Language Styles in Advertisement

Abstract
This study examines adverts associated with business premises, vehicles and institutions in languages like English, Kiswahili and Ekegusii that are found in the two towns of Kisii and Keroka. These adverts are studied in terms of context, content and invitation or persuasion potential using the semiotics linguistic landscape (L L) for easier categorization. The study employs the Sperber and Wilson theory of Relevance (RT) focusing on the narrowing and broadening of words’ meanings, disambiguation, and adding of social meaning; and presuppositions in the language, that formulate information and strategy of advertising.

Introduction
The modern world is bombarded with all sorts of advertising from the most sophisticated signage associated with technological advancement, employed by the rich corporations to the poor businesses‟ uneven graffiti or placards announcing sale of charcoal or kerosene in the backstreet. Since language forms the core of all advertising Schmidt and Kass (1986), Tanaka (1999), Borcers (2005), Lee (2008) assert that advertisers use rhetorical devices, techniques and strategies to achieve their goals of moving their audience and changing their attitudes.

Theoretical Framework
To study consumer advertising signs their linguistic means were analyzed through the use of Relevance Theory (RT) and the Pragmatic theory of presupposition. According to El-daly (2011) presupposition and relevance theory are important because they allow us to see the primary means by which advertisements can communicate much more information than what is explicitly presented in them.

Presupposition Theory and Advertising 
Yule (2007) defines presupposition (pre-supposition = „an assumption that comes before‟) as an assumption by a speaker or writer about what is true or already known by the listener or reader. It is something the speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an utterance. Presupposition is a kind of pragmatic inference “based more closely on the actual linguistic structure of sentences” Levinson (1989: 167). Strawson (1952) defines it as a type of pragmatic inference. For example, a sentence such as “The cold war has ended” presupposes the existence of the entities it refers to, in this case the „cold war‟. According to Lam (2009) presupposition makes an advertisement persuasive and comparative, short and memorable without breaking regulations. Sells and Gonzales (2002); calls it a carrier of cultural values and a form of cultural and social communication. Pollay (1986) believes this makes it possible for information to be shared between the reader and advertiser without explanation or need for convincing. 

Methodology 
The fact that there were numerous signs in these towns that could attract study, sampling was done. In fact it was not possible to test the whole population during research Kathuri and Pals (1993). In total there were 175 ads collected but using Krejcie and Morgan‟s (1970) sampling technique 120 adverts were selected. The study used purposive sampling technique to arrive at the sample that was used in data analysis. The underlying principle of this method involved identifying in advance the type of areas to be studied Milroy, (1987). The researcher used purposive sampling based on those signs that he deemed possessed the most informative and communicative aspects for this study. A preliminary classification helped to sort out just what was being investigated; what types of advertisements, for what products, in what media and so on (Dyer 1982). Milroy (1987) argues that large samples will only amount to large amounts of data and consume more time to analyze, yet the result will not be dissimilar.

Key Summary Based on the Finding 
Dijk (1977) observes that Context involves properties of the utterance, para-linguistic properties, actual observation, knowledge/beliefs in memory, type of interaction going on, both local and global level, knowledge about inter(action rules) and word knowledge. On the other hand, social context is characterized by following categories namely, private, public, institutional or formal and informal. These social contexts are equally determined by the following properties: Positions (e.g. rules, status etc.); Properties (e.g. sex, age); Relations (e.g. dominance, authority) Functions (e.g., father, judge, and waitress. Through the use of linguistic landscape the study realized the following categories depicting the physical world in which these ads exist as pointed out above.

Vehicles 
Public Passenger Vehicles e.g. Best one, Game Short; My Heart‟s Desire; Madonna of the Road; Adhiambo Sianda etc. Personal Private Vehicle’s e.g. Seriously Kenyan; The Animal etc. Service Vehicles e.g. Royal Maternity; No Hurry in Africa etc.

Goods and Services 
Supermarkets e.g. Tuskys Chigware, Pay less Get More; Menora two thousand and eight Supermarket: Buy more for less etc. Shops e.g. Bike Bokie Traders; Double „M Variety Shop; Bajaj: Distinctly Ahead etc. Food Joints e.g. Jirani Take Away Chips; Tea Room Old Skool “A one stop turbo filling station” etc. Goods e.g. G-TIDE Touch me Touch the World; Tuff Foam Lala Salama etc. Services e.g. Bon Artist 20 Minutes Service; Chap Chap Kinyozi etc. Information Technology e.g. Computer Factor (K) Ltd.; Top Focus Communication etc.

Institutions 
Public Schools e.g. St. Charles Lwanga Girls‟ High School. Summum Bonum, Motto: Accompanied with Aspire to Excel; Kisii (GAS) High School: Strive for Excellence

Private Schools e.g. Vision Junior Academy; Pre-school & Class 1-4: Gateway to Success; A.I.C Grace Academy .Motto: By God’s Grace We Excel Churches e.g.

