THE LANGUAGES USED IN CODE-MIXING IN PRINT ADVERTS OF COMMERCIAL BANKS AND MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS FIRMS IN KENYA

Abstract

Advertisers typically rely on certain discourse strategies to capture the attention of their targeted clientele. One

of such discourse strategies is code-switching. In Kenya; the code-mixing phenomenon is prevalent in the cor

porate sector because of the fact that many people are multilingual. As code-mixing becomes an idiosyncratic

trend in Kenyan corporate sector, this study sought to determine the domineering languages commonly used

in code-mixing in the information-loaded and outcome-driven commercial print advertisements of commercial

banks and mobile telecommunications firms in Kenya. The study was conducted in Eldoret. The data for this

study was collected from both primary and secondary sources. The data was primarily obtained from language

mixed print adverts. The internet served as a secondary information source. Data collected was analyzed using

the processes of Lexical Pragmatics Theory. Lexical Pragmatics is a rapidly developing branch of linguistics

that investigates the processes by which linguistically-specified (‘literal') word meanings are modified in use.

From the results, it was concluded that code-mixing was prevalent in commercial adverts in Kenya. The lan

guages that were mixed in print adverts were: English and Kiswahili, English and Sheng, English and Arabic,

English/Kiswahili and ethnic languages. The dominant mixture however was English and Kiswahili.