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Language of Text Messages: a Corpus Based Linguistic Analysis of SMS in Pakistan

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Language of Text Messages: A Corpus Based Linguistic Analysis of SMS in Pakistan Researcher: Supervisor: Malik Naseer Hussain Dr. Raja Nasim Akhtar DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD 2013 Language of Text Messages: A Corpus Based Linguistic Analysis of SMS in Pakistan By Malik Naseer Hussain Reg. No. 19-FLL/PhDEng/F-07 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English (Linguistics) DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD 2013 ii IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE MOST MERCIFUL Say: Truly, my worship, and my sacrifice, and my living, and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the Worlds. (Al-Qur’an, 6, 162) iii Acceptance by the Viva Voce Committee Language of Text Messages: A Corpus Based Linguistic Analysis of SMS in Pakistan Name of Student: Malik Naseer Hussain Registration No: 19-FLL/PhDEng/F-07 Accepted by the Department of English, Faculty of Languages & Literature, International Islamic University Islamabad, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English. Viva Voce Committee _______________________________ ___________________________________ External Examiner Dr. Munawar Iqbal Ahmed Dr. Riaz Hassan Acting Dean Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences Faculty of Languages & Literature Air University, E-9 Islamabad International Islamic University, Islamabad _______________________________ ___________________________________ External Examiner Dr. Munawar Iqbal Ahmed Dr. Wasima Shehzad Chairman, Department of English Professor (Linguistics) International Islamic University, Islamabad Department of Humanities Air University, E-9 Islamabad _______________________________ ___________________________________ Internal Examiner Supervisor Dr. Ayaz Afsar Dr. Raja Nasim Akhtar Associate Professor Professor, Department of English Department of English University of AJ&K, Muzaffarabad International Islamic University, Islamabad 07 October, 2013 iv FOREIGN EVALUATION As per HEC policy, the thesis has been evaluated by the following foreign experts from technologically/academically advanced countries. 1. Prof. Dr. Marina Bondi Professor, Department of Linguistics and Cultural Studies Dean, Faculty of Humanities University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Italy Email: [email protected] 2. Dr. Paul Thompson Director, Centre for Corpus Research Arts Building, University of Birmingham Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK Email: [email protected] v DECLARATION I, Malik Naseer Hussain, Registration No. 19-FLL/PhDEng/F-07, a student of PhD in English Linguistics at International Islamic University Islamabad do hereby solemnly declare that the dissertation submitted by me in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English (Linguistics) is my original work, except where otherwise acknowledged in the dissertation, and has not been submitted earlier, and shall not be submitted by me in future for obtaining any degree from this or any other university. Malik Naseer Hussain Dated: 7th October 2013 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, all thanks and gratitude to Allah Almighty for giving me strength and opportunities to complete my PhD degree. After Allah, I pay homage to the last Prophet of Allah, Muhammad (PBUH), whose Sunnah is to thank people. He says, -He does not thank Allah who does not thank people” Sunan / ﻻَ يَ ْش ُك ُر هَّللاَ َم ْن ﻻَ يَ ْش ُك ُر النها َس “ Abu-Dawud, 4811. In this regard, I owe thanks to a large number of people and institutions. The first among them is Higher Education Commission, for offering me the merit based scholarship for PhD studies. Next, I owe debts to my research supervisors Prof. Dr. Raja Nasim Akhtar (my PhD supervisor) and Prof. Dr. Ayaz Afsar (my MPhil supervisor) for their support and guidance. I owe a great debt to the Chairman, Department of English, IIUI, Prof. Dr. Munawar Iqbal Ahmed, for his unflinching support in every administrative matter. There are many teachers to whom I thank for their guidance at different phases of my academic career. My special thanks are to my IIUI teachers, Prof. Dr. Ahsan Wahga, Prof. Dr. Qabil Khan, Prof. Dr. Maqsood Alam Bukhari, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rasheed, Prof. Dr. Nabi Baksh Jumani, Prof. Dr. Safeer Akhtar, Prof. Dr. Safeer Awan; my teachers at AIOU, Prof. Dr. Rehana Masrur, Prof. Dr. Naveed Sultana; and my teachers at Govt. Postgraduate College Attock, Prof. Ashiq Hussain, Prof. Altaf Baig, Prof. Zaheer Ahmed, Prof. Mahmood Khattak, Prof. Shakeel Ahmed, and Prof. Sharif Zaid. Without good friends, one cannot easily accomplish a long journey