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Item Bakhtin's dialogism(UMT Lahore, 2012)The existing research in the area of linguistic and cultural imperialism has focused on the different aspects of English as an international language, English as a language of neoimperialism and monoculturalism. How imperialism has been a great means of establishing monopolization of English language? As an imperialist language, English establishes a monologic colonial hegemony, authenticity and carries away co-existence, concurrence and simultaneity of other languages. The monopoly of English language has been viewed as a big threat to regional and local languages to sustain. Moreover, monopolization of one language refers to the monopoly of one culture as well. This study is qualitative in methods and employs Bakhtin's theory of dialogisim to investigate the possibility of multilingualism and multiculturalism in the wake of English as an imperialist and a global language. This particular study explores the possibilities of lingual diversity in the existing polarized societies in the world. Bakhtin's theory of dialogism is viewed as a ray of hope in the current settings for distinctiveness of each language and the cultural connotations each language takes in. The study proposes the possibility of language existence and development other than English despite their inner polarity and conflict and explores the possibility of linguistic and cultural plurality. The researcher has brought into light the important considerations after an extensive reading of the previous researches, within the fiamework of Bakhtin's theory of dialogism, to ascertain multilingualism and multiculturalism.Item Gender issues in children’s literature(UMT Lahore, 2012) Tahira AkbarAbstract This research intends to explore the reasons of gender discrimination ethnographically and psychologically in a society at grass root level. Books are always considered a great source to reflect societal values, attitudes, norms and culture with some purpose; therefore, gradually but consciously this material especially the children’s literature works on an epic scale to shape and sculpture human personality. Awareness of gender recognition with its related and associated features is a phenomenon which starts in the early stages of life and gets powerfully influenced by the type of literature children are exposed to. It is the basic dimension through which the children find out their place in society and try to understand the social world. Founding and concern of gender identity which has often been allied with the sex-role in the society is a foremost developmental mission which starts at the age of two or three years and becomes quite solidified within the ambit of growth and grooming when child turns six years old. Its social interaction with society, parents, teachers, caregivers, oral and written literary material and toys all play a very crucial and important role in explaining the gender image to a child. This aspect of socialization basically points out the bitter truth that when a child reaches level one, he or she simply somersaults from mother’s lap into the lap of society as he/she has clearly and definitely adopted the type of role he/she is to play for their stereotypical survival in society. Different researches have been done on the topics of body/mind dualism, methods of disenchantment, kid’s books with or without pictures, gender and features of identity, style and artistic devices, patterns of disparity in titles and central characters, change in visuals of fairy tales, relationship between text and image etc. This study tries to find out that there is linear relationship between children’s literature and their intellectual grooming. Only those gender related issues which are directly related to the personality development and grooming of the children are touched to address the research questions. Therefore, we all need a drastic change behaviorally, psychologically and materially (in our children’s literature and particularly in fairy tales) to keep a pace with the current century which demands us to be more creative, active and innovative with scientific approach instead of becoming an escapist.Item Impact of american sitcoms on the pakistani youth(UMT Lahore, 2012) Haya ShaukatThe aim of this study is to investigate the influence of American sitcoms on the youth of Pakistan and explore changes taking place in the mindset of the youth due to the cross-cultural impact. The study also attempted to probe into linguistic influence of these sitcoms. Chapter one mainly focuses on introducing the topic along with a brief overview of why this particular topic was chosen thus establishing the purpose, background, aims and objectives, research hypothesis as well as research questions and implications of the study. It also discusses limitations and delimitations of the study. Chapter two discusses the existing literature especially Fairclough and van Dijk’s ideas regarding power and control. However, there is no existing research on CDA and the influence of American sitcoms carried out in Pakistan and media studies carried out abroad are very much focused on the linguistic aspect of sitcoms rather than CDA, thus making this research novel. Therefore, this research had to develop its own theoretical framework based on the existing tenets of CDA rather than follow a fixed or already established method. Chapter three discusses methodology. The study combined qualitative approach with the quantitative method. The study involved respondents between the ages of 18 and 25 belonging to four educational institutions of Lahore, including FAST-NU, BNU, LUMS, and LSE. Focus group and depth interview were administered as the data collection instruments along with survey questionnaire. While respondents for survey questionnaire were randomly chosen, respondents involved in qualitative research went through a screening procedure. Chapter four provides a detailed and in depth analysis of the data gathered, both qualitative and quantitative. Results of the research indicate that while at present the well-educated youth are the ones watching these shows, the