Balochistan Journal of Linguistics

Pashto Stops: VOT Duration and Effects on Vowel Length

Shahabullah — 2023-03-10

This research study aimed to examine the voice onset time (VOT) duration for Pashto stops of the Yousafzai dialect and their impact on the subsequent vowel length. Following a descriptive approach, the study involved recording stops, including bilabials, dental, retroflex, velar, and uvular, from five Pashto speakers of the Yousafzai dialect aged 18-30 selected through convenient sampling. The recordings were made in a CVC pattern, focusing on the initial consonants. The study found that the retroflex /ʈ/ had the shortest VOT duration of 0.015 ms, while the dental /d̪/ had the longest VOT duration of -0.127 ms. The study also found that among voiceless stops in Pashto, the retroflex /ʈ/ had the shortest VOT duration of 0.015 ms, while the velar /k/ had the longest VOT duration of 0.054 ms. In voiced stops, the retroflex /ɖ/ had the shortest VOT duration of -0.104 ms, while the dental /d̪/ had the longest VOT duration of -0.127 ms. The study also revealed that vowel sounds were shorter after voiceless stops but longer after voiced stops. Overall, the findings of this study provide insight into the phonetics of Pashto stops in the Yousafzai dialect and how they impact vowel length. These results may have implications for language learners and researchers interested in Pashto phonology.

Application of Multi-Dimensional Analysis Approach to Investigate Linguistic Variation Across Political Press Reportage In Pakistani and British Print Media

Samra Noreen — 2023-03-10

Multi-Dimensional Analysis is the approach which provides a comprehensive description of the patterns of register variation to identify underlying linguistic parameters of variations, expressed as “dimensions”. It also specifies the similarities and differences among registers based on these dimensions. This research work focuses on investigating the variations in linguistic characteristics of the corpora collected from Pakistani and British press media based on the subcategory of international political press reportage. The objective of the study is to work out the deviation of the English Language characteristic between Pakistani English and the standard British one. Pakistani English with its distinct registers is different from British English and there is not any single particular factor or parameter of linguistic variation that differentiates these two varieties based on their registers. The current study focused on distinguished linguistic identity of Pakistani international political news press reportage register by observing the co-occurring linguistic features and their functional variation in Pakistani and British print media by applying the Douglas Biber’s register variation model, Multidimensional Analysis (MDA). This research was conducted to mark register variation by developing special purpose Corpora of Pakistani International Political News Reportage and British International Political News Reportage. It also aimed at determining the unique individual identity of Pakistani English as exhibited in its different registers that distinguish it from the British English with its registers. Based on representative Corpus of Pakistani and British International Political Press Reportage sub register, the present study reveals the significant statistical linguistic differences on Biber’s five textual dimensions. Pakistan International News press reportage register showed higher frequency of attributive adjectives, prepositions and nouns on dimension one being more informational, more narrative than British IN PR on dimension two, more explicit on dimension three, on dimension four least argumentative language and higher use of covert expressions of persuasion than British IN PR and finally on dimension five, less abstract than British IN PR. This study is among the few studies in the domain of register exploration of Pakistani print media by constructing special purpose corpora of International Political News Pres Reportage of Pakistani print media and special purpose corpora of International Political News press reportage of British Print Media.

Halliday's Metafunction and Galtung's Peace Paradigms: An Interpersonal Metafunctional Analysis of Peace Paradigms in The Selected Political Speeches

Saba Farid — 2023-03-10

The research paper aims to present the linguistic analysis of speeches of selected political leaders in order to analyze their paradigms of peace, as peace has always been the vital requisite and concern at national and global level.For linguistic analysis Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar is adopted as theoretical framework.The researchers have used Halliday’s Interpersonal Metafunction to analyze the concept of peace in political speeches of Donald Trump and Barak Obama in light of Gultangs peace paradigms. The research has endavoured to trace the relationship between interpersonal metafunctional aspects and Peace Paradigms. For this purpose a mixed methodology is usedand a Sequential exploratory design is selected. The detailed and in-depth analysis of the two speeches have been selected as sample study.Modality analysis of sample speech 1 is by President Barak Obama and sample speech 2 by President Donald Trump. The speeches are analyzed using different aspects of Interpersonal metafunction including mood, modality, polarity and attitude (Affect, judgment and appraisal). Using this data, the analysis of Positive and Negative peace paradigms in these speeches is presented. This analysis includes both tabular presentations of data as well as detailed interpretation of the data. The detailed analysis established the fact that different interpersonal metafunctional aspects have different roles in building up the theme of peace paradigms and peace ideologies, as interpersonal metafunction represents the notion of language as a source for the exchange of information (Halliday 1973)The study will provide new perspectives for the researchers in the field of linguistics to analyse political speeches linguistically and unveil the underlying meanings with specific reference to peace paradigms.

