This study was carried out to investigate grapho-syntactic errors in the
language of advertising in Nigeria. The purpose was to find out the nature,
types, and causes of these errors of writing, which included spelling,
punctuation, agreement, omissions and wrong tense usage that occur in the
advertisements in the electronic and print media in Nigeria. The advertising
materials used were inscriptions on hoardings, posters, newspapers,
magazines and motor vehicles. Public announcements on television were also
used. The data were collected from the major cities of Anambra State i.e.
Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi, which represent the major commercial centres that
habour more abundantly sources of these data. Different national newspapers
and magazines were selected on daily bases for a period of three weeks and
used for the study. Unstructured interviews were administered to artisans
who had incidences of such errors on their hoardings. Questionnaire was also
administered to professional advertisers to find out whether they were aware
of such errors and whether these errors served any specific purposes. The
findings revealed, among other things, that grapho-syntactic errors were
mostly due to the incomplete mastery of the English language which is the
language of the media in Nigeria; that the level of education of advertisers
correlated with the quantity and nature of the errors; that some of these
errors were caused by interference from the first language of the advertisers;
that some of these forms were regarded as aspects of Nigerian English; that
some advertisers intentionally used erroneous but popular forms to draw
attention of the potential clients. Finally, teaching of spelling and calligraphy
well in, especially, the early formal education, encouragement of the use of the
dictionary, and proper teaching and learning of grammar had been
recommended for the reduction of these errors.
Advertising is basically a system of disseminating
information about specific goods, services or ideas to a target
audience by specified sponsors, through multi-faceted means.
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines advertising as
The action of calling something (a commodity for sale,
a service offered or desired) to the attention of the
public especially by means of printed or broadcast
paid announcements (31).
Thus, advertising implies the techniques and practices
used to bring specific products, services and opinions to public
notice for the purpose of persuading the public to respond in a
certain way towards what is advertised. Advertising involves
communication and communication involves language use.
Language is the major means of human communication and
interaction. Sapir explains language as
... a purely human and non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means
of a system of voluntarily produced symbols (8).
Thus, language forms the basis for all forms of human
activities and interaction. Advertising as a form of human
interaction makes use of language and Brook says that “the
words of advertising need to be chosen with care if they are not
going to have ridiculous effects” (167).
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