fact is they will be the ones in power in future and it is those in power who decide what is acceptable or unacceptable in the society. Chapter five answers research questions and chapter six sums up the findings of the study. The study found that the youth agreed American sitcoms had a massive impact and were very influential. It was noted that a strongly advertised culture seems to be taking over a vulnerable one with the element of neo-colonization very much present as these sitcoms serve as potent tools for controlling minds by simplifying certain concepts through the use of frequent stereotyping. However, the majority perceived this cross-cultural influence and cultural evolution to be negative as it posed threat to their religious values.Item ‘oh, I am sorry’(UMT Lahore, 2012) SHAZIA KOUSARItem “the stylistic analysis and comparison of the protagonists in ‘don quixote’ and ‘sorrows of young werther’ and their socio-cultural and stylistic effects”(UMT Lahore, 2012) Zujajah NaqviMiguel de Cervantes is a great Spanish writer. His influence on the Spanish language has been so great that the language is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes"). His novel; ‘The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha’ is considered to be the first modern European novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written. The protagonist of the novel ‘Don Quixote’ became very popular and had great cultural, social, artistic and linguistic impacts. The Quixotic effect influenced the society and arts greatly. Similarly, Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe was a great German Writer. The classical novel; ‘Sorrows of Young Werther’ was the first and was the most significant masterpieces of Goethe and it contributed to the Sturm and Drang literary movement in German literature. The protagonist; Werther also became very popular and had great cultural, social and artistic impacts. The Werther-fever; a term given by Napolean Bonaparte, had great impact on society and arts so much so that youngsters were emotionally influenced by ‘Werther’ and dressed like him; they even commited suicides like him. The present study focused on the literary stylistic analysis of the language of the two protagonists; Don Quixote and Werther. The main objectives of the research were to discover: ‘What are the different lexical field categories (exclamatives, adjectives, adverbs, nouns, intensifiers; quantifiers, qualifiers and verbs) used in the selected dialogues of Don Quixote and Sorrows of Young Werther? And what is the intensity of using each lexical category in both the novels? What are the different important vocabulary items used in the novels? What are their meanings? What is the comparison of proper nouns and common nouns’ vocabulary items in both the novels (‘Don Quixote’ and ‘Sorrows of Young Werther’) ? How did the great novels ‘Don Quixote’ and ‘Sorrows of Young Werther’ become so popular and legendary and which vocabulary words (lexical items) of Proper Nouns (of famous names, terms and historical characters) made them classical novels? What is the lexical stylistic analysis? How the vocabulary items and lexical categories as: exclamatives, adjectives, adverbs, nouns, intensifiers and verbs contribute towards the emotional and loaded language of the protagonists? What is the comparison of emotional language of Don Quixote and Young Werther? What is the literary stylistic analysis of ‘Don Quixote’ and ‘Sorrows of Young Werther’ and how can we compare the novels stylistically? What language made the protagonists of the two novels so effective socially and culturally? And ‘What effects the two novels had on society and culture of arts?’ The novels were completely studied and analyzed to find out and calculate the use of proper nouns references used by the Protagonists. Apart from that, 200 dialogues used by each of the protagonists (Don Quixote and Werther) were randomly selected from both the novels and were stylistically analyzed and compared according to the stylistic analysis model given by Geoffrey N. Leech and Micheal H. Short (1981) and Professor Ismail S. Talib (2005). It was found out through mixed method (quali-quantitative analysis) that Don Quixote became famous because of his rich use of language and wise and proverbial sayings referring to all the world and life whereas Young Werther became popular because of his extremely emotional and flowery language. Both the protagonists had strong impacts on society and culture of arts because of their unique style of language. It was concluded finally that ‘The language of ‘Don Quixote’ has greater use of subject tools, rich vocabulary; proper nouns and connotative references, greater use of intensifiers; more intensity, adverbial and action vocabulary richness whereas Werther’s language is simpler and less intense; it uses lesser adverbs, lesser intensifiers, lesser nouns, much lesser proper nouns but it uses much more verbs and exclamatory expressions that makes its’ language much more emotional and moving as compared to Don Quixote whose language is practical, witty and proverbial.’Item The feminist struggle for identity in the poetry of forugh farrokhzad (iran) and fahmida riaz (pakistan)(UMT Lahore, 2012) Anjum Naseem RaoIdentity is one of the fundamental concerns of human beings. What identity is and how it is formed are the key questions of this debate. An important aspect of this debate is gender that addresses core issue of the formation and projection of identity. Gender equality demands the review of masculine perceptions of women’s identity and the feminist writers and activists across the world try to respond these queries and engage in the process of rectification of the falsely believed ‘truths’. The process of identity formation requires certain input factors starting from the urge to know the truth. The truth seekers poets tend to do this job. The proposed study intends to explore the struggle of the two poets, Fahmida Riaz from Pakistan and Forugh Farrokhzad from Iran. Both these poets have dared to review the perceived standards and analyse them in the light of contemporary discoveries and truths. The study contends