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Pakistani English: acceptability and the norm
Author(s) -
BAUMGARDNER ROBERT J.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-971x.1995.tb00355.x
Subject(s) - urdu , norm (philosophy) , psychology , linguistics , political science , law , philosophy
This paper analyzes the data from three questionnaires administered to Pakistani male and female journalists, teachers, and university students in Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore during a period from 1987 to 1992. The first questionnaire deals with respondents’(320) choice of a model of English (British, American, or Pakistani). The second and third questionnaires measure the acceptability of selected Pakistani English lexical and grammatical items (150 respondents) and complementation types (165 respondents). Results show that while an exonormative model of English (British) still has considerable influence in the former colony (in both ‘ideal’ as well as in reported ‘actual’ usage), a Pakistani norm is also beginning to emerge. This trend is most evident in respondents’ acceptance of typically Pakistani features of English such as Urdu borrowings, Urdu‐English hybrids, and local morphological and syntactic innovations.