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Title A pragmatic analysis of News Editorials in DAWN and the New York Times Covering the Afghan Conflict

Author(s) KIRAN AYOUB

Abstract Title: A Pragmatic Analysis of News Editorials in Dawn and The New York Times Covering the Afghan Conflict The study of pragmatics is what a speaker communicates and what a listener infers from a conversation immersed in different circumstances, including the situational setting, the mental states of the participants, the previous discourse, and others. The purpose of this research has been to find out how language is employed pragmatically to develop a perspective, particularly on the controversial issue of Afghanistan between Pakistan and America. For this, two top newspapers, i.e., Dawn and the New York Times from Pakistan and America respectively are chosen to conduct the research. News editorials from both newspapers are collected from August to December 2021. This study uses a mixed-method approach focusing on news editorials covering Afghan peace process. The qualitative data is analyzed through thematic analysis using Searle’s model of speech acts, whereas quantitative data is analyzed through descriptive statistics where frequencies of speech acts are gauged. Austin and Searle’s Speech Act Theory (1969) has been selected as the framework. This theory is employed to find out that what type of speech acts are paramount in the editorials and how different speech act help construct Afghan conflict in Dawn and the New York Times. The study also clarifies whether both the newspapers’ perspectives on the Afghan issue are similar or different. This study is important because it makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how news editorials construct and convey a perspective through speech acts. The findings demonstrate that the use of speech acts in the news editorials does not follow a specific order. The results show that certain speech acts used in the editorials vary in their frequency. It was observed that both newspapers express different perspectives on the Afghan conflict when the hidden messages are examined using the speech act theory at that particular time when USA troops were initially withdrawn from Afghanistan. Pakistan has strong desire for the settlement of Afghanistan and tries to show positive image of Taliban’s government. Whereas U.S shows that there is chaos and people are not satisfied with the Taliban government. Theory of speech acts can be used by researchers in future to investigate speech acts in variety of fields, including education, court, and editors in editorials with larger sample

Type Thesis/Dissertation

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2023-12-15

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