Chapter: 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Language Variation

Certain historical and geographical factors play their part in the process of

language change and English language has also undergone this

phenomenon: Language change is a regular feature of all the living

languages of the world and English is not an exception (Aitchison 1981).With

the passage of time, English language has undergone variation and it has

been key area of study since beginning. It is an ascertained fact that the

English language enjoys the status of a major international language. Most of

the scientific and educational information is imparted in the English language.

It is the leading language of international business and tourism. It is the chief

language of popular culture and its advertising. Trudgil (1991) being the

pioneer in this field, studied the variation in the English language and worked

on the different dialects of England. He highlighted the fact that a certain part

of concern diverted from the phonological, lexical and historical level towards

syntax level which received less attention from all dialectologists.

There are no really sharp boundaries in England, and dialects certainly

do not coincide with countries. The further you travel, the more different

dialects will be found. And the reason is that English, like all other

languages are changing and the change starts from a specific area and

spreads to neighboring areas. (Trudgil 1991, p.8).

Trudgil propounded that Standard British English was the name of a dialect

and not a language. He explained that standard English was the name of a

1
variety which was characterized by certain set of grammatical and lexical

forms. He claimed it purely a social dialect and it differed from the other

dialects of English in terms of its greater prestige. Certain cultural and

linguistic differences played their role in the evolution of different varieties of

English all over the world. They were labelled as World Englishes.

2.2. WORLD ENGLISHES

The term World Englishes was exhaustively explained by Kachru and Smith

(1985) who worked keenly on World Englishes .They propounded the real

idea of plucentricity behind the term of world Englishes and the varieties

present all across the globe with formal variations.

Englishes symbolize the functional and formal variation in the

language, and its international acculturation, for example, in West

Africa, in Southern Africa, in East Africa, in South Asia, in Southeast

Asia, in the West Indies, in the Philippines, and in the traditional

English-using countries: the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada, and New

Zealand. The language now belongs to those who use it as their first

language, and to those who use it as an additional language, whether

in its standard form or in its localized forms.(Bolton 2006, P.241)

As the European traders arrived in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa,

English language also traveled with them and proved as a major source of

communication between the natives and the European traders. The

interaction resulted in the mixing of dialects which were also influenced by the

native languages. Thus, the varieties of English got evolved in these

countries. Kachru (1992) presented his famous three-circle model which

2
divided the world Englishes into three circles: the Inner Circle which contained

the Englishes of the first Diaspora , the outer Circle that included the South

Asian Englishes and African Englishes and the expanding circle that

contained Middle East countries Kachru(1992) made it clear that English

spoken in the inner Circle was norm-providing; the language spoken in the

Outer Circle was norm-developing and that in Expanding circle was norm

dependent. Through this model, Kachru named these new varieties of South

Asian Englishes and African Englishes as New Englishes. The New Englishes

in the world have exhibited variance at different levels from its ancestral

home i.e. from British variety. These are chiefly based upon pronunciation,

Lexical, grammar and Discourse levels. Future of the World Englishes will

have to be seen as whether these New Englishes could maintain their status

in the World or they get merged in the other non -native varieties. Paradigm

shift might continue and if this shift is bound to happen, the New Englishes

users should also adapt themselves to the rights as claimed by the mother-

tongue speakers.

I would argue that English as an international language is not distributed, as a

set of established encoded forms, unchanged into different domains of use,

but it is spread as a virtual language. (Widdowson 1997, p.139-40)

2.3. Pakistani English:

In Pakistan, the English language has established its status and has

become Lingua Franca. It has proved a major link language and bridged the

country with the whole English speaking world. The English language is not

only being used for the official purposes but also being beneficially used in

Islamic law and Sharia. Platt (1984) put forward aptly the four basic criteria to

3
declare any language as a new variety. First, he highlighted that the New

English is to be preferred as a subject in the educational institutions. New

English should be taught as the mode of instructions above all other native

languages. Secondly, the New Englishes must have developed where the

other native languages are not frequently spoken or written by most of the

population of that country. Third, New English must be performing various

country internal functions and should be used in different departments of that

country i.e. official correspondence, legal etc. It should be performing the

function of lingua franca. Fourth, it should be localized in the pronunciation

and intonation, form and expressions. English in Pakistan meets all the four

criteria and takes the title of New English.

Being a non-native variety, English language in Pakistan has adopted different

kinds of words, structures, expressions from the native languages. It exhibits

many characteristics of its own norm than that of standard British English and

these distinctive features signify the independent trend of the Pakistani

English. As a non-native variety, Pakistani English has been researched so far

from different approaches. Kachruvian approach (1983) highlighted

tendencies of using more complex structures in the South Asian Englishes

which made them overloaded in its diction. It focused upon the more use of

interrogative structures without even shifting the place of subject and verb.

This approach also pinpointed the morph-syntactic features of south Asian

Englishes.

Baumgardian (1993) approach focused on the influence of Urdu language

upon the lexical level in a detailed form. This approach also put forward that

Pakistani English borrowed frequent word from Urdu and the regional

4
languages. It was highlighted that that words like atta( flour), baradri(clan),

goonda(thug), kabbadi( a sport) , kachiabaadi (shanty town) , mela ( fair) ,

paan, wadera( Sindi landlord) are found frequently in Pakistani

English(Baumgardner 1993,p-46).Through Baumgardian (1993) approach, it

was proved that on lexical level, the prefixes and suffixes were found to be

very productive and innovative in the Pakistani English.

Words in edibles have been concocted from Urdu and quite

frequently being used in Pakistani English. Tandoori roti, naans,

pekoras, samosas, chapatti, dal, kebab, pulao, daal-chawal, roast,

charga (chicken), tikkas, aaloo-chola, siri-pae, nihari, chutney

(Ketchup) etc.( p-88-89).

Another approach from Rahman (1990) focused on the phonology, lexis and

grammar of the Pakistani English. Rahman (1990) made it clear that Standard

English is stress-timed while Pakistani English is syllable- timed. He found the

intonation Pattern of Pakistani English pronunciation different from Received

Pronunciation due to difference in rhythm. He studied the segmental features

more than that of non-segmental features in the phonological patterns of

Pakistani English. This approach also highlighted some distinct morphological

and syntactic features in the Pakistani English and pointed out the use of

progressive aspect with the habitual and completed action frequently found in

Pakistani English.

The research work put forward on Pakistani English as an independent variety

by Talaat (2002) studied the form and functions of the English language in

Pakistan and put forward the impact of Urdu language upon the English

5
language in Pakistan. She studied text to notify the ongoing process of

change in any non-native language like Pakistani English. She took the

investigation of study away from the item analysis to text analysis to

investigate the process of variation in a comprehensive manner. She also

studied the form and functions of the English language in Pakistan and put

forward the impact of Urdu language upon the English language in Pakistan.

Empirical approach towards investigating Pakistani English as an independent

variety was introduced by Mahmood.A (2012) and Mahmood.R. (2012) which

focused upon the deviant features of Pakistani English through corpus based

studies. Mahmood.R. (2009) studied the Lexico-Grammatical aspects of the

nouns and noun phrases in Pakistani English. The different patterns of the

nouns and noun-phrases were studied in comparison with the British and

American Corpus. Mahmood.R. (2009) also worked on the Collocations,

Colligation (grammatical Collocation) and word-grammar in Pakistani

English.

Mahmood. A. (2009) worked on the different trends in the Pakistani English

through a Corpus- based study. He observed the various trends in studying

the nouns, pronouns, Verbs, adverbs, Verb -particles; Verb-Complementation,

adverbs, Lexical words, and compared it with the Standard British English and

tried to explore the independent existence of Pakistani English as a non-

variety. He studied 300 lexical words which were chosen on the gender and

culture-specific basis and their pattern of use was observed in the available

Pakistani English Corpus and compared it with the different patterns of use in

Standard British English.

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Very few people have worked on register variation of Pakistani English .All the

research work so far has been conducted to prove Pakistani English on

individual linguistic differences and the functional interpretation of linguistic

differences has not been highlighted which is the marked feature of register

studies. It is believed that register based studies are needed to validate

Pakistani English as a non-native variety with its distinct linguistic identity.

