A Study of the Arabic Discourse in Algerian Printed Advertisements
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH DJILLALI LIABES UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LETTERS, LANGUAGES AND ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH A STUDY OF THE ARABIC DISCOURSE IN ALGERIAN PRINTED ADVERTISEMENTS Thesis Submitted to the Department of English in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctorate in Sociolinguistics Presented by: Supervised by: Amel MEBARKI Prof. Samira ABID Board of Examiners Prof. Hind Mostari President University of Sidi Belabbes Prof. Samira Abid Supervisor University of Sidi Belabbes Prof. Faiza Senouci External examiner University of Tlemcen Dr. Noureddine Mouhadjer External examiner University of Tlemcen Dr. Chams-Eddine Lamri External examiner University of Tlemcen Dr. Mohamed Kies Internal examiner University of Sidi Belabbes Academic Year: 2018-2019 Statement of Originality I hereby certify that the content of this thesis entitled, “A Study of the Arabic Discourse in Algerian Printed Advertisements”, is my own work. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due references are made. Signed: Amel MEBARKI. Date: 14/10/2018 I Dedications I dedicate this dissertation to the following people: • My mother, May Almighty Allah bestow His mercy on her soul; • My beloved ‘second’ mother ‘khadidja’, the light of my life, for her endless love, support and encouragements; • My dear father; • My dear husband Ikhlef and my wonderful children: Adem, Ritedj and Lina; • My brother and sisters. Abdelwahab, Fatna, Fatima and Salima; • All my friends and the members of my family. II Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank Almighty Allah for providing me the strength, knowledge, ability, health and opportunity to undertake this humble research work and to persevere and complete it satisfactorily. Without his blessings, this accomplishment would never have been possible. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. S. ABID, for her insightful and methodological guidance, her valuable advice and constant support which helped me to elaborate this doctorate thesis. Special thanks go to all the members of the jury, namely Prof. Hind MOSTARI, Prof. Faiza SENOUCI, Dr. Noureddine MOUHADJER, Dr. Chams-Eddine LAMRI and Dr. Mohamed KIES for their acceptance to evaluate this dissertation. Besides, I am also very grateful and appreciative to all my honoured teachers who have constantly been a source of knowledge and enlightenment throughout my bachelor and magister studies, namely Prof. Farouk BOUHADIBA, Prof. Ali BOUAMRANE ( Rahimaho Allah), Prof. Zoubir DENDANE, Prof. Ali BAICHE, Prof. Amine BELMEKKI, Prof. Ghouti HADJOUI, and Dr. Mohamed Rachid BENALI (Rahimaho Allah). I would like also to thank all the participants who took part in this study, namely the questionnaire’s informants, the teachers from the department of Arabic at the university centre of Ain Temouchent, and my dear colleague and friend Chahrazed HAMZAOUI for their help and assistance. I am further indebted to all the scholars and researchers whom I have had the opportunity to profit extensively from their books and articles. I wish to express my deep gratitude to my husband Ikhlef for his inestimable help and support. Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my friends and colleagues, be they from Oran, Tlemcen, Mostaganem, Sidi Belabbes or Ain-Temouchent for their emotional and inexhaustible moral support, and for their love, encouragement and prayers. III Abstract The present study investigates the discourse of advertising as it appears on Algerian print media. It focuses on consumer commercial advertising. The researcher has selected three Algerian newspapers and a magazine as materials of investigation. The study provides analyses of advertising texts using corpus analysis approach. In addition, a questionnaire is used to analyse people’s attitudes. The research is based on a mixed method approach for data collection and analysis. Through an empirical analysis of data, this study specifies the linguistic and sociolinguistic choices made by copywriters of print advertising to attract consumers’ attention and persuade them to buy the advertised products or services. It looks at the deployment of the phonological, syntactic, lexical, stylistic and sociolinguistic means used in print advertising discourse and determines the most widely used. Yet, it reveals that the advertising language is a loaded and unique language; a language which is well crafted and designed to achieve advertising objectives of attracting, impressing, persuading, manipulating and enticing consumers into purchasing specific products or services. Furthermore, the analysis proves that the choice of the appropriate linguistic variety in advertisements plays a major role in the process of persuasion. Importantly, dialectal Arabic is found to penetrate increasingly in Algerian print advertisements and thus, the status of Modern Standard Arabic as the only written form of mass media and print advertisements in particular is deteriorating. Finally, after measuring Algerians’ attitudes towards the advertising language, the researcher concludes that copywriters of print advertisements in Algeria succeed in promoting positive connotations in the minds of their audiences. The present research work is divided into four chapters. Chapter one is devoted to the literature review. Chapter two presents a general overview of advertisements and the advertising language. Chapter three is concerned with explaining the research methodology and data collection methods. However, the last chapter is devoted to data analysis and discussion of the results. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Originality ....................................................................................... I Dedications ............................................................................................................... II Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. III Abstract .................................................................................................................... IV Table of Contents .................................................................................................... V List of Tables ........................................................................................................... XII List of Figures ......................................................................................................... XIII List of Phonetic Symbols ......................................................................................... XIV List of Acronyms and Abbreviations .................................................................... XVI GENERAL INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 02 CHAPTER ONE: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ............................ 08 1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 09 1.2 Discourse: Definition .......................................................................................... 09 1.3 Text and Discourse .............................................................................................. 10 1.4 Types of Discourse .............................................................................................. 11 1.4.1 Transactional Discourse ................................................................................... 11 1.4.2 Interactional Discourse ..................................................................................... 12 1.5 Spoken vs. Written Discourse ............................................................................. 12 1.5.1 Lexical Density ................................................................................................ 13 1.5.2 Nominalization ................................................................................................. 14 1.5.3 Explicitness ...................................................................................................... 14 1.5.4 Grammatical Complexity ................................................................................. 14 1.5.5 Contextualization ............................................................................................. 14 1.5.6 Repetition, Hesitation and Redundancy ........................................................... 15 1.6 Discourse Analysis ............................................................................................ 15 1.6.1 Context in Discourse Analysis ......................................................................... 16 1.6.2 Cohesion .......................................................................................................... 18 1.6.3 Coherence ......................................................................................................... 19 V 1.6.4 Patterns of Cohesion ......................................................................................... 20 1.6.4.1 Grammatical Cohesion .................................................................................. 20 1.6.4.1.1 Reference ................................................................................................... 21 1.6.4.1.2 Substitution and Ellipsis .......................................................................... 23 a) Substitution ..............................................................................................