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Translation Pedagogy in pakistan at Secondary Level: Strategic and practices Title: Translation Pedagogy in Pakistan at Secondary Level: Strategies and Practices Given the importance of translation and its teaching, the focal point of the study was the investigation and analysis of translation strategies and practices adopted by English subject teachers in classroom. The study was carried out with the help of Baker’s Taxonomy (2011) that was used as the theoretical lens. Considering the immense importance that it is enjoying in Pakistan, English was taken as the Source Language (SL) in this study, while Urdu, being the national language, was taken as the Target Language (TL). The collection of data was rendered through recorded lectures of English subject teachers of grade IX. These lectures were first recorded and then transcribed for the sake of analysis. Besides the recordings of the lectures, the researcher also used an observation sheet as data collection tool. As for the analysis of the collected data, eclectic method was employed in exploring this study: data was collected qualitatively; however, analysis combined both, quantitative and qualitative methods. Keeping in mind the complexity as well as the epistemological nature of Baker’s Taxonomy in terms of its different layers, the analysis was limited to word level and accomplished on theoretical underpinnings of Baker’s strategies of non-equivalence. The study has revealed naivety of English subject teachers to theories and strategies of translation since none of them seemed to have any idea of translation as a systematic process; therefore, the study is likely to help English teachers broadening their horizons in translation studies; it may also be an aid to the policy makers and curriculum developers to formulate a policy in accordance with current state of the art of translation strategies in academia.
Re-imagining Cultural Integration: Contesting Cultural Gaslighting in Selected Diasporic Fiction The present study analyses three South Asian diasporic novels, Home Fire (2017) by Kamila Shamsie, The Chai Factor (2019) by Farah Heron and Love Marriage (2022) by Monica Ali through the lenses of Young Yun Kim’s (2001) theory of Cultural Integration, Elena Ruiz’s (2020) model of Cultural Gaslighting and Zeus Leonardo’s (2004) concept of White Supremacy. This qualitative study uses the method of textual analysis to investigate the integrative efforts of the second generation of South Asian immigrants by adapting to the cultural norms and social standards of the English and Canadian societies. This research brings out the construct of cultural gaslighting and white supremacy as a hindrance in the way of transformative transition and its impact on the psyche of the second generation of South Asian immigrants. Moreover, the research highlights the struggle of South Asian immigrant to contest the exercise of cultural gaslighting and white supremacy through their integrative efforts. The Research concludes by re-imagining the concept of cultural integration and making a suggestion that the receiving attitude and acceptability factor of migrant receiving societies are needed to be viewed along with the integrating maneuvers and adaptive measures of immigrants for a broader study of the transformative efforts at the end of immigrants of color in the white dominant host societies. Moreover, this study recommends for the future researchers to excavate the devastating impacts of cultural gaslighting and white supremacy on the psychic conditions of the second generation of South Asian immigrants in diverse cultural environments of the Western countries, its impact on the integrative endeavors of the immigrants, and the contesting efforts of South Asian immigrants against the exercise of cultural gaslighting and white supremacy.
Necropolitics & Learned Helplessness: A Study of the Selected Texts of Mirza Waheed & Atiq Rahimi Title: Necropolitics and Learned Helplessness: A Study of the Selected Texts of Mirza Waheed and Atiq Rahimi The paradigm of this research is in socio-political and psychological perspective. The primary texts, The Collaborator and Earth and Ashes, are grounded in the war-stricken condition of Kashmir and Afghanistan, respectively. This study employs the theoretical concepts of Necropolitics and Learned Helplessness to explore the primary texts for factual fictionality. Necropolitics, proposed by Cameroonian author Achilles Mbembe in his book Necropolitics, has been employed in the socio-political manner. Whereas Learned Helplessness, proposed by the American psychologist Martin Seligman, talks about the psychological aspects. Moreover, the method employed for the analysis of the texts is Textual Analysis propagated by Catherine Belsey. The study, however, has highlighted the socio-political effects of Necropolitics and the consequent psychological and behavioral helplessness that the victims suffer. The effects of Necropolitics and Learned Helplessness have badly affected the socio-political situation of society and psychological condition of the characters. Regarding the relation between the two theoretical perspectives in light of the texts, it has been found out that Necropolitics intensifies Learned Helplessness; but, the effects of latter on the former is dependent on uncontrollability of the event, contingency of future, and cognition and explanatory style of the characters. In the last, the study is significant in the sense that the effects of socio- political and psychological application of Necropolitics and Learned Helplessness on characters and society have been explored in a new dimension which will effectively broaden the contours of the research repository.
