INVESTIGATING PRAGMATIC TRAPS IN ADVERTISING MESSAGES OF ZAIN – IRAQ TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejals.v6i1.423Keywords:
pragmatic traps, coded implicature, discourse of advertising, discourse of marketingAbstract
This paper discusses the use of pragmatic traps in advertising messages and their impact on customers, with a particular focus on the messages of Zain Telecommunication Company in Iraq. Pragmatic traps are false or misleading claims in advertising that deceive customers by distorting the reality of the product or service being offered. The research aims to investigate the extent to which Zain uses pragmatic traps in its advertisements and how these traps affect customers. The analysis of fifty advertising messages from Zain reveals a high use of persuasive language, emotional appeals, particularized and coded implicature, and violations of the maxims of quantity and quality of the cooperative principle. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the elective model of pragmatic traps in advertising and the ways in which advertisers can use language to manipulate the context and meaning of a message. As customers, it is important to be aware of these traps to make informed purchasing decisions.
References
Bach, Robert. (2005). 'The Top 10 Misconceptions about Implicature'. John Benjamins.
Belk, R. W. (2013). Extended self in a digital world. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(3), 477-500.
Chen, X. (2017). Critical Pragmatic Studies on Chinese Public Discourse. Springer.
Cook, G. (2001). The discourse of advertising. Psychology Press.
Crocker, J. (2008). The role of the self in shaping beliefs and attitudes: Some implications for persuasion and attitude change. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(5), 1751-1768.
Cruse, A. (2006). A glossary of Semantics and Pragmatics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Grice, H. P. (1991). Studies in the Way of Words. London: Harvard University Press.
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and Conversation. In: P. Cole and J.L. Morgan (eds.), Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts, 41-58. New York: Academic Press.
Grundy, P. (2000). Doing Pragmatics. London. Hodder Headline: Group. 2nd ed.
Jubair, B. & Al-Hindawi, F. H. (2016). Irony in Electoral Political Speeches: A Pragmatic Model of Effective Strategies. Lambert Academic Publishing: Germany.
Jubair, B. K. (2023). International Education Studies and Sustainability. Toward a Comprehensive Model of the Pragmatization of Lexical Uniqueness with Reference to Iraqi Arabic. Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22158/iess.v3n1p1
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2010). Principles of marketing. Pearson Education.
Kunz, W. (2009). Pragmatic traps in advertisements. Marketing and Semiotics, 2, 45-59.
Mick, D. G., & Fournier, S. (1998). Paradoxes of technology: Consumer cognizance, emotions, and coping strategies. Journal of Consumer Research, 25(2), 123-143.
Obermiller, C., & Spangenberg, E. R. (1998). Development of a scale to measure consumer skepticism toward advertising. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 7(2), 159-186.
Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123-205.
Sassatelli, R. (2010). Consumer culture: history, theory and politics. Sage.
Szmigin, I., & Carrigan, M. (2006). The ethical consumer. Sage.
Tseng, Y. (2018). The impact of pragmatic traps on consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 25, 872-880.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).


