I= THE FORM AND FUNCTIONS OF ENGLISH IN PAKISTAN
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Title of Thesis
THE FORM AND FUNCTIONS OF ENGLISH IN PAKISTAN
Author(s)
Ms. Mubina Talaat
Institute/University/Department Details
Department of English/ Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan
Session
2002
Subject
English
Number of Pages
257
Keywords (Extracted from title, table of contents and abstract of thesis)
english in pakistan, english, pakistan, linguistic profile, indigenous languages, bilingualism, lexical divergences, lexical redundancy, bilingual code, language mixing, convergence, victorian tradition, colonial lag, pedagogical implications

Abstract
This investigation studies the 'phenomenon' of change that Pakistani English (PE) is undergoing at this moment in history as a consequence of its contact with Pakistani Languages (PLs) in general but with Urdu in particular. This involves exploration and interpretation of constantly diverging forms which may not have acquired stability and recognition among its users (Pakistani bilinguals). Since Pakistani English is not any 'one stable' system, the process of 'ongoing' change is difficult to study. In order to overcome methodological problems, qualitative research methodology has been generally adopted. Hence, 'text' is taken as a unit of analysis and data has been collected from Pakistani English Language newspapers and magazines.

The texts selected for study have been analysed by comparing the divergent forms with standard British English on the one hand and Urdu sentence structures on the other hand. It has generally been discovered that structural influence of Urdu is evident on the grammar of English but a variety of divergent lexical structures owe their existence to 'code-mixing' and 'code-switching' in Urdu. As a result, PE is not only divergent on the level of grammar and lexis but also 'wordy'. and 'verbose' on account of both literal translation, and 'code-mixing'.

Not only that literal translation and code-mixing create verbosity in PE, our oral norms of communication do appear to playa significant role in creating 'over-long' sentences with . redundant' clauses and repetitions of different kinds. Some of the texts reveal divergence in discourse patterns, although these patterns have not been studied in great detail here. However, even a superficial analysis of clauses and sentences has shown that there are micro and macro structures of 'redundancy' which cannot be ascribed to 'literal translation' or 'code-mixing'. They are a part of our 'oral norms of communication'. Bilingualism (in the form of code-mixing and literal translation) is merely a new dimension added to 'redundancy' - created by our predominatly oral norms of linguistic behaviour.

Since this is a qualitative research, the conclusions arrived at have been worked out through constant interpretation of data, from the beginning to the end. Only the first three chapters introduce the use of English in the bilingual context of Pakistan explaining the aims of research and methodology. In the first chapter, only an introduction to the use of English as 'associated' official language of the country is given to illustrate how it came into contact with Urdu in the domain of education. Then the techniques and method of research is explained in Chapter 2. The texts selected for study begin to be introduced in Chapter 3 in the 'context' of the newspapers and magazines. Four texts have been studied in detail in Chapter 4 through contrastive analysis with Urdu and comparison with SBE. The results of this analysis are further interpreted in the following chapters.

Hence, the dominant lexical divergences are examined and interpreted in Chapter 5. Then in Chapter 6 the syntactic divergences and grammatical consequences of the divergent (mainly lexical) structures have been studied in detail. Since, it was evident that all of these divergences are a result of code-mixing and literal translation, these uses of English have been discussed in detail in Chapter 7. This discussion helped to recognise that' level of abstraction' in translation is an important category in identifying sub-varieties in PE. The other category is 'code-mixing'.

Therefore in Chapter 8, this conclusion is further analysed and further dimensions along which sub-varieties within PE can be identified have been proposed. For example, it became evident that in order to identify sub-varieties in English, it is important to identify and describe 'sub-varieties' of Urdu first. There are clearly two categories of 'texts'. The first category of texts is one in which the norms of 'writing' as autonomous and 'context-free' discourse are observed. The other category of texts is one in which the 'norms' of oral communication are reflected in a variety of ways. This last category is one in which the lexicon belonging to code-mixed sub-varieties of Urdu is abundantly used. Each category consists of a huge variety of texts consisting of a 'continuum' beginning from the minimum divergence from SE to the maximum in D sub-varieties. These categories show that different texts translate different sub-varieties of Urdu - spoken or written, informal or formal, pure or mixed.

In Chapter 9, PE has been discussed as whole. In this chapter, the seven questions which Gorlach' had wanted to raised about a non-native variety (Gorlach: 1991) have been answered, showing that neither the (partly conservative) 'code' completely determines the' social context' of PE nor is it fully determined by it. The code and the context are both created and related (in different ways) by the bilingual user, in a variety of innovative ways. The user has put all resources of the two languages (or more) to communicate successfully his meanings. In this way what is of paramount significance in PE is the 'communicative intent' (Gumperz et al: 1982) of the user. The user does not necessarily want to 'conform' (or not conform) to some 'given social norms' in this culture or that.

