The Pragmatic Study of the Relationship between Informativeness and Comprehensibility in Nigerian Newspapers

Résumé

This research study explores the practical aspect of the connection between informativeness and comprehensibility of advertisements in Nigerian newspapers. Using the example of thirty purposely sampled adverts in The Punch and The Nation, newspapers, the study uses the Cooperative Principle of Grice in determining the extent of information given and how well it is presented to the readers. Whereas informativeness deals with the adequateness and relevance of information, comprehensibility deals with the ease with which messages can be understood by the audience. The results indicate that Nigerian adverts often favour the persuasion and the aesthetic content more than the informative one, and political and educational advertisements offer very little information yet can be easily understood. Financial and real estate adverts, in turn, avoid excessiveness and ambiguity, as they provide necessary information in clear language. Health and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) advertisements usually violate the maxim of quality by trading accuracy in favor of persuasion. In general, the paper finds that comprehensibility does not guarantee informativeness and vice versa; the most useful adverts are the ones combining the two variables. This research would be of use to pragmatic scholarship by showing how the advertising discourse can negotiate between persuasion and clarity in the context of a multilingual society. In practice, it provides information to advertisers, publishers, and to regulators on how to enhance the communicative worth of print advertising in Nigeria.

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