International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-3, Issue-2, Mar - Apr, 2018

https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.2.25 ISSN: 2456-7620

Pragmatic Analysis of Persuasion in Modern

British and Iraqi Parliamentary Election Slogans
Asst. Prof. Abbas Lutfi Hussein (Ph. D.) and Risala Gatea Abttan
Mustansiriyah University, College of Arts, Baghdad, Iraq

Abstract— Slogans are noteworthy linguistic tools by instance,Frances (2014:30) identifies a slogan as “a brief
which people (and particularly politicians) can perform catchy phrase which expresses and builds a particular view,
different social and political functions. One main function is opinion or aim that is used in advertising or promotions”.
associated with their ability to persuade others to take an In fact,the shortness nature of slogan contributes a lot to the
action or do something in accordance with the messages importance of using them as influential linguistic tools
they intend to convey. Particularly, politicians utilize especially in the contemporary life.
election campaign slogans to persuade their audience with Another definition is given by Xin (2014:146) who
their views, programs and agendas. affirms that a slogan is “a special way to use language in
Thus, this paper aims to investigate the speech act of which brief and short words are smartly utilized to
persuasion in forty Modern British and Iraqi Parliamentary influence, attract or stop people of acting in a certain way”.
Election Campaign Slogans. Based on Searle’s (1969, In this sense, slogans have been regarded as indispensable
1975, and 1976),the felicity conditions of persuasion have tools that are employed in any prearranged“effort to make a
been derived and applied to the chosen data. The study change by convincing people to follow a specific direction
concludes that persuasion act can be indirectly attained in various fields of life”. Furthermore, the genuine use and
through various syntactic structures, especially declarative, the tangible results have obviouslyshown how weighty
active and simple sentences. Furthermore, non-linguistic slogans are in all times in general and nowadays in
elements contribute to the persuasive mission of election particular.
slogans. Both English and Arabic languages employ almost Likewise,Hosu and Pavelea (2009:21-22) emphasize
the same fabric of slogans to deliver influential messages. that a slogan should be categorized as “simple,
Keywords— Persuasion, Slogan, Felicity Conditions, concentrated, rhythmic and has one direct idea in order to
Syntactic Realizations. be memorable and understood by its target audience”.As a
universal phenomenon, slogans are widely used all over the
I. INTRODUCTION world. In particular, Arabic Dictionary identifies a slogan
Communication as the most important characteristic as a short catchphrase that recapitulates a particular purpose
of human life has been continually developed to achieve the or claim (‫قاموس محيط المحيط‬, 2009:128).
ultimate amount of understanding and influence among the To sum up, slogan functions as a communication
interlocutors. Consequently, different discourses are means that relates its producer to the audience in terms of
conducted to deliver various messages. Among these conveying a key message that holds some sort of benefit to
discourses are slogans that gain their familiarity from the them (audience).
catchy, memorable, and easy nature they featured with.
Slogans are of increasing contact with everyday life, II. ETYMOLOGY OF SLOGAN
that is to say, the extension in using slogans almost in all To a greater extent, slogans have occupied many
aspects of life makes them relevant to people’s daily aspects of modern life due to their practical use and
interactions. Through experience with their wide use, one immediate results. In fact, the use of slogans has been
can observe that some slogans may last for many years rooted far back in the history of Human language, i.e. in the
because of the meaningful message they deliver or due to ancient times when individuals tried to affect and
the memorable and catchy content they have. understand each other by means of verbal interactions.
Accordingly, researchers in different domains of Communicatively, slogans have been existed as long as
knowledge have tackled slogans by defining them and language has been employed to shorten the distance
investigating the power they embedded. For between its users.

