Speech Oriented Discourse in Written Genre: A Multidimensional Analysis

Abstract

This study analyses the South Asian varieties of English in comparison with British English and explores if newspaper reportage has been influenced by popularization. The objective of the study is to find the differences and similarities among all the eight South Asian Englishes and British English with a special focus on speech-oriented discourse. To achieve this objective, the study follows Biber’s (2006) multidimensional analysis as a theoretical framework. The present study uses both quantitative and qualitative methods. The results indicate a considerable difference between the press reportage of Pakistan and that of other South Asian countries. Further, Pakistani press reportage is the most speech-oriented among all the South Asian countries and Britain in producing discourse.