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NARRATIVE OF COUNTER TERRORISM: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF RAHEEL SHARIF’S SPEECHES The most significant means that aids in engendering perspectives, ideologies, and agendas is the words of leadership. Speeches of leadership are of paramount importance in the formulation and representation of narratives and ideologies. Leaders use language to establish the ideological standing at the social level. The current study examines the speeches of General(R) Raheel Sharif through the lens of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The study engages the ‘Ideological Square Model (1998)’ to examine the narrative of counter terrorism. Eight speeches of Raheel Sharif from Post Army Public School (APS), Peshawar attack have been selected to analyze the narrative of counter terrorism communicated by him. The post-APS attack speeches were selected specifically because the country’s narrative to counter terrorism took a swift turn after the tragic incident of December, 2014. The study is qualitative in nature. The result of the study reveals that the language used by Raheel Sharif has a major role in forming the narrative of counter terrorism at the international canvas. Discursive tools such as polarization, actor description, comparison, authority, euphemism, evidentiality, victimization, vagueness etc, are underscored that were frequently used by General Raheel Sharif. The result of the research shows that the speaker has used actor description to show positive self-representation of his in-group members, and to differentiate the actions of in-group and out-group members. Finally, the study reveals how the narrative of counter terrorism was redefined in the speeches of Raheel Sharif. The study is unique in that no prior significant work has been done to investigate the narrative of counter terrorism through the speeches of military leadership. Moreover, it is an illustration for reference of the application of the ideological square model to the speeches of political and military leadership.
DYNAMICS OF TRIBALIST UN/BELONGING: AN ANALYSIS OF LIMINALITY IN JAMIL AHMAD’S THE WANDERING FALCON Jamil Ahmed’s The Wandering Falcon is set in “the broken hills where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet.” Keeping in view the border-zone, the focus of the research is to expound the feelings of possessions of the community residing in Baluchi-Irani border. In the above-mentioned context, the current study explores the “in-betweeness” and the vivid picture of externality and internality in the afore-mentioned text in the light of Victor Turner’s theory of liminality. Elucidating the idea of Arnold van Gennep, Turner’s theory throws light on the transition of initiation in simpler societies. As Turner writes, “Rites de Passage are found in all societies but tend to reach their maximal expressions in small scale, relatively stable and cyclical societies.” Turner draws attention to Van Gennep's ideas but solely focuses on the transitional or liminal. Spatial and worldly measurements can be associated to liminality. This concept can be applied to subjects having different nature of matter, entire social order potentially the entire civic establishments. In the current study, adopting textual analysis as a research method, the meaning of Turner’s concept of liminality has been limited to tangible scenario of small-scale tribal societies. But, here, liminality as a method for reformation has been applied. The investigation of my research is likely to come to a major finding that “liminality” serves as a signifier to manage the dynamics in a culture. In spite of power and social standards, “liminality” demonstrates the development of the “other.” This study is likely to be significant in terms of production of knowledge in the field of cultural studies in the liminal zones.
THE USE OF ENGLISH WORDS IN URDU MEDIA DISCOURSE AND ITS IMPACT ON STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATION SKILLS This research explores English words that are commonly used in Urdu advertisements and their effect on the communication. Youngsters normally use them in day-to-day conversation. As it has obtained a status of the Lingua Franca and used as a language of communication in most of the countries, therefore, the phenomenon of code mixing and code switching can be observed with reference to the English words and structures in the mother tongue. The purpose of this research is to identify lexical items used in code mixed language of Urdu advertisements aired on Pakistani channels, and to find out the extent of the effect of this code mixing on the communication, especially the productive skills: speaking and writing. Fifteen Pakistani television commercials in Urdu have been chosen using convenient sampling technique. The total words and code mixed words have been counted and then their grammatical category has been identified. Further, the data was collected using a questionnaire, which has been administered to 200 students of third and fourth semesters in order to measure the effect of English words used in Urdu Advertisements on students’ communication skills. Further, five recordings of campus talk of students and interviews from ten teachers of the same department were also conducted. The data has been analyzed using SPSS, and NVIVO. After analyzing the data it is been found that English words in phrases commonly used in Urdu Advertisement have a strong influence on the youngsters’ communication skills. It is recommended that the advertisement use appropriate language in order to avoid any bad influence on the students’ language. .