2.4. Register Variation

The quantitative sociolinguistics has found variation in language in different

forms: variation associated with constraints in the linguistic environment,

variation associated with the social or demographic characteristics of

speakers, and variation associated with situations of use(Biber, Finegan 1995,

P.316).

Hymes (1984) explained that the analysis of register variation-"verbal

repertoire" in his terms-should become the chief focus of research interest

within sociolinguistics. Hymes (1984) gives less importance to sociolinguistic

variation because "no human being talks the same way all the time.... At the

very least, a variety of registers and styles is used and encountered"-and he

further argues that the "sociolinguistic perspective ... has the possibility of

taking the lead in transforming the study of language, through developing and

consolidating the systematic study of verbal repertoire(p.44).

Other linguists have also stressed upon the importance of register variation

studies. Ure (1982:5) also highlighted the importance of register variation by

saying that each language community has its own system of registers ...

7
corresponding to the range of activities in which its members normally

engage."

Registers differ from social dialects precisely because they serve different

purposes, topics, and situations. They naturally differ in content as well as in

form. Speakers do not typically "say the same thing" conversation as in

lectures, reports, academic papers, and congratulatory telegrams. Thus

variation across registers includes different linguistic features, rather than

semantically neutral variants of a single feature.

In register studies, the linguistic differences are focused and elaborative . The

basic working idea found in sociolinguistic study of register variation is: A

communication situation that recurs regularly in a society (in terms of

participants, setting, communicative functions, and so forth) will tend over time

to develop identifying markers of language structure and language use,

different from the language of other communication situations (Biber&

Finnegan, 1994).

Register analysis always include three basic features: the situational

background, the linguistic features and the functional relationship between

situational background and the linguistic features. Registers are marked with

specific lexical and grammatical features and all these grammatical features

are seen in the situational context in which all these registers are used and

described.

All these linguistic features in registers are always functional: Linguistic

features are always functional when considered from a register perspective.

8
That is, linguistic features tend to occur in a register because they are

particularly well-suited to the purposes and situational context of the register

(Biber & Conrad, 2009).Language used in registers belong to different

contexts, different circumstances and motives. Therefore, the register

differences are also important like the sociolinguistic based study of a non-

native variety:

The register perspective differs from the traditional sociolinguistic

studies in both regards: it describes patterns language use in all

spoken registers, and it describes patterns of language use in terms of

the full inventory of Lexico-grammatical characteristics. Register

differences are equally important to dialect differences in any

community of language users (Biber 2013, p.361).

2.5. Language of Press Reportage and Previous Studies

Media brings into the public arena whatever is of public interest

(Leitner, 1997).Language studies of journalism are certainly based on the idea

that messages originated from journalism are not always clear and need deep

insight towards the real understanding of the news messages. The language

of print media has been studied from different perspectives. Most of the

studies have been conducted to investigate the language of press for their

social and political significance. From the content analysis perspective, the

language of newspapers has been studied at length. Woodward (1934)

studied how different topics in the daily newspapers focused on the reporting

of Russian Revolution in a certain way. Lippmann and Merz (1920) studied

9
communist propaganda in the newspapers. Lass well focused upon the

certain issues in the circulation of political symbols in news editorials. Great

scholars like Berelson (1952) and Holsti (1969) used the content analysis

study of the print media and revealed the different tenets of political life.

Schramm (1959) made clear how the language of 14 worlds major

newspapers affected the two international crises: the invasion on Egypt by

European and Israeli forces and the arrival of Soviet Tanks into Budapest.

Hofstter (1976) analyzed the coverage of bias in the political

campaigns through deliberate linguistic choices. Robinson and Sheehan

(1983), Moriarty and Popvich (1991) Kolinsky and Singleman (1992),

Patterson (1993) Dickenson (1994), all studied the bias of verbal reports

across national and international contexts in different newspapers. The

Glasgow University Media Group (1980) studied the anti labour bias in British

TV news.

Schroder (2002) found these studies oversimplified on media language

because all of these studies focused on individual frequencies of the given

phenomenon in the news and were hardly found scientific in nature.

Semiotics study of media language was bit more focused as the

media language was studied with more consideration of texts in context. But

most of the semiotic studies of media language have been conducted for its

social and political significance. Fiske (1988) studied the entire television

news bulletin by focusing on the words choice, verbal and visual sequencing.

Hartley (1982) also worked on the semiotic aspect of news events and his

work proved to be very valuable in restoring semiotic concept to the theory of

10
news representation. The treatment of semiotic falls out of scope as the

present study relies on register analysis of verbal aspect i.e. linguistic

features.

The discourse study of language of print media was developed by numerous

European researchers but it reached its apex in the hands of Dutch scholar

Van Dijk (1988). His approach focused on the ways in which journalistic texts

were found to be associated with unequal distribution of power in society and

made it clear that such power could be found in language along lines of class,

ethnicity, gender, race and power. Fairclough (1997) also focused upon the

discourse study of Language of media and pinpointed the combination of

discursive and social practices in journalistic texts. By examining certain types

of journalistic relays such as interviews and news reports from other contexts

like government reports or press releases, Fairclough(1996) argued that blend

of different kind of texts from informal speech and colloquial expression

helped legitimate certain ways of seeing the world. Certain scholars like

Murdock (1999) also combined the approach of Fairclough and Van Dijk to

study the language British newspapers. Overall, the discourse approach of

studying the language of media texts highlighted the use of power and

ideology and did not go in detailed study of the grammatical structures of

language form the variationists perspective and therefore, also falls out of the

scope of the present study.

Another recent approach of studying media language is framing perspective

and the scholars like Goffman(1974) and Bateson(1972) studied the media

language from framing perspective which highlighted the fact that news

stories are made easier by certain selection, emphasis and the way they are

11
presented. Goffman (1974) made it clear that frames could be studied through

language by taking into account the metaphors, catchphrases, depictions and

visual images like icons. In this way, Goffman (1974) highlighted that

journalistic events are interpreted and understood keeping in view the

contexts by which they were made interesting to the audience and all

interpretation of news texts are done by the audience. No doubt, framing

approach of studying media texts highlighted the language use in conjunction

with intersection between the journalists and their public.

From variationists perspective, the language of media have been the focus of

interest for the researchers from a long time. This basic approach focused

upon the functionalist approach towards language and highlighted the

language use through the functions by its users. This approach also

pinpointed the certain relationship between linguistic features and various

aspects of social context. Labov (1972) being the pioneer in this approach

opined that variants in pronunciation related with socio-economic classes of

speakers and he examined through his work language of journalism by taking

into account the social context. This approach in the study of language of

journalism from sociolinguistic perspective opened the avenues for the

researchers. Sacks (1972) and Garfinkel (1967) studied the language of

journalism from conversational analysis whereas Hymes (1972) investigated

the ethnography of speaking in news. From socio-linguistic point of view, the

work conducted by Glasgow University Media Group (1976) proved to be the

pioneering in nature in promoting the importance of news language. Their

study pinpointed how the utterances in news media were structured, and how

these conversation in news media were controlled and how journalists

12
conversational turn-takings were negotiated. Their categorical motive in that

analysis was to create preferential hearings which invite the competent

listener to hear the talk as neutral.. [Closing] off any questions about

evidence and the problems of production and . [Resting] upon unexamined

causal inferences (GUMG 1976:25).

Ryden (1975) and Bell (1985) both explored the use of noun phrase name

appositions in the newspapers language. Ryden (1975) pointed out the

categorical differences in the frequency of the patterns in the different

newspapers and highlighted the semantic classification of descriptive

appositive political noun, sports noun, or other noun (Ryden 1975, p:

16).Bell (1985) however focused upon the deletion of determiner in the

descriptive framework of a noun phrase name apposition drawing on the data

from different British newspapers. By comparing the news section of The

Guardian newspaper, he found the deleted determiners in 147 noun phrase

appositions. His approach was applauded because it directly focused on the

linguistic variation in a more systematic way. Martin Montgomery (1986)

explored the tense ties between BBC English and the range of accent types in

U.K broadcasting and studied the wide range of talk patterns exhibited in

interviews, talk shows, radio DJ talk and sports broadcasting. Sociolinguistic

work on language of news grew strong and deep with the passage of time.

