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ABSTRACT
The language of advertising has often been characterised as loaded
language with emotional and directive intent. In its powers of persuasion, it
is foregrounded by its restricted variety of orthography, lexis and grammar. It
is in advertising discourse that the stylistic concept of foregrounding is,
perhaps, most exemplified. This research studies the way in which peculiar
patterns of rhetorical devices such as phonology, graphology, lexico-semantics
and grammar are foregrounded in the language of advertising. The research
appraises the process of defamiliarisation of specific common rhetorical
strategies such as rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, spelling,
capitalisation, puns, metaphor, hyperbole, imperatives, interrogatives, etc, in
a list of thirteen common advertising slogans. It observes that more than any
other field of discourse, advertising, by its elliptical and non-formal
language, seeking to appeal to a wide variety of audiences, most closely resembles
spoken language. The study concludes by highlighting the remarkable paradox of
creativity instantiated in the supposed deviations of language which
effectively return this variety of written discourse to the norms of everyday
spoken discourse, and, thus, establish closeness with consumers.
Keywords: Foregrounding, Advertising, Phonology, Graphology, Metaphor
Communication is an important aspect of the society. It is believed to
be life blood of human existence. It involves the interaction between two or
more people and in some cases it involves one person (interpersonal
communication). Merriam- webster.com/dictionary defines communication as a
process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common
system of symbols, signs and behaviour. From this definition, it can be deduced
that there are certain mediums that enables communication to take place. These
mediums could be verbal, written or non- verbal and they could be traditional
or modern. Communication, especially the modern means of communication has
turned into a global village because in this modern time, an individual can
communicate with another person with ease regardless of the distance.
The two broad medium of communication are verbal and non- verbal. Verbal
communication involves communication through words and it could be oral or
written. Oral communication means transmission of messages through spoken words
which could be face-to-face or through telephone, radio, television. Written
communication conveys messages in writing through means such as flyers, memos,
emails, internet, billboards, and newspapers among others. Non- verbal
communication on the other-hand is a form of communication that involves the
following forms: body language (eye movement, gesture, facial expressions),
paralanguage means (language). It takes place through tone and pitch of the
voice. Another form of non- verbal communication is the use of sign language
which involves visual signs (pictures, drawings, maps, posters, charts, graphs,
e.t.c.) and audio signs (sirens, bells, alarm clock, ambulance).
Language whether verbal, written and non- verbal plays a vital role in
communication. Many scholars have tried to define the concept in their own way
and no one has been found to be absolutely satisfactory. The term
"language" has in the cause of time left many questions about it
unanswered. Jesperson (21) cited by Yule (1) posits that "human language
originated while humans were actually enjoying themselves". It does not
exist in a vacuum as a system of communication, but rather operates in a
context of situation.
Generally, language is the key of communication between people. Also,
Van Dijk (61) states that "Language is a major mechanism within the
process of social construction". According to Sapir (8), language is a
"purely human and non- instinctive method of communicating ideas, desires
and emotions by means of voluntarily produced symbols. In language use,
expressions, meanings and context are closely linked because meaning is
actually the senses and references which people make of the elements of
expressions which include words, phrases and sentences. Since communication is
an act of transmitting or conveying ideas, thoughts or messages, it can be
deduced that advertising is a form of communication. As language plays a key
role in communication, so is language of paramount importance in advertising.
Advertising is a form of communication because it involves the sender
(advertiser), the message (the advertisement itself) and the receiver (the target
audience). The advertiser uses persuasive and creative language to draw the
attention of his audience. Therefore, the advertiser uses the power of language
as instrument and as a source of influence when they want to impose laws and
also to influence the masses to patronize the message they are passing across.
Advertising is a form of communication and it persuades us with the aim of influencing our decision towards acquiring a particular product. The advertiser's choice of language to positively influence the attitudes of the audience is very essential. Okpaleke (21) in Ezejideaku & Ugwu (10) opines that "the language of advertising must be informative, instructive, alluring, distinctive and persuasive. Language has a strong influence over people and their behavior. According to Leach (25) in Ezejideaku & Ugwu (11), the four characteristics of successful advertising are: attention value, readability, memorability, and selling power. By attention value, this means that it must provoke the consumer's attention and curiosity. Readability of advertising means that the message must be easily assimilated. Memorability involves the features in advertising such as: brand names, slogans that make it to be memorable and easily remembered while selling power refer to grammatical features such as imperative clauses that make advertising saleable. From the above, advertising as a form of communication requires a lot of imagination, creativity and logical thinking for it to be successful and effective.
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Communication is an integral part of the society and since advertising
is a form of communication, the field of advertising is a domain where diverse
researches have been carried out. Generally, advertising has received attention
from different Scholars who have investigated it from a wide range of
perspectives. For instance, Adegoju (23) examined the verbal and visual
signifiers in some GSM advertisement in Nigeria. Kannan and Tyayi (4) also
investigated the use of language in advertisements. Ezejideaku & Ugwu (10)
examine the linguistics of Newspaper advertising in Nigeria. Kadry (15) on his
own part tried to explore the creative concept and its role in advertising,
design and even a stylistic analysis of English online advertisement by
telecommunication providers has been carried out by Haulofu (17). The main
focus of this research is to carry out a stylistic foregrounding in the
language of advertising.
The basis of this research is stylistic foregrounding in the language of
advertising. To achieve this aim, this research would be hinged upon the
following objectives:
1) To
determine the choice of language used in advertising by the advertiser.
2) To
unravel the effects of the choice on the target audience.
3) To
examine the stylistic features in advertising.
4) To ascertain whether the concept of
foregrounding is appropriately used in advertising.
Language is the main medium of communication and has developed overtime.
It is very important to know that different discourses have been studied using
language as a medium including stylistics which has become a great area of
interest to many Scholars. Stylistic devices hold the key to understanding of
any speech by a user of language. However, not many people understand the
underlying stylistic import of this speech. The main significance of this
research therefore, is to expatiate this speech stylistically so as to enable a
better understanding of the advertiser's point of view.
Also, this research will contribute meaningfully to scholarship because
the results from the analysis will be of immense benefit to advertisers and the
receivers. It will also be of immense value to those who have particular
interest in stylistics and mode of advertisement. Though diverse researches
have been carried out on different modes of advertising, this research is
specific in that it focusses on the stylistic foregrounding in the language of
advertising. This research will focus on the language of advertising in
Nigeria. It will also help researchers who intend to carry out any scholarly
research in areas similar to the focus of this research. A close study of the
works done by scholars on stylistic shows that not much research has been
carried out on stylistic foregrounding in the language of advertising which
this research intends to do.
1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
There has been increasing interest in the study of stylistic
foregrounding such that it has engaged the daily attention of scholars. As
highlighted earlier, there are numerous means of advertisement such as radio,
television, internet, handbills, and newspapers among others. It will be
impossible to use all these channels as primary source for the advertisements
to be used for this research within the given time.
This research focuses mainly on the stylistic foregrounding of the
language of advertising and it will carry out both linguistic and literary
stylistic analysis and different levels of stylistic analysis such as:
graphology, grammar, phonology and lexico- semantics. This research will also
limit itself to stylistic foregrounding which will make it easy to comprehend
the message of the advertiser and the language used to convey his intentions to
the target audience.
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The stylistic foregrounding in the language of advertising has continued
to raised questions in the minds of Language Scholars. This research revolves
around and attempts to give answers to the following research questions:
1) What are
the effects of the choice of language on the target audience?
2) What is the choice of language used in
advertising?
3) What are the stylistic foregrounding features in
the language of advertising?
4) What contribution does stylistic foregrounding
have in advertising?
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