The Abstract Book of Linguistic Research 2015-2017

Abstract

The Department of English Language and Literature at University of Management and Technology offers an academically and professionally productive mix of programs and courses tied with both Linguistics and English Literature. MPhil in Applied Linguistics, being the most famous of our programs, is aimed to equip the students with an enviable knowledge about the structures and theories of language acquisition as well as the relationship of language with society and its various functions, especially with regard to the under-researched languages spoken in Pakistan. The emphasis is on the acquisition of latest research skills and methodologies in the field. The discipline of linguistics has been expanding greatly since the 18th century. However, we find its threads even beyond the 18th century into Panini’s work during the 4th-6th century BC. The modern linguistics is broadly classified into formal linguistics with its various branches such as phonetics and phonology, semantics and pragmatics, morphology and syntax, functional linguistics with its focus on different aspects of the relationship between language and society explored in disciplines such as sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and language teaching that investigates with the psychological and pedagogical aspects of teaching and learning a second language in interrelated disciplines such as second language acquisition and psycholinguistics. Each of these genres maintains a plethora of scientific literature. Currently, ‘linguistics’ is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. There is research on the relationship between linguistics and law, linguistics, medicine and therapy, linguistics, business and workplace, linguistics and literature, linguistics and translation and so on. Researchers have contributed vastly in these areas in scores of journals published by the top ranking university publishing houses. However, there has always been a need to conduct a research on the missing gaps, which can be identified through the exiting research on these areas. With the proliferation of the Internet communication, the social dynamics of language that we have been debating over the years require renewed attention in the digital discourse. The communication theorists have contributed greatly on Web 1.0 (World Wide Web), Web 2.0. (Social Media Sites) and Web 3.0 (Semantic web). The volume of research that appears in journals on new media and discourse suggests emergence of a brand new discipline of linguistics (i.e., cyberlinguistics). Cyberlinguistics investigates language and its manifestations in the virtual discourse that has its real time implications. Hence the family tree of linguistics has been and will be expanding into different directions that invite researchers to contribute in these areas. We have made applicable and publishable research the heart of learning process here because we believe in learning by doing. This abstract book will suffice to show our considerable efforts in the field of linguistics, with an emphasis on its applied and practical aspects within the Pakistani context. In this regard, the students may find it easier to write and publish their research work in areas where it is urgently needed and scarcely available such as documentation and codification of endangered languages of Pakistan, preparing grammar books and dictionaries of national and regional languages as well as developing their corpus utilizing digital resources, investigating linguistic communication in the multilingual and multicultural society of Pakistan in different domains such as home, academia and corporate offices; exploring the power relations among the speakers of different languages and promoting linguistic rights and identity of minority speakers, developing language policy to cater the linguistic needs of the multilingual population of Pakistan with a special emphasis on academic and scientific needs in the global context, and improving the linguistic and communicative aspects of life for the disabled. This book comprises mostly the abstracts of theses on linguistics. The Department of English Language and Literature initiated MPhil English Literature in the year 2016 and we are hopeful that in due course of time the scholars of this program will also venture into the domain of research and will do their theses, and their abstracts will be published in the next issue. Indeed, the growing field of Pakistani literature in English offers rich avenues for study and criticism for our students. The study of traditional, canonical British and American literature has long been supplemented by the inclusion of works by non-native speakers of English from former British colonies, along with translations into English of literature from around the world. Today’s globalized and interconnected world continues to bring people ever closer in terms of ideas, even as political events and worsening western economies push some of their citizens towards isolationism.