Press Advertising Language 1800s-1950s: a Linguistic Study in the Australian Context

This socio-cultural study of promotional language covers 150 years of press notices. The aim is to discover how marketing language evolved through time. The inquiry begins in 1803 with the first Australian newspaper, which served as the ‘town crier’ providing information for the new settlers. The research dataset comprises advertisements for consumables, government notices, news reporting and letters to the Editor. Thus, the dataset is an ecology that evokes commercial activity in the marketplace and brings to life the language of its people. The discovery timeline shows modern advertising language germinated in the 1890s, creating propositions that construct gender-based social relationships between person and consumables.