ABSTRACT
Newspapers are veritable tools for
promoting literacy through reading, writing and dialogues (among readers and
critics), which are the hallmarks of effective and efficient use of language.
Newspapers have a built-in capacity to motivate readers. As a result, it is the
common practice in most parts of the country to have people congregate around
newspapers stands and vendors every morning reading and discussing the contents
of the newspapers, especially adverts. As such, the use of advert language
cannot be over-emphasized as the number of readers who come across it cannot be
measured. However, this research seeks to have a survey of the language of newspaper
advertisement, and to know how to construct adverts to attract readers or
viewers, to be able to distinguish the terminology to use in different advert,
to be able to determine the right choice of language use in newspapers
advertisement, and understand the need for short and long adverts. This study
concludes that the language of advertising in Nigerian newspapers especially,
the vanguard newspaper which happened to be the case study, has more to do with
the aesthetics of language than with commerce. Alliterations, rhetorical
questions, pun, morphological adjustment and clichés among others are the
advertiser’s favourite devices, and these are vey instrumental to the general
success of advertising in Vanguard Newspaper.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title
page…………………………………………………..……….….ii
Certification……………………………………………..……..……..iii
Dedication………………………………………………………….…..iv
Acknowledgements………………………………………..…….……v
Table
of contents………………………………………………..……vi
Abstract………………………………………………………….……..x
CHAPTER ONE:
Background to the Study……………………………………….…..1
Statement of the
Purpose………………………………….………..4
Research Question…………………………………………….………5
Purpose
of the Study………………………………………………….6
Significance
of the Study………………………………………..…..7
Scope
of the Study…………………………………………………….8
Definition
of Terms……………………………………………………….8
CHAPTER
TWO
Earliest
Forms of Newspaper Advertising…………………..……..9
The
Influence of Advertising……………………………………..…..10
Vanguard
and Global Newspaper Advertising…………………...11
Vanguard
Advertising Research …………………………………….12
CHAPTER
THREE (LITERATURE REVIEW)
Introduction……………………………………………………………...13
Language
in Advertising………………………………………….…...14
A
Peculiar Form………………………………………………………...15
Making
Advertising Attractive ……………………………………….17
Linguistic
Devices in Advertising……………………………….…..18
The
Phonology of Advertising…………………………………..…....20
Alliteration…………………………………………………………..….21
Repetition………………………………………………………………23
Rhyme…………………………………………………………………..24
Onomatopoeia…………………………………………………………26
Similarities
and Contrasts in Sound………………………..……27
The
Morphology of Adverting……………………………………….28
The
Syntax Analysis of the Language of Adverts………………33
Emphatic Constructions…………………………………………….34
Interrogatives
…………………………………………………………37
The
Lexico Semantic Analysis of the
Language
of Advertising……………………………………………..39
CHAPTER
FOUR (SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION)
Summary…………………………………………………………….….41
Conclusion………………………………………………………….42
Works Cited……………………………………….………..………45
CHAPTER ONE
Background to the Study
Advertising is a form of communication used to
encourage or persuade on audience (viewer, reader or listeners) to continue to
take some new action. Most commonly, the desired result is to influence
consumers’ behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although, political
and ideological advertising is also common. The purpose of advertising may also
be to reassure employees or shareholders that a company is viable or
successful. Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed
via various traditional media: including mass media such as: newspaper,
magazines, television commercials, radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or
direct mail, or new media such as websites and text-messages.
Advertising has been defined as “a powerful
communication force and a vital marketing tool helping to sell goods and
services, images and ideas”…. (Wright, 2003:8). Similarly, Roderick (1980:4)
defines advertising as “a message specified by its originator, carried by a
communication system and intended to influence and/or inform an unknown
audience.” Advertising may also be seen as “a group of activities aiming at and
including dissemination of
information in any paid product or service to compel actions in accordance with
the intent of an identifiable sponsor” (Doughuge, 1985:8).
