Discourse Analysis of Written Text on Pakistani Transport Vehicles: A Study of Socio-cultural Perspective

Abstract

The written text on Pakistani transport vehicles, such as busses, cars rickshaws, vans and taxies etc. offer a unique window into the country’s socio cultural landscape. These texts often convey a range of messages from devotional phrases and poetic couplets to humorous slogans and advisory warnings. Beyond their aesthetic appeal, these texts reveal the values, beliefs, norms and attitudes of Pakistan society providing a fascinating site for discourse analysis. This study explores the discourse present in the written texts displayed on Pakistani transport vehicles from a socio-cultural perspective. Through a qualitative discourse analysis of textual contents collected from a diverse range of vehicles of twin cities (Rawalpindi and Islamabad), the research investigates that do these texts are written to convey a particular message to the assumed community or general public or these are just eye candies to amuse an aesthetic reader. This study also aims to highlight intrinsic ideologies behind these texts so that true and real meaning and purpose of these texts may be known. Theoretical framework for the current research study has been chosen form Norman Fairclough’s three dimensional theory and analytical framework for this research study is quite in line with the Jank’s Rubrics for linguistic analysis (2005).  First linguistic analysis of the text is carried out followed by socio-cultural explanation of the same. The findings reveal that these inscriptions and texts are not merely written for decorative purpose, but these function as rich sites of meaning-making, expressing national pride, regional affiliations, moral codes, and social commentaries.

Keywords: Discourse Analysis, Transport Vehicles, Moving Canvases, Values and Norms, Socio-Cultural and Linguistic Features