Stylistics Analysis in Advertising Discourse: A Case of the Dangote Cement Advertisement in Bamenda- Cameroon

Abstract

There are many purposes for using language which determine how the writer or speaker chooses words, syntactic expressions and figurative language. This is as a result of the fact that language has a very powerful effect over people, their actions and thoughts. This is seen in the use of language in various discourse types which include advertisements. The powerful influence language has on people therefore makes encoders to be choosy in the use of language, especially in advertisement because they have to persuade the readers. Consequently they make the language of advertisements positive and emphasize on the superiority of their products. This study discusses the advertisement of Dangote Cement on billboards in Bamenda, North West Region, Cameroon, analysing what is communicated, how it is communicated and the interpretation. The analysis used as tools the Textual Conceptual Functions as given by Jeffries (2016), uncovering ideologies and social meanings expressed in Dangote Cement advertisement using the following apparatus: prioritisation, implying and assumption, listing, naming and description. The study has emphasized the structural analysis and the role of context to reveal functions and underlying meanings of the text. It also concludes that the advertisers use different stylistic devices that carry positivity, and a common ground that makes the readers identify with the advertisements, urging them go for the Dangote Cement.

Language and COVID-19: A discourse analysis of resistance to lockdown in Indonesia

“…Various policy discourses in handling the COVID-19 pandemic tend to get multiple resistances by multiple communities [49,57]. Various forms of resistance appear in the form of slogans, pamphlets, banners, anecdotes, caricatures, and statuses in the social media [62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69]. The nuanced discourse of rejection comes with optimizing language function as a presenter of people's ideas and thoughts [70][71][72][73].…”