Corpus Assisted Discourse Analysis of Urduized Words and Selected Collocation patterns: A case Study of Trespassing by Uzma Aslam Khan

Author(s) : Fatima Tuz Zahra, Tehseen Zahra & Akhtar Abbas

Abstract:

The Indigenous vocabulary of fiction discourse reflecting sociocultural perspectives of society as an essential linguistic device illuminates the rich cultural load within itself. his paper deals with the emergence of discourse analysis in literary contexts. It also sheds light on contextual dimensions and how their relevance to Pakistani Anglophone fiction will contribute to the social construction of patterns. This paper aims to identify patterns of activity built through Urduized vocabulary revealing a complex fictional world of discourse that defies mere plot of local variety. Following Baker’s (2008) synergy approach, this study follows a combination of corpus linguistics and discourse analysis. This research investigates the representation of social actors and their actions in the discourse of Pakistani American fiction. Corpus analysis tools yield findings with informed knowledge filtered through tagging and annotation systems of different text varieties of various domains. Corpus of Uzma Aslam Khan’s fiction Trespassing was used to analyze concordance lines of the selected word ‘dupatta’ as texts are described and explained using Gee’s (2011) approach and method of discourse analysis. The activity-building task is exploited along with the ‘social language tool’ as a tool of inquiry for data analysis, to develop a deep understanding of the discourse and related sociocultural aspects built around the target word, ‘dupatta’. The findings of the analysis show unique linguistic patterns and activities built around the indigenous vocabulary items from the corpus of fiction. Unique features of the discourse are also identified through female representation, character building and actions around the text. Overall, the findings suggest that the ‘dupatta representation’ and views of social reality are diverse, contradictory, and changing as per the character and context wherever needed.
Keywords: Indigenous vocabulary, sociocultural perspectives, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis