THE CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE IN SELECTED PAKISTANI ENGLISH ESSAYS

Abstract

This study investigates the use of the definite article “the” in Pakistani undergraduate students' academic essays and explores how the first language (L1) influences and shapes article use. A self-compiled corpus of forty essays by undergraduate students was analyzed using AntConc (Version 3.5.8) to examine the frequency, distribution, and contextual patterns of “the”. The British National Corpus (BNC) was used as a reference to establish native-English benchmarks. Quantitative analysis revealed that Pakistani English exhibits a higher frequency of “the” compared to Standard English. Quantitative analysis showed that Pakistani English demonstrates a higher frequency of 'the' than Standard English. In addition, through qualitative concordance analysis, several recurrent patterns in its usage were identified, including overuse in generic or non-specific contexts and omission in definite contexts. These tendencies reflect L1 transfer from Urdu, which lacks an article system, and highlight features of Pakistani English as an evolving localized variety. The findings add to the understanding of article usage in World Englishes and offer pedagogical insight into improving academic writing instruction in similar linguistic contexts.