Language choice and ideology: Examining the use of the Malay language in English newspaper advertisements in Malaysia

Abstract

While there are studies that link ideology to print advertising, and studies on language choice in advertisements in the Malaysian context, there is a paucity of studies which link language choice, print advertising and ideology in Malaysia. To address this gap, the current study examines the use of Malay words and phrases in English newspaper advertisements in Malaysia, and the ideologies communicated through such language choice. In order to do this, a corpus of 68 English newspaper advertisements with Malay words and phrases was examined using an approach based on a critical social semiotics framework derived from Caldas-Coulthard and van Leeuwen (2003).The data revealed two broad ideological categories, namely, a Malay-Muslim ideology that expressed the worldview, values and culture of the Malay ethnic group, and the second, a socio-political ideology of unity which can be seen as both a social message and a political tool of the Government.