Meaning and Change in the Advertisements of Star Lager Beer: A Systemic Functional Approach

Abstract

This paper focuses on linguistic meaning and change in the print advertisements of STAR Lager beer. STAR is a product of Nigerian Breweries (NB). In order to answer the question of how and with what tools advertisers are able to reach the consumers, language which is a communication tool exclusive to human beings comes to mind. Two objectives were set for this study. They are (i) to describe the structural features of linguistic signs used in explicating meaning in advertisements and (ii) to investigate how changes in linguistic signs used indicate changes in meaning in advertisements. Advertisements of STAR over the last seventy years are carefully selected for analysis through the process of media monitoring. They were print advertisements that were extracted from newspapers and newsmagazines, NB publications and the internet. In the bid to analyse linguistic messages of the advertisements, Hallidays Systemic Functional Theory (SFT) was employed. Hallidays functional grammar is predicated on ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions. The apparatuses of this theory dwell on linguistic messages. The findings reveal that advertisers utilise diverse linguistic structures to signify meanings in advertisements. Besides, changes and variations in Processes, Participants and Circumstances signify changes in meanings.