Advertising discourse in a multilingual environment: language dynamics

This book aims to shed light on the functioning of advertising discourse in a multilingual and multicultural context, the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also attempts to identify the common views of the cultures contained in advertising through the languages used in Congolese advertising. By its structuring (overlapping of languages, codic alternation, linguistic compartmentalization), its illocutionary and perlocutionary force as well as by its concern of wanting to increase the adhesion of a general public to a product, the advertising discourse constitutes a rich and complex corpus which deserves to be studied. The advertising communication we are talking about here is that which is broadcast on local television channels and on posters posted along the main roads of the city of Lubumbashi. It is broadcast in French (the official language) as well as in various national languages (Kiswahili, Lingala, Ciluba and Kikongo) and in English, a foreign language spoken in Zambia, a neighboring country and the region's main trading partner.