The Socio-cultural Aspects of Bumper Stickers Based on Dell Hyme's Ethnography

One of man’s engagements has always been social communication for which he has sought to find various means such as old inscriptions on the walls of caves and the more modern graffiti. As a form of communication, bumper stickers reflect mindsets, emotions, and socio-cultural views of people. The reflection of deep socio-cultural issues through bumper stickers has unfortunately been underestimated in linguistic research. The current study aimed to analyze bumper stickers as an effective tool for the expression of socio-cultural ideas and meanings. 2312 bumper stickers were collected randomly over a long period of time. They were content analyzed and categorized into 15 categories. They were also described in terms of Hymes’ ethnography of communication. The results of the analyses revealed that religious and inspirational bumper stickers were the most frequent and the political and critical ones were the least frequent. Statistically significant differences were found between these categories of bumper stickers. The studies also showed how bumper stickers convey significant meanings through their setting, participant, end, act, key, instrumentality, norms, and genres.