POSTIONALITY LOSS: DECONSTRUCTION OF MY FEUDAL LORD BY TEHMINA DURRANI & A BAD WOMAN’S STORY BY DURDANA SOOMRO The present research explores and analyses the works of Tehmina Durrani and Kishwer Naheed, Pakistani feminist writers in the grounding of Post feminism. It is delimited to Tehmina Durrani’s My Feudal Lord (1991) and Kishwer Naheed’s A Bad Woman's Story (2009) translated by Durdana Soomro. The study aims to locate post-feminist elements in the selected texts. The main argument of this study is that, through their narrative in the selected texts the writers have subverted feminism. The main characters in the selected texts seem to be feminist but the study has established that texts present post feminism stance thus leading to postionality loss. Their writings have resolved to surfaced such issues and hardships faced by women, who have been constantly under the shadow of patriarchy. These texts depict feminism in such a way, that contrasting ideas emerge, which discredit and negate key stances of Second wave feminism. The study examines the degree to which the female characters display post feminism in their actions, discourse and behavior. The methodology for the analysis of the text has been Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction method. For carrying out the analysis of the selected texts with the chosen lens, the researcher has used textual analysis as research design. The research design helps to explore the idea that My Feudal Lord and A Bad Woman’s Story are an example of post-feminist texts. This study is likely to productively contribute in the production of knowledge in studies on feminism and post feminism. Thus Tehmina’s and Kishwer’s contributions are placed in post-feminist perspective.
The Play of Carnivalesque: A Dialogic Study of Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin and DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little This research project investigates Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism in Lionel Shriver’s novel We Need to Talk about Kevin and DBC Pierre’s novel Vernon God Little. The common thread of plot that runs across the texts is the incidence of mass murder by a juvenile school boy at school premises. Both the novels We Need to Talk about Kevin and Vernon God Little provide plenty of space to discuss Bakhtinian intertextuality, polyphony, heteroglossia and carnivalesque within the individual text of a novel as well as across the novels. The main argument of the study is that there is diversity of dialogue in socio-cultural, psychological and narrative realms of these novels. The narrative before the mass murder comprises a rhythmic polyphony that originates as low vibes of thought and action, gradually gathers momentum, and finally turns to a screaming noise of the crime-scene situation created by the protagonist. There are ripples of intense voices that sneak into some unusual facets of human nature or society. For instance, an unusual bonding between a loveless mother, Eva Kutchadourian, and an A-normative son, Kevin, in Lionel Shriver’s novel We Need to Talk About Kevin develops a unique dialogic world. In the same way, DBC Pierre’s novel Vernon God Little comprises heteroglossia of narratives between convicted innocent and the real mass murderer. The intersection of these dialogic perspectives across the selected novels seems to decode the larger scenario of ongoing dialogic relationships in American society. The research method used in the project is textual analysis. The study is likely to be a significant edition in the production of knowledge in the field of Michael Bakhtin’s Dialogism.
KAMAL’S TRANSLATION OF THE SELECTED POEMS OF FAIZ: APPLICATION OF BAKER’S THEORY OF EQUIVALENCE This qualitative study aims to find out various types of non-equivalence across the selected poems in Urdu by Faiz and their translation in English by Kamal. It identifies non￾equivalence at word level, above word, grammatical, textual and pragmatic level across the selected source text in Urdu and its target text in English. Furthermore, it also analyzes the types of strategies used by the translator while rendering the selected poems from one language to another language. Keeping in view the objectives of this research study, the selected poems and their translations were analyzed qualitatively by applying Baker’s theory of equivalence as a theoretical framework. The results of the study revealed that the non-equivalence in translation in relation to its source text at various levels has been recurrently given priority over the exact translation to preserve the meaning of the source text as much as possible. The researcher concludes that to carry across the meaning of source text in the translation, Kamal, at several occasion, has used non-equivalence at various levels to preserve and communicate the vastness of the source text. To do so he has used various strategies in his translation as proposed by Baker in her theory of equivalence. So, as a professional translator, Kamal takes great care to recreate the poems in English translation. This care, at several places, led to the selection of non-equivalence at the various levels to maintain as much as possible the equivalence in the English translation of the selected Urdu-poems of Faiz.
