Politeness Strategies in Pakistani Business English Letters A Study of Opening and Closing Strategies

The present study explores the politeness strategies used in Pakistani business letters written in English. It benefits from qualitative and quantitative approach of research. The specialized corpus has been compiled on business correspondence and named ‘Pakistani Business English Letters’ (PBEL). PBEL consists of 1000 Pakistani business English letters collected from government and semi-government institutes e.g. banks, universities, private companies, factories etc in 2