TUNISIAN PROVERBS IN COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS A PRAGMATIC TOOL

TUNISIAN PROVERBS IN COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS: A PRAGMATIC TOOL OF PERSUADING TEENAGERS PRESENTED BY: CHAARI FATMA

Plan: �Background of the research proposal �Statement of the problem �The subproblems �Definitions �Literature review �Methodological justification �Conclusion

Background of the research proposal � “Even though persuasion is a fact of life, it surely takes a lot of skill, knowledge and logic for it to succeed in driving its point home” Maalej, Z (2000) � My research proposal stems from my personal conviction that proverbs are a useful strategy, not only to communicate well, but also to persuade others. � In addition, having obtained a Business English diploma helped me to relate this interest to the area of advertising. � Moreover, from my personal observation, I noticed that Tunisian teenagers use a mixture of Arabic, French and English words in one single utterance. This has become a salient feature in their conversations. Naturally, this will affect their relationship with our colloquial sayings. Consequently, if they do not master their mother tongue in their everyday communication, how can they use proverbs or at least know them? � Hence my research goal is to show whether the use of proverbs enables advertisers to attract teenagers and create in them the impulse to buy.

Statement of the problem: �Are. Tunisian proverbs a successful pragmatic tool of persuasion used by advertisers to attract and manipulate teenagers? Statement of the subproblems : �What are the value and the position of Tunisian proverbs in our culture? Do they represent a sign of modernity or a component of cultural heritage? � How do teenagers consider proverbs? �Why do advertisers resort to such a strategy to persuade younger audience? �To what extent are colloquial proverbs successful as a tool of attracting and persuading teenagers in the realm of advertising? Are proverbs a sign of success or failure?

Definitions of basic concepts -Proverbs: For the sake of clarity; we need to differentiate between an idiom and a proverb. An idiom must be learnt as a whole unit. As for proverb, this word comes from Latin as “porverbuim”. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines a proverb as “a short pithy saying in frequent and widespread use that expresses a basic truth or practical percept” -Persuasion: “Persuasion” is derived from the verb “to persuade”. According to Trice and Sellami- Baklouti (2003: 2), they define these 2 words as introduced in The Lexicon Webster's Dictionary of English Language: � - To persuade: verb: 1)- to cause someone to do something by reasoning, coaxing, urging, etc 2)- to cause someone to believe something by reasoning � -Persuasion: noun: persuading or being persuaded, capacity or power to persuade.

-Teenagers: According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English (1995: 1227), a teenager is a person between 13 and 19 years old. This period of age is called adolescence which is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. Indeed, this transaction involves biological, psychological and social changes. The adolescent is able to think and reason in a wider perspective, yet, he is very vulnerable to be manipulated easily. That's why in commerce, this audience is seen as important target. (cited in Wikipedia answers: 10).

Literature review �Throughout the years, researchers work on the secrets behind the success of ads and their ability to manipulate the audience. �Crystal and Davy (1969) admit that "Advertising needs both to inform and to persuade” “so a good advertisement must have selling power, memory value, attention value and readability. Naturally its language should be persuasive and have thesense of urging”. �And since “persuading is presented as a complex strategic act of acting” (Triki and Sellami- Baklouti, 2003), the two participants can only but unequal in the act of persuasion. In this path, as it is said “a good tongue is a good weapon”, the advertiser’s tools, whether linguistic or audio-visual should be very selective and influential on the targeted audience. May be the best domain to study the impact of language on people is the media especially the audiovisual type of media.

� “People pretend that they are not influenced by what is said in the media, yet, they are usually caught unaware” � Jones and Jones(1999) argue that no analysis of the relationship between media output and audience can ignore the debate about effects “the effects debate tends to depict the mass audience as consisting of the weaker and more vulnerable members of society i. e. young people and women” (Jones and Jones, 1999). � Accordingly, what will be the case if advertisers use proverbs to attract teenagers? According to Fergusson (1983), proverbs are not mere platitudes and they tend to be short, “shorter than a bird's beak”. In addition, they represent a source of communication success that's why she maintains that “perhaps it is a mistake to regard proverbs as a source of accumulated wisdom. Perhaps, they are better seen as a collection of tags that enable thoughts to be communicated without effort of formulation”.

METHODOLOGICAL JUSTIFICATION An eclectic research: �Qualitative design: 1 -Interview: to get information about the value and position of Tunisian proverbs in our culture, I use an unstructured interview based on open-ended questions to be answered by 3 groups(teenagers, adults and elderly) made up of 10 people each 2 -Observation: a group of 20 teenagers studying in preparatory and secondary schools will be under observation to get an idea about the frequency of using proverbs in their conversations

�Quantitative design: 1 -Questionnnaire: 20 teenagers will be asked to fill in a semi- structured questionnaire based on open and closed- ended questions using a rank ordering type to know about which is the most persuasive tool in advertising: whether metaphor or proverb 2 -Experimental group and control group: To know about the extent to which our Tunisian sayings are influential on teenagers in commercial ads, two groups, each made up of 20 teenagers, will be selected randomly: the experimental group will perceive the ads with proverbs and the control group will face them without proverbs. -I pick up 2 proverbs: “ kenek khayet taba 3 elghorza” “il ma illi mechi lisdra ilzitouna awla bih”.

Conclusion � Such a topic seems challenging and that’s why a lot of work is needed to be done because to carry out this research can not be based on only 2 samples of proverbs used in ads. �It is known that research is an ongoing cycle and it also said that “nothing is impossible to a willing heart”, I am willing to improve my work.

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