www.ijels.com Page | 276

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-3, Issue-2, Mar - Apr, 2018
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.2.25 ISSN: 2456-7620
According to Sharp (1984:5), the term “slogan” may business and so forth. Nonetheless, they have a common
originally be traced back to the Gaelic word 'sluagh- characteristic of influential force of persuasion which is
ghairm'; 'sluagh' means 'host' or 'army' ,and 'ghairm'denotes actively employed to alter or assert differentperspectives
'cry' or 'shout', briefly, a war-cry (shout) or battle-cry of and attitudes.
soldiers in the field. Thus, a war-cry or rallying cry was Elaborately, persuasion is an “art of effective
originally used by“ Scottish clans in order to motivate the interactions in which speakersmake their opinion
fighters of the clans to do their best in protecting their believable to the audience through introducing logic
people and gaining victories over others”.It seems that clues, triggering emotions and proving their own
using slogans is profoundlyentrenched in people’s social credibility”. Persuasion is understood as afacet of
affairs. civilization that fundamentallyrelies on a peaceful mode
In accordance with Sharp' view, Crystal to “change or assert an attitude or behavior by making
(2008:180)asserts that the word slogan, initially, was the other part willingly accept the new belief and not
manipulated“to describe the battle-cry or rallying-cry of under any kind of social pressure”(Schmidt and Kress,
Scottish clan”.Currently, the application of slogan is 1986: 2). It is an obvious fact that in postulating a
different but the reason behind this application of modern message of persuasion, the speaker intends to effect and
slogan is much the same, that is, “to form a forceful-catchy, change the hearer's mind towards a certain view or
mind-grabbing utterance”. attitude, and thus, he is performing the speech act of
Furthermore, slogans are intenselywoven in social persuasion.
fabric of people’s life. Historically speaking,the utilization
of slogan was common throughout Europe during the IV. PERSUASION AS A SPEECH ACT
Middle Ages.That is, it was regularly used as a“password Before embarking onpresenting an explanation of
to insure the proper identity of individuals, and in the persuasion as a speech act, it is important to give a brief
beginning of the eighteenth century as a cry for calling account of what pragmaticsis. Simply, pragmatics is mainly
people”(among English speakers)( Al-Haq and Hussein, concerned with “investigating the use of language in social
2011:2). The use of slogans is “not an artificial one”, but it context to create a social reality, rather than describing the
is a linguistic expression that is “purposely organized in existed one”. People often use words to produce changes in
accordance with the values and norms of human societies their life and communicate diverseexchanges. However,
in order to achieve a particular goal”(Abate 1984: 11). participants use language in correspondence with their social
For Arabic history of using slogans, Arabs norms and principles. In other words, society shapes their
traditionally usedslogans in beating drums accompanied “ways of using language in various interactions”. In this
with some words in wars, and according to ‫( أبن قربة‬2008: respect, Mey (2001:6) avows that pragmatics “studies the use
Internet) to announce starting the armed conflict, to attract of language in human communication as determined by the
the attention of their soldiers and to frighten the enemies. conditions of society”.
Starting from the first use till nowadays, slogans In the same arena of pragmatics, Arabic linguists have
play an important role in communication between people given much emphasis on the formula of intention and
viaseveral forms and for diverse ends. Although, they are interpretation. Aljurjani (474-A. H.) asserts that the recipient
simple words but they can be used to attain different social of an utterance strives to grip the intended meaning of this
communicative functions. One main function is that they utterance (the secondary 'pragmatic' meaning rather the
are manipulated to persuade others to take an action or do elementary ' literal' one) (‫مطلوب والبصير‬, 1999:97).
something in accordance with the messages they intend to Relationally, one of the most important pragmatic
convey. Particularly, politicians utilize election campaign sub-disciplines is the Speech Acts Theory, in which the
slogans to persuade their audience with their views, meaningful use of language is to be investigated and further
programs and agendas. importance of words is to be uncovered, i.e. when words lead
to actions. Among different actions that can be performed by
III. PERSUASION: GENERAL REMARKS words is persuasion.
Day-to-dayexchanges are copious with persuasive As a familiar means of persuasion, slogans can be
discourses in which the speaker attemptshis/her best to taken as a pragmatic issue in terms of “the conviction power
change the hearer’s mind. Commonly, these discourses they have, they are mostly utilized to inform, motivate and
vary in their genres; social, educational, political, evoke their recipients to do an action through a concentrated