that both the feminist poets stress on the awareness of women to their ‘self’ and skills. They believe that women must transgress from the prescribed roles assigned by the society. This can lead to the actualization of women’s potential in social spheres of life. The main objectives of this research study are to explore the feminist elements in their works, analyze the perspective of these writers in terms of their cultural context, and relate the strength of these writers in terms of struggle for the feminism. It addresses the questions: How can it be determined that the struggle of Forugh Farrokhzad and Fahmida Riaz presented in their poetry is actually a struggle for the feminist identity? What are the feminist elements in the works of these female writers? How has feminism being defined in the cultural context of Iranian and Pakistani poets? The researcher relies only on the translated works of the afore-mentioned poetesses. The qualitative method of study is proposed for this purpose.Item Partitivity of partititive(UMT Lahore, 2012) RASHIDA MANZOORThis dissertation aims to look at the syntactic structure of Partitive in the nominal complex. For this purpose it will attempt to analyze the structures of the various Partitive constructions examining their form, function, characteristic features and types (like Partitive and Pseudopartitive). It will also focus on the meaning component primarily from the syntactical, and secondarily from Semantic perspective. An attempt will also be made at a comparison and contrast between Partitive and Pseudopartitive, and N-Partitive and Q-Partitive respectively, looking at any relationship that may exist between the either. The syntactic behavior of Partitive in adjectival modification and its syntactical positioning like fronting, extraposition, and recursion will also be analyzed. The close syntactic similarities and differences between Partitive and genitive structures will also be examined. The data for the analysis will be collected from English. Chapter 1 will introduce the problems related with the syntax of Partitive in the noun-phrase. Chapter 2 will look at the literature review related with the subject. Chapter 3 will looked at the microsyntax of Partitive in some detail by examining its various grammatical forms, functions, and salient features. Chapter 4 will consider the major types of Partitives namely Entity Partitive and Mass Partitive bringing out their inter-relationship. Chapter 5 will make a contrastive analysis of Partitive and Pseudopartitive structures. Chapter 6 will make an investigation of Quantified Partitives looking at their syntactic characteristics. Chapter no 7 will study the similarities and differences of Partitive and genitive constructions. Chapter no 8 will conclude the dissertation.Item The acquisition of pragmatic competence and the implication of the critical period hypothesis(UMT Lahore, 2012) RASHIDA MANZOORThe following research work was intended to know the pragmatic interpretation of universal declaration of human rights by Pakistani youth. The attempt was to highlight the implicit factors from cognitive, social, historical, cultural and political contexts by which the interpretation of even a universally accepted document gets varied. Cultural diversity and its relationship to interpretation of Universal Declaration of human rights were, thus, the focus of this research. For this a random sample of Pakistani students at post graduate level from all over Pakistan was selected. Their opinions and interpretations about this particular charter were then collected through questionnaire and in-group discussions and informal interviews. The collected data was then analyzed through Likert Scale. The results proved that a significant cultural bias against United Nations and the West is dangerously affecting the pragmatic interpretation of this particular charter, thus require practical measures to protect basic human rights around the world.Item Language, prestige and linguistic insecurity(UMT Lahore, 2012) FAKHRA JABEENThe research work is Language, prestige and linguistic insecurity: The case of English and Punjabi. The purpose of the research is to observe the attitude of a speech community towards its mother tongue. This research explores the status of two languages (Punjabi and English) in a speech community through its use and the consequent prestige attached to both of the languages. Moreover, it investigates the linguistic insecurity among the speakers of a speech community and the type of affiliation with the mother tongue in a comparatively developed global scenario. This dissertation finally offers a window to peep into the psychology of Punjabi speech community of Pakistani Punjab. The questions set for the research work were originated from the basic ideas of the issue. Two questionnaires were designed as tool and for the sake of data collection. The population size was of hundred out of which 50% (25% male and 25% female) are professionals from government, private organizations and 50%(25% male and 25% female) are students from different institutes. The questionnaire responses were analyzed with the help of percentages and frequencies, presented through frequency analysis tables and graphs. The responses of the respondents are measured by using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) and there is a statistical representation of the results. There are a number of research works on the psychology of the children (the detailed description of the works is in chapter two in 2.4.1) which prove that formal mother training on initial stage enhances the development of global language proficiency. The findings of the research throw light on the pedagogical shortcomings of the system in which the students use their mother tongue. The findings demand education policy making authorities to revise their policy, consider the language spoken by 44.15 % people, the widely spoken language (Census 2001: 107) by making it a part of their educational policy. So, the Punjabi language is given a due prestige and its speakers use it confidently.Item The acoustic analysis of saraiki vowels(UMT Lahore, 2011) Nargis Batool