Zelizer (1989) investigated the journalistic quoting practices and ideas of

differential address in U.S radio news.

The work conducted by Bell (1991) has been found exploratory in the field of

journalism as he being the linguist cum journalist investigated the language of

news media in the wider sociolinguistic perspective. Drawing on the data from

13
the news recordings and the leading newspapers, he studied the language of

news media in a variety of ways. Through the study of up-market, mid-market

and down-market British newspapers, he investigated the deletion of

determiners in different British newspapers. It was made clear that structure of

determiner deletion reflected the social structure of readership of papers. It

was also highlighted that the percentage of determiner deletion varied highly

in different newspapers that exhibited the fact that certain distance reflected

certain amount of determiner deletion. He observed certain dialectal variation

in New Zealand newspapers as well:

The determiner deletion variable is diagnostic of the social

stratification of a news outlets audience. Data from New Zealand

radio station show a similar correlation between the determiner

deletion and audience design. I found that negative contraction is

stratified according to audience status in New Zealand radio news

(Bell 1991, p: 110).

Thus, Bell (1991) highlighted the story structure, phonological variation, some

grammatical features like speech act verbs, direct and indirect speech and

noun phrases across a variety of news writing and news reporting situations

but his work proved more valuable from stylistic point of view and only few

individual linguistic features were made prominent in the news genre. Geis

(1987) studied the verb tenses, deixis, quotations, and conversation structure

in the six American television broadcasts. Roeh and Nir (1990) worked on

Israeli Hebrew news reports and highlighted the multiple uses of pronouns,

intensifiers, parallelism and repetition in speech presentation styles. They

proved that in press like fiction, strategies of presentation may be ordered

14
along a continuum reflecting different degrees of directness in reporting the

utterances. Drawing on data from popular Israeli newspaper headlines, their

study highlighted the fact that the speech presentation reflected a "rhetoric of

trust" and should be viewed as part of creating a "showing" effect and

dramatization. Montgomery (1988) investigated the language of radio disk

jockey in multiple ways by exploring the use of imperatives and interrogatives,

asides and insertions and speech-act expressives.

Wallace (1981) explored the different features of newspapers language and

focused upon the sentence length and passive verbs. Drawing on the data

from two Illinois newspapers, The Chicago Tribune and the Champaigne-

Urbane Courier, he compared the language of sports section with the

language of news section. He proved that sports and news sections varied in

vocabulary use whereas he found that the strategies for selecting the lexical

items for adding colour were same for both newspapers. Carter (1988)

examined the lexicon of the front page of newspapers. He provided a

descriptive schema for the recognition of core and non-core vocabulary. His

descriptive schema allowed the future researchers to discuss the issue of

newspaper language in a more principled way, and provided a basis for

investigating bias in the lexis of reporting.

Mardh (1980) investigated the clause level syntax and grammar of front page

headlines. Mardh (1980) carried an exploratory study of the characteristic

features of the headlines of a range of English newspapers. She recognized

the following linguistic features as typical of headlines in English newspapers:

the omission of articles; the omission of verbs and of auxiliaries (the verb 'to

be' for example); nominalizations; the frequent use of complex noun phrases

15
in subject position (in theme position); adverbial headlines, with the omission

of both verb and subject ; the use of short words ('bid' instead of 'attempt'); the

widespread use of puns, word play and alliteration; the importance of word

order, with the most important items placed first, even, in some cases, a verb;

and independent 'wh' constructions not linked to a main clause . Kress (1983)

explored the news articles and editorial language using the systemic-

functional method propounded by Halliday (1985).Kress (1983) made it clear

that the use of quotation marks was one of the most significant forms of

ideological evaluation of information, i.e. highlighting things as being more or

less close to the ideological position the newspaper. Ferguson (1983)

investigated the types of speech with its peculiar contextualties in the radio

broad cast reporting. He pinpointed the syntactic characteristics and declared

them the register markers of radio broad casting. His analysis based upon

individual linguistic features of sports radio broad casting and highlighted the

characteristic feature of announcer talk. These typical features included the

inversion of subject and predicate under certain conditions. Ferguson (1983)

also pointed out the tense usage and the preferred use of present tense to

shorter actions. Ghadessy (1988) worked on the British newspaper sports

commentary and investigated collocation patterns of different

lexicogrammatical features. Ghadessy (1988) pointed out the importance of

written sports commentaries as a discourse genre. He also distinguished

among neutral, factual, emotive, and subjective language. He listed in detail

many of the syntactic patterns of sports commentary register which included

his corpus of soccer commentaries of The Times. He did not compare these

uses to any other type of newspaper language or any kind of norm but

16
stressed on the fact of comparison for establishing a register. A variety in the

sense of a register can only be established when the findings are compared

with the findings based on the analysis of other registers(Ghadessy 1988,

p.34).Jucker (2012) studied effect of the audience made in choosing the

linguistic choices by authors used in newspapers language. He studied the

complexity of noun phrase drawing on the data from eleven leading British

newspapers. Through his analysis, he investigated the deviant pre-modifiers,

post-modifiers in the complex noun phrase found in British newspapers and

conducted his syntactic variation studies based upon individual linguistic

features. His analysis not only highlighted the structure and variability of noun

phrases in British English newspapers but also it evaluated the limitations of

syntactic variability studies that were just limited to phonological variation.

Through his study, he also suggested a theoretical framework for syntactic

variation studies by combining research tools from sociolinguistics and

traditional stylistics. ODonnell and Todd (1980) conducted a comparative

study between Guardian and Daily Mirror British newspapers and highlighted

few prominent linguistic features.

Biasenbach-Lucas (1987) investigated the use of relative pronouns in a

comparative study conducted upon American newspapers in both written and

spoken genres. Biasenbach-Lucas (1987) pinpointed that zero relative

pronouns were used more frequently in informal speech and in the less-formal

sections of The Washington Post than in formal speech and in the more-

formal sections of The Washington Post. Bolivar (1994) studied language of

the press editorials by exploring 23 editorials from Guardian newspaper. She

explored language of press editorials and found that press editorials could be

17
investigated in triads, three part structures resembling two-part or three-part

exchange that is common feature of face-to-face conversation. Her analysis

focused upon the examination of the processes and conditions surrounding

the production of the editorials and exhibited how they were significantly

influenced and restricted by the ideologies of both the writer and newspaper

owner as well as by the situational context within which they were written.

Ljung (1997) investigated the use of modal verbs in a comparative study of

British and American Newspapers. Guy & Bayley (1995) examined relative

pronoun choice in 943 relative clauses from speech and writing drawing on

the data from transcribed speeches of White House and various articles on

language variation in written form. Their analysis proved that the animacy of

the antecedent, the channel of communication, the syntactic position of the

relativized element in the embedded clause, and the adjacency of the

antecedent and the relativized element all had significant effects on the choice

of relativizer. Lagonikos (2005) studied the events in five core editorials

drawn, respectively, from an American, British, South African, Zimbabwean

and Kenyan newspaper. The specific focus, in each case, was the

representation and evaluation of social actors, the events themselves and the

schematic structure of the editorials. His analysis revealed the fact that the

editorials distinguished between us and them groups for the motives of

advancing and confirming in-group ideologies and agendas. All these studies

just focused upon the individual linguistic features of language of print media.

In his seminal research work which introduced the multidimensional approach

for register variation studies, Biber (1988) investigated the news reportage

genre in his seminal study of variation across speech and writing. Biber

18
analyzed almost a million words of data taken from nearly 500 texts out of the

Lancaster-Oslo-Bergen Corpus of British English and the London- Lund

Corpus of Spoken English, plus a small collection of professional and

personal letters. He derived values for 67 linguistic variables of the following

sorts from each text,: tense and aspect markers, place and time adverbials,

pronouns and pro-verbs, questions, nominal forms, passives, stative forms,

subordination features, adjectives and adverbs, lexical specificity, specialized

lexical classes, modals, specialized verb classes, reduced forms,

coordination, and negation.

