THE LINGUISTIC CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER IDEOLOGY AND STANCE-TAKING: A CORPUS-ASSISTED ANALYSIS OF PAKISTANI BROADCAST DISCOURSE

Abstract

This study presents a corpus-assisted sociolinguistic analysis of the public media discourse of Pakistani screenwriter Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar, examining how language choices construct, evaluate, and reinforce gender ideology. Utilizing a specialized spoken dataset of his Broadcast Discourse Corpus comprising transcribed televised and digital interviews, the research integrates quantitative corpus linguistic techniques with qualitative thematic analysis. Corpus analysis software (AntConc) was employed to extract frequency profiles, keyword lists, and collocation networks centered on gender-related node words (e.g., woman, feminism, rights, loyalty, Aurat March). These quantitative outputs served as empirical anchors for Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase thematic framework. The analysis reveals five primary macro-thematic domains: (1) Discursive Delegitimization and Antagonistic Othering, (2) Moral Panic and Cultural Preservation Stance, (3) Structural and Institutional Threat Construction, (4) Patriarchal Protectionism and Moral Regulation, and (5) Positive Self-Presentation. Concordance line analysis demonstrates a consistent reliance on pejorative stance-taking, evaluative lexical choices, and gender-asymmetric moral imperatives. By uniting quantitative corpus metrics with thematic discourse analysis, this study demonstrates how televised rhetoric actively shapes ideological positions and reproduces traditional power dynamics within contemporary Pakistani media.