16 research outputs found
Gender Representation in Pakistani and British English Fiction: A Corpus Based Study
No full textThe present study aims at the comparative stylistic analysis of gender presentation in terms of status and attitude in Pakistani and British English Fiction. The data are based on the instances of ‘he is’ and ‘she is’ in relation to the complements following them. The methodology adopted for the research is corpus based and deals with the data both qualitatively and quantitatively, however, with a major inclination towards qualitative analysis. The instances of ‘He is’ and ‘She is’ along with the concordance words are derived from PEF and BEF corpora consisted of one million words for each through Antconc 3.2.2. The data are further manually analyzed in MS Excel and then categorized in relation to Status and attitude linked with ‘he’ and ‘she’ in both PEF and BEF. It is found that the gender representation is quite typical of the culture it relates to. The presentation of ‘he is’ and ‘she is’ in BEF is of positive and balanced nature where as that of in PEF is based on the superiority and inferiority of men and women respectively. The research is a contribution in the better understanding and interpretation of Pakistani English fiction and British English fiction
Linguistic Variation across Research Sections of Pakistan Academic Writing: A Multidimensional Analysis
No full textWith the concept of language variation, it has become utmost important to analyze linguistic patterns across register. Pakistani academic writing like other registers in Pakistan is an area that still seeks the attention of the researchers and linguists. This target register needs to be fully described in terms of linguistic characteristics to strengthen the distinct identity of Pakistani academic writing as a register. The present research strives to explore linguistic variation across research sections of Pakistani academic writing as a register along with five new textual dimensions explored through the technique of Multidimensional analysis (Azher & Mehmood, 2016). The research is based on the corpus of 235 M. Phil and PhD research dissertations taken from different universities all over Pakistan. The corpus was further divided into five research sections and was tagged for 189 linguistic features. The ANOVA results on variation among research sections indicate that there lie statistically significant differences among research sections of Pakistani Academic Writing on all the new textual dimensions.</jats:p
Semantic Frames of the Urdu conjunct verb lagnā : A corpus-based study
No full textIn this corpus-based study we present semantic frames based on principles of FrameNet of Urdu conjunct verb lagnā. In research studies on Urdu while translating from Urdu to English or for a grammatical analysis, lagnā is typically translated in English as ‘attach’ creating a perception that this is its prototypical meaning. However, Online Urdu Dictionary (OUD) shows at least seven different senses in natural language. The sources for the theoretical framework of the study include frame semantics (Fillmore & Atkins, 1992), and polysemic meaning (Traugott& Dasher, 2002). This situates the study in the cognitive linguistic framework. The examples for analysis are extracted from 95.4 million words Urdu monolingual corpus (Jawaid et al., 2014) which can now be accessed using CQPweb . The frequency of occurrence of types of lagnā and observation of concordance lines of extracted examples helps in analysing to what extent the different patterns in which the verb lagnā generates different meanings. The preliminary analysis showed that there are two overarching patterns NOUN+ lagnā and VERB + lagnā. Within these two patterns we observed and analysed twelve semantic frames, of which BEGIN is the most frequent frame followed by TOUCH with the second highest frequency. This analysis also helps in understanding that certain verbs in Urdu also have polysemous use and their meanings are context-dependent that can be established through a corpus-based analysis. This analysis and its findings are especially beneficial for the Urdu language scholars who have an interest in translation studies or (descriptive) grammatical analysis to look for different interpretations as well as integrate semantic frame and corpus methods rather than relying on restrictive meaning of this verb (as well as other polysemous verbs) for a data analysis
Constructing Gender through Meta discourse: A Corpus-Based Inter-Disciplinary Study of Research Dissertations of Pakistani M. Phil Graduates
No full textViewed in the social context, academic writing is considered a site where both writers and readers are engaged in an interactive mode of presentation and evaluation of information. Male and female writers may differently exemplify the interactive mode of presenting and evaluating information through meta-discourse markers. The current research paper aims to explore the role of gender in the use of hedges and boosters in research dissertations of Pakistani M.Phil graduates particularly concerning disciplinary variation. For this purpose, the taxonomy Hyland’s (2005) meta-discourse markers are used to identify the lists of hedges and boosters. A corpus consisting of one hundred research dissertations representing humanities, social sciences and sciences is developed, and further tagged with Antconc 3.3.4 to find out the frequencies and instances of hedges and boosters in male and female academic writing. The results reveal that overall hedges have been found as the more preferred meta-discourse markers than boosters in the academic discourse of Pakistani MPhil graduates. Females are more inclined towards the use of hedges, whereas, males are prone to the use of boosters in the presentation of academic discourse. The study has pedagogical implications for the writing practices of both students as well as supervisors
Stylistic Study of Adjectives in How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
No full textThe present research explores the choice of adjectives as a lexical category in Mohsin Hamid’s novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by using Leech and Short model (1981). An empirical enquiry is carried out to trace the author’s choice of adjectives and their intended functions by subjecting How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia to stylistic analysis and linguistic scrutiny. The various functions of adjectives are interpreted after the text is subjected to close reading for their contextual occurrence where they are carefully engraved by the author. The resultant functions throw ample light on the life, culture, economic scenario and love and gender relations construed in the text through adjectives. The present paper, however, is limited only to the interpretation of the adjective categories based on the model suggested by Leech & Short (1981). This study is, therefore, instrumental in initiating a voyage to interpret literary language via linguistic tools and evidences contributing amply to the field of stylistics as well as literary criticism. </jats:p
