A SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE OF THE REPRESENTATION OF SAUDI WOMEN DRIVERS

Abstract

The discourse of Saudi women drivers in 2016 which compromises skeptic and humorous language as in "dear woman, your vail is the reason behind your accident, your speed may ruin your hairstyle" ,has changed in 2018 when king Salman issued a decree allowing women to drive and lifted the ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia. The study aims to investigate the sociolinguistic discourse of the Saudi female drivers and traces how far the ads are supportively presented. The study adopts Halliday’s Meta-function ( 1976)(2003) and Searle’s Speech Act Theory (1976) for the analysis of a sample of 25 advertisements. The findings reveal that the use of imperative and declarative speech acts is equal, 45% for each. The use of informalads is greater than formal or standard Arabic. Moreover, the private sector provided 93% of the advertisements. In addition, the interpersonal dimension of language fosters a friendly atmosphere through using the plural and first personal pronouns and emphasizing grammatical gender as a way of supporting and sharing Saudi women the right to drive.