THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING: ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE USE IN MTN GHANA PRINT ADVERTISEMENT

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate the language of advertising and analyse its use in MTN Ghana print advertisements. The study looked at the language devices the MTN Ghana copywriter uses in writing the advertisements and how these devices are manipulated to lure potential customers to sign onto the network. It also investigated the most used language devices in MTN Ghana print advertisements. Qualitative case study design was employed for the study. Data for the study was all the MTN Ghana print advertisements running in the system from June, 2015 up to June, 2016. Fifty (50) advertisements were purposively selected and analysed. The analysis was based on Nord’s (1997) theory of Functionalist Interpretation of Text Typology. The study found out that the language devices in the MTN Ghana print advertisements were: phonological levels- rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and unpredictable spellings; lexical levels- nouns, adjectives, verbs, and pronouns; morphological levelsconversion, acronymy, and coinage; syntactic levels- imperative sentences, declarative sentences, interrogative sentences, exclamatory sentences, ellipsis, and incomplete sentences; semantic levels- personification, hyperbole, and repetition; and lastly, code-switching. It was also found out that the most frequently used language devices are imperative sentences and adjectives which are used to influence the target audience to sign onto the MTN Ghana network.