Tracing Technocratic Corporatism: A Marxist analysis of Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games Trilogy Title: Tracing Technocratic Corporatism: A Marxist Analysis of Suzzane Collins’ The Hunger Games Trilogy The thesis presents a Marxist analysis of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games Trilogy, focusing on the theme of technocratic corporatism. Drawing on theoretical perspectives such as Villa’s technocapitalism, Althusser’s theory of state apparatuses, Feenberg’s critical theory of technology, the study explores the socio-political implications of technocratic corporatism as portrayed in the trilogy. The research employs a qualitative textual analysis method to examine the texts of the trilogy, unveiling the underlying power dynamics and class struggle within the fictional society. By employing Marxist analysis, the study critically evaluates the ways in which technocratic corporatism perpetuates inequality, exploitation, and alienation among the citizens of Panem. Through this analysis, the research sheds light on the implications of technocratic corporatism in contemporary societies and offers insight into the potential consequences of unchecked technological advancements and consolidation of power by dominant corporations. Ultimately, this study contributes to the understanding of the dystopian genre and offers a critical perspective on the interplay between technology, capitalism, and governance in the modern world.
Linguistic Representation of Possible Text Words in A Visit From The Goon Squad: A Cognitive Narratological Analysis Title: Linguistic Representation of Possible Text Worlds in A Visit from the Goon Squad: A Cognitive Narratological Analysis The semantics of a narrative is known to be determined through text-world representation (Semino, 2014). Text world brings up the discussion of a context, actual text scenario and the realities, disseminated through diverse linguistic and narrative practices. This thesis focuses on world building in A Visit from the Goon Squad; first through linguistic means and deictics and second through focalization and viewpoint analysis. The study adopts a qualitative approach to explore how text-world building helps in dealing with spatial and temporal shift and viewpoint shifts of various characters in the novel. For this purpose, the researcher selected a sub-text, identified world-builders and function advancing propositions, sorted out modal worlds and qualitatively analyzed those worlds to explore viewpoints of diverse characters. The analysis indicated that integrated approach combining both cognitive-linguistic and narratological aspects prove expedient in dealing with narrative complexity. Moreover, the findings reveal that speech and thought representation (free direct speech, free indirect speech, free indirect thought, free direct thought), deixis, change in narrative voice, use of adjectives and noun phrases (value-based expressions), definite and indefinite referential elements and schema-oriented linguistic expressions point towards change in viewpoint of multiple characters. The narrative events presented by either discourse participants or enactors influence semantics of the text. The meaning varies upon change in the perspective of a character, context of the participants and our already existing schemata. This study is significant in the fields of linguistics, narratology and classroom teaching as it explores how Text-world approach and focalization technique could better be employed to comprehend a disoriented narrative such as A Visit from the Goon Squad. It contributes to the existing literature on language and world-building, particularly in the ways that a writer uses language to guide a reader through the story world, generally in terms of temporal, spatial deictic and subjective experiences
Laws and Enskilment: A Forensic Approach to Geosemiotic Analysis of Linguistic Landscape Thesis Tilte: Laws and Enskilment: A Forensic Approach to Geosemiotic Analysis of Linguistic Landscape Linguistic Landscape surrounds us everywhere in the form of billboards, advertisements, street names, brand logos, price tags, graffiti, and public signs. These public signs mirror sociological, cultural, political, economic, and historical aspects of a country. Moreover, they not only reflect the hidden state policies but the laws that aim to mold human behavior by instructing, informing, ordering and directing. Owing to their ambiguous nature, the linguistic and pictorial contents of the top-down signboards that announce state rules and regulations lead to multiple interpretations by the viewer. The present study is an endeavor to analyze the top-down signboards of Pakistan displayed at various public places of Islamabad and Lahore by employing a mixed method approach particularly explanatory sequential technique. Using Geosemiotics framework by Scollon and Scollon (2003) and Speech act theory by Searle (1979b), various distinguishing characteristics of 100 public signs deployed by government institutions were identified and analyzed quantitatively. Furthermore, a questionnaire was also circulated among 385 literate citizens of Pakistan after face validity, content validity and reliability tests while the qualitative analysis was conducted through the interviews from twenty-five citizens. The results drawn from the data were discussed forensically by comparing the state laws with the signboards. The study confirmed the presence of such signboards that fall under the category of regulatory discourse but they fail to impart enskilment to the public by communicating law ineffectively. The recurrent use of English lexicon signals the effects of colonization and globalization on the linguistic practices prevalent in Pakistan. Indexicality is a major characteristic of signboards that locates language in the physical space, but it also points to the legal discourse at large. Forensically, it was observed that discrepancies exist between the top- down signboards and the state rules. It is recommended that signboards must be designed in accordance with the rules prescribed in Acts and Constitution of Pakistan to avoid any discrepancy. Simple words and syntactic structures should be used to remove ambiguity. Urdu language should be implemented as an official language. Keywords: Top-down Signboards, Linguistic Landscape, Forensic Linguistics, Enskilment.
