Semiotic of Billboards

Abstract

The role of billboards in business' premises is vital as a form of publicity to attract customers, whether to inform about the business itself, or to tell about the services offered by the business premise. The language used on the billboards can be found in varieties of shapes and formats based on linguistic or nonlinguistic factors. The nonlinguistic factors are based on the statements that explained that the name on billboards is one of the sign which could attract consumers to come to the premise, or to get the bargain or services offered by the premise. In linguistics terms, the usage of billboards is part of sign system (semiotic). The language on the billboards will help the public to know of the patterns of the language usage. It will explain why certain forms of language are being used and some do not.

Language is a communication tool (Lyons 1977: 32). There are many of ways on how we could convey information, and one of them is using billboards. Billboards, in particular language on billboards, contain varieties of information. It is designed to persuade the audience to buy the products or services advertised on the billboards. Therefore, the language on the billboard is meant to positively influence consumers.

Semiotic refers to the science of symbols and signs. According to a semiotic scholar, Charles Sanders Pierce in Sudjiman et al. (1992), "sign is what represents something for someone", and language contains a system of signs and symbols which represents ideas and concepts. Therefore, from the semiotic perspective, the name of a company or business is in actual fact a sign. It refers to an object either in physical or abstract forms. One's experiences about the surrounding play a vital role in interpreting the sign. A sign is a combination of a concept and an utterance that represents the concept, and between concept and utterance, a suitable sign (or icon) is created.

Names of businesses, trademarks and brands of all types of products and services do represent such experiences within the audience. Therefore, they all could be used in advertisements to persuade the audience to buy products and services. For example, the company names such as Astro, Celcom and Maxis are being used as icons to highlight the services from the respective telecommunication companies. The name or business icons are used by the business communities to indicate the existence of the particular businesses.

Besides that, it is designed to attract the public to buy products or services advertised by the company. Apart from that, the name on the business billboards can be a sign to indicate educational level and culture of the people involved. It is clear that the name stated on the billboard described the skill and creativity of the advertisers in using the language used. The language used are words, names, lines, or sentences used by the owner of the business to display the billboards.

Generally, it can be said that premises have billboards that consist of the business' name, which are professionally made and with a variety of contents. The use of names on billboards depends on various factors such as reliability, environment, events, etc. which have become a sign system for the growth of the business itself.