Резюме. Marketing communications, which are part of the entrepreneurship’ discipline, can integrate the most important school disciplines with the help of semiotics. Several relevant scientific articles and books in the following areas: business education, integrations between different school (educational) disciplines, semiotics and advertising, metaphor, synecdoche, etc. are analyzed in the Literature Review. The main text of the article studies different examples of corporate style and corporate identity. They are important part of business and entrepreneurship. Admen (artists, designers, etc.) in marketing communications created this corporate style and corporate identity on the basis of various visual metaphors, synecdoche and other stylistic figures. The authors of textbooks for primary and secondary school and the teachers can integrate the education of native language, foreign languages, literature, art and entrepreneurship with the help of these and other stylistic figures.

Ключови думи: semiotics; metaphor; integration; mother tongue; foreign language

Purpose

To examine the interdisciplinary connections between the education of mother tongue, foreign languages, art, mathematics and entrepreneurship on the bases of semiotics and branding.

Methodological approach

The authors analyse interdisciplinary connections with the help of some of the best branding communications and on the basis of semiotics.

Findings

Semiotics is universal discipline and this science can improve the interdisciplinary connections between the main educational disciplines and entrepreneurship.

Research limitations/implications

The authors used only restricted number of semiotic concepts – because of the article limited length.

However, this paper might be the starting point for more detailed studies on semiotics and its role for the integration of the main educational disciplines.

Practical implications

This article is quite useful for the teachers and for the authors of textbooks.

Acknowledgement to the artists whose branding communications are analysed in the article

The authors used some of the world’s best branding communications in this article. They are excellent examples how creative and innovative are the artists. The authors express their deep gratitude to the admen who did these very professional branding communications.

Literature Review

Literature review was done in the following fields: Business Education, Integrations between Different School (Educational) Disciplines, Semiotics and advertising, metaphor, synecdoche

Business Education

The book “Teaching and Learning at Business Schools: Transforming Business Education” analyses the education in business faculties from the standpoints of their foreign students. Therefore, an important part of their training is related to the intercultural aspects of business. This is the reason why the development of intercultural business programs is so important for the effectiveness of business education. (Martensson Par, Magnus Bild and Kristina Nilsson, Eds.)

“Business Education and Training: A Value-Laden Process” is the ninth volume of a series of scientific books on business and education. It evaluates the links between universities, business and technology. Some of the main highlights are about the cultural adaptations of foreign students, gender roles and business education, ethical aspects of business, emotional intelligence, advertising storytelling and the marketplace, rhetoric and the marketplace, etc. (M. Natale, Samuel and Anthony F. Libertella, Eds.)

The book “Teaching Business Education” shows some of the most important and latest trends in the development of business curriculum. Emerging workrelated curriculum, enterprise education and e-learning, etc. are analysed in depth. (Jephcoteр, Martin and Ian Abbott)

The study “Frontiers of Distance Learning in Business Education” is important because it examines one of the most relevant aspects of business education - the online training. The distance learning methods are the main topic in this book. (Estelami, Hooman, Ed.)

The book “Business Education in Emerging Market Economies: Perspectives and Best Practices” explores business education in developed economies and especially in United States. It examines a lot of data regarding innovations in business education programs. (Ilan Alon and John R. McIntyre Eds.)

The study “Innovation in Business Education in Emerging Markets” analyses in-details business education in emerging market economies. Some of the key concepts in the book are accreditation process, business programs, cloud computing, entrepreneurship environment, etc. (Alon, Ilan and Victoria Jones)

The book “Shaping the Future of Business Education: Relevance, Rigor, and Life Preparation” thoroughly examines how business universities educate future leaders. Some of the most important topics are connected with the technologies, ethical training, integrated liberal learning and accounting curriculum, the multidisciplinary nature of experiential learning, etc. (G. Hardy, D. Everett, Eds.)

The author Arbaugh J. B. thoroughly studies in “Online and Blended Business Education for the 21st Century: Current Research and Future Directions” some of the key disciplines in terms of business education - accounting, economics, finance, information systems, management, marketing, supply chain management and others.

Integrations between Different School (Educational) Disciplines

The book “Interdisciplinary Learning Activities” analyses in depth some of the most important approaches in interdisciplinary learning. Special attention is paid to the development of the interdisciplinary curriculum. (Post, Ger, Myrte Mijnders and Hannah Edelbroek)

Many universities offer interdisciplinary training and a lot of students are interested in such programs. The different authors of the book “Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching in Higher Education” analyse in details some of the most important aspects of interdisciplinary training - the ways of integration of the different subjects, the integrations from the point of view of the theories of mass communications, etc. (Balasubramanyam Chandramohan and Stephen Fallows, Eds.)

