Abstract
The study, qualitative and descriptive in nature, examines the use of transliteration in the paid Pakistani obituary announcements authored in the English language. Primarily, it identifies the frequently used transliterated vocabulary in these linguistic messages and reconnoiters the functional relationship that emerges in and between the textual moves of these announcements due to the linkage created by these transliterated words and phrases. Additionally, the study sheds light on the motives of the authors of these announcements behind opting for this lexical borrowing. Data, for the purpose, comes from the two prominent Pakistani English newspapers: The Dawn and The News International . The study concludes that the transliterated vocabulary used in the Pakistani English obituary announcements is a need-based, religiously and culturally enthused, lexical borrowing that not only helps the authors of these texts convey their intentional messages effectively but also enhances the exactness and spontaneity of the contents of these announcements. Keywords: Obituary Announcement, Transliteration, Lexical borrowing, Source language, Target language, Cognitive synonyms
Highlights
Newspaper obituary, adhering to the delineation provided by the Oxford English Dictionary (1992), is “a record or announcement of a death or deaths, especially in a newspaper, usually comprising a brief biographical sketch of the deceased”. Nwoye (1992) categorized it as a media genre having a specific communicative function
The analysis of the data reveals an abundance of the transliterated terminology in the Pakistani English newspaper paid obituary announcements
It appears that transliteration in the Pakistani English obituary announcements is meant to enhance the accuracy and naturalness of their contents
Summary
Newspaper obituary, adhering to the delineation provided by the Oxford English Dictionary (1992), is “a record or announcement of a death or deaths, especially in a newspaper, usually comprising a brief biographical sketch of the deceased”. Nwoye (1992) categorized it as a media genre having a specific communicative function. Survivors of the deceased pay to the newspapers to get the obituaries of their loved-ones’ published Contents of these announcements are authored and provided by the survivors of the departed. Newspapers treat these paid obituary announcements as classified ads and print them as provided and/or as advised by the descendants of the deceased. This second form, paid obituary announcements, of the Pakistani English newspapers constitutes the research domain of the current study and it gyrates around the functionality of the transliterated vocabulary that, though semantically and grammatically optional, is commonly employed in these announcements and seems to be widely acknowledged by the Pakistani discourse community of this genre. The current study encompasses the identification, linguistic background, linguistic functionality and raison d’être for selection of these transliterated lexical items
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