Critical Discourse Analysis: Analysing Pakistani real estate print advertisements
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Date
2013
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Publisher
University of Management and Technology
Abstract
The current study presents the critical discourse analysis of real estate print advertisements to
examine and report the discursive and social practices exercised by the recipients and the producers of
real estate advertisements (confined to the sale & purchase of small houses only) in Pakistani sociocultural
context. The framework applied for the analysis of eighteen Pakistani real estate advertisements
is that of Fairclough’s (1989) which is integrated with Halliday’s (1985) Systemic Functional Grammar,
Schrank’s (1974) Language of Advertising Claims and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996) Grammar of
Visual Design to ensure theoretical triangulation.The manipulative moves of real estate companies are unveiled by analysing data gathered from
different sources (questionnaire based on close ended and open ended questions, interviews and the text
of eighteen print ads) with the application of mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) approach to
ensure methodological triangulation. The findings reveal that all three income groups (Upper-middle
class, middle-middle class & lower- middle class) do not significantly differ as regards their perception
of the real estate ads. However, the lower-middle, middle-middle classes are more attracted towards the
real estate ads as compared to the upper middle class. The study also points out that the main focus of
the most of the real estate companies is upper-middle class- the one which could not afford posh areas
like Defence.The role of coloured images and code-mixing in capturing the customer’s attention, thereby
revealing the discursive practices, has also been discussed. The current study has followed the
theoretical perspectives such as multi model discourse analysis and applied linguistics, thereby
highlighting this important issue through the critical discourse analysis of real estate print
advertisements.
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Keywords
M.Phil Thesis, English Language