www.ijels.com Page | 277

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-3, Issue-2, Mar - Apr, 2018
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.2.25 ISSN: 2456-7620
and emphatic text”. In terms of speech acts according to 4. Essential Condition is associated with the audience’s
Taufik(2014:198), persuasive utterances generally“employ awareness of the recognized intention of the speaker to
demands, requests, invitations, etc., to convince their get their support, and of her/his commitment with them.
recipients”. Such forms of acts can be categorized under the
directive speech acts in which “the speaker tries to make VII. METHODOLOGY
some change in the hearer’s attitude”. Three aspects are taken into consideration in
Actually, all speech acts, to be happily performed,are discussing the methodology followed in the data analysis
required to meet certain necessary and sufficient conditions. and results. These are: method followed, data collection and
These conditions are known as felicity conditions. model proposed in the analysis of the data.
7.1 Method
V. FELICITY CONDITIONS To investigate how language is used in British and
For any speech act to be performed felicitously it Iraqi parliamentary election slogans to persuade the
should comply with a series of conditions.Illuminatingly, electorates, the researchers follow a union of qualitative
according to Meyer (2009:54),“any speech act cannot and quantitative method. The qualitative approach is
perform the intended action unless appropriate employed in the investigation of the speech act of
circumstances are being provided; these circumstances are persuasion as utilized in those slogans in terms of their
called felicity conditions”. More elaborately, Crystal felicity conditions.In addition, a quantitative method is
(2008:178) identifies felicity conditions as“a term used in manipulated to calculate the numbers of the frequency and
the theory of speech acts to refer to the criteria which must percentages of linguistic devices and syntactic realizations
be satisfied if the speech act is to achieve its purpose”. that contribute to the persuasive function of the analyzed
Generally, these circumstances(conditions) are data.
required for the executionof an act appropriately. This is 7.2 Data
owing to the fact that only knowledgeable people To fulfill the aims of this study, the researchers have
areallowedto declare a war, marry people, and in most cases collected the data from TV channels and Internet. The data
the speaker must be sincere, as in, for example, promising. are comprised oftwenty British and twenty Iraqi
Furthermore, external circumstances must be appropriate, parliamentary election slogans in which the main function
namely, in a suitableinstance an utterance should be taken is to persuade the voters and win their trust in the elections.
place. 7.3 Model
The model used in the data analysisinvolves the
VI. FELICITY CONDITIONS OF PERSUASION pragmatic treatment of the speech act of persuasion (based
Persuasion like any other speech act involves on Searle's 1969, 1975 and 1976 felicity conditions) as
appropriate conditions to be executed happily. Based on found in the selected slogans.
Searle’s (1969, 1975, and 1976), the model below has been VIII. DATA ANALYSIS
proposed to be applied to the chosen data of British and Iraqi By activating the proposed model of felicity
parliamentary election slogans. conditions of the speech act of persuasion, the use of
persuasion in the selectedforty British and Iraqi slogans is
1. Propositional Condition which is concerned with the identified.Two examples of each group of slogans have
content of the utterance that should have what evokes the been selected to be analyzed in details.
audience’s emotions or reasons, and attracts their 8.1 British Data Analysis
attention towards an expected benefit from the speaker. Two examples of British slogans are chosen to be
Moreover, this content should refer to the speaker’s investigated in terms of the pragmatic behavior of
ability to fulfill her/his promises, wishes, and plans. persuasion these slogans exhibit.
2. Preparatory Condition in which the speaker has a 8.1.1 Don’t make our heroes beg for more.
reason to be confident that her/his audience would
positively receive her/his utterance and interact with
her/his in an appropriate situation.
3. Sincerity Condition is about the real intention of the
speaker to affect her/his audience in different ways and
make them adopt her/his own opinion.

