A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF PAKISTANI ENGLISH DISCOURSE: PATTERNS, FUNCTIONS, AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC INFLUENCES

Abstract

Pragmatic characteristics of Pakistani English in terms of its discourse styles, communicative purposes and sociolinguistic motivations impacting upon its use are investigated in this study. It is based on speech act theory, politeness strategies and the context-sensitive approach to interpretation, and consists of investigations of real-life language samples from a range of genres, such as media, education, and everyday conversation. The results show clear discourse structures influenced by Urdu and the regional languages, very obvious code-switching and situational appropriate politeness norms for this opponent. These are features of linguistic neocolonialism which are illustrations of Pakistan’s multicultural and multilingual personality and show Pakistani English as a vibrant, developing variety with distinctive pragmatic norms.