Context and Discourse Intonation in English-MediumProduct Advertisements in Nigeria's Broadcast Media

J.O. Odeyemi*
*Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria.
Periodicity:April - June'2017
DOI : https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.7.2.13493

Abstract

Context and discourse intonation have major influence on intended meaning in English-medium product advertisements on radio and television in Nigeria. Previous studies on Nigerian English phonology have confirmed the appropriate use of stress and intonation as the main challenge which many Nigerian speakers of English as a second language hardly manage to overcome. The studies have focused more on rule-based intonation (attitudinal and grammatical) to the neglect of context of use, which is essential to communication. This study, therefore, investigated the use of intonation in radio and television product advertisements in Nigeria in order to determine the primacy of social context in the representation of intonation meaning in advertisements. Using David Brazil's Discourse Intonation (DI) and some acoustic analysis for accurate pitch tracking, the study found out that the allocation of prominence to a word is an advertising model's decision based on context-of-use. There is a preponderant assignment of stress on structural words to achieve contextual prominence in the advertisement data. The proclaiming tones are dominant while the referring tones are few, and are used deliberately to attract the listener's attention. There is also the surprising sparse use of the risefall and fall-rise tones. Where allocated, the referring tone is used as a contextual common ground marker that sometimes needs reactivation. Intonation ambiguity is avoided in the selected advertisements by the prevalent use of the mid-key, which has the function of “additionally informing”. No remarkable difference is observed between the contextual use of intonation in both radio and television advertisements.

Keywords

Discourse Intonation, Product Advertisements, Tone-unit, Nigerian Radio and Television Stations, Context-ofuse.

How to Cite this Article?

Odeyemi, J. O. (2017). Context and Discourse Intonation in English-Medium Product Advertisements in Nigeria’s Broadcast Media . i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 7(2), 13-28. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.7.2.13493