Through his factor analysis of the 67 variables in the 481 texts, Biber arrived

at six factors or dimensions of textual variation:

1. Involved versus Informational Production

2. Narrative versus Non-Narrative Concerns

3. Explicit versus Situation-Dependent Reference

4. Overt Expression of Persuasion

5. Abstract versus Non-Abstract Information

6. On-Line Informational Elaboration

His study also analysed the linguistic variation within sub-categories of news-

reportage as well. But his study focused on linguistic variation across written

and spoken texts and newspaper reportage genre was investigated on

smaller level.

Westin (2002) explored the diachronic change in 20th-century newspaper

editorials based on the multi-dimensional framework as presented in Biber

19
(1988, 1995). Drawing on the data from upmarket 20th century newspapers,

she analyzed 20th-century British newspaper editorials with regard to five

dimensions: involved versus informational production, narrative versus non-

narrative concerns, and the degree of referential elaboration, persuasive /

argumentative focus, and abstract versus non-abstract style. In Westin

(2001), the diachronic development of Bibers features was analyzed across

the ten decades of the 20th century. Through a diachronic study, she proved

that British newspaper editorials became more argumentative but less

narrative through the 20th century along the five textual dimensions.

Furthermore, the texts gradually relied less on complex post modification and

a more non-abstract style developed.

2.6. Language of Pakistani Press Reportage& Previous Studies

. Pakistani Print media exhibit local culture influences which have been the

creating suspicions for researchers over a certain period of time. The print

news media has gained its strength in Pakistan over the years and its

language has become the key area for the researchers at large. Print Media in

Pakistan generate a lot of language that is heard and spoken in society. News

is determined by values and the kind of language in which that news is told

reflects and expresses those values. Audience feel that the way in which

language is used must affect the content of what is received by media. Bell

(1991) also emphasized upon the importance of language of news media:

The uses in which language is put in the mass media are

intrinsically important to us as language users and receivers.

The linguistic means are adopted purposefully. How the media

20
 use language is often larger than life and the research which

describes such uses has its own interest (p.04).

Within the media, the news is the primary language genre. The daily

newspapers are filled with news of all kinds. In Pakistan, language of media is

highly important. It reflects the frequent public opinion about how the

language is used purposefully by Pakistani media. Language is the most

important part of the content of what Pakistani media communicate to public

at large. Thus, language is a tool and expression of Pakistani media

messages. Thats why; the content of media is always of high importance for

researchers due to its valuable content. It is always easy for the researchers

working on Pakistani media language because of its availability. Language of

Pakistani media is easier to collect that conversation. Moreover, it is always

available in large quantities. On average, each newspaper contains 100,000

or more words of text and the real problem faced by researchers how much

data should be enough for the analysis.

The news stories that we read or hear are structured in a certain way,

following a set of reporting, writing, and editing rules. News are

embodied in stylistic consistency, rhetorical accessibility, and brevity as

well as story structure, use of quotes and a well-wrought lead.( Cotter

2010, p.27).

Language of Pakistani media has been a key area for researchers due to

cross-cultural background differences and the indigenous norms which have

absorbed in language of Pakistani media. Language of Pakistani Print media

categorically represents certain linguistic features which become the

21
systematic cause of variation in Journalese register of Pakistani English.

Grover & Deepak (2004) ascertains the fact that language of Pakistani Print

media shows certain features that need for detailed analysis:

The language of news media published in Pakistan carries many

linguistic characteristics taken from local linguistic features for

the sake of successful communication with the local readership

so that there is no barrier to communication to restrict the

conveyance of the meaning (P.15)

As compared to foreign researches, language of Pakistani print media has not

been explored so much. Sadaf (2011) investigated the language of Pakistani

English and Urdu newspapers. Focusing on the content analysis approach of

studying Pakistani Print media, she conducted a comparative content analysis

of the coverage of English and Urdu dailies of Pakistan on the issue of judicial

restoration. Her analysis showed that there was hardly a difference between

two, both were equally important in giving the right place and position of the

news stories related to the issue. Mansoor (2013) investigated the language

of Pakistani print media from gender-based study point of view and explored

the gender stereotypes and gender prejudices in the print media.

From variationists perspective, Uzair, Mahmood & Raja (2012) studied the

role of Pakistani English newspapers in promoting the lexical deviations. Their

study investigated how the language of newspapers reflected the mindset of

people of that particular society. It was made clear how writers borrowed

words, used hybridization or mold words according to their convenience in

such a way as to remove the social barriers. Their study highlighted the

22
impact of lexical deviations and indigenization upon the language of

newspapers to validate the form of a non-native variety i.e. Pakistani English.

The study conducted by Anwar (2011) on the register of Pakistani newspaper

English is the prominent work which studied the individual linguistic

characteristics of Pakistani journalistic English. Drawing on the data from

Pakistani English newspapers, he investigated different grammatical and

syntactic features of Pakistani journalistic English. Exploring the grammatical

features like plural marking, quantifiers, adjectives, use of genitives and

omission/addition of particle, he made clear that Pakistani Journalistic English

exhibits stark deviations in comparison with British English. He also studied

the syntactic features of Pakistani journalistic English like word order, WH-

clauses, tense & aspect, conditional clauses and the use of connectives and

double intensifiers, he explored the Pakistani journalistic register and

validated Pakistani English as a non-native independent variety with its

distinct registers. This study faces validity threat due to its reliance on analysis

of individual linguistic features of Pakistani journalistic register and excited the

present research work to study the Pakistani journalese register by using

multidimensional approach of register variation which will categorically

highlight the linguistic variation in the language of Pakistani print media.

Douglas Biber in his well-acclaimed work (1988) established that any effort to

study linguistic variation based upon individual linguistic features instead of

co-occurring linguistic features is unjustified and partial and cannot produce

correct results. He suggested a multidimensional approach to study linguistic

23
variation which is corpus-based, empirical, quantitative and comparative in

nature.

There has been only one study conducted on advertising register in Pakistani

print media by Shakir (2013) that used multidimensional approach which

studied the linguistic variation. This study is pioneering in its nature which laid

stress on the fact that other registers of Pakistani English should also be

explored to highlight the linguistic variation and linguistic identity of Pakistani

English as a non-native variety. His study disregarded already conducted

researches on advertising due to their reliance on frequency of individual

linguistic features and being based upon unrepresentative data. Drawing on

data from 137 magazines and 37 newspapers, his research work investigated

how far Pakistani print advertisements varied with reference to source,

audience and product category on five textual dimensions propounded by

Biber (1988).His study proved that Pakistani print advertisements showed

significant variance in accordance with source and product category. His

research work further pinpointed that the language of print advertisements in

Pakistani media resembled written discourse rather than the language of face-

to-face conversations.

2.7. Register Analysis and its Requirements

The present research work is a study in register variation based on

multidimensional analysis of press reportage in Pakistani print media like all

studies in multidimensional analytical framework presented by Biber in his

1988 study. Register studies always have three basic features: the

elaboration of situational characteristics, description of the linguistic

characteristics and the analysis of functional associations between the

24
situational and linguistic features:

Functions

Situational Features and Linguistic Forms

Conventions

(Biber1994, P.33)

Genre, style and register certainly not different types of texts but in real terms,

they are the different approaches to study the different text varieties:

We regard genre, register and style as different approaches or

perspectives for analyzing the text varieties, not as different

kinds of texts of different varieties. In fact, the same texts can be

analyzed from register, genre and style perspectives (Biber,

Conrad 2009).

So, these three approaches can be distinguished on the basis of four

prominent features: textual focus, linguistic characteristics, distribution of

linguistic features and interpretation of linguistic variation. In a genre study,

complete texts are examined, formatting of texts are investigated on the basis

of rhetorical expressions and only once-occurring linguistic features are

studied. On the contrary, both register and style studies focus on sample of

texts or excerpts; investigate any lexico-grammatical features and also rely on

the study of pervasive linguistic features instead of once-occurring features.

Likewise, the register study differs from genre and style perspectives in

interpretation as well. While doing interpretation in register studies, linguistic

features are explained on their basis of their communicative functions;

25
whereas, in genre studies, the linguistic features are not functional rather

conventional. On the contrary, in style perspective, linguistic features are

studied on aesthetic values. Register studies may be conducted on register

markers as well as linguistic features (Biber 2009, P.823). Very similar to

register features, register markers are also common and pervasive in the

register. Register features are different from genre markers and register

markers. The main difference is that genre markers are not pervasive and

they occur usually one time in a text and they are not so frequent whereas

style features are similar to register features in being more pervasive

distributed throughout texts that represent style, and frequent- occurring more

commonly in the style than in most comparison styles( Biber, Conrad 2009,

p.54).

