An Analysis of Linguistic Resources Found in the Advertising Discourse Used by Selected Banking Institutions in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This study analyses linguistic resources found in the advertising discourse used by three banking institutions in Zimbabwe. The institutions are the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ), Trust Bank of Zimbabwe (Trust Bank) and the Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe (Agribank). The researcher takes a keen interest in banking commercials of between 2002 and 2003, a period which seems to mark the zenith of banking commercials in Zimbabwe judging by the highly combative advertising language used and the hyper-activity seen in the banking sector. The researcher thus analyses how banking advertising discourse is constructed to project a calculated purpose and ideology. The study reveals that banking commercials employ linguistic features such as thematisation and rhematisation of discourse topics, nominalisation, some deictics, and the finite supported by visuals of animate and inanimate objects to persuade, control and manipulate both men and women as equal investors. Data was gathered both from primary and secondary sources using reliable strategies namely, library reseach, questionnaires and interviews. Text analysis was used to analyse the studied commercials. It enabled the researcher to analyse how banking commercials frame language in creating meaning that shows dominant motifs and ideology.