Relational Practice in Multilingual Peer Discourse: Talk as a Marker of Gender Identity
No full textThis paper examines relational practice in multilingual peer discourse to inspect the distinct identity patterns of the male and the female participants involved in gender dynamics. There is a growing impetus of discourse studies as an emerging area of sociolinguistic and ethno methodological research. In this paper, talk as a marker of gender identity is explored in the light of the theoretical framework suggested by Holmes (2006) who studies the different relational strategies of male and female interlocutors in workplace environment. In the current study, conversations of six male and female postgraduate students of English language at Sargodha University, Pakistan are recorded and transcribed to see how the participants create team as a relational practice using gender specific norms via talk. The study has found that the males create team through humor in discourse while females tilt towards small talk and frequent verbal gestures of approval. Moreover, masculinities and femininities of the peers are manifested in their style and function of the conversations. The study is significant because it is going to lay a foundation for the study and exploration of gender integrated conversations in multilingual context in Pakistani English and other varieties spoken in casual talk in Pakistan
Developing Lexical Resources of Saraiki Verbs: A Corpus Based Study
No full textSaraiki is an Indo-Aryan language and is recognized as the fourth most widely spoken language in Pakistan. It is extensively used in Pakistan, especially in south Punjab and Sindh, and is also spoken in some parts of Afghanistan and India. The language holds significant historical and geographical importance. Despite numerous studies emphasizing its distinctiveness, Saraiki remains less explored in terms of its unique linguistic features. The current corpus-based study aims to create synsets of Saraiki verbs by establishing an interface for their synonyms. A corpus of three million words has been developed using literary and non-literary sources. Data collection involved sourcing information from online platforms and scanning hard copies of literary and non-literary works, which were then converted into machine-readable files. From the corpus, one hundred high-frequency verbs were selected and categorized based on Fellbaum’s (1993) model, which comprises fifteen files developed according to semantic domains. The verbs falling within these categories were analyzed for their lexico-semantic relations to construct an interface of their synonyms. This study holds significance as it contributes to the development of synsets for verbs, encompassing verb meanings, definitions of associated concepts, example sentences, and lexicosemantic relations. Consequently, this research proves valuable for students, teachers, and researchers of Saraiki, as well as those engaged in the creation of Wordnet
Linguistic Choices in Hamid’s Moth Smoke: A Transitivity Analysis
No full textThe present study is aimed at an investigation of how meanings are construed in a literary text. The main theoretical framework employed for the data analysis was transitivity, which finds its roots in Halliday’s (1994) Systemic Functional Grammar. 21 texts from Hamid’s novel, Moth Smoke (MS) were selected as data. A sample size of 1100 complex clause sentences containing different processes, participants and circumstances was drawn for analysis. The focus of the study was the identification of transitivity patterns associated with the main characters of the novel following Simpson (2004) who viewed it “useful indicator of character in prose fiction” (p. 119). The findings of transitivity constructions showed that all types of processes were found in MS. Based on the rank of frequency, material processes were computed the most frequent processes. They did have frequency of occurrence as (1076=51.45%). The projection of mental processes was (13.91%) in the second position. The verbal processes were (11.23%), relational processes (19.75%) while the lowest projection was found in behavioural (2.63%) and existential (0.86%) processes. Male characters were ascribed with more material and verbal processes while females were drawn as having mental and attributive process clauses. The current study concluded that transitivity options can function as a useful analytical tool in the analysis of a literary text.</jats:p
Exploring the Portrayal of Female Voice in ‘Heer Ranjha’: A Gender-Based Study
No full textThe present study aims at explicating the theme of love in the folk tale Heer Ranjha through the discourse stylistics perspective. To do this, Fairclough (2015) model is employed with a focus on lexical choices. The metaphors used in the dialogues portraying the theme of love have been carefully selected, and further the linguistic pattern employed has been significantly discussed to highlight the embedded theme of love as a dominant human emotion in folk tales. The study also aims at providing a richer, more complex and enlightened canvas of feminist theory highlighting the role of women and power relations between the two sexes. The data comprises on twenty passages from the translation of ‘Heer Ranjha’ by Usborne (1973) where the translator claims to have translated the epilogue at full length while the rest of the poem has been condensed without omitting anything significantly important to the theme. The study throws light on the language of the folk tale, which reflects socio-cultural features such as the patriarchic family structure of the time through the language choices. The flute, a bamboo musical instrument, is a metaphor of love in a dream-like romantic sound. Finally, this paper helps to develop a better understanding of folktales in a particular socio-cultural background
Acoustic Investigation of Back Vowels of Pakistani English
No full textThe present research investigates the acoustic features of back vowels of Pakistani English (PakE). The vowels are acoustically analysed to see whether PakE is different from Standard British English (SBE), and whether PakE merges the back vowels like some Asian varieties of English. The study also investigates the total number of back vowels of PakE. The subjects (20 male and 20 female) are selected from among the undergraduate students enrolled in BS English (University of Sargodha) with Punjabi as their mother tongue. Monosyllabic words with /hVd/ context, containing the selected vowels are recorded using a carrier-phrase. For acoustic measurement of the formants (F1-F2) and durational properties, PRAAT has been used. The formant values (F1- F2) are compared with those of SBE to find out similarities and differences. For statistical analysis, ANOVA along with Tukey’s HSD test is performed to see whether the results are significant. The results show that PakE has four back vowels, i.e. two long and two short. It does merge /?/ and /?:/ like other varieties of Asian Englishes, but it does not merge the high back vowels, i.e. /u/ and/u:/. So, it can be concluded that PakE is a different variety of English on the basis of the idiosyncratic features of back vowels
