Identification of Ideational Grammatical Metaphor in Saraiki Language and its Deployment in Different Registers of Saraiki and English: A Contrastive Study

Abstract

Grammatical Metaphor refers to a set of lexico-grammatical choices offered by a language to create formality of expression and pithiness. Firstly, this linguistic feature was discussed by Halliday in 1985 who classified one of its types -the Ideational Grammatical Metaphor (IGM) into 13 types and regarded it as a scientific or academic discourse characteristic. The IGM phenomenon is now considered central in SFL (Systemic Functional Linguistics)- inspired language teaching and significant for translators in understanding the Metafunctional meanings across SL (Source Language) or TL (Target Language). However, this worthwhile linguistic phenomenon has been understudied in the context of Pakistani languages. This work studies the Saraiki language for its identification and deployment in different English and Saraiki registers. The study follows the SFL Grammatical Metaphor Theory of Halliday (1998; 1999; 2006) as a theoretical framework and Content analysis as a tool for the identification and categorization of IGMs. The text consisted of the undergraduate course books of Saraiki and English, and its sample is delimited to 15 excerpts from both languages. The research results in the identification of all thirteen IGM categories in Saraiki, as in English; while regarding the IGM deployment in different registers of both languages, it is observed that the extent of IGM usage in Saraiki written text (1.14 per Clause) is greater than in English (0.83 per Clause), and academic text of both languages is found to have more instances of Ideational Grammatical Metaphors than the works of fiction in these languages. The study contributes to the body of research on Grammatical Metaphor and SFL-inspired comparative studies on Indo-Aryan languages of the world.