The Use of English Language in the Advertisement of Pharmaceutical Products in Nigeria

Filed in English Language Project Topics by on October 26, 2020

The Use of English Language in the Advertisement of Pharmaceutical Products in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Advertising is the engine that allows the rest of the business world to flourish. It has the subtle ability to reach out and touch everyone living and working in the modern world; it does this through television, posters, radio and billboards.

However, in an environment where the language of communication poses linguistic problems to the user or speaker of such language, little time has been taken into consideration of the adverse impact of advertising on the second language learners since advertising has become a prominent in the society.

This study, highlights the language used in pharmaceutical adverts to achieve distinctive effects and also identifies their linguistic errors as well as gives insight into the language used by advertisers of pharmaceutical products.

Advert samples were collected from Lagos State, Nigeria. A total of sixty adverts were gathered but forty remained after sorting and finally thirty-seven adverts were analysed.

This study established that advertisers design adverts and manipulate the English language to attract the attention of the audience or listener and to suit their intention of persuading people to buy their products.

INTRODUCTION

The supremacy of language in human affairs is an incontrovertible fact. Language distinguishes man from animals, and it signifies human system of communication used in speech and writing involving vocabulary and sentence structure.

As man lives in the society, language is essentially a social phenomenon by which interaction and cooperation among the members of the society become possible.

Writing on the relationship between language and society, Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman and Nina Hyams state that, “Whatever else people do when they come together – whether they play, fight, make love or make automobiles- they talk.

We live in a world of language. Hardly, a moment of our working lives is free from word… It is language that is the source of human life and power” (3).

The Knowledge of a language enables one to combine sounds to form words, words to form phrases, and phrases to form sentences.

In other words, knowing a language means being able to produce new sentences never spoken before and to understand sentences never heard before.

The above statement provides the fact that language lies at the core of social co-existence and entails the usage of a special group.

WORKS CITED

Academic American Encyclopedia. USA: Grolic Incorporation. 1983. Print.

Agee, Warren K., Ault, P.H & Emery, E. Perspective on Mass Communication. New York:
Harper & Row publishers: 1982. Print.

Akwanya, A.N. Language and Habits of Thought. 3th ed. Enugu: New Generation Books, 2005.
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An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 2nd ed. London: Oxford
University Press 2000. Print.

Baldeh, Fodeh. Better English Language Learning and Teaching. Enugu: Fulladu Publishing,
1990. Print.

Barthel, Diane. Putting on Appearances: Gender and Advertising. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1988. Print.

 

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