www.ijels.com Page | 278

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-3, Issue-2, Mar - Apr, 2018
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.2.25 ISSN: 2456-7620
intention to influence them emotionally and gain votes as
much as her/his slogan is persuasive.
In terms of realization, this slogan is introduced as a
simple imperative sentence begins with negative imperative
(don't) to emphasize the bad financial situation of military
forces after leaving the army. This negative imperative
sentence functions as prohibition that puts the military
forces and their rights after being out of service under a
spotlight, in order to uncover their situation in one hand and
to introduce the solution for such case by voting to United
Kingdom Independence party who will take care of them on
Military forces in any country are of special status the other hand.
due to their role in defense Home. In Britain, one of the To sum up, this slogan’s producer utilizes the negative
sensitive issuesis the case of veterans who retired after imperative sentence, effective content, and sensitive issue to
serving in the army for a long time; the United Kingdom influence the persuadees and to get their votes as a reaction
Independence Party introduces this slogan to influence to his attempt of conviction. In other words, this slogan
electorates through the candidate's plans for such class to represents the persuasion notion through the combination of
compensate them for their services to all British citizens the previous mentioned elements.
(Oakden, 2015: 66). 8.1.2Together we can secure a brighter future for
Obviously, the active use of the image of a veteran Britain.
who holds his helmet to beg (the matter that is considered as
an offence to such a class of society), adds a lot to the
effective function of the slogan because it arouses the
sympathy towards veterans who deserve to live in dignity
and honor. In fact, it is a try to shade light on the military
ex-servicemen and women to gain their support in the
elections for the interest of this candidate (party).
Specifically, the slogan’s producer explains that if
her/his party wins more votes, it will give loans and grants
to veterans through “Boots to Business” schema to enable
them to “run their own business after leaving the In an enthusiastic scene, this Conservative’s slogan
forces”(Ibid:66). However, the word Heroesis of special is introduced to show the meaning of the real fusion when
effect due to the passionate associations that glorify military the leader of the party is being held by his citizens who clap
forces who should not be left in need to the extent of for his speech and support his plans. His position, in the
begging. The opposition between the image of hero and the middle of the crowd, indicates that he is in the center of
act of begging gives more emphasis to this slogan and adds their interest. Moreover, the other slogans (in the poster) are
more to its effectiveness power. displayed in purpose to make it clear that the plans and
The persuasive discourse here is clearly represented strategies of the party will work together to achieve a
when the slogan matches the felicity conditions of brighter future for Britain.
persuasion in terms of: the content that employs a sense of Concerning the function of this slogan as a
opposition between the associations of heroes and the act of persuasive interaction, it can be seen in its matching the
begging. These words evoke the emotions of the hearers. In happy conditions of persuasion as follows: firstly, the
addition, the importance of the issue of veterans is a good propositional condition when Togetheris employed to
reason for the candidate to be confident that the electorates motivate the electorates to support its producer because of
would interact with her/him in the desired way. Moreover, the effect this word has over people’s minds. Yet, brighter
the obvious intention affects the feelings of the public in future for Britain is another influential linguistic expression
order to elect her/him and support her/his plan. Finally, that enriches the content of the slogan. Secondly, the
these persuadees certainly recognize the persuader’s positive reaction of the persuadees is almost ensured
because of the message the slogan delivered which

www.ijels.com Page | 279

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-3, Issue-2, Mar - Apr, 2018
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.2.25 ISSN: 2456-7620
enhances the unity and prosperity of their Home. Thirdly, Educationis an essential part of any civilized society.
the clear intention of the candidate is to convince the That is whythe slogan’s producer focuses on the education
electorates through speaking about patriotic issue of the and its necessity for all people in different ages (‫أحمد‬,2014:
future of their country and the mutual interests. Fourthly, Internet). The image of the pupil, with a Muslim’s cap, is
these receivers of the persuasive discourse for sure realize actively utilized here, especially when he is writing on the
the intention of the slogan’s producer to persuade them and board a sentence that explains an Aaya ( Quarnic verse)
win their support in the election that is supposed to lead from the Glorious Qur’an. This image can affect the
them to get a better life in their country. electorates in terms of the benefits of education as a method
In using simple declarative sentence, the persuader of enlightening minds which is one of the main principles of
emphasizes the good deeds that can be accomplished Islam. Furthermore, the little boy refers to the hope of a
through being together and united. According to the brighter future.
manifesto of the conservative party, the word Togetherin As a piece of talk that leads to an action, this slogan
particular means the union that includes Scotland, England, agrees with the felicity conditions of persuasion as follows:
Wales, and the Northern Ireland which “have done so much firstly, the content in which ‫ التعليم‬,‫[للجميع‬education, for all]
and can do much more” for Britain (Mabbutt, 2015:70). have an impact on persuadees’ minds due to the importance
To introduce the slogan in a declarative manner is to of spreading education. Secondly, the candidate’s
show the certainty of its content in which securing a confidence about her/his persuadees’ positive response is
brighter future for the countryis possible by unifying the caused by dealing with a vital issue of education. Thirdly,
efforts of its people, this notion of unity is considered as an the real intention of the persuader to influence the
active means to influence the persuadees due to the natural persuadees and win their trust agrees with the sincerity
tendency of people to be together. condition. Fourthly, the essential condition is satisfied by
Elaborately, the persuasion as an act being the electorates’ awareness of this intention of getting their
accomplished through speech is carefully introduced votes in order to achieve the proposed goal.
through using a simple declarative sentence in whichsimple Furthermore, the syntactic structure serves the
direct information has been delivered and carefully used to persuasive function of the slogan via the simple nominal
affect the electorates. sentence that confirms everybody’s right of education. This
8.2 Iraqi Data Analysis right would be enhanced by the announced plan of this
Twenty Iraqi parliamentary election slogans candidate, through her/his party in order to make it
constitute theIraqi sample in this study. Two slogans (as available for all Iraqis.
examples representing the whole data ) have been selected To get the gist, the slogan’s producer actively employs the
to pragmatically investigate the speech act of persuasion as image of the Iraqi pupil on the one hand by relating it to the
used in the data. main topic. On the other hand, s/he establishes the
appropriate pragmatic environment with the effective
8.2.1‫التعليم حق للجميع‬ realization of the slogan. All these procedures participate in
[Education is for all] enhancing the persuasive function of the slogan.
8.2.2‫نعم نحن نستطيع‬....‫التغيير‬
[The change….yes we can]