The book “Innovations in Interdisciplinary Teaching” studies the most important approaches in interdisciplinary education. This education is not a sporadic process, however a long-term strategy. The authors examine in depth the pedagogical standards connected with the interdisciplinary pedagogy. (Haynes, Carolyn. Ed.)

The study “Art Works!: Interdisciplinary Learning Powered by the Arts” is one of the most valuable books regarding the art as tool of integration of the different disciplines. The book analyses various cultural phenomena – architecture of the Middle East, Harlem Renaissance, etc. and how they contribute to the interdisciplinary education. (Dennie Wolf, Dana Balick Eds.)

The book “Designing Interdisciplinary Education: A Practical Handbook for University Teachers” analyses a lot of practical educational approaches with regard to the interdisciplinary training. Its authors explore various case studies and other didactic materials from different countries. (de Greef, Linda, Ger Post, Lucy Wenting and Christianne Vink.)

Semiotics and Advertising

Ron Beasley and Marcel Danesi in the study “The Semiotics of Advertising” explore the various sign systems and their applications in marketing communications. The authors thoroughly analyse the actualizations of the various signs depending on the expectations of users, on the different and numerous signs’ actualizations in advertising, on the most important print, electronic, and digital media, etc. (Beasley and Danesi 2002)

The world-famous semiotician Jean Umiker-Sebeok in his book "Marketing and Semiotics: New Directions in the Study of Signs for Sale" analyses rhetorical figures in advertising; interpretation of film mythology; corporate imaging and communication; mythology in organizations and marketing; semiotic grammar of advertising history and many others. (Umiker-Sebeok 2012)

Laura R. Oswald in “Marketing Semiotics: Signs, Strategies, and Brand Value” studies important aspects of brands and their related meanings – perceptions of quality, symbolic connection, experience, the sense of identity, etc. The author analyses in depth the various sign systems, the cultural codes and the marketing narratives. (Oswald 2012)

Metaphor

Se-Hoon Jeong in his article “Visual Metaphor in Advertising: Is the Persuasive Effect Attributable to Visual Argumentation or Metaphorical Rhetoric” explores the persuasive effects of visual metaphors in marketing communications. The reason is that the visual metaphor is quite important for the ad effectiveness. The results of the study prove this. (Jeong 2008)

Admen use actively metaphors in marketing communications. Soojin Kim, Jihye Kim and Eunice Kim in their article “Metaphor as Visual Thinking in Advertising and Its Effects: Focus on Brand Familiarity and Product Involvement” analyse in-depth the persuasive influence of iconic metaphors in various marketing communication situations. The findings reveal that in some cases, consumers' attitudes and intentions to buy are reinforced by ads with visual metaphors and not by ads without this stylistic figure. (Kim, Soojin, Jihye Kim and Eunice Kim)

Matthew Peterson in his article "Aspects of visual metaphor: an operational typology of visual rhetoric for research in advertising" explores in depth the different classifications of visual rhetoric in advertising – this of Phillips and McQuarrie, of Šorm and Steen and others. The article is valuable because the researchers and admen can use it in their different professional activities. (Peterson 2018)

Synecdoche

Samuel Whitsitt in his book “Metonymy, synecdoche, and the disorders of contiguity” studies the various stylistic figures. One of the main concepts here is "contiguity disorder", as well as the different relationships between metaphor and metonymy, between metonymy and synecdoche, etc. (Whitsitt 2013)

Basic Text

The semiotic analysis of advertising and other marketing communications with regard to the business and entrepreneurship and to their connections with the education on mother tongue, foreign languages, literature, mathematics and fine arts is very important for the effectiveness interdisciplinary integration and for the better education in general.

Semiotics, unfortunately, is not part of the curriculum from first to 12th grade. This is significant disadvantage of these programs because the semiotics analyses the numerous and different signs. We communicate much more efficiently with their help. Semiotics also helps a lot for the effective integrations of different school disciplines.

The authors analyse several examples in this regard below. These branding communications reflect corporate style and corporate identity and they are an important part of business and entrepreneurship.

Bookbrooks company positioned itself as the "new penguin”. That is why the company trademark resembles to this animal.

The company used from a semiotic point of view mixed sign here. The artist created the trade mark combining grapheme (Latin letter B – the first letter of the word “book”) and image - the stylized head of a penguin.

The admen attributed to part of the letter the pictorial (image) characteristics of penguin - based on the similarity between the letter shape and the animal head. This is typical font metaphor.