Finally, in Chapter 10 the question of ambivalent attitude to English is taken up. This attitude has been responsible for Pakistan not being able to have a 'consistent' language policy with a clearly defined place for all official and regional languages. Consequently the education of English is elitist based in Pakistan. The social and pedagogical implications of this attitude are discussed in this chapter. For, although a change in the teaching/learning methodology has been proposed in this chapter, its fundamental message is that unless we change our attitude to the languages of education by clearly confronting the basis of our bilingualism or multilingualism, we cannot bring quality to our education and the languages we use.
Download Full Thesis
10791.21 KB
S. No. Chapter Title of the Chapters Page Size (KB)
1 0 Contents
221.46 KB
2 1 Introduction 1
841.75 KB
  1.1 A Brief Linguistic Profile 1
  1.2 Language Contact 04
  1.3 Functions Of English In Pakistan 10
  1.4 Indigenous Languages And English 14
  1.5 The Big Question 24
  1.6 Richness And Diversity Of Pakistan English 25
  1.7 Goals Of Investigation 26
3 2 Text And Interpretation 29
580.93 KB
  2.0 Introduction 29
  2.1 Pakistani English: Product Or Process 29
  2.2 Problems Of Research 29
  2.3 Literature Review Of Pakistani English 31
  2.4 Qualitative Research Methodology 32
  2.5 The Present Investigation 36
  2.6 How The Discussion Begins 45
4 3 Newspapers And Bilingualism 46
297.59 KB
  3.0 Introduction 46
  3.1 The English Language Press In Pakistan 46
  3.2 Language Diversity And The Newspapers Layout 50
  3.3 Women’s Magazines 51
  3.4 Writing And Standardization 52
  3.5 The Chosen Texts 53
5 4 Text Analysis 55
1288.53 KB
  4.0 Introduction 55
  4.1 Method Of Discussion 55
  4.2 The Standard Text 57
  4.3 Text Analysis 59
  4.4 Common Features Of The Texts 121
6 5 Lexical Divergences 124
334.04 KB
  5.0 Introduction 124
  5.1 The Range Of Lexical Divergences 124
  5.2 Lexical Redundancy 125
  5.3 Item From Code-Mixed Speech 126
  5.4 And Other Divergences 135
  5.5 Bilingual Norms Of Oral Communications 142
7 6 Grammatical Consequences 145
464.89 KB
  6.0 Introduction 145
  6.1 Looking At The Data 146
  6.2 Grammar Vs. Syntax 147
  6.3 Syntax And Lexicon-Grammar In P.E 149
  6.4 Some Uncommon Sentence Patterns 153
  6.5 Redundant Items And Loose Structure 154
  6.6 Beyond The Work-The Word Order! 169
  6.7 Popular Views And The Present Investigation 171
  6.8 L1 Influence And The Structure Of P.E 174
8 7 Translation And Code-Mixing In Pakistani English 176
272.42 KB
  7.0 Introduction 176
  7.1 Cross Linguistic Influence And P.E 176
  7.2 Code-Mixing 177
  7.3 Bilingual Code And Context 182
  7.4 The Structural Influence Of L1 186
  7.5 Translation 188
  7.6 Text And Language Mixing In Functional Contests 192
9 8 Sub Varieties In Pakistani English 194
444.62 KB
  8.0 Introduction 194
  8.1 The Proposed Categories Of Texts 195
  8.2 Literal Translation And The ‘Common Code’ 197
  8.3 Context- Dependent Texts 202
  8.4 Problems In The Study Of Convergence 207
  8.5 Writing Of The Text 210
  8.6 Classification Of The Texts 219
10 9 Pakistani English; A Non-Native Variety 221
294.06 KB
  9.0 Introduction 221
  9.1 Convergence In Pakistani English 221
  9.2 The Sociolinguistics Of Writing English In Pakistan 223
  9.3 The Context In The Text 227
  9.4 Seven Questions About P.E 2314
  9.5 ‘Colonial Lag’ And ‘Victorian Tradition’ 233
  9.6 What Is Pakistani English? 237
11 10 Pakistani English: Social Attitude And Pedagogical Implications 240
292.27 KB
  10.0 Introduction 240
  10.1 Attitude To English 240
  10.2 Pedagogical Implications 243
  10.3 ‘Difference’ And The Debate On Difference 252
  10.4 Concluding Remarks 256
12 11 Appendix 256
5421.64 KB
13 12 Bibliography
5811.97 KB