CONSTRUCTING POWER AND POLITENESS: A GENDER-BASED SFL ANALYSIS OF MOOD CHOICES IN PAKISTANI URDU CONVERSATIONAL PODCASTS

Abstract

The study explored gender-based construction of power and politeness through the use of Mood choices by male and female speakers across four gendered-pairs of Pakistani Urdu conversational podcasts. These podcasts of gendered-pairs include Male Host – Male Guest, Male Host – Female Guest, Female Host – Female Guest, and Female Host – Male Guest have been selected based on the non-probability purposive sampling technique. The theoretical framework of Interpersonal Meaning, particularly Mood system by Matthiessen and Teruya (2023) has been used. A total of 2,217 clauses from four podcasts have been analyzed to identify Mood choices including Declaratives, Interrogatives, Imperatives and Exclamatives by male and female speakers. Findings revealed that the declarative Mood type has been used as the most dominant Mood type, specifically by guest speakers, across all four conversational podcasts. Guest speakers have used dominant declarative to establish epistemic authority. Female guest speakers have used more declaratives than the male guest speakers. Interrogative Mood type has been frequently used by host speakers to control and direct the flow of the conversation. Less direct and softened interrogatives have been used with opposite gendered-pairs to adjust with cultural norms of respect and politeness. Imperative and Exclamative Mood types have been less frequently used. The reason behind the use of fewer imperatives was to make the conversation more softened and respectful. The limited use of exclamatives reflects the formal and serious nature of conversation. The findings of the study implied that the linguistics choices can be powerful resources for constructing power, authority, respect and politeness. Declarative Mood type gives the speaker informational authority whereas Interrogative Mood type gives the speaker control over the conversation. Assertive and epistemic usage of declaratives by female guests challenges the stereotype of female’s language being more tentative. Male and female speakers are more conscious and less assertive in opposite gendered-pairs. It shows their conscious usage of language according to the context of Pakistani conversational norms at professional places.