TOWARDS POSTHUMANISM: STIGMATIZATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION Posthumanism has become one of the foremost important themes in science fiction (SF). Contemporary American SF is its significant popularizer in the modern world. The advocacy of dystopian future in contemporary American SF has led to stigmatization of artificial intelligence (AI). It has presented AI as a threat to humanity and has reduced it to mere enemy of humanity in a posthuman future. Unlike postmodernism, posthumanism is a neo-foundationalist theory and grounds human subjectivity in dystopian future. The cyberpunk culture of SF is a vital element in the ostracism of AI because most of it centers round AI takeover where humans are presented with the dilemma of extinction in the face of new technologically advanced world. The researcher has used Goffman’s theory of stigmatization as theoretical basis, with special emphasis on Link and Phelan’s stigmatization model, to build the argument. The analysis has been done through textual analysis as a research method. This research has yielded the possible stigmatization of AI in contemporary American SF and its ethical and societal impacts. It is likely to be a significant part of the production of knowledge in the field of Sci-Fi and Cyberpunk fiction.
“Postmodernist Occasions: Language, Fictionality and History in South Asian Novels” ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Postmodernist Occasions: Language, Fictionality and History in South Asian Novels This dissertation aims to explore postmodernist occasions in Muhammad Hanif’s Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, Amitav Gosh’s The Glass Palace, and Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows by employing the theoretical lenses of Jean Francois Lyotard and Linda Hutcheon. The research draws its interest to explore the postmodernist occasions in the selected texts regarding language, fictionality, and history. Through textual analysis, this study critically scrutinizes the novels in the light of Hutcheon’s historiographic metafiction in order to investigate the multiplicity of histories. It explores the subversion of grand narratives of science, war, identity, nationalism, professionalism, history and faith through the idea of language games proposed by Lyotard. Moreover, it evaluates the strategies incorporated in the texts that reflect postmodern language that is ironic and flexible enough to carry the contextulised sensibilities. The research reveals that the selected novels as metafiction reject the ideology of modern fiction though they still retain some of its aspects. This dissertation is divided into seven chapters comprising of introduction, literature review, theoretical framework and research methodology, textual analysis (three sub chapters) and conclusion. It is a qualitative, exploratory and interpretive study. Since it is a qualitative research, therefore textual analysis has been used a research method in order to read language, fictionality, and history in the selected texts. As this study aims to trace the postmodernist occasions in the selected novels, it is likely to contribute to the production of knowledge in English literary studies. Keywords: Meta-narratives, Historiographic Metafiction, Fictionality, Language games, South Asian Novels.
A CRITICAL FORENSIC LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF MEDIA DISCOURSE ON COURT DECISIONS IN PAKISTAN This study was conducted to analyze the media discourse on court decision in Pakistan by applying critical forensic linguistic analysis. In the recent past, the media discussion on court decisions has rapidly increased. Many news and social media platforms have been discussing the decisions made by the courts. This study focused the critical forensic analysis of media discourse on court decision in Pakistan. In this study, the most famous case “Avanfield References” was selected as a case study. The data was collected from three different sources; court decision, media discussions, and social media (Facebook) discussions. This thesis applies critical forensic linguistic analysis viewpoints and methodologies to check the media discourse in the operation of criminal trials by the criminal justice system in Pakistan. Chi square test was conducted to establish the statistical associations between and among variable of the study. It is evident that media discussions do have the impact on court decisions in Pakistan. This study performs three analyses on the collected data. Concordance analysis was performed to extract the top words from the collected data under the subject corrupt. In vocabulary analysis, the examination of the lexical patterns was performed. In grammar analysis, the evaluation was made to see, whether Sharif family or Nawaz Sharif or Maryam Nawaz in contrast to other participants are an actor in transitive active or passive clauses. This study analyzed text by critical forensics linguistics analysis of selected social media discussions, news articles, and court decisions.