Register variation is innate in human language and a single speaker always

makes choices in pronunciation, morphology, word choice, and grammar

which exhibit a range of situational factors. Register differences are realized

through the relative presence or absence of register features-core lexical and

grammatical features-rather by the presence of a few distinctive register

markers (Biber 2009, p.823).

Register features are actually the form of structures at any linguistic level

namely in the shape of words, vocabulary items, grammatical classes and

syntactic constructions.

The key point about register features is that the focus is on the extent

to which the structure is used. That is the linguistic feature in question

might occur to some extent in most (may be all) registers, but it will be

notably frequent in only some registers and comparatively rare in other

26
 registers. This distributional difference is what makes the word or

grammatical structure a register feature (Biber, Conrad 2009).

Register analysis focusses on linguistic features and thereby demands

quantitative and comparative analysis of these linguistic features. No matter,

the register analysis studies may be conducted on individual linguistic

features like Anwar (2011) studied the individual distinct linguistic features of

Pakistan journalese register but Biber &Conrad (2009) made it quite clear that

all studies based on individual linguistic features are faulty and subjective in

nature.

Register analysis being comparative quantitative in nature takes into account

the two ways of analyzing the linguistic features either focusing on individual

linguistic features or sets of co-occurring features. Ervin Trippe (1972), Dell

Hymes (1974) and Brown &Fraser (1979) identified the importance of co-

occurrence features of register analysis. Biber in his seminal 1988 work also

conducted the study of co-occurring features required for register analysis and

he significantly proved it to be the most appropriate and suitable approach

which focuses on a quantitative and comparative study of register analysis. A

multidimensional analysis focuses on the analysis of linguistic features

through studying sets of co-occurring features. To study sets of co-occurring

features, multidimensional analysis uses statistical factor analysis to

recognize the sets of co-occurring features.

All the studies conducted on language of media related to different

approaches discussed in earlier part i.e. content analysis, discourse analysis,

semiotics and framing and even variationists approach do not study the

27
language of media in the paradigm of register analysis and thus do not meet

the demands of register analysis. A few studies that claim to have studied the

language of media from register perspective fail in its quality due to three

major reasons: lack of representative corpus, having based on presence of

individual linguistic features and lack of their comparisons with other varieties.

These three issues are further discussed in detail in the following pages.

2.7.1. Data Representation in Previous Studies and the Current

Paradigm:

The data in the previous studies on language of media in general and even in

quantitative paradigm have been usually conducted on individual linguistic

features and few categories of language of media based upon previous

corpora have only been studied. Whereas, the present research includes few

more categories of press reportage because it explores the press reportage in

non-native context steeped in its own indigenous culture.

2.7.2. Representation of Press Reportage texts in Previous Corpora

All leading corpora include the press reportage texts but of short size and

special corpora on press reportage are very rare. Xiao (2009) highlighted a

detailed account of existing influential corpora which included general as well

as special purpose corpora and national corpora as well. Almost all national

corpora reviewed by Xiao (2009) included British National Corpus and The

American National Corpus. The corpora of other languages like PWN,

PELCRA, PWN, IPI PAN (Polish corpora) , CNC(Czech), The Hungarian

National Corpus, CORIS ( Italian) , The Russian National Corpus, The

Hellenic National Corpus( Greek), The DWDS Corpus( German),

MCLC( Modern Chinese), The Slovak National Corpus were also reviewed.

28
Biber (1988), Barnbook (1996), Biber, Conrad and Reppen (1998), in their

respective studies reported a number of general purpose corpora like British

National Corpus, London-Lund corpus and Brown corpus and special based

corpora like International corpus of Learner English, Corpus of Academic

English. Press reportage category was considered in quite a few of these

corpora but short texts of press reportage were included and no sub-

categories of press reportage were considered by any reviewed corpora.

Although media texts have been considered in almost all previous corpora,

but special purpose corpora based upon the different categories of the press

reportage have not so far been developed. The present research has

developed a special purpose corpus based upon the press reportage in

Pakistani print media. Mahmood.R. and Mahmood.A. (2012) developed

general purpose corpora of 2.1 m consisting of 29 categories which were

meant to distinguish Pakistani English as independent variety with its

independent linguistic features. This corpora just included press reportage

texts of shorter size files based upon just only one file with no sub-categories

of press reportage in Pakistani print media. This is the only corpora available

in Pakistan which is general purpose corpus and no special corpus on press

reportage text is so far available on Pakistani print media.

A special corpus on Pakistani journalistic language was prepared by Anwar

(2011) which just collected the news from Pakistani English newspapers and

explored the individual linguistic features of Pakistani journalese English. This

corpora was of shorter size and did not focus on any categories of press

reportage in Pakistani print media. Shakir (2013) prepared a special corpus

on Pakistani print advertisements which was also of shorter size and focused

29
on the multidimensional analysis of advertising register in Pakistani Print

media. No special purpose corpus along with its sub-categories is so far

available on language of Press reportage in Pakistani print media.

2.7.3. Categories of Press Reportage Recognized in Previous Studies

Very few studies by linguists have earlier recognized the categories of press

reportage and most of the previous studies on press reportage have just

taken it as a single general category. This section includes all the account of

categories recognized in the previous studies.

Mardh (1980) is credited to have conducted an exploratory study of the

characteristic features of the headlines category of a range of English

newspapers and his work focused upon the clause and syntactic deviation

found in headlines category of British press. Ghadessy (1988) investigated

only category of the British newspaper sports commentary and explored the

deviant features of British newspaper sports section .

Wallace (1981) is also credited to have worked on the sports category of

press reportage in two newspapers i.e. The Chicago Tribune and the

Champaigne-Urbane Courier. He compared language of the sports with the

other press reportage section of these two newspapers. By comparing the two

categories, he proved that both newspapers showed variance at the lexical

level but his data was of smaller level collected from just two newspapers and

the research work focused on just two categories.

Bell (1991) may be credited to be the pioneer in working on language of

media from variationists perspective. He introduced the four categories of

press news: hard news, feature articles, special topic news e.g. sports, racing,

30
business/financial, arts, agriculture, computers, headlines, sub-headings,

bylines, photo captions. He collected the data from up-market, mid-market

and low-market British newspapers and investigated the individual linguistic

features. He made it also clear that hard news included the reports of

accidents, conflicts, crimes, announcements, discoveries ; whereas, soft news

included features, spot news, stories covering immediate events. He further

explained that soft news provided the background and were seen bylined with

the writers names. In his further discussion, he pinpointed the fact that the

boundaries between hard news and soft news are quite unclear and research

problems arise when language users own basic categories are overlooked

(Bell 1991, p. 14).The third category propounded by Bell (1991) i.e. special-

topic news appeared in sections of the paper which focused on the subject

matter such as business or sports editor pages. The fourth category was

branded as a general category that include headlines, crossheads, writers

names or by-lines and captions to photographs. But he investigated the

general linguistic features from the leading newspapers and did not collect his

data according to his defined categories. His collected data was in the limited

form of general sample of leading newspapers and he just explored the

linguistic features through quantitative frequency based methodology and did

not explore the defined categories of his selected leading British newspapers.

Biber is credited to have conducted a pioneering seminal work of 1988 in

which he recognized the different sub-categories of press reportage register.

His research work actually focused upon the variation across speech and

writing and therefore, very few sub-registers were explored with smaller data.

31
In his 1988 study, he identified the categories which were already defined in

LOB and London-Lund corpus and no effort was made to explore the new

categories of press reportage in British press reportage. His study

investigated the six categories of British press reportage and explored the

linguistic variation across these sub-categories.

