LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:12 December 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2015
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

The Language of Advertising in the Ghanaian Print Media

Richard T. Torto, M.Phil., B.A. (Hons.), Dip. Ed.

Abstract

Advertising takes many forms, but in most of them language is of crucial importance (Vestergaard & Schroder 1985). Language has a powerful influence on people and the way they behave. This fact manifests in many human endeavours including the fields of marketing and advertising. Language is employed in advertising as a means of communicating specific information with the intention of influencing or persuading the consumer. Although visual images and design as well as audio techniques in advertising have a great effect on the consumer; nevertheless, it is language that enables people to identify a product and remember it. The language of advertising is normally very positive and it emphasizes why one product stands out in comparison with another. Commercial information in advertising is designed to entice the reader to explore the product or service being offered in greater detail. Advertising language is a style of immediate impact and rapid persuasion. The current study analyzed the use of the English language in advertisements in the Ghanaian print media. The method of the study was basically qualitative and the analysis of data was based on Fairclough’s (1972) three-dimensional model. The study revealed that the English used in advertising in the print media in Ghana is characterized by the use of rhetorical figures, tropes and grammatical items which serve as persuasive elements.

Keywords: Advertising, Language, Communication, Persuasion, Figures of Speech, Print Media, Advertisements.

Introduction

Advertising is a complex form of communication that operates with objectives and strategies leading to various types of impact on consumer thoughts, feelings and actions. Language is employed in advertising as a means of communicating specific information with the intention of influencing or persuading the consumer. In the Ghanaian print media the language of advertising is the English language. The reference to the language of advertising in the current study is the English language and not the indigenous Ghanaian languages.

The morphological and lexical features in the language of advertising covers a number of items which include the use of descriptive words like adjectives and adverbs and the use of imperative verbs which urge the reader to take action. There are two modal auxiliary verbs which are often used in the language of advertising and these are “will” and “can”. The use of “will” normally evokes the impression of promise and with “can” the consumer is told that the product provides the ability to act. The use of the first and second person pronouns establish a friendly and intimate relationship between the consumer and the advertiser.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Richard T. Torto, M.Phil., B.A. (Hons.), Dip. Ed.
Department of Communication Studies
University of Cape Coast
Cape Coast
Ghana
rchrdtorto@yahoo.co.uk
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.