Advertising has a long history, with some options
tracing its origin to the story of Adam, Eve and the serpent in the Bible
(Okigbo, 1985:10 and Weffer, 1985:6). Wright (2000:4) however, opines that
advertising started in ancient Babylon at about 3000BC when inscription for an
ointment dealer, a scribe and a shoe maker were made on clay tablets. Sandage
and Fryburger (1963) argue that Egyptians first wrote runaway-slave announcements
on papyrus at about 3200BC. In Africa, town
crying and hawking were the earliest forms of advertising. These have survived
in many Nigerian villages till date. With respect to media advertising, which
is the focus of this paper Sandage and Fryburger (cited in Okeke, 2006:24)
suggest that the first media advertising was done in London in 1477 when a
prayer book was announced for sale, while the first newspaper advertising
appeared in the Boston Newsletter in 1704
The print media came into Nigeria
in 1859 with the appearance of a Yoruba language newspaper “Iwe Iroyin”
published by Reverend Henry Townsend at Abeokuta.
The publication carried an advert in form of an announcement for the Anglican
Church.
It is noteworthy that the earliest forms of newspaper
advertising were crude and unsophisticated. But they not only help the local
merchants to sell of his goods, or services, but also set a pace for the modern
methods of advertising, which have over a long period of time undergone
tremendous changes such that today, a lot can be written on the language of
advertising in Nigeria. This is possible because advertising has become more
professional, involving copywriters who exploit all the available linguistic
devices to make their adverts not only persuasive, but also aesthetically
appealing. This paper therefore, attempts a linguistic analysis of the language
of newspaper advertising in Nigeria,
highlighting the phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic features
that make them attractive and persuasive.
Statement of the Purpose
The structure of language in advertising has a
peculiar form. Many factors predispose the copywriter (i.e. one who writes
advertisements) to choose his vocabulary this in some sense implies that
copywriter does not have a free flow of lexical items.
It is worthy to note that some important points
about newspapers is that they are businesses, and businesses need to make a
profit. They can only do that if they have readers. So newspapers have to
provide us with the most up-to-date information: news, features and also movie
listings, the weather, sports scores, and so on. The greater the circulation,
the more advertising a paper can sell which means more profits, but less space
stones. Newspapers need to balance these needs
It is however clear that the copywriter is
restrained to the use of language in advertisement, and the owner of the advert
has a primary motive of making profit out of the adverts. It is obvious that in
good adverts language matters in this context; therefore, purpose of this study
is to critically analyze the most suitable language for newspaper
advertisement.
Research Question
The following will help guide the research study in
achieving its objectives:
1. What makes you stop and look at the adverts?
2. What kind of adverts do you place on newspapers?
3. What kind of caption should be given to adverts?
4. What kind of message should be driven out through
advertisement?
5. Should adverts be short or lengthy?
Purpose of the
Study
The purpose of this study is to examine the following:
1. To know how to construct adverts to attract readers
or viewers.
2. To be able to distinguish the terminology to use in
different adverts.
3. To be able to determine the right choice of language
used in newspaper advertisement.
4. Understand the need for long or short newspaper
adverts.
Significance of
the Study
This study will be able to unveil some of those
hidden facts about the use and choice of languages used in newspaper
advertisements, and also bring about a more refined advert outputs.
This research study will highly relevant to the
readers, and especially to the world of journalism in the way and manner in
which adverts are to be constructed and be placed on newspapers for public
consumption.
The study will also help to ensure that the choices
of languages of newspaper adverts are properly selected so that those who pay
for the adverts will be satisfied with the publications, and that the readers’
attention will be captured at the sight of such adverts.
Scope of the
Study
This study is basically limited in space to the
Vanguard Newspaper of Nigeria, and also to the world of publication and
journalism.
Definition of
Terms
1.
Advertisement:
A public notice or announcement
2.
Newspaper:
A printed publication containing news, advertisement and correspondence
3.
Announcement:
To make publicly known
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