Metaphors and other stylistic figures are important part of education on mother tongue, foreign languages and education on literature. The creation of trademarks is also quite relevant for fine arts’ training.

Therefore, the analysed trade mark can integrate easily all these disciplines.

The trademark (in this case logo) is for bookstore. The artist used the sign for paragraph. The paragraph is one of the symbols of the written culture and that is why it is comparatively appropriate to express the bookstore.

The artist metaphorized the paragraph attributing to it the characteristics of a horse. The reason is that the bookstore is in city which name comes from the word “horse”.

Here, too, the adwoman used mixed sign - part of it is symbol (typical abstract sign) and the other part is image (typical concrete sign).

This visual (iconic) metaphor integrates the teaching of entrepreneurship (business), Bulgarian and foreign languages and the fine arts.

The artist created the Book Haven trademark in two versions. The images of the three books in horizontal position are the main part of the first version. The artist used only their contours in the second variant.

This is excellent example of editing by reducing, which is quite typical for the trademarks. The more often we use them, the more often we minimize (abbreviate) them.

The editing is also semiotic phenomenon. The reason is that the communicators edit all signs, not only the verbal ones.

Picasso's abstractionism art style is typical in this respect. Several of his drawings of bull illustrate perfectly the concept of "editing by reducing (shortening)" (Fig. 4). Very few of the numerous realistic characteristics of the bull remained in the abstracted variants.

Editing is one of the main activities in the communication. That is why it is so important for the education on mother tongue, foreign languages and literature.

Semiotic editing (editing of other signs, then the words) is an excellent tool for the integration mother tongue, foreign languages and literature with the disciplines of entrepreneurship and fine arts.

Syntactics is one of the basic semiotic discipline. It analyses the connections between the different and numerous signs.

Syntax is one of the major linguistic disciplines which studies the connections between the verbal signs – words, etc. Syntax is an important discipline in both mother tongue and foreign language education.

The artist created on the basis of module four paintings for a bookstore selling books of writers who loved cats.

The module is concept which is used in all academic disciplines. The specialists define it as a scheme (framework) on the basis of which the communicators create the different texts in uniform way. For this reason, the module is also a key syntactical concept.

The syntax and the module are important elements with regard to all signs and texts. Therefore, these two concepts integrate the school disciplines entrepreneurship, mother tongue and foreign languages, literature and fine arts.

The artist used synecdoche in the company's corporate communications (Figs. 6a, 6b). The synecdoche is the stylistic figure by which people express the whole by a part of it.

Synecdoche is important part of stylistics and literature teaching.

Therefore, with the help of synecdoche the teachers can integrate language learning, literature, fine arts and entrepreneurship.

The artist used geometric figure in a theatre trademark. Geometry and mathematics actively study these figures.

That is why we can integrate easily the teaching of geometry and mathematics with the education of arts and entrepreneurship – with the help of brands that use geometric figures.

The artist included vectors in an opera's trademark. The definition of vector is dimension with certain direction and the line expresses it graphically.

Geometry and mathematics study vectors. We can integrate with the help of such trade marks the education of geometry and mathematics with the art and entrepreneurship teaching.

Conclusions

Semiotics is very important for education. Unfortunately, so far it is not part of school and university curricula and it is almost completely absent in the curricula and the textbooks from fifth to twelfth grade.

This science can be one of the uniting elements between some of the most important educational disciplines – language, literature, mathematics, fine arts and entrepreneurship. The examples in this article prove this.

REFERENCES

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Arbaugh J. B., 2010. Online and Blended Business Education for the 21st Century: Current Research and Future Directions. Elsevier.

Chandramohan, B. and Fallows, S. (Eds.), 2008. Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Theory and Practice. Routledge.

Beasley, R. and Danesi, M., 2010. Persuasive Signs: The Semiotics of Advertising. Walter de Gruyter.

De Greef, L., Post, G., Vink, C., & Wenting, L., 2017. Designing Interdisciplinary Education: A Practical Handbook for University Teachers. Amsterdam University Press.

Wolf, D. & Balick, D. Eds., 1999. Art Works! Interdisciplinary Learning Powered by the Arts. ABC-CLIO.

Estelami, H., Ed., 2014. Frontiers of Distance Learning in Business Education. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

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Jephcoteр, M. and Abbott, I. 2013. Teaching Business Education. Routledge.

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Umiker-Sebeok, J., 2012. Marketing and Semiotics: New Directions in the Study of Signs for Sale. Walter de Gruyter.

Whitsitt, S. P., 2013. Metonymy, synecdoche, and the disorders of contiguity. libreriauniversitaria.it Edizioni.