African Inland Church Kisii Town …Location behind Kisii Primary; Redeemed Gospel Church: Place of Impartation &Commissioning, Along Hema Hospital Road etc.

Medical e.g. Framo Medical Clinic AMUA! Family Planning Clinic; Jipangie Maisha . Ministry of Medical Services Masaba District Hospital. Huduma Bora ni Haki Yako etc.

Banks e.g. Family Bank: Your Partner for Life; KWFT: Microfinance: Banking on Women, etc.

The above categories are representative of what the researcher collected in the Keroka and Kisii towns. The represent of the existing social and cultural contexts Belch and Belch (1995) Klima (2008). According to Cook (2001) shared information (schema) between the audience and advertiser, plays such an essential role through ellipsis and assumptions of shared knowledge, to the extend ads create an atmosphere of intimacy and informality.

Content 
The section involved assessing the lexical, semantic and syntactic properties of the sampled ads. The first step was picking on the parts of speech of the English Grammar. The recurring parts were nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions. Articles, numbers and abbreviations also featured in most of the ads. At a glance nouns made the bulk of these items followed by adjectives, adverbs, verbs in that order.

Nouns e.g. Blessings, Revolution; Noun Phrases e.g. The Animal, Prestige Shuttle; Active
Verbs e.g. Double „M Variety Shop, Tuma Pesa Season Logistics

Verbal Phrases e.g. Bend Over; Adjectival Phrases e.g. Latest News, Fine Couch Salon

Adverbial Phrases e.g. Long Lasting Battery Chloride Exide, Hard Way the Only Way

Pronouns e.g. My Heart‟s Desire etc.; Semantics e.g. Madonna of the Road , West Punch Electricals, Ebenezer Trade Centre, Practical Garage; Syntactic Structures e.g.

Parallelism: Tusker –Makes equal has no equal, Menora…Buy more for less

Repetition: G-TIDE: Touch me Touch the World etc.; Abbreviations: Double „M Variety Shop, Mobile World Com.Ltd; Participles: Winning Ways, Spiced Sound etc.

Invitation
Most of the collected ads either were made attractive by the context in which they appeared or the content (certain linguistic properties) like gradable adjectives, active verbs, nouns, semantical implications or syntactical structures, unusual word combinations, parallelism, personal pronouns, time, contacts and puns. Data was collected through an interview schedule bearing 30 sampled Ads representing various businesses related to vehicles, shops, food joints, services, goods and so forth. Forty respondents who were aged between 14 and 60 years drawn from students, business people, mechanics, housewives, teachers etc and from at least three different communities and were able to read at least two languages namely English and Kiswahili and a possible third language were interviewed. Their academic qualifications ranged from the primary school‟s last year examination to masters degree. The schedules were given out at random and each correspondence given fifteen to twenty minutes to answer the questions by ticking the item that they took fancy at.

The main objective of these interview was to determine the invitational potential consumer ads have on the reader or consumer since these respondents at one time or another happen to interact with these or similar ads in their day to day activities.

The interview schedule was divided into four columns. The first column provided the serial number of ads. The second column consisted a corresponding ad. The third column sought to find out which of the following aspects viz. name, spelling, meaning, arrangement and creativity, did the respondents find attractive. The respondents were required to pick at least a single item, the one in their opinion they found most attractive from the listed items. The last column requested the respondents to pick the comment they thought fitted the advert.

Conclusion 
It was discovered that context determines largely how the reader will interpret the information on the basis of presuppositions that arise, by filling in the ellipses, second guessing the advertiser‟s intention, through schema and background knowledge. The ads clearly showed that in every utterance there can be existential, factive, non-factive, structural and counterfactual presuppositions Yule (1996) . There also exists presupposition triggers created by certain lexical items or linguistic constructions.

In ads presupposition helps to draw comparisons between advertised goods without raising serious legal crises as well as persuades potential buyers Lam (2009). Through presupposition we are able to establish an existence of objects, cultural behaviors, even when the ad is short and which makes it memorable without explanation. It was found out that every ad exists within a social and culturally structured framework and communication is enhanced on the basis of a reader‟s knowledge and experiences. Every ad assumes a public context every time it‟s put on display even if the message could be informal or private.

The relevance of an ad is always established according to a reader‟s set of beliefs and assumptions. The linguistic style adopted helps in communication of the intended message. Every ad raises both favourable and unfavourable contextual effects and implications in spite of the length of the text Byrne (1992). Several information can also be realized in an ad ranging from manifest information (description of product), environment (the background or origin of product), factive (factual attributes of the product), reminder (the use of repetition to emphasize the message) or incidental (some information that cannot be relevant to the consumer). RT assessment also proved that not all ads had clear referents; in some cases they were simply implied. Other RT aspects such as anticipatory hypothesis, phonetic effects and length of text were manifested in some of the ads.





references :
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260598163_Language_Style_in_Advertisement