References

[1]. Adejuwon, A.O., (2008). “The English grammatical and discourse intonation patterns of some radio broadcasters in south western Nigeria”. Ife Studies in English language (ISEL), Vol.7, pp.5-13.
[2]. Akere, F., (1980). “Evaluation criteria for a model of English pronunciation: An experimental study of attitudes to the accents of English used by Africans”. Lagos Review of English Studies, Vol.1, pp.19-39.
[3]. Akinjobi. A., (2004). A Phonological investigation of Vowel Weakening and Unstressed Syllable Obscuration in educated Yoruba English. (PhD Thesis, Department of Linguistics and African Languages, University of Ibadan). xxiv+300pp.
[4]. Akinjobi. A., (2013). “Spelling cued mispronunciation in Nigerian English”. Papers in English and Linguistics. Ile-Ife: Linguistics Association of Nigeria.
[5]. Akinjobi. A., (2014). English Language Clinic Lecture: series 1-5 Vol. 1. Ibadan: University of Ibadan English Language Clinic Programmes.
[6]. Akinjobi, A., and Oladipupo, O.R., (2005). “Patterns of intonation of some Nigerian television reporters”. Ibadan Journal of European Studies, No.5, Ibadan: Department of European Studies.
[7]. Akinjobi, A., and Oladipupo, O.R., (2010). “Intonation and attitude in Nigerian English”. LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research, Vol.7, No.1, pp.15
[8]. Amayo, A., (1980). “Teaching English pronunciation in Nigeria for international intelligibility: The suprasegmentals”. Communication and the use of English in Nigeria. S.O. Unor. Ed. Ibadan: AUP.
[9]. Amayo, A., (1981). “Tone in Nigerian English”. Papers from the Sixteenth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. J. Kreiman and A. Ojeda. Eds. Chicago Illinois: University Press.
[10]. Atoye, R.O., (1989). “African languages as just tone and not intonation languages?” Epasamoto: A Bilingual Journal of Language, Letters and Culture, Vol.1, No.1, pp.1-14.
[11]. Atoye, R.O., (1999). “Native-speaker perception of intonation in Yoruba zero-particle interrogative clauses”. Papers in English and Linguistics. Chapter 4, pp.15-23.
[12]. Atoye, R.O., (2005). “Non-native perception and interpretation of English Intonation”. Nordic Journal of African Studies. Vol.14, No.1, pp.26-42.
[13]. Awonusi, V.O., (1986). “Regional accents and internal variability in Nigerian English: A historical analysis”. English Studies. Vol.67, No.6, pp.555-560.
[14]. Awonusi, V.O., (1987). “The identification of standards within institutionalized non-native Englishes: The Nigerian experience”. LARES, Vol.9, pp.47-63.
[15]. Banjo L.A., (1969). “Towards a definition of standard Nigerian spoken English”. Annalesde l' University d' Abidjan, (series 4 linguistique), pp.165-175.
[16]. Bogdan, R.C., and S. Biklen, (1982). Qualitative Research for Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
[17]. Bogdan, R.C., and Taylor, S., (1987). “Looking at the bright side: A positive approach to qualitative policy and evaluation research”. Qualitative Sociology. Vol.13, No.2, pp.183-192.
[18]. Bolinger, D.L., (1985). Intonation and its Parts: Melody in Spoken English. London: Edward Arnold.
[19]. Brazil, D., (1985). The Communicative Value of Intonation in English. Birmingham: University of Birmingham, English Language Research.
[20]. Brazil, D., (1997). The Communicative Value of Intonation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[21]. Coulthard, M., (1985). An Introduction to Discourse Analysis. London: Longman.
[22]. Coulthard, M., (1992). “The signification of intonation in English”. In M. Coulthard. Ed., Advances in Spoken Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge.
[23]. Cruttenden, A., (1986). Intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[24]. Cruz-Ferreira, M., (1989). “A Test for Non- native comprehension of intonation in English”. International Review of Applied Linguistics, Vol.17, No.1, p.2339.
[25]. Crystal, D., (1969). Prosodic Systems and Intonation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[26]. Denzin, N.K., and Lincoln, Y.S., (2005). “Introduction: The rd discipline and practice of qualitative research”. In 3 Edition. N.K. Denzinand Y.S. Lincoln. Eds., The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. pp.1-33.
[27]. Dyer, G., (1983). Advertising as Communication. New York: Methuen & Co.
[28]. Gimson, A.C., (1989). An Introduction to the pronunciation of English, 4th Edition. Revised by S. Ramsaran. London: Edward Arnold.
[29]. Gregory, M., and S. Carroll, (1978). Language and Situation: Language Verieties and their Social Content. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
[30]. Gut, U., (2001). “Prosodic aspects of Nigerian English”. Retrieved from www.Spectrum.uni-bielefeld.de/TAPS/ Gut.pdf
[31]. Halliday, M.A.K., (1967). Intonation and Grammar in British English. The Hague: Mouton.
[32]. Jibril, M., (1982). Phonological Variation in Nigerian English. (Ph.D Dissertation. Lancaster University).
[33]. Jowitt, D., (1991). “Nigerian English usage: An introduction”. Lagos: Longman Nigeria Plc., Vol.13.
[34]. Kumaki, K., (2003). A Study of English Intonation in High School Textbooks in Japan. (PhD Dissertation, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom).
[35]. Kreidler, C.W., (1989). Intonation in the Pronunciation of English. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.
[36]. Ladd, D.R., (2001). Intonation Language Typology and Language Universal, Vol.2, pp.1380-1390.
[37]. Levinson, S.C., (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[38]. Mey, J.L., (2001). Pragmatics: An introduction, 2nd Edition. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
[39]. Ochs, E., (1979). “Social foundation of language”. In F. Freedle. Ed., New Direction in Discourse Processing. Norwood. NJ: Ablex. Vol.3, pp.207-221.
[40]. O'Connor, J.D., and G.F. Arnold, (1973). The  Intonation of Colloquial English, 2nd edition. London: Longman.
[41]. Odebunmi, A., (2006). Meaning in English: An Introduction. Critical Sphere: Ogbomoso.
[42]. Odeyemi, J.O., (2015). Context and Discourse Intonation in English-medium Product Advertisements on Radio and Television in Nigeria. (PhD Dissertation, University of Ibadan).
[43]. Roach, P., (1991). English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[44]. Savin-Baden, M., and C. Major, (2013). Qualitative Research: The Essential Guide to Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.
If you have access to this article please login to view the article or kindly login to purchase the article

Purchase Instant Access

Single Article

North Americas,UK,
Middle East,Europe
India Rest of world
USD EUR INR USD-ROW
Pdf 35 35 200 20
Online 35 35 200 15
Pdf & Online 35 35 400 25

Options for accessing this content:
  • If you would like institutional access to this content, please recommend the title to your librarian.
    Library Recommendation Form
  • If you already have i-manager's user account: Login above and proceed to purchase the article.
  • New Users: Please register, then proceed to purchase the article.