Anwar (2011) investigated the unique grammatical and syntactic features in

Pakistani English newspapers. His analysis investigated the press reportage

of leading English newspapers from Pakistan and no clear cut categories

were outlined. The press reportage of whole month of the leading Pakistani

English newspapers was studied which included all reportage of all sections

of newspapers but no categorical categories were defined. His study faces

validity threats because it just relied on the individual linguistic features of

Pakistani journalese English. Anwar (2011) categorically pinpoints that certain

cultural and indigenous language contact situation become the cause of

differences in the non-native varieties of English. Likewise, his study revealed

that in a typical language contact situation the Urdu language brought about

changes in the native variety of Pakistani English. Therefore, grammatical and

syntactic changes can be observed at various levels in Pakistani journalistic

English.

In Mehmoodian research work (2012), the data included three registers of

press i.e. news texts, column texts and editorials. Their data included the

general purpose corpora of Pakistani written English which comprised 29 files

of different genres of Pakistani written English corpus. Out of 29 different

genres, none of the genre included any sub-categories and just small sized

texts were included in each genre. Their research work relied on the analysis

32
of individual linguistic features of Pakistani English and asserted its linguistic

identity due to non-native cultural background. Mahmood.R. (2012) also

worked on the individual linguistic features of Pakistani English and

investigated the noun phrase in Pakistani English. Mahmood.A. (2012) also

explored the various deviant features of Pakistani English and both

researchers proved Pakistani English as an independent non-native variety.

Their corpora PWE was a general purpose corpora on Pakistani written

English and did not include any special corpora based upon the sub-

categories of any register of Pakistani English.

In the foregoing discussion, it has been attempted to prove that press

reportage incudes many sub-categories but no register based study based

upon the sub-categories of press reportage in Pakistani print media has been

conducted so far.

2.8. Register Studies are based on Co-occurrence of Linguistic features:

Register studies are based on co-occurring of linguistic features and this

single factor disregards the previous studies which explored language of

press reportage and emphasized on the individual linguistic features. Biber in

his seminal work of 1988 emphasized on the need of co-occurrence of

linguistic features: whereas many other linguists also stressed upon the same

fact: when analyses are based on the co-occurrence and alternation patterns

for groups of linguistic features, important differences across registers are

revealed(Conrad, Biber 2009, p.05)

Previous quantitative studies on language of press reportage focused upon

frequency differences of the linguistic features and face validity threat. The

best example in Pakistani context is the research work conducted by Anwar

33
(2011) which explored the distinctive grammatical and syntactic features

linguistic features of journalistic register of Pakistani print media that are quite

different and deviant from those of British English but this research work was

dependent on individual frequencies. For example, Anwar (2011) investigated

the deviant use of quantifiers, adjectives, plural marking, omission of articles,

tense & aspect, conditional clauses, connectives and double intensifiers in

Pakistani journalese English but this work disregarded the importance of co-

occurrence of linguistic features in register analysis and thus remains

incomplete in studying the linguistic features of journalese register : Brown,

Fraser (1979) emphasized categorically upon the importance of co-

occurrence of linguistic features:

It is often difficult or even misleading to concentrate on specific,

isolated [linguistic] markers without taking into account

systematic variations which involve co-occurrence of sets of

markers. A reasonable assumption is that socially significant

linguistic variations occur normally occur as varieties or styles,

and it is on those varieties that we should focus (p.38-39)

Biber in his 1988 study studied the press reportage register taking into

account the co-occurrence of linguistic features. Biber studied the five textual

dimensions and as well explored the linguistic variation within sub-registers of

Press reportage. On dimension 1( Involved versus informational production),

Biber (1988) found the press reportage as more involved, more colloquial and

affective and further explored the financial reportage least involved in

comparison to other sub-genres of press reportage in British English. Biber

34
(1988) study proved the abundance of frequency of nouns, prepositions,

attributive adjectives in British press reportage; whereas, features like

demonstrative pronouns, discourse particles, stranded prepositions, adverbs,

qualifiers and emphatic were found in diminishing number. On dimension 2

(Narrative vs Non-narrative concerns),the British press reportage manifested

less narrative concerns with diminishing frequencies of past tense, third

person pronouns, public verbs and verb-perfect aspect. On dimension 3,

(Explicit vs Situation-Dependent Reference), the British press reportage was

found to be situation- dependent and less explicit i.e. wh-pronoun- relative

clauses at the subject & object positions, coordinating conjunctions and

singular noun-nominalizations were found in frequent number; whereas,

adverbs of time and place were found to be in fewer number.

The current studies explored the press reportage in Pakistani print media and

found quite different results on these dimensions in comparison with British

press reportage. On Dimensions 1, Pakistani press reportage manifested

huge abundance of informational focus with more frequencies of nouns,

prepositions, attributive adjectives in comparison with British press reportage.

On dimension 2, Pakistani press reportage manifested abundance of

frequencies of past tense, public verbs, third person pronoun and verb- aspect

verbs and thus proved be highly narrative in purpose in comparison with the

British press reportage. Similarly on dimension 3, the press reportage in

Pakistani print media was found to be highly explicit in nature which showed

the abundance of frequencies of adverbs of time and place in comparison with

British press reportage which was found more situation dependent showing

more frequencies of wh-pronoun- relative clauses at the subject & object

35
positions, coordinating conjunctions and singular noun-nominalizations (See

Ch.4 for detailed differences). Thus, in MD analysis, the linguistic features are

not chosen subjectively; rather, factor analysis provides the sets of co-

occurring features which becomes the objective choice of linguistic features.

It is also a notable fact that previous quantitative studies on press

reportage cannot be called to have technically managed even frequencies of

individual linguistic features (Anwar 2011, Ghadessy 1988, Jucker (2012)

because they only observe the number of frequency within their data but did

provide any quantitative figures based upon any linguistic variation model. For

example, Anwar (2011) investigated the different linguistic features in

Pakistani print press reportage but even did not number of frequencies of

different deviant linguistic features in Pakistani print journalistic register. These

studies are not even comparable with future studies due to any quantified

data.

However, many of the previous studies on the language of press reportage

discussed the frequencies of few linguistic features. Westin (2001)

investigated the corpus-based diachronic study of language of English Up-

market newspaper editorial. Though her exploration conducted the mean

frequencies of newspaper editorials but only 42 grammatical features were

taken into her study. Her investigation explored the newspaper editorials but

her earlier work did not analyse the data according to Biber (1988) five

dimensions and thus her work face validity threats due to insufficient

grammatical features and lack of application of any register variation model in

its true sense. Biber (1988) analysed the press reportage register in his

seminal work but data of press reportage in his study was very small and it

36
included only 44 texts of press reportage from LOB and London-lund corpus.

Secondly, his study was conducted 25 years ago and the time-lapse has been

a big concern for researchers. Moreover his study included only the sub-

categories of press reportage already defined LOB & London-lund corpus and

no special base press reportage corpora including the sub-categories of

British press reportage was investigated. Moreover, Biber (1998) study of

press face validity threats due to many reasons in Pakistani context: certain

cross-cultural linguistic factors, lack of sub-categories of press reportage in

Pakistani print media context and time span of more than twenty-five which

has been causing suspicions for the researchers.

To sum up, the previous quantitative studies on the language of press

reportage do not investigate the press reportage with the current paradigm of

register variation. First, these studies rely on unrepresentative data of press

reportage: they do not analyse special purpose corpora of press reportage.

Second, they do not analyse sufficient sub-categories of press reportage that

fit into Pakistani print media context and thus, due to unrepresentative data,

the findings of the previous studies are not generalizable in non-native

context.

No research so far has been conducted on language of press reportage in

Pakistani media context and the variation within the specified non-native

register has also not been analysed so far, though many corpus based

unreliable & unrepresentative researches trying to ascertain the independent

linguistic identity of Pakistani English have been conducted exploring any

register of Pakistani English based upon any well-acclaimed language

37
variation or register variation model. Moreover, the language of press

reportage has not been compared with other registers; whereas, the language

of press reportage can only be investigated in comparison with other

Englishes. Above all these aforementioned facts, the language of press

reportage has been only analysed in the previous studies with reference to

distribution of individual linguistic characteristics. Many linguists like, Ervin

Tripp( 1972), Hymes(1974) have stressed upon the fact that register analysis

based upon individual linguistic features is unreliable and all of them focus on

the fact that individual linguistic features cannot put any text on textual

dimensions, rather sets of co-occurring features can only attain a shared

communicative function.