of studies. So I wish to thank all my colleagues and friends whose support and good wishes remained with me during my educational career. I especially thank my PhD class fellows Ibrar Anver Sheikh, Khalid Mahmood, Tassadaq Hussain, Muhammad Nawaz, Abid Qureshi, Aleem Shakir, Riaz Dasti; my university fellows Muhammad Zamurd, M. Azhar Khan, Mudassar Nazir, Abdul Qayyum, Hafiz Zahid, Muslim Khan, Muhammad Saleem, Ameer Sultan; my friends Abdul Qayyum Sahar, Umer Farooq, Tariq Mehmood Sheikh, Najam-us-Saqib, Yasir Mahmmood, Atif Haseeb, Muhammad Younas Khan, Arshad Mahmood Nashad, Shuhaib Anwer, Masood Anwer, Faheem Qureshi, Amanat Khan, Muhammad Farooq, Abdul Qadoos; my colleagues Abdul Majid Sajjad, Kamran Jamil, M. Khizer, Qaiser Baig, Khurram Baig, Khawar Mehmmood Khokhar, Ashiq Abbasi, Zuhair Wasti, Kamal Pasha, Sajeela Shabir, and Munawar Kashif. vii In the family, the biggest unpaid debt on me is of my father (May his soul rest in peace). What I am today, it is just because of him. People have many dreams in their lives but I was the only dream of his life. So I cannot pay his debt. In addition to him, there is yet a whole chain of my relatives to whom I owe thanks and apologies. I apologize to my family as I could not give them much time. I wish my heartfelt thanks and recognition to my parents, my wife, my sons Bilal Haider, Awais Haider, my daughters Arooj Fatima, Tehreem Fatima, my kin Malik Ibrar Hussain, Malik Zaheer Hussain, and Malik Sajjad Hussain. I also thank all those who provided data for this study, or helped in collecting the data. Thanks to all whose works I used/consulted. My special thanks are to Prof. Laurence Anthony for providing AntConc, the corpus linguistics software, free of cost. While acknowledging people I cannot overlook to mention some places and institutes which have played an unseen role in my growth. I especially mention my native town Padhrar in District Khushab, F. G. Boys Jamshaid High School Attock Cantt, Govt. Postgraduate College Attock, and International Islamic University Islamabad. Their impacts have been very great on my personality In brief, the list of thanks and gratitude is long but the conventional space available for acknowledgements is short, so without naming further, at the end I thank all unnamed and unspecified friends, colleagues, relatives, students, and institutes for the part they have played in my life and career. viii ABSTRACT The thesis presents a corpus based empirical analysis of the language used in SMS text messaging in Pakistan. The study is descriptive in nature and examines types, causes, and patterns/principles of various linguistic adaptations made in text messages. It also provides historical insights, and discusses linguistic-cum-educational impacts and implications of these adaptations. Primarily, the study is based on the linguistic analysis of an SMS corpus of 5000 interpersonal text messages collected from Pakistani texters. For triangulation purposes, it also examines the metalinguistic perceptions of 500 texters who also provided their personal text messages for the study. The study explores linguistic adaptations in six major categories, i.e. lexical, syntactic, punctuation, space, code, and script adaptations in text messages. It was found in the study that linguistic adaptations in text messages are mostly made under certain principles/patterns. Most intentional adaptations in text messages are caused by three major factors that are to be economical in the use of time and effort, to be creative/innovative in developing new language patterns, and to be rapid in SMS communication. Some unintentional adaptations are caused by the careless attitude or poor language command of texters. In addition, many punctuation adaptations are specifically made for paralinguistic purposes. Code alterations are made in the bilingual settings of texters. Lastly, the Roman script is preferred because most Pakistani texters are not adept in typing the Arabic/Urdu script, and so they use the Roman script for both Urdu and English. In the historical perspective, these adaptations are not completely new in nature because their traces are found in history or in other modes of communication. Moreover, these adaptations have various linguistic/educational impacts, and these impacts lead to certain implications for the conventional standards of languages and their teaching. ix CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………........ 1 1.1 Background of the Study………………………………………………… 1 1.2 Statement of the Problem……………………………………………….. 5 1.3 Objectives and Research Questions……………………………………… 6 1.4 Significance of the Study………………………………………………… 7 1.5 Limitations and Delimitations………………………………………….. 11 1.6 An Overview of Research Methodology…............................................. 12 1.7
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