www.ijels.com Page | 280

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-3, Issue-2, Mar - Apr, 2018
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.2.25 ISSN: 2456-7620
In terms of syntactic structure, the nominal sentence
Employing her own image,this nominee tries to of the slogan asserts the resoluteness of the candidate to
activate the persuasive purpose )‫أحمد‬,2014:Internet). In her turn the bad situation of country to a better one. Using ‫نعم‬
confident look asserts that (through her party) she can do ‫[ نحن‬yes we] plus the implied doer in the verb ‫[ نستطيع‬can],
the desired change. The utilization of red colour, in the text emphasizes that the speaker (candidate) has a strong desire
of the slogan and in the flower the candidate puts in her to fulfill this promise for the benefit of the electorates.
jacket, enriches the persuasive message of the slogan. This To sum up, many elements are actively employed in
can be justified through the extended positive meaning (of this slogan to deliver a successful persuasive message to the
red colour) in Arabic tradition which is often associated persuadees. These elements are: the notion of change that
with revolutionary and bravery sense (Hasan et al., Iraqi people are eager to; the significance of red colour and
2011:209). the charisma of the candidate; the attractive vocabulary; the
Through satisfying the felicity conditions of agreement with the appropriate pragmatic environment of
persuasion as a speech act, this slogan proves its persuasive persuasion; and the declarative nominal realization of the
function. Respectively, its content has two attractive issues: slogan. All these elements are utilized to create a persuasive
‫[ التغيير‬the change],‫[ نستطيع‬we can]. In fact, their meanings discourse via this slogan.
complement each other because there will be no change
unless the speaker has the ability to do it. The persuader’s IX. OVERALL RESULTS
confidence about the positive reaction of the persuadees is The pragmatic analysis of the speech act of
resulted from her ability to fulfill her promise of change. persuasion in both groups of data has shown the following
The absolute intention to convince the audience and win results, displayed in Table 1 and Table 2. Put it another
their support is another satisfied condition. Finally, the way, Table 1 presents a detailed description of pragmatic
electorates’ recognition of this intention and the ability to analysis of persuasion in the British data.
achieve the desired change for their benefit means that this
slogan is fully understood by them.

Table.1: Pragmatic Analysis of Persuasion in British Slogans

No. Slogans Sentence Sentence Type Voice Deixis Directness
Complexity

1. Stand up for free education Simple Imperative Active _ Indirect

2. Together we can secure a Simple Declarative Active We Indirect
brighter future for Britain
3. Don’t make our heroes beg Simple Imperative Active Our Indirect
for more
4. fairer tax in tough times Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect
5. Don't let Conservatives kill Simple Imperative Active _ Indirect
the health service. Vote
Labour on May 7th
6. We are with you Simple Declarative Active We, Indirect
You
7. Carbon cuts not job cuts Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect
8. Stronger economy, fairer Compound Declarative Active _ Indirect
society
9. The more seats we have here; Compound Declarative Active We,We Indirect
the more powers we'll have in
Scotland
10. Change that works for you. Compound Declarative Active You Indirect
Building a fairer Britain
11. Immigration is three times Simple Declarative Active _ indirect

www.ijels.com Page | 281

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-3, Issue-2, Mar - Apr, 2018
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.2.25 ISSN: 2456-7620
higher than the Tories
promised
12. Let's stay on the road to a Simple Imperative Active _ Indirect
strong economy
13. A better plan. A better future Compound Declarative Active _ Indirect
14. Don’t just hope for a better Simple Imperative Active _ Indirect
Scotland, vote for one
15. One nation Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect
16. For the common good Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect
17. Cost of living crisis Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect

18. For you, your family and Simple Declarative Active You Indirect
Britain
19. Freeze that bill Simple Imperative Active _ Indirect
20. Hard working Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect

This table reveals that the British data is abundant 30%. Furthermore, all British slogans are represented by
with simplesentences as 16 examples have been witnessed indirect speech act of persuasion and realized in active
in constituting 80 % , while only 4 examples of compound sentences. Finally, the use of the deictic pronouns we and
sentences have been registered with the percentage of 20%. you is common in the data. Collectively, all these elements
Interestingly no example of complex sentences has been are exploited in the British data to help assert the persuasive
found in the data. Most of the persuasive slogans are functions that the British parliamentary slogans exhibit.
realized in the declarative sentences, having a frequency of Similarly, Table 2 presents a detailed description of
14 times constituting a percentage of 70%. Other 6 slogans pragmatic analysis of persuasion in the Iraqi data.
are realized in imperative sentences with the percentage of

Table.2: Pragmatic Analysis of Persuasion in Iraqi Slogans

No. Slogans Sentence Sentence Type Voice Deixis Directness
Complexity
1. ‫ائتالف العراق مفتاح الحل والتغيير‬ Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect
2. ‫المواطن ينتصر‬ Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect
3. ‫معا نبني العراق‬ Simple Declarative Active We Indirect
4. ‫نعم نحن نستطيع‬....‫التغيير‬ Simple Declarative Active We Indirect
5. ‫نفعل ما نقول‬ Simple Declarative Active We,We Indirect
6. ‫حامي ثروة العراق‬ Simple Declarative Active __ Indirect
7. ‫نحن البديل‬ Simple Declarative Active We Indirect
8. ‫معا للنهوض بالرياضة‬ Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect
9. ‫التعليم حق للجميع‬ Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect
10. ‫معا نبني‬..‫معا نغير‬ Compound Declarative Active We,We Indirect
11. ‫دولة مدنية مصالحة وطنية تنمية‬ Compound Declarative Active _ Indirect
‫حقيقية‬
12. ‫ وتوفير أكثر من‬,‫حرب على البطالة‬ Compound Declarative Active _ Indirect
‫سنوات‬4 ‫مليون فرصة عمل خالل‬
13. ‫نغير من اجالننعيش بسالم‬ Compound Declarative Active We Indirect
14. ‫اعمل بصمت ودع عملك يتكلم‬ Compound Imperative Active _ Indirect
15. ‫حكومةحرة‬ Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect
16. ‫بدأنا ولن نتوقف‬ Compound Declarative Active We, We Indirect

www.ijels.com Page | 282

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-3, Issue-2, Mar - Apr, 2018
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.2.25 ISSN: 2456-7620
17. ‫كل شئ من أجل العراق الغالي‬ Simple Declarative Active Indirect
18. ‫لنتعاون أنا وأنت لبناء العراق‬ Compound Imperative Active Me, You Indirect
19. ‫حمايةاألرثالحضاريواألنساني للعراق‬ Simple Declarative Active _ Indirect
20. ‫خلقمستقبل قوي وآمن للعراق‬ Simple Declarative Active _ indirect

