Approved Synopsis Sample Assignment

ABSTRACT:

Pakistani English being a non-native variety has its distinct registers with its unique linguistic features. Previous studies conducted on Pakistani press reportage just focused on individual linguistic features. Biber (1988) made clear that register variation studies based on individual linguistic features rather than co-occurring features and lacking internal and external comparison are misleading in nature. The present study is based on the multi-dimensional analysis of Pakistani Political press reportage after constructing a special purpose corpus of both Pakistani and British political press reportage. Findings of the current study will reveal the statistical significant linguistic differences between Pakistani political press reportage and British political press reportage on Biber’s (1988) five textual dimensions and the linguistic identity of Pakistani political press reportage will be revealed.

1. Introduction:

Pakistani English has independent linguistic registers like all other non-native varieties. With the concept of language variation, the analysis of the linguistic patterns across registers has gained vital importance for the description of varieties of English. Registers are defined by situational characteristics and therefore termed as situationally defined varieties. Register variation is widely considered to be intrinsic to all cultures. Ferguson (1983) emphasized the fact: “register variation in which language structures vary in accordance with the occasions of use is all-pervasive in human language” (p. 154).

The print media is an effective way to alter the public to certain opinion and that’s why, an ideological stance is adopted by these newspapers at large. News is determined by values and the kind of language in which that news is told and it reflects those values. Audience feel that the way in which language is used must affect the content of what is received by media. The language of news media published in Pakistan carries many linguistic characteristics taken from local linguistic features for the sake of successful communication with the local readership so that ‘there is no barrier of communication to restrict the conveyance of the meaning (Grover, Nishi, Deepak, 2004 :15). Biber (1988) investigated the language of press reportage in his seminal study and advocated the multidimensional analysis as the suitable approach for register analysis for the register variation studies. Biber (1988) also introduced the important idea of ‘co-occurrence’ of linguistic features in the register studies. Like Biber (1988), many other linguists have shown their dissatisfaction upon the register analysis studies based upon individual linguistic features (e.g., Bernstein, 1970, Ervin Tripp 1072, Hymes 1974, Halliday 1988).

The present study will investigate the register variation of Pakistani Political press reportage in comparison with British Political press reportage. The present study will explore the linguistic variation across Political press reportage of Pakistani print media and will also investigate its linguistic differences between Pakistani Political press reportage and British Political press reportage on Biber’s (1988) five textual dimensions.

1. KEY QUESTIONS FOR THE STUDY:

This research is designed to explore the following questions.

• What are the differences between the Pakistani Political press reportage and British Political press reportage in their use of the linguistic features associated with Biber’s 1988 set of textual dimensions?
• How far is the language of Political press reportage register in Pakistani print media different from British Political Press reportage register analysed in Biber’s 1988 study?
• How far does the linguistic variation exist between Pakistani Political press reportage and other categories of Pakistani press reportage analysed in Ahmad’s 2016 study?

2. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH:

The present study will be significant in many ways. The corpus constructed in the present study will be helpful work in the area of Pakistani English. The result of present study will be very helpful for those researchers who want to do research in the area of language variation and those who want to do research on linguistic features of newspapers. The current research will be helpful to future researchers working on the Pakistani political press reportage. It will pave a new way for researchers to work on electronic press reportage. It will be a useful asset for the people working in the media profession. The present research will also explore the linguistic identity of Pakistani press reportage.

3. DELIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH:

• Only Political press reportage register in Pakistani Media and British media will be studied.
• Only written texts of Press reportage in Pakistani print media and British print media will be used for analysis.
• Only Five leading newspapers selected upon wide circulation.

2. LITERURE REVIEW:

Douglas Biber’s (1988) “Assignment of Variation across Speech and Writing” launched the methodology of Multidimensional (MD) Analysis which brought revolution in the register variation studies all around the world. Biber (1988) stressed upon the reliance on the co-occurring features for the register variation studies and disapproved all other studies based upon the individual linguistic features. Hardy (2012) studied Filipino and American online communication and linguistic variation. Westin (2001) studied the press editorials and explored large number of grammatical features. In follow up study, Westin (2002) worked on the multidimensional analysis diachronic variation in British press editorials.

Two general corpus based objective researches have been conducted on Pakistani English. Mehmood (2009) worked on lexico-grammatical study of noun-phrase in Pakistani English. Mehmood (2009) studied the deviant trends in Pakistani English through corpus-based comparative analysis. Shakir (2013) studied the linguistic variation across print advertisements in Pakistani media:a multidimensional analysis and explored the differences among the categories of advertisements in Pakistani print media.

Hussain (2002), in his study, explored the language of two English newspapers: The Nation and The Guardian. The former is a Pakistani newspaper, whereas the latter is published in the UK. Hussain found out that both the newspapers make use of new words in their language.

Bibber (1988) stressed upon the reliance on the co-occurring features for the register variation studies and disapproved all other studies based upon the individual linguistic features.

The present study will investigate the linguistic variation across political press reportage in Pakistani print media using multidimensional analysis put forward by Biber (1988) and will explore how political category of press reportage in Pakistani Print media is distinguished from Political category of British print media.

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

1. Type of Research

Being a pen and paper research, the present research will be a blend of qualitative and quantitative analysis. Quantitative analysis will produce frequencies of linguistic features and statistically significant results and on the basis of these results, qualitative data will be used for in depth study.

2. Data Collection

The data of Pakistani press reportage will be borrowed from already available Special Purpose Corpus (PNC) based on sub-categories of political press reportage. The equal sized corpus based on British political press reportage will be constructed for the comparative evaluation of both Pakistani political press reportage and British political press reportage.

3. Tools of Research:

In present study MAT software will be used to analyze the data as it is available on Google.

4. Data Analysis:

The data analysis will consist of the following steps:

1. Pakistani Political news corpus
2. British Political news corpus
3. Tagging of British Political News Corpus
4. Counting of frequencies of grammatical features
5. Factor Analysis
6. Dimension Scores

5. Procedure of Research Assignment:

Step 1: Corpora of Pakistani and Political press reportage will be collected.

Step 2: 50 to 60 texts will be taken from different leading newspapers in British print media.

Step 3: MAT (Multi dimensional analysis tagger) software will be used for analysis of multi dimension.

Step 4: Discussion will be given on the basis of differences/factor interpretation between Pakistani Press reportage register and British registers and the linguistic identity of British Press reportage will be explored.

4. CONCLUSION & PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS:

1. Expected findings

It is expected that the analysis of the data will show the statistical significant linguistic difference between the British Political press reportage and Pakistani Political print media and will prove linguistic identity of Pakistani Political press reportage in comparison with British political press reportage.

2. Recommendations for future researchers

The present research will enlighten the way for future researchers to do multidimensional study of different areas of press reportage of Pakistani media. The present study will be helpful to those working on the area of Pakistani press reportage.