Integrity Journal of Arts and Humanities

This study performs a stylistic analysis of the language of billboard advertisements in selected medium-scale enterprises in Keffi Town, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The main purpose of the study is to discuss and analyse the stylistic devices used in advertisements by most Medium Scale Enterprises in Keffi using three levels of stylistic analysis which include graphological, lexical and grammatical. The data for the study are sourced from four (4) billboard advertisements, a qualitative research design is chosen, while a judgemental sampling technique is used to select a sample of four (4) medium-scale advertisements in Keffi Town for the study. This study adopts the linguistic stylistic theory and the AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action) principle of advertising to analyze the advertisements. The findings of the research are as follows: firstly, Medium Scale Enterprises use linguistic features such as nouns, adjectives adverbs, ellipsis, alliteration, metaphors and hyperbole in their adverts. Secondly, they adopt the use of graphological features such as capitalization, font faces, font sizes images and others to capture the attention of their customers. Thirdly, they also use different devices such as slogans and images to increase their sales. The study is a great contribution to the field of research in language use in advertisements by medium-scale enterprises in Keffi Town, Nigeria.