A Study Of Language Of Advertisement

ABSTRACT Advertising is one of the means through which marketers or manufacturers convince buyers to patronize their products. It involves the dissemination of information about products, services, ideas e.g from advertisers to the public in a short time and space. There are different kinds of advertising but this research work will focus on retail advertising. This work examines the meaning and features of advertising and by using the descriptive approach. Audio tapes were collected from selected media stations and were transcribed and analysed. Data were drawn from both English and Igbo advertisement. The researcher endeavoured to highlight the choice of words used in the advertisement. The imageries and figurative expressions of the selected advertisements were also discussed. The study tried to account for the reasons and meanings of some grammatical expressions in the selected radio advertisements. In advertising specialized terminologies enable advertisers to sell the products, services, or ideas being advertised to the public. Advertising has its peculiar linguistic devices which are used to get the attention of the audience to patronize the advertised products. It has preference for short and condensed sentences, as well as catchy phrases and sentence fragments. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page…………………………………………………………i

Approval page……………………………………………………..ii

Dedication…………………………………………………………iii

Acknowledgements………………………………………………..iv

Abstract…………………………………………………………….v

Table of Contents………………………………………………….vi

Chapter One

Introduction

1.0 Background of Study..……………………………………………..1

1.0.1 Brief History of Advertising……………………………………….2

1.0.2 Kinds of Advertising………………………………………………3

1.0.3 Advertising Media…………………………………………………5

1.1 Purpose of Study…………………………………………………..6

1.2 Significance of Study……………………………………………...7

1.3 Scope of Study…………………………………………………….7

1.4 Area of Study……………………………………………….…….7

1.5 Limitations of Study………………………………………….…..7

1.6 Convention Used…………………………………………………8

1.7 Data Collection…………………………………………………...8

1.8 Data Analysis…………………………………………………….8

Chapter Two

2.0 Review of Related Literature……………………………………9

2.1 Language of Advertising…………………..…………..……….18

vii

Chapter Three

3.0 The Analysis of Radio Advertisements and Jingles..……..………21

3.0.1 Hyperbole………………………………………………………….21

3.0.2 Personification……………………………………………………..22

3.0.3 Onomatopoeia or Phonoenthetic Idiophone……………………….23

3.0.4 Simile………………………………………………………………24

3.0.5 Alliteration…………………………………………………………25

3.0.6 Repetition………………………………………………………….26

3.0.7 Idiomatic Expressions……………………………………………..28

3.0.8 Rhetorical Questions………………………………………………30

3.0.9 Dialogue……………………………………………………………31

3.1 Code Mixing……………………………………………………….33

3.2 Appeal……………………………………………………………...34

3.3 Economy of Words………………………………………………...34

3.4 Nonce Form………………………………………………………..35

3.5 Vocative…………………………………………………………...35

3.6 Humour……………………………………………………………36

3.7 Parallelism…………………………………………………………36

3.8 Summary…………………………………………………………..37

Chapter Four

4.0 Observations………………………………………..……………...38

Recommendations…………………………………………………39

Conclusion…………………………………………………………40

Appendices…………………………………………………………42

References………………………………………………………….49