Conflicting Ideologies on Terrorism: A Corpus-based Linguistic Analysis of Pakistani and Indian English Newspapers' Editorials Discourses produced in the print media often implicitly represent worldviews that aim to ideologically influence their readers. This research study, therefore, aimed to investigate the conflicting ideologies that are portrayed and propagated in the discourses produced in the print media of Pakistan and India. Specifically, it aimed to inquire into the manner and matter in which the selected editorials of the Pakistani newspaper The News International and the Indian newspaper the Times of India present their own and each other’s countries in relation to terror-related incidents in the subcontinent. Taking theoretical and analytical insights from van Dijk’s Ideological Square Model and Jackson’s Critical Terrorism Studies, a corpus-based discourse analysis of selected editorials from the two leading newspapers was carried out by following a mixed methods research design. The analysis attempted to find significance and meaning in discourses through the comparison and contrast of the representation of the terror-related events taking place in the two countries. The results of the study revealed that editorials of both the newspaper frame their readers as ideologically different social groups with the implicit purpose to widen the two countries’ enmity, show political dominance, and label each other terrorists. Additionally, it was found that the discourses in both the newspapers construct and distribute linguistically conflicting narratives to inculcate the desired ideologies in readers. Through the use of keywords, collocations, pronouns, and binomials, positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation is projected. Also, lexical items, propositions, presuppositions, implications, and semantic moves are employed to highlight the Us and Them ideology. The study has implications for discourses produced in the print media, and calls for harmonizing the current ideological conflict between Pakistan and India to maintain peace in the two countries. Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, Corpus Linguistics, Ideology, Terrorism, Critical Terrorism
Sociophonetic Variation among Undergradutae Pashtun Speakers of English: An Investigation of English Monophthongs Title: Sociophonetic Variation among Undergraduate Pashtun Speakers of English: An Investigation of English Monophthongs This research studies monophthongal variation in the L2 English of young Pashtun speakers who are undergraduate students of BS English programme, based on speech production data obtained from two institutes in Karak district (of northwestern Pakistan) in the perspective of sociophonetics. It aims to examine the extent of this variation in English monophthong sounds in the speech of Pashtun speakers and to understand how this variation is affected by the factors of socioeconomic status and gender. In other words, the features of speech or pronunciations of a Pashtun speaker constitute the dependent variable and his or her socioeconomic status and gender the independent variables. Data obtained in the form of audio recordings in which a participant reads three short tales in English from a text, collected from a total of forty four students with equal representation of gender, shows that there exists a strong degree of variation among these speakers of Pashto English. This variation is both phonological and phonetic in nature. The phonetic variation is analysed as a score of similarity and in the form of percentage of all the tokens uttered by a participants compared with the Received Pronunciation (i.e. British English). The findings indicate that whereas there does not occur any correlation between a participant’s socioeconomic status and the features of his or her speech, the variation does seem to pattern along the factor of gender, with the female participants performing better than their male counterparts frequently and overall.
Appraisal Narratives of Brands on their Webpage: An Eco-Linguistic Analysis iv ABSTRACT Title: Appraisal Narratives of Brands on Their Webpages; An Eco-linguistic Analysis This study ventures into the domains of semiotics and eco-linguistics. The study analyses linguistic devices of appraisal on the web pages of four green beauty brands that are KVD Vegan Beauty, Fenty Beauty, Aveeno, and Juice Beauty. The web pages of these four beauty brands utilize different linguistic devices for appraisal in order to greenwash their products. Stibbe’s 2015 framework is used as a lens to study appraisal and evaluation that is present on the web pages of these brands. In addition to this, it is argued by Stibbe (2015) that stories about an area of life being good or bad are created in the minds of people using these devices which he calls appraising items. Some of the appraising items mentioned by Stibbe (2015) include positively or negatively appraising items that can be explicit or implicit, metaphors, and collocation. The aforementioned linguistic strategies in the discourses have been investigated in this study to see how the appraisal has been constructed. Through the analysis of these linguistic devices, it has been discovered that the four brands construct positive appraisals along the lines of sustainable, natural, clean, and organic. In the study, it is also noted that each brand provides its own perspective on sustainability, natural, organic, and clean. As a result, the positive appraisals that get constructed are consistent with their own ideologies and personal beliefs. Moreover, negative appraisals are constructed by these brands for anything that is not sustainable, clean, organic, or natural. Non-probability purposive sampling technique is used in the collection of data. The study's findings suggest that while many environmental product attributes have meritorious qualities, greenwashing is encouraged and made easily achievable as a result. The study suggests new ways to look at language related to ecological discourse. It further suggests how the creation of negative and positive binaries while talking about environmental issues can have destructive ecological implications. The merits of these green beauty brands have been called into question in this study and the drawbacks that their so-called eco-friendly products and claims can have are highlighted.
