English in Adverts in Ghana

Abstract

The paper examines the uses of English in TV advertisements in Ghana. The paper aims to establish the formal and functional properties of English used in TV adverts in Ghana and to examine the extent to which the language used in adverts deviates from the general principles of language. Data for the study is drawn from recordings of TV advertisements done by radio stations in Ghana and analyzed using qualitative approaches. The study finds that the advertisements exhibit formal properties of the English language, functional properties, and in some cases, a mixture of both formal and functional properties of the English language. Regarding the use of standard language or otherwise in advertisements, the paper shows that the general trend is the use of standardized forms with cases of variations in lexicon and spellings. In terms of the impact of these variations on the message of the adverts, the paper suggests that the variations did not alter the messages intended in the adverts. Therefore, the author recommends integrating more variations in adverts by marketing companies to activate people's memories and adopt both functional and formal English features to attract the elite and the non-elite.