Contextualizing Advertising as a Communicative Apparatus of Text-Switching

Abstract

This study attempted to explain text-switching in advertising as a communicating means of persuading the target audience about a particular product in Nigeria. It is probable that the use of common coinages in advertisements serves a massive advantage in product consumption. Patterns of switching texts have been analyzed to indicate a form of strategy whereby consumers are cajoled in order to be familiarized with the products in question. This study employed the concept of Conversational Code Switching (CCS) as a vehicle of analysis of advertisements collected from billboards and the Punch newspaper in Nigeria. The findings characterize code alternation as a phenomenon in Nigerian advertising. It reveals that the relationships between English and Nigerian languages are very strong because they are easily smoothly interchangeable. In addition, English is hegemonic over Nigerian languages and dialects. This study positions English as playing a domineering utilitarian role in Nigerian advertisements. This study concludes that the structures of the alternated codes function consistently in the nominal group. Even in a case where a minor clause is observed, text-switching in advertisements appears more conversational.

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