SILENCE AND RESISTANCE: A FEMINIST CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE FEMALE SUBALTERN IN SOUTH ASIAN FICTION ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Silence And Resistance: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Female Subaltern in South Asian Fiction Woman is a subject of debate in South Asian society. She is the victim of male power, self - esteem, ego and supremacy. The roots of resistance lead to oppression, as subaltern woman is the one who is oppressed, marginalized, subjugated, exploited and dominated. This research involves the theory of Subaltern and method of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis to the study of South Asian fiction. The researcher's main focus is to explore the elements of female resistance in the selected literary texts. Gayatri Chakrovarty Spivak's theory of 'Subaltern' is selected as a theoretical framework for this research. Michelle M. Lazar's method of "Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis" is employed to analyze the silenced voices of female subaltern in the chosen texts of South Asia. Three major issues such as power, gender and ideology are essential for this research. The analysis of text is viewed from the standpoint of subaltern female, with focus on gender domination, power politics and ideology. The research is delimited to three texts; 'The Holy Woman', 'The Dowry Bride' and Brick Lane'. The intent of the researcher is to figure out the grounds that disrupt the position of the female subaltern. The findings reveal the position of the subaltern women. The writers have effectively represented the resistance of silenced female subaltern in their texts. These writers have brought to the forefront the muted voices of female gender representative of three cultures of South Asia. This research will be helpful in raising the consciousness level of the female gender to make them understand and believe in themselves and to be aware of their legal rights.
TEXT, INTER-TEXT AND CONTEXT: AN ANALYSIS OF PAKISTANI JOURNALISTIC DISCOURSE ABSTRACT Title: Text, Inter-text and Context: An Analysis of Pakistani Journalistic Discourse This study was conducted to investigate how intertextuality permeates news reports. Drawing upon the tenets of critical discourse analysis, it was explored how pervasive nature of the phenomenon and interdiscursivity are exploited by the news report writers. It was also discovered how specific elements from different discourses are combined together in news reports that result in hybrid discourses. The research explored the functions that intertextuality performs through news reports. Five daily Pakistani newspapers were selected. All these newspapers are published in the English language. According to All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS), these five newspapers are the most popular and the most widely-read ones. This fact served as the rationale for selecting these newspapers. The study is delimited to news reports published in these newspapers from March 2013 to August 2013 in the backdrop of Elections 2013 in Pakistan. The selection of news reports was done through nonprobability or deliberate sampling method as the researcher deliberately chose the news reports related to the two major political rivals and contestants in the elections: the ExPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the then-Chairman of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Imran Khan, the Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf (PTI). The researcher wanted to investigate how news report writers use apparently commonplace strategies that are hardly noticeable and hence subtly affect public opinion. The inquiry was mainly qualitative and the tenets of critical discourse analysis were employed for analyzing the data. By incorporating the principles of critical discourse analysis, it was explored how news report writers design and construct their discourse for creating layers of meanings and how the discourse produced by politicians gets manipulated at the hands of news report writers.
GENDERING MEDIA IN POST-FEMINIST TIMES?: AN ANALYSIS OF MEDIA DISCOURSE ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Gendering Media in Post-Feminist Times? An Analysis of Media Discourse This interdisciplinary study outlines a ‘gender-based analysis’ at the connection of critical discourse analysis and feminist media studies, with the aim of providing a rich analyses of the multifaceted mechanism of power and ideology in discourse, in the light of hierarchically gendered social structure. This is especially applicable in present time; it is acknowledged when looking at the institutionalization of gender inequality we are looking at how gender is embedded not only in individuals, but throughout social life.The research offers a rationale for highlighting a feminist perspective in critical discourse and media studies. Focus of this research is to identify the role of linguistic choices in developing gendered discourse, to explore visual representation of female gender in global electronic media discourse, and to analyze gender based discursive practices in reconstructing feminine identity in global media discourse. Building on media research from a critical perspective, current thesis used critical discourse analysis to explore 60 table talk shows, panel discussion and interviews from 5 global news channels. A corpus is built that comprise of all the 60 table talk shows, panel discussion and interviews. A multimodal and linguistic analysis is conducted. Mixed methods are used to analyse data as per requirement of the nature of research. Mixed methods design has contributed to the dissemination of findings and the applicability of this research, as well as help overcome challenges involved in conducting research in this area by shedding light on different layers of meaning. Theoretical triangulation is also used in the research because it determines how researcher has perceived, made sense of, and understood and organized collected data. Instead of considering triangulation as a way for validation or verification, researcher has used this v method to make certain that the triangulated theory is rich, complete, comprehensive and well-combined. Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model is used as research framework in which data was analysed on ‘us versus them dichotomy’ and at ‘micro and macro level’ of discourse. At the end of this mixed method research, it was evident how gender can be a valued lens for showing persistent and frequent structures which shape up the way individuals convey and represent dominant identities in interaction with hidden symbolic resources distributed through media, as well as how and when complicated web of intertextual contexts help to empower them in the discourse.
