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Abdul Rahman O M
0303- Language and Linguistics
25 October 2018

Use of language in advertising

Advertisements are the process of meaning making where language is creatively used to
influence communication and existing meanings. This paper attempts a study of advertisements
from the perspective of linguistics. It will look advertisements at phonological, morphological,
syntactical and semantic levels and thereby demonstrates how language is evolved out largely by
such a creative enterprise.

At phonological levels, advertisements use rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and assonance to

make the memory of the public appealing towards the marketed object. Similar to the poetic
techniques, this is mnemonic and highly creative. The following advertisements, for instance use
poetic qualities of rhyming fuel and feel. The alliteration of sound in both words are also notable.
Lexical stress is carefully reduced with a balanced intonation. ‘Fuel’ and ‘feel’ are homophones
and the similarity easily make the connection of food with energy.

Furthermore, transliteration is used as well to drive the attention with pronunciation of

brand similar to words. For instance, the French alcohol drink Cointreau construct the ad word
‘BE COINTREAUversial’ finding the similarity of the foreign word with English word.
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Coming to the morphological levels, a majority of advertisements use finite verb phrases
are either simple present forms or else simple imperatives. This is done to meet customer’s desire
for the present state of the product and its implication of universality and timelessness.
According to Leech, “verbal groups are mostly of maximum simplicity, consisting of only one
word” (Leech,121) in advertisements. Noun phrases are more widely used avoiding verbal
constructions, so that qualitative features of the product is more stressed. In the case of
adjectives, gradable adjectives that describe qualities and quantities are used more than non-
gradable adjectives. Instances of intertextuality are very often in ads where a celebrated phrase
used in advertisement parodying or mimicking the original usage. The following from Oxford
University uses Shakespearean phrase in ‘Hamlet’.

Intertextuality can operate at many different levels of language, from phonological, and
lexical references in titles and slogans to visual aspects. Affixation, compounding, conversion,
shortening, blending, and back-formation are ways in to which new words origin and brought to
use in languages. and by other ways of creating new words. Copy writers passes the normal
frequency of compounds to render best possible style to introduce the product. head-to-toe, one-
of-a-kind, platinum-inlayed, all-new, are the good examples. Affixation clipping, acronym,
initialism, conversions, blending are widely used morphological level constructions in
advertisements. Puns created by conversion is often replace the word (of any word class) with a
brand name and it acquires syntactic features of original fictive word. Pepsi, a brand name here
becomes an adjective to describe.
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The word Uncar, Uncola, Unbig are creatively used as a neologism, to introduce the product in a
new fashion presenting innovation of the product. This can be also seen a pragmatic approach of
attributing meaning creatively.

Advertisement is the site where language is broadened to new realms. A good linguistic
approach brings, in other words, that how language is reconstituted with multiple possiblities of
creativity. In the postglobal world, advertisements have been using language to make meanings
that will influence understanding on product and consumption
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Works Cited

1. Leech N., Geoffrey. English in advertising: a linguistic study of advertising. Longman

1966
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