Suffixation in the Inflectional Morphemes of Shina Language

Zia ul Haq Anwar — 2023-03-10

This paper deals with the suffixation of inflectional morphemes of Shina in nominal and verbal paradigms. Shina is a Dardic branch of Indo-Iranian languages spoken by members of a small ethnic group named Dards in the mountainous ranges of Karakoram, Himalaya, and Hindukush. This language is spoken in several dialects in Gilgit, Astore, Punyal, Baltistan, Chilas to Palas in Indus Kohistan within the Pakistani territories and in some parts of the Kashmir valley in India. Data for this work has been collected from discussions, conversations, and interviews of the native speakers of Shina as well as the previous work on Shina (Radloff, 1998; 1999; Schmidt, 2008). My personal field visits to Gilgit, Diamer and Astore valleys helped me to access the primary data both via discussions / conversations and interviews from native speakers The linguistic theory used in the present research on Shina is an Item-and-Process approach. Shina is an oral language and now the attempts are being made to develop its orthography. Shina has a strongly suffixing inflectional morphology, so its affixes are exclusively suffixal. Moreover, the accent is strongly marked in Shina, and it determines the declension of nouns and conjugation of verbs.

EFL Learners’ Beliefs about Pronunciation Teaching

Khursheed Ahmad — 2023-03-10

This paper aims to provide insight into the current teaching practices of English pronunciation in Pakistan at the university level by exploring EFL learners’ beliefs. The study elicited the beliefs of 50 third and fourth-year BS English students at one of the renowned universities in Pakistan. The study adopted a survey questionnaire containing five-point Likert scale items, multiple-choice questions, and some open-ended questions to record students’ views. After the thematic analysis, five major categories emerged: course design, the language of instruction, learning and teaching style, types of feedback, and nativeness of teachers. The findings revealed that students were well-aware of the importance of pronunciation for intelligibility and successful communication. They were also cognizant of what is more useful to them. Similarly, students were found eager to help improve pronunciation instruction by suggesting certain changes to be incorporated and implemented.

Epenthesis in Pakistani Urduized English: Optimality Analysis

Shahid Mir — 2023-03-10

The current research paper describes the process of epenthesis in Pakistani Urduized English. The main purpose of the study is to discuss the English borrowed words and their usage in the spoken Urdu version in Pakistan within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993). The study discusses the processes of phoneme alteration in Urduaized English and how the Urdu speakers substitute and break the consonant cluster in communication. The issues of phoneme deletion, phoneme alternation, voicing, and devoicing can be resolved by applying Optimality Theory and ranking of constraints. In the paper, we argue that adoption of loan words in Urduaized English leads to certain phonological processes like epenthesis, which can be described within OT. Moreover, the study discusses the reasons for phonological addition or deletion within the borrowed lexical item. The study finds in Pakistani English, epenthesis is widely used processes on certain CC clusters at onset and coda positions of the syllables. In addition, the epenthesis process is conditioned to certain markedness constraints in Pakistani English. The study recommends a spectrographic analysis to find the spectrographic features on epenthesis.

Investigating the Perceptions of Pakistani ESL Students about Flipped Learning

Azhar Pervaiz — 2023-03-13

Technology has now become a central part of the field of teaching. The flipped classroom is a modern instructional method in which students watch videos on their own and teachers spend the classroom time engaging their students in different activities, quizzes, presentations, feedback, questions, and discussions. Different universities in Pakistan have incorporated this learning method in their classrooms and specifically in language classrooms in 2020 during the post Covid-19 environment. The chief purpose behind this investigation is to examine the perceptions of students about flipped learning for ESL learners. This research is conducted in the milieu of framework given by Chen et al. (2014). This research is quantitative in which a cross-sectional survey research design is used. Through the questionnaire a sample of 200 students was taken for this research. The responses of the students were processed through the SPSS software. The results show that flipped learning (FL) is a new technique of teaching. Most of the students use this technique but are unfamiliar with its name. The students have positively perceived the technique of flipped learning and this research would be useful for teachers, researchers, and students. Lastly, this research would be valuable for operative teaching.

Appraising the Portrayal of Female Characters in Folktales: A discourse-based study of the Heer Waris Shah

Naima Tassadiq — 2023-03-13

This paper aims at exploring the use of language in portraying the characters in folktales by employing Martin and White’s Appraisal Theory (2005). The study focuses on how the female characters are portrayed as an ambassador of the Punjabi culture, and how the protagonist has been attributed through language in the given circumstances. Folktales are embedded into the fabric of every society and the individuals and tales are inextricably linked. Each living society has its folktales that characterize the fundamental texture of that society. Above all, folktales of all locales of the world, races, and religions have widespread examples that rise above the limits and make a whole. The data selected for the present study comprises a folktale of Heer (Shah, 1766) where each stanza comprises 150 to 200 words and 10 to 15 clauses approximately, and transliteration is done by following the IPA standards. The findings reveal that the attitude toward female characterization is the epitome of a patriarchal mindset, though Shah’s Heer is courageous and knows about her rights but is very much at the mercy of the male members of the society. The females are exploited at the hands of males as male-centric voice controls generally through the record and the amount to need of magnanimity in supplementing women or perhaps, this express inclination against them makes his work disturbing.