Die grammatika van die Afrikaanse advertensietaal

Abstract

The broad outlines of the study could be described as being syntactic processes, and the Afrikaans used in advertisements. The study is descriptively syntactic and not prescriptive. The purpose is to study the particular sytactical processes, placing, stress, sentence types and vocatives occurring in the language used in advertisements. The effect is the non-syntactical stimuli which give rise to a syntactical embodiment, as described by recent linguists such as Kuno and Givon (p. 67) . An attempt was made to explain the syntactical effect created by non-syntactical factors, which cohere closely with the intention of the copywriter, the general objectives of advertisements, the product, the target group and the situation. A functional approach was used, therefore, which presupposes the natural explanation of syntactical processes in the use of language. The data used for the study were press advertisements from consumer magazines (pp. 4 and 5 ). On the basis of the products, a division was made in order to determine whether there was some kind of pattern. In order to process the data, however, it was first necessary to do research in order to describe the grammatical structure or form of generally acceptable Afrikaans (AE Afrikaans: Algemeen Beskaaf), as it occurs in actuality. The language use of advertisers was then measured against this structure in order to describe the similarities and the differences and to try and find an explanation for them. The core of the findings can be recapitulated in the following : The grammatical structure of advertising language is directed at obtaining stress and emphasis (p. 21). Stress which has the ability to lift out sentence elements for attention, value also then aids memory. Elliptical or incomplete sentences which had the highest frequency of all sentence types, are examples of total stress the unimportant elements (for purpose of communi­cation) are left out altogether. Each element in advertising language is used purposefully to crowd language with meaning optimally .