English Language Learning by Blind and Visually Impaired Students in Pakistan: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences, Challenges and Solutions Title: English Language Learning by Blind and Visually Impaired Students in Pakistan: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences, Challenges and Solutions This qualitative study explored the English language learning experiences and challenges faced by Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) students in integrated classroom setting through the lens of interpretivism, which assumes the “out-there reality” as a construction of individual experiences and culture. The study sought to unravel the challenges confronted and the experiences of the students and their teachers in Pakistan. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with ten BVI students and five teachers having the experience of teaching at least one BVI student in a regular class. The semi-structured interviews focused on areas including language learning strategies, interpersonal relations with sighted peers and teachers, use of assistive technology, and obtaining study material in accessible formats. The findings of the study reveal that assistive technology was central to the learning process facilitated by self-advocacy and assertiveness by the BVI learners and good interpersonal relations within the class. The lack of easy access to study material and their inability to achieve written communication with their sighted teachers affected their sense of normalcy, independence, and self-esteem, however. The study recommends comprehensive training for the stakeholders to sensitize them to the special needs of BVI students in areas including but not limited to the use of assistive technology, access to study material and interpersonal skills. Keywords: Blind and Visually Impaired Learners; Assistive Technology; Accessibility; Interpersonal skills.
Manifestion 'Sumud' in the Wake of 'Ongoing-Nakba': Tracing Elements of Cultural Trauma in Selected Palestinian Novels ABSTRACT Title: Manifesting Sumud in the Wake of On-going Nakba: Tracing Elements of Cultural Trauma in the Selected Palestinian Novels This thesis is an effort to contribute to the vast pool of scholarship on the gathering of trauma, the birth of Sumud, the use of non-traditional narrative in disseminating the spirit of Nakba and writing that helps to pursue and further the cause of liberation in Palestinian literature. It analyzes the Palestinian novels The Blue between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa and The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem. While trauma theory has brought an understanding of the recondite subject of identity issues and coping mechanisms against the defenseless fragility of humans and societies, its study has been limited to the traumatic episodes in the West. To serve the need of documenting the traumatic incidents happening in the Middle East, this work has deployed the concept of Cultural Trauma by Jeffery C. Alexander and Chosen Trauma by Vamik D. Volkan to understand the trauma in the selected Palestinian novels. By exploring the wounded Palestinian community, with attention to the influence of the traumatic context and close textual analysis of the texts, the findings of the study reveal that the target community has been subjected to immense brutality, which is not just limited to their expulsion from their land but includes an appropriation of everything that speaks of the identity of native Palestinians. This thesis argues that both these texts serve as an alternate voice in serving the national narrative by exposing elements of Nakba as an ascribable event and reaffirming its codification as a Cultural trauma.