2.9. Need of Multidimensional Approach for Register Analysis of Press

Reportage

The present research entitles to use multidimensional approach for the

register analysis of press reportage in Pakistani Print Media following the

register variation model presented by Douglas Biber (1998) in his seminal

work Variation across Speech and Writing. Multidimensional analysis was

actually developed to pinpoint the prominent linguistic co-occurrence patterns

in a language in an empirical manner. The basic idea of MD approach lies in

the fact that individual linguistic features cannot distinguish among registers;

rather, sets of co-occurring features work together towards getting a shared a

communicative goal, which is marked in an MD analysis as dimensions . The

primary research goal of the approach is to focus upon the linguistic analysis

of texts and text types and it undermines the analysis of individual linguistic

features.

38
MD approach lays stress upon the fact that different kinds of text differ

linguistically and functionally, so it is not proper to make conclusions about

any discourse after analyzing one or two text-varieties. Biber (2009)

emphasizes upon the need of sets of co-occurring features in a register

analysis of any genre:

It turns out, though, that the relative distribution of common linguistic

features, considered individually, cannot reliably distinguish among

registers. There are simply too many different linguistic characteristics

to consider, and individual features often have idiosyncratic

distributions. However, when analyses are based on the co-occurrence

and alternation patterns for groups of linguistic features, important

differences across registers are revealed (p.824).

Linguists like Firth, Halliday, Ervin-Trippe and Hymes, Brown and Fraser

(1979:38-39) emphasize upon the need of analysis of co-occurrence of

features: It can be misleading to concentrate on specific, isolated (linguistic)

markers without taking into account systematic variations which involve the

sets of co-occurrence of markers(Conrad 2009, P:05).The MD approach is

multidimensional which indicates the fact that no single dimension or

parameter is sufficient enough to highlight the differences among registers.

Three major theoretical differences have been found between earlier studies

of register variation and the MD approach. Most investigations have proved

that a single parameter dimension is proper to explore the situational

differences among registers; whereas, MD approach focused upon the idea

39
that different sets of co-occurring linguistic features highlight the different

functional interpretations e.g.; interactiveness, planning, informational focus.

Second, previous studies pinpointed the fact that register variation can be

analysed in the form of dichotomous distinctions. On the contrary, MD

approach reveals that there is no continuous range linguistic variation linked

with each of these dimensions. Therefore, MD investigations are quantitative

and continuous parameters of variation which unfold the differences among

the continuous range of texts or registers. Thats why, dimensions may be

used as a parameter to evaluate the extent to which registers are found

similar or different. Third, it is not certain that groupings of linguistic features

selected on intuitive level co-occur for certain in the texts; whereas, MD

approach uses quantitative statistical techniques and provides the

identification of the prominent co-occurrence patterns in a language.

Multidimensional approach of register variation synthesizes quantitative and

qualitative/ functional methods methodological techniques. The basic part of

MD approach is that statistical analyses are interpreted in functional ways to

evaluate the underlying communicative functions related with each

distributional pattern. Thus, MD approach focuses upon the notion that

statistical co-occurrence patterns highlight the underlying shared

communicative functions.

Biber (1988) made it clear that no single dimension can differentiate between

spoken and written form of texts. Previous studies upon the language of

press reportage are marked with one feature: those studies try to distinguish

press reportage from other register on one dimension. Past studies (Anwar

2011, Uzair 2012, and Mahmood 2012) focused upon the language of press

40
reportage and analysed the individual features of Pakistani Press reportage

but these studies prove to be unreliable and face validity threat on only one

point: they did not discuss the functional interpretation of linguistic differences

found in Pakistani journalistic register. Biber (1988) has proved through

multidimensional studies that studies of press reportage register based upon

one parameter is not valid and emphasized upon the fact that language of

press reportage should be studied in multidimensional parameters to explore

the functional interpretations for the variation found among the sub-categories

of British press reportage register.

Biber in his seminal 1988 study also made clear that textual dimensions in

multidimensional studies are found through the process of factor analysis in

which the co-related linguistic features are further explored for their shard

communicative function. Biber (1988) discusses the concept of factor analysis

in multidimensional analysis:

Factor analysis enables quantitative identification of underlying

dimensions within set of texts, it cannot be employed usefully apart

from a theoretically-motivated research design. Before performing

factor analysis, the range of communicative situations and purposes

available in a language must be determined and texts representing that

range of variation must be collected. Factor analysis provides the

primary analytical too, but it dependent on the theoretical foundation

provided by an adequate data base of texts and inclusion of multiple

linguistic features (p.65).

In MD analysis, factor analysis is a major statistical procedure used to identify

the systematic co-occurrence patterns in a set of variables. The use of factor

41
analysis here is purposeful in a way because it explores the register

differences that involve underlying linguistic co-occurrence patterns:

When a speaker or writer shifts from one register to another,

they naturally shift from one set of co-occurring linguistic

features to a different set of co-occurring features. When applied

to linguistic data, factor analysis can therefore be used to

identify sets of linguistic features that tend to co-occur across

the texts of a corpus (Grieve 2010, p.05).

It is also notable fact in multidimensional analysis, although the sets of co-

occurring features or dimensions are not only quantitatively calculated but

also its functional content is interpreted accordingly. So, MD analysis includes

both linguistic and functional content. Once, the sets of co-occurring features

are derived through statistical factor analysis, the co-occurring features are

given names as dimensions in a function way. In Biber (1988) study, five

textual dimensions were recognized. For example, the following features co-

occur on dimension 4, infinitive verb, modal of prediction, suasive verb, modal

of necessity subordinating conjunction-conditional and adverb within auxiliary

verb. Owing to the shared function of these features, this dimension has been

named as Overt Expression of Argumentation/Persuasion. There are two

types of multidimensional analysis: the first kind is called Old MD analysis

which is based on Bibers 1988 factor solution. Most of previous studies

conducted on different genres have used this type of MD analysis. Atkinson

(1992) studied the medical research writing. Biber, Conrad & Reppen (2002)

investigated the university registers. Biber & Finegan (1994) investigated the

author styles using the old MD analysis. Gray (2011) explored the linguistic

42
features of registers published in academic journals, taking into account the

varied realizations of research articles in fundamentally diverse

disciplines. Biber and Finegan (1994) investigated differences in the authors

style using 88 dimensions. Connor-Linton (1988) conducted a

multidimensional comparative study of four written texts about nuclear arms

dilemma using 88 old dimensions. Westin (2002) explored the diachronic

study of British press Editorials of 20 th century using old multidimensional

analysis. But no study has been conducted so far on the press reportage in

Pakistani media using Biber 1988 multidimensional analysis.

The second type of MD analysis is called New MD analysis because it

includes new textual dimensions derived out of application of new statistical

factor analysis. Recent work on the language of press has explored new

textual dimensions after applying new factor analysis. Condi de Souza (2014)

explored new textual dimensions in her work on press reportage in Time

magazine: 1.person-oriented discourse vs Discussion-oriented discourse 2.

Opinion-based stance 3. Argumentative discourse vs Narrative discourse 4.

Idea-oriented Discourse vs Action-oriented discourse 5. Covert persuasions

vs information-based reporting. Shakir (2013) explored new textual in his work

on language print advertisement in Pakistani media: 1. Directive vs

informational Discourse 2. Expression of Organizational Policy Other

concerns 3. Impersonal vs Audience-oriented Style. No work so far has been

conducted on language of Press in Pakistani media using new factor analysis.

The present research work is based on Old and New MD analysis of language

of press reportage in Pakistani print media. The current research work has

explored variation across different sub-categories press reportage along 9

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textual dimensions (Five old dimensions in 1988 study and four textual

dimensions in New MD analysis). The present research also includes a

comparison with other varieties in reference with 1988 MD study and it also

compares press reportage register with other register of Pakistani English.

2.9 Press Reportage in Pakistani Print Media

Pakistani print media is believed to be the most vibrant media which is

controlled and monitored by space rather than time. Pakistani print media

consists of three major sources: books, newspapers and magazines. In

Pakistan, books as a source of print media are restricted to a small fraction of

society. Pakistan being a developing country has a low rate of literacy level

and thus books are available to only a small portion of society or the elite

class.

Newspaper is one of the most important and effective print media in Pakistan.