The table above shows that the simple sentences are sense of solidarity by bridging the gap between the
common in Iraqi election slogans as 13 examples have participants in general.
been observed constituting 65 % , while 7 examples of 6. Vividly, politicians prefer to use active voice in their
compound sentences have been recorded with the slogans to be more concise in constructing the
percentage of 35%. Similar to the British data, Iraqi data persuasive messages, another point is to affect the
have also recoded no example of complex electorates through delivering explicit and clear ideas
sentences.Persuasion utilized in Iraqi slogans ismostly through the active rather than the passive utterances.
recognized in the declarative sentences, having a frequency 7. Non-linguistic elements also contribute to the persuasive
of 18 times, constituting a percentage of 90%;only two function of election slogans. Both English and Arabic
examplesof imperative sentences have been found in the languages employ almost the same fabric of slogans to
data, having the percentage of 10%. Furthermore, all Iraqi deliver influential messages.
slogans are characterized by the use of the indirect speech
act of persuasion and realized in active sentences. Finally, REFERENCES
for giving indications to referents, the deictic pronouns we, [1] Abate, F. (1984).Slogans. London: Library of
youand me areutilized in the data. Cooperatively, all these Congress Cataloging in Publication Data.
elements are utilized in the Iraqi data to help establish the [2] Al-Haq,F. and Hussein,A.(2011). “The Slogans of the
persuasive functions that Iraqi parliamentary electors intend Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions: a Sociolinguistic
to. Study”.Yarmouk University Irbid – Jordan.
[3] Crystal, D. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and
X. CONCLUSIONS Phonetics,6th ed. New York: Blackwell Publishing,
The results of the data analysis of both the British and Iraqi Ltd.
election slogans have arrived at the following findings: [4] Frances, M.(2014).“IS There Such a Thing as a Trade
1. Based on Searle's (1969, 1975and 1976), the felicity Mark for Slogan?” Master in Intellectual Property.
conditions for the happy performance of the speech act Magister Lvcetinvus.
of persuasion could be derived and applied to the [5] Hasan ,A., Mahdi,N., Adabi,F.,(2011). “How Colours
analysis of the Modern Parliamentary British and Iraqi are Semantically Construed in the Arabic and English
Slogans. Culture:A Comparative study”.Kuala
2. The act of persuasion has been indirectlyperformedin Lumpur:University Malaya.
both the British and Iraqi data. Such maneuvering [6] Hosu, L. and Pavelea, A. (2009). “The Analysis of the
performance enriches the persuasive message of the Candidates’ Slogans in the Romanian Presidential
slogan in terms of attracting the audience’s attention to Campaign”. Journal of Media Research, 6/2010.
what is beyond the text of the slogan. [7] Mabbutt, A.(2015)Promoted manifesto on behalf of
3. The declarative sentences are more frequently used than the Conservative Party,. Printed by St. Ives PLC, One
imperative ones in the political persuasion. It seems that Tudor St, London, EC4Y 0AH.
this mood corresponds to the electorates’ tendency to [8] Mey ,J. L.(2001).Pragmatics:,An introduction .2nd ed.
reality, facts, and confirmed information. New York: Blackwell publishing.
4. In delivering one simple idea, the persuasive discourse [9] Meyer,C. (2009). Language Arts of Disciplines.
of political slogan corresponds with the simplicity Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
characteristic of slogans in general. This is due to the [10] Oakden, P.(2015). Promoted manifesto on behalf of
fact that the simple structure of slogan contributes a lot the UK Independence Party, Printed by Imax Design
to its conviction force. & Print Ltd, The Old Cart House. Applesham Farm,
5. Through utilizing the personal deixis ( we, you and me) Coombes, West Sussex, BN15 0RP.
in the election slogans, the candidates seek to make the
audience involved in the interaction and encourage the

www.ijels.com Page | 283

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-3, Issue-2, Mar - Apr, 2018
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.2.25 ISSN: 2456-7620
[11] Schimdt,R. and Kress,J.(1986.)Persuasion Language
in Advertising and Televangelism. Victoria: University
of Victoria.
[12] Sharp, H. (1984). Advertising Slogans of America.
Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press.
[13] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2014). The
Metaphysics Research Lab, Center for the Study of
Language and Information (CSLI),Stanford: Stanford
University.
[14] Taufik,K.(2014).“The Persuasive Utterances in a
Political Discourse”.International Journal of
Linguistics. Vol. 6, No. 1, ISSN 1948-5425 2014,
[15] Xin, J.(2014).“A Rhetoric-Based Analysis of Chinese
Public Slogans”.Studies in Literature and Language.
Vol. 9, No. 3, 2014, pp. 146-150
[16] ‫المصادر العربية‬
[17] "‫(" البرنامجاالنتخابيالئتالفالعراق‬4102(‫ بشار‬,‫أحمد‬
[18] http://www.iraqfirst.org.
[19] ‫) الرايننناا وام نننالل فننن التننناري الع ننن ر‬4112(, ‫صنننال‬,‫أبنننن قربة‬
.‫مجلة مركز ودود للمخطوطاا‬. ‫امسالم‬
[20] https://wadod.org/vb/showthread.php.
[21] ‫قاموس صر مطول للغة‬. ‫محيط المحيط‬.) 4112( ,‫بطرس‬, ‫الب تان‬
.‫ لبنان‬-‫ بيروا‬:‫الطبعة امولى دار ال تب العلمية‬.5 ‫ج‬.‫العربية‬
[22] : ‫ بغننداد‬.)٩١١١ (. ‫مطلننوب احمنند و البصننير ح ننن البالغننة والتطبي ن‬
. ‫وزارة التعليم العال والبحث العلم‬

www.ijels.com Page | 284