AN ANALYSIS OF THEMES AND LINGUISTIC DEVICES IN POLITICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES ABSTRACT Title: Postmodern Discourse: A Thematic and Linguistic Analysis of Political Autobiographies This study aims to explore, through critical discourse analysis of political autobiographies, activistic themes in political discourse and how these themes are communicated to readers with the use of linguistic devices. This research analyzes two autobiographies of contemporary political personalities, Nelson Mandela and Barack Hussein Obama. Their selection is based on their similarities of struggle in contemporary political world and political importance in the world politics. Each of them is connected with the concept of ‘change’ in one way or another. Each of them does not represent the traditional hierarchy of politicians. They have futuristic view with abolition of ‘apartheid’ in different shapes and have emancipatory agenda. The study is important as it offers deep scholarship in terms of its scope and application not only in Pakistani context but also in global political and historical context. The Postmodern wave of democratization and the emphasis on democratic values and right to expression make it imperative that the political discourse be studied with more and full attention. In this regard, one genre that is almost totally ignored in Pakistani context and little attention has been paid to it even at the global level, is autobiography. Autobiography is a special kind of composition in which the author gives a picture of the evolution of the self and its relation with the external world throughout this evolutionary process. The famous political autobiographies Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela and Audacity of Hope by Barack Hussein Obama were, therefore, selected as the basic units of analysis. Through content analysis different topics are separated from the original text. These topics are then grouped under different categories of van Dijk’s theory of Political Discourse Analysis. The exploration and analysis of linguistic devices are also carried out. Besides Van Dijk’s Political Discourse Analysis (PDA), Huckin’s approach to text and Corpus Linguistics’ quantitative methodology aided the systematic in depth analysis. Methods of both the qualitative and quantitative research have been utilized for this study as the researchers believe that quantification of data along with qualitative description produce reliable results.
EFFECTIVENESS OF CUSTOMIZED COURSE ON ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENTS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY The importance of English for Specific Purpose (ESP) is not recognized fully especially by experts from technical fields in Pakistan. This weakness, on part of educationists, has created major deficiency in capabilities of graduates which is exposed at their workplace. This deficiency is clearly visible in Government approved curriculum which is being followed in the universities especially for technical degree programs. The major impact of such shortcoming is observed when feedback is obtained by alumni and employers. This study is an effort to identify the requirements in course outline of Communication Skills for CS students and its effectiveness. The study focuses on improving the contents instead of teaching methodology to fulfill the workplace needs of computer science graduates. The study is quasi experimental and it prepares two groups of subjects for the comparison of the effectiveness of two treatments (old course outline and novel course outline). The experiment involves the comparison in the performance of the two groups which are Control Group(for treatment with old course outline) and Experimental Group (for treatment with novel course outline) of size 25 subjects each, at pre-test phase and then at post-test phase. Finally, another comparison, between each group’s two performances, is performed to evaluate how much improvements is made by the groups. T-testis used on the final evaluation score to determine whether the improvement was significant as a result of the treatment. The evaluation was performed by a panel of eight members from different software houses, working at managerial level. The evaluators were kept same for the pre-test as well as for the post-test and they evaluated both groups to ensure uniformity in evaluation in the experiment. The results showed improvement in both groups but the experimental group (treated with novel course outline) outperformed the control group (treated with old course outline) by a significant margin. The t-test value of 4.43x10-7 justified the alternative hypothesis. The results also conclude that Higher Education Commission of Pakistan needs to take notice of ESP’s positive effects on English language courses included in non-language degree programs. Currently, there is no linguist in curriculum revision for computing and engineering degree programs as the list of academicians indicate, and the deficiencies highlighted in this study go unnoticed during curriculum revision. The findings support medical, engineering, mass communication, economics, and business students’ case as well for inclusion of ESP in their courses. Similarly, these are applicable on all regions of Pakistan as the overall country shares similar social and economic status if not the same. In future, this study can be extended to other regions of Pakistan and can be applied to other fields of study as well. Keywords: English for Specific Purpose (ESP), computer science, communication skills, Pakistan.