English newspapers in Pakistan are being published since its existence .

According to a recent report published by Audit Bureau Circulation

Department, ministry of Information Islamabad, Pakistan, more than 350

English dailies, weeklies and monthlies newspapers are being published in

Pakistan and more and more English newspapers are being registered with

the passage of time. In Pakistan, newspapers reportage is providing

information to people about various events, issues worldwide. These

newspapers in Pakistan interpret and explain the matters at large and play the

role of opinion building as they help the Pakistan readers to build opinion

about different national and international issues and events through its

editorials and opinion column.

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Press reportage in Pakistani English newspapers is a great source of public

education. It narrates every topic ranging from news to literature; provides the

readers up-to-date information about science and technology and also English

newspapers has proved to be the most important organ of democracy as it

has bridged the gap between people and Govt. The public and Govt. both

explain their points of views through newspapers. With the help of democratic

press, Pakistani democracy has flourished over the years and Pakistani press

media is now well-acknowledged as the fourth pillar of the state. Press

reportage in Pakistani newspapers also comments on the different issues and

policies in the light of newspapers editorial policies and on one hand, it

guides the public opinion and on the other hand, expressed the newspapers

organizational policies.

2.9 Sub-Categories of Press Reportage Recognized in the Current study.

The current research studies the language of press reportage from the

leading English newspapers in the Pakistani print media. The sub-categories

of Pakistani English newspapers speak of the non-native context of Pakistani

English and exhibit its own independent categorization as compared to British

newspapers sub-categories analysed in Biber (1988) study. Out of eight sub-

categories of press reportage in Pakistani print media, five sub-categories are

similar to Biber (1988) study; whereas, three sub-categories have their

independent non-native existence in Pakistani print media. The eight sub-

categories of press reportage in Pakistani print media are as under:

i. Political press reportage ii. Business press reportage iii.Cultural press

reportage iv. Sports press reportage v. Crime press reportage vi. National

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press reportage vii. International press reportage viii. Metropolitan Press

reportage.

i. Political Press Reportage

This sub-category is quite apparent in Pakistani English newspapers and

most of the political press reportage is found at page 1&8 of the newspapers.

Pages 1 & 8 of each newspaper are highly precious in the eyes of editors and

sub-editors of the newspapers. Despite the dominant influence politicians

sometimes exercise in the symbiotic relationship, it is the Pakistani print

media that exercises the decision power in the selection of news items. It

decides from the multitude of potential stories that arise on a daily basis,

which ones will feature. It also determines the tone and content surrounding

the reporting of a political event, how long a story will run and its key

message.

ii. Business Press Reportage

This sub-category is also found quite obvious in Pakistani print media and

most of Pakistani English newspapers have fixed special pages or different

sections this sub-category. There are many things that can inform a person

with all kinds business news. If a person has a concern regarding investing,

he certainly needs to be confirmed about the share prices of several different

companies. The market condition has to be judged carefully of a particular

company. Only after that, the investments could be made. Thus, latest

business press reportage is of great importance to public at large. Few

Pakistani English newspapers publish special financial news reportage

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sections on certain days and this reportage is much awaited by Pakistani

Business community at large.

iii. Cultural Press Reportage

Like other sub-categories, Pakistani print media also specifies special press

reportage coverage to entertainment or show-biz news reportage and most of

the leading newspapers in Pakistan fix more than one pages to cultural news

reportage. Cultural reportage section is also much popular sub-category of

press reportage in Pakistan as it is regularly read by Pakistani newspaper

readers at large. Moreover, with respect to contents, cultural news reportage

has to compete with entertainment formats that satisfy the need of consumers

for leisure and fun. Media coverage in general, in Pakistani print media has

become more sensational and entertainment-oriented due to media market

faced structural changes.

iv.Sports Press Reportage

Pakistani English newspapers specify press reportage sections to sports

press reportage. Even, some sports news reportage of mega events may get

coverage at the main page of Pakistani newspapers at times. Sports news

press reportage in Pakistani print media is known for its special use of lexicon

and verbal pedagogy which has not been linguistically analyzed so far. Sports

enthusiasts like to play sport and they like to read sport reportage. It is

believed that sports readers and listeners demand accuracy and sound

judgment. In Pakistan, sports-lovers often read the sports pages before any

other part of the paper. That is why street sellers often show one pile of

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papers showing page one and another pile showing the back page or sports

section to attract the attention of sports loving readers.

v.Crime Press Reportage

News media is certainly involved in providing information and the context to

an audience who may have no knowledge of the events and media can and

does, deliver such information dramatically and suddenly(Young 1981).

Pakistani English newspapers also fix special sections to crime news

reportage. Kumar (2011) highlighted the importance of crime reportage in

news media: Since the early beginnings, one of the vital functions of the news

media especially regard to crime news was to publicize moral dilemmas by

drawing attention to the ethical issues arising from a specific criminal act and

by offering plausible societal responses(p:18). Leading Pakistani English

newspapers give at least one page to this portion of press reportage and its

certain linguistic items of this section also speaks of its linguistic identity.

vi. International Press Reportage

Pakistani print media also gives due space to international press reportage

and this sub-category is also quite obvious in Pakistani press reportage. Pate

(1992) highlighted the importance of international press reportage: Foreign

news does not end at informing the citizens, it also legitimizes the interest and

involvement of the country's government in international affairs (p.61).

Pakistani English newspapers allocate more than two pages to international

press reportage category and this sub-category holds wide readership at

large. This category was also not analysed in Biber!1988) study as it is the

new sub-category found in Pakistani press reportage.

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vii. National Press Reportage

Fundamentally, media has become an essential part of our life. Moreover, the

media has played the most significant role towards promoting the political,

social and economic aspirations of the nation (Uche, 1989, P:27). This sub-

category is also categorically prominent in Pakistani press reportage and

speaks for its non-native context. Pakistani English newspapers fix more than

one page to this reportage and this sub-category is blend of all issues related

to politics, culture and other genres. This reportage also speaks high of its

certain linguistic items and it is also the new sub-category in Pakistani press

reportage which is not found in the British press reportage and has been

analysed linguistically. The present study has also analyzed this press

reportage under new factor analysis.

viii. Metropolitan Press Reportage

This sub-category is also quite prominent in Pakistani Press reportage and

Pakistani English newspapers allocate different sections to this category of

press reportage. This category of Pakistani press reportage includes all local

narratives on metropolitan cities that project the rich and the poor, glamour,

gossip and entertainment and depict the life style of all and sundry.

Commercial interests always influence the way; news about the city is chosen

and written in this metropolitan category. Metropolitan press reportage ideally

provides a vast range of subjects, ranging from citys infra-structure, to its

development, to a range of social and civic issues, to its places of interest, its

cultural richness, and describes the peculiar narratives of city life.

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To sum up, the present study disregards the previous studies on Pakistani

press reportage due to many reasons: First, the previous studies conducted

on journalistic register did not develop any special purpose corpora based

upon the sub-categories of news register; second, it did not follow the

required multidimensional analysis of register variation model and it only

focused upon the individual linguistic features and thus all previous studies

on Pakistani press reportage face validity threats. The present study on press

reportage in Pakistani print media is based on multidimensional analysis

which is the most suitable approach for studying press reportage language in

comparison with other registers and it also finds out the internal variation

among different categories of press reportage.

2.10. Research Questions

The present research aims at exploring the following research questions:

i) How far the different categories of Press reportage in Pakistani

Print media are linguistically different from each other?

ii) Are there any statistically significant differences found among the

various sub-categories found in the leading English newspapers

of Pakistan?
iii) Is the language of Press reportage register in Pakistani Media

different from the British Press reportage?

iv) Is the language of Press reportage in Pakistani Print media

different from that of other registers of Pakistani English?

v) How far the language of Pakistani Print Media is different from

the other registers of British English?

Five textual dimensions identified in Bibers work are as under:

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 1. Involved Vs. Informational Production
2. Narrative Vs. Non-narrative Concerns
3. Explicit Vs. Situation Dependent Reference
4. Overt Expression of Argumentation ( Persuasion)
5. Impersonal ( Abstract) Vs. Non-impersonal ( Non-abstract) Style

Five textual dimensions identified in New MD analysis in the present study

are:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

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