A Pragmatic Study of Language Use in Pentecostal Christian Church Posters

Abstract

It has been observed that advertisers of Pentecostal church programmes make use of certain linguistic elements in their bid to attract and retain the attention of congregants to their different denominations. Most of such advertising goes to the level of making abstract offers of things the churches are not likely to be able to fulfill, thereby leaving readers to their own interpretations and conclusions. This style of advertisement has provoked an investigation into language use in Christian advertisements. Using pragmatic theoretical approach, this study examines some features of language, particularly in relation to the pragmatic strategies employed by copywriter and advertisers to persuade and manipulate an audience. The pragmatic theoretical approach is employed for data analysis because advertisement messages are usually emotive and subtextual and often adopt certain persuasive strategies as well as supra-semantic expressions meant to highlight the shortcomings of the readers. The data used in this study consist of eight poster advertisements which were collected from Uromi, in Edo State, Nigeria, based on their accessibility, availability and thematic presentations. The result of this study reveals a preponderance of implicature, deixis, and presupposition from all contextual facets as both the advertisers and their readers share common values which often form the base upon which they interact. This study views the advertisers’ appeal to the readers through the offer of some abstract benefits which are never fulfilled and for which the advertisers cannot be held responsible in any way and therefore recommends that such be discouraged in Christian advertisements.