The present study explores the impact of multilingualism on the Shina language in urban settings and examines issues related to language shift among native speakers of Shina. The sample consists of one hundred urbaneducated Shina speakers, aged 18-25 years, of both genders, who are studying at universities in Rawalpindi/Islamabad. The study adopts a mixed-method approach, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. Data were collected through a questionnaire and group discussions. The domains used to design the questionnaire and group discussions are based on Sabiha Mansoor’s (1993) 'Punjabi, Urdu, and English in Pakistan: A Sociolinguistic Study'. Shina, an important language spoken in Gilgit-Baltistan, is endangered due to its speakers' social and economic need to learn English and Urdu for education and employment. The findings reveal that Shina is rarely spoken in the domains of interactions with strangers, social gatherings, and communication with teachers, with the exception of the home domain, where it is spoken by 81% of the respondents. The respondents exhibit negative attitudes toward Shina and positive attitudes toward English and Urdu. In urban settings, where a diverse range of languages coexist, languages inevitably influence each other—a phenomenon also observed in the case of Shina.
The study uses Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) to explore the social semiotics of trauma, betrayal, and displacement in the Pakistani screenplay Jo Bichar Gaye. This play represents memories of a soldier playing back on events that led to the separation of East Pakistan. Scenes were purposively selected based on their significance to the themes under investigation. The screenplay provided multi-modal text in a hybrid form of linguistic and visual elements for cohesive ties in the characters’ conversations as well as meaningful cinemascope techniques. The analysis revealed the emotional and psychological effects of the upheaval that led to Pakistan’s capitulation. The findings show that the screenplay’s portrayal of conflicting beliefs, extreme sentiments and the loss of lives, highlighted the influence of the third Indo-Pakistan conflict as part of the pre-war discourse and the effects on individuals and society. The multifaceted interplay of attitudes and experiences associated with historical trauma, also call attention to the media's role in enriching the academic discourse, and the relevance of the screenplay as a significant cultural artifact providing insights into traumatic historical events.
In the present information age, media texts play a dual purpose of transmitting information as well as being a decisive factor to develop public opinions by creating relevant discourse as per the demand of those with particular interests. Such a situation necessitates a critical inquiry into media texts to desensitize the readers to avoid taking media texts at face value. However, the complex nature of such texts requires multi-perspectivism which is made possible through interdisciplinary studies (Hansen, 2011; Klein, 2004). The pragmatic stylistic framework developed by Black (2006), a combination of two domains, provides us with the tools to disentangle the intricacies of such texts and to read between the lines. In the same vein, the present study utilizes Black’s (2006) pragmatic stylistic framework to identify the linguistic and stylistic strategies and also to explore how the language resources are manipulated and used as a tool to depict the interplay of power relations based on difference in position, authority or situation. The data for the current pursuit comprises 30 front-page headlines from The Daily Dawn and The News International. The data analysis process follows the analytical paradigm of descriptive qualitative interpretation in conjunction with Black’s pragmatic stylistic framework (2006). The findings of the study reveal a significant role played by the pragmatic stylistic features in creating and maintaining power relations in newspaper headlines. The findings further validate that linguistic resources are exploited in a way to influence readers’ perception of the reported event and to implicitly project newsmakers’ ideologies. The findings highlight the need to sensitize the readers to such linguistic manoeuvres in order to help them avoid taking the media texts at face value.
This study examines four Namibian Nama-Herero literary texts about the genocide in Namibia through the application of the cognitive stylistics framework. The texts analyzed are, Lauri Kubuitsile’s (2016) The Scattering, Jaspar D. Utley’s (2017) Lie of the Land, Rukee Tjingaete’s (2017) The Weeping Graves of our Ancestors and Zirk Van den Berg’s (2018) Parts Unknown. The four novels have been selected because they present the Nama-Herero genocide, which took place from 1904 -1908 during which over 65,000 Ovaherero and 10,000 Nama people perished, in what is known as the first genocide of the twentieth century. The study aims at probing how the use of cognitive stylistics can enhance readers’ understanding of the narratives of the genocide depicted in these Namibian fictional texts. It follows a qualitative approach, with content analysis as the primary data collection method. It explores the creative writing techniques used to project genocidal narratives in these fictionalised stories. In addition to that, the use of conceptual metaphors to establish a connection between the reader and the text has also been explored. The study is guided by schema and trauma theories. Schema theory takes into account all the mental activities associated with tasks such as thinking, knowing, communicating and remembering. It helps both the writers and the readers to mentally reconstruct the events of the genocide, including the loss of life through brutal killings, rape, and livestock confiscation. Moreover, the study examines the depiction of genocidal trauma of the Herero and Nama through the application of trauma theory.The findings demonstrate that schema and trauma theories offer a framework for understanding the narrative construction of genocide in the selected texts. This approach not only deepens the understanding of the genocidal experiences encountered by the Nama-Herero but also highlights the role of language in conveying historical trauma.
The fundamental goal of politeness is to ensure that the discourse between the interlocutors proceeds smoothly, free from conflict and misunderstanding, and the addressee's face desires are given significant weight in a given context. This research centers on the pragmatic examination of the selected one political talk show from Pakistan and one from the United States. The current study aims to investigate the cross-cultural variations in the use of different politeness tactics and maxims. The impact of disobeying the speech maxims was examined by applying Leech's (1983) conversational maxims. This research also investigated the use of certain politeness strategies which are employed to avoid damage or risk to the face. Furthermore, different impoliteness strategies employed in order to attack the face of the hearer were also analyzed and discussed in detail in both Pakistani and American talk shows. It is expected that the present study will highlight some preponderant features of both the Pakistani and American politicians’ realization of politeness strategies.
