An Examination of Language Use in Contemporary Nigerian Advertisement Copy Messages

Abstract

Various forms of language are often used by advertisers of goods and services to capture the attention of the target audience or prospective customers, to arouse their interest, to make them desire the advertised goods and services and ultimately to make them demand for them. This paper presents the outcome of a study and analysis of 80 randomly selected contemporary Nigerian advertisements. The study/analysis shows that seven out of the eighty adverts i.e.9% use personification. Eleven out of eighty i.e. 14% use alliteration. Thirteen out of eighty i.e. 16% use ambiguous language. Eight out of eighty i.e. 10% use indigenous language. Six out of eight, i.e. 8% use Nigerian Pidgin. Four out of eighty i.e. 5% use faulty language. Seven out of eighty (9%) use pun. One advert each i.e. 1% each use simile, climax and sexist language. The remaining twenty i.e. 25% use simple or plain language.

Keywords: Language Use in Nigerian Advertisement Messages

MARANG Vol. 18 2008 pp. 37-48