A Genre-Based Analysis of Classified Advertisements in Pakistani English Newspapers

Abstract

The current study analyzing the genre of classified advertisement in Pakistani English Newspapers explains how classified ads actually achieve the objectives of selling and buying. The study also supports how the linguistic features are arranged in ads to persuade the buyers. The Move-structure for sales promotion letters of Bhatia (1993) has been adapted to analyses a corpus of 1008 classified ads in Pakistani English newspapers. The classified advertisements represent three moves; out of them, only Move 3 is optional. The linguistic and structural interpretation of the text ensures the communicative purpose of the texts. The use (100 Percent)of adjectives, intensifiers, nominal, imperatives, and nouns by nominative and objective cases and digits is represented as the most common linguistic feature. But only 10.41 Percent of the use of the pronouns 'you' or 'your’ indicates that the classified advertisements serve as a communicative medium to provide information portals for potential customers. Cook (1992) claims that the linguistic use of advertisement is to provide information for a reason/s.The current study can be a source of literature in the field of research on the classified advertisement and pedagogical material in the field of ESP.