an existing market deficiency, inefficiency, or systemic challenge (Problem); the demonstration of a relevant response to the identified issue (Solution); the presentation of a quantitatively and qualitatively substantiated context for the product's market demand (Market); the justification of the product's exclusivity (Uniqueness); and the demonstration of external recognition and endorsement (Social Validation). The identified lexical means include evaluative vocabulary with negative and positive connotations, action verbs, quantifiers and numerals, first-person plural pronouns, as well as temporal and spatial deixis. The rhetorical devices observed comprise anaphora, antithesis, gradation, isocolon, hyperbole, rhetorical question, comparison, and quotation. The study has established that the sequence of frames (Problem -> Solution -> Market -> Uniqueness -> Social Validation) constitutes a pragmatically motivated model of argumentation that ensures the step-by-step engagement of the audience and fosters readiness for investment decision-making. The findings refine the understanding of communicative framing in corporate presentations and demonstrate that the effectiveness of this genre is achieved through a consistent set of linguistic-pragmatic strategies aimed at interpretative control of the audience's attention and response.