Meaning Making Potential of Gapping in Urdu Axioms : A Study in Categorical Grammar Title: Meaning-making Potential of Gapping in Urdu Axioms: A Study in Categorial Grammar Gapping is challenging as it is not merely a linguistic phenomenon of remnants left behind in the deep structure but it also satisfies the syntactic patterns and meets standard constituency tests. This study aims to find out the extent to which gapping in English is similar to or different from the gapping in Urdu in its syntactic patterns and meaning potential. For the purposes of this research, the lens that has been used to investigate the frequency of occurrence of gapping in Urdu embedded gapped axioms is developed within the context of transformational grammar and the minimalist approach. Primarily Johnson’s (1996, 2009) framework has been applied to analyse the data as it is framed under Minimalist work, formulated as a variant of Categorial Grammar (CG) called Hybrid Type- Logical Categorial Grammar. The present study has attempted to apply constituency tests to find low VP coordination analysis in Urdu compound and complex axioms. Through syntax-semantic interface, occurrences of Gapping/Ellipses have been generalized in an instance of coordination in like-categories with the development of hypothetical reasoning. Gapping in formal Urdu embedded axioms has been analyzed in terms of their potential for verb and noun phrases to go missing, applying the basic syntax of gapping on Urdu elided clauses to interact with an independently driven examination of logical operators. To find and measure the height of ellipses with an ability or inability of gapping in Urdu, Johnson’s (1996, 2009) framework is selected to license variants of gapping that make meaningful strings in Urdu. Through variants of categorial grammar in gapping, such as: Pseudo gapping, sluicing, VP-Ellipsis and Nominal Ellipses, the potential for phrases to go missing in Urdu propositions has been measured through deontic operators for schematic configuration. The study finds out that all variants of gapping in English are partially applicable to Urdu axioms. This research would provide future researchers with an effective lens for hybrid type logical categorial grammar in a syntactic-semantic interface to critically analyze ambiguous sentences used by the speakers of Urdu language
"I Shop, Therefore I Am": A Study of Postfeminist Episteme in Glocalist Chick Lit Novels Title: “I Shop, Therefore I am”: A Study of Postfeminist Episteme in Glocalist Chick Lit Novels This dissertation is a step toward tracing the presence of consumerism in chick lit novels. The study investigates elements of consumerism in the texts of the selected genre. It underscores a new facet of chick lit novels by showing the promotion of consumerism in a variety of ways. Four chick lit novels are analyzed in this research: Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic Abroad, Saba Imtiaz’s Karachi, You’re Killing Me!, and Maha Khan Philips’s Beautiful from this Angle. A multipronged lens using the selected works of Rosalind Gill, Fredric Jameson, Roland Robertson, and Arif Dirlik has been used to analyze these texts. By analyzing the primary texts, the study shows the promotion of the core capitalist ideology of wealth accumulation through consumerism, with the help of feminist rhetoric in concealed packaging. The study also identifies the positions postfeminist women take under the influence of consumerism and how they influence and shape both the literary canon and the ecriture feminine. Moreover, the study investigates the global reach and its translation ability into local trends: the common rhetoric of glocal trends. Its illustration is found in all four primary texts. However, the analysis of the Pakistani texts specifically highlights a flow of culture from West to East and an economic flow from the global South to the global North. This trend in the chick lit novels is hindering an epistemological advancement by reinstating the colonial narrative in the postcolonial times benefitting the capitalist concerns of the global North. Therefore, as a result, these novels become a satire on themselves rather than on society as they were originally envisioned by their writers.
identifying lexical frames through word-webs: an analysis of motivational Corpus Title: Identifying Lexical Frames through Word-Webs: An Analysis of Motivational Corpus Frames synthesise as well as relate concepts, perceptions, and experiences. This research draws on Fillmore’s frame semantics conceptual structure which is routinely utilised in the process of thinking (Lakoff, 2006a). According to Minsky (1986), grammar, sentences, phrases, and words are used to perceive frames. However, this research aims to explore the situational concepts via lexical analysis manipulating frame semantics which construes and creates diverse frames. A broad range of sentences selected from the data has been analysed semantically in order to extract frames and formulate groups of vocabularies accordingly through close reading. A qualitative approach has been used to conduct this study, and the data has been incorporated from four books Rich Dad Poor Dad (2011), Strengths Finder 2.0 (2015), How to Win Friends and Influence People (2005) and Atomic Habits (2018) in the form of a motivational corpus. Additionally, the frames associated with the possible groups of vocabularies have been extracted via Aitchison’s associations like co-ordination, superordination, synonyms, and collocations. Moreover, via McClelland’s acquired needs theory, the cognitive structures and associated word webs have worked mutually to ensure opportunities for self-regulation or self-development and individual motivation. The results have shown various frames extracted from the motivational corpus, including profession, education, futuristics, business, investors, market value, wealth, standards, security, expenditure, financial, imitation, etc. Several frames and associated word-webs like achiever, cognition, contextual, writing, education, logical, wealth, creation, standards, futuristic, and so forth. have assisted McClelland’s need for achievement. McClelland’s need for affiliation takes support from the frames linked with word-webs such as learner, manager, restorative, communication, struggle, habit management, conscientiousness, human flaws, evaluation, relation, etc. McClelland’s power need motivates individuals using the frames and associated word-webs such as leadership, communication, confidence, admiration, strategic, advisor, evaluation, focus, v etc. Many cognitive structures motivate the three acquired needs at the same time, such as habit management, advisor, focus, transformation, focus, evaluation, restorative, strategic, etc. These conferred frames not only stimulate needs for achievement, power and affiliation for individuals but also provide possibilities for personality development.