AN ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE OF BILLBOARD ADVERTISEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF SOKOTO METROPOLIS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Billboard is a kind of outdoor advertising found along major highways. Billboard advertisement are designed to catch people’s attention and create memorable impression very quickly, leaving the reader thinking about the advertisement after they have driven past it. However, its message is often not clear to people due to the persuasive techniques used in them. This study therefore analyses the language of billboard advertisement within the general framework of linguistic analysis with a view to identify the language employed on billboards. This is done on a collection of 99 pictures of Billboard’s advertisement across Sokoto metropolis. The study identifies various linguistic elements and devices used through language in the aspects of phonology, morphology/ lexis, syntax and semantics, to create special effects on the target audience. Several aspects of English diction have been manipulated to this end coupled with the fact that, specific linguistic processes such as code-mixing, ellipsis, blending, parataxis and contraction, featured prominently. The findings made include among others that at the phonological level, we realized that the use of rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and assonance have made the language of billboard memorable; at the lexical level; the vocabularies tend to be concrete and vivid while the use of negative words show the uniqueness and unparalleled quality of a product. By and large, the persuasive nature of the adverts displayed on the Billboards is more or less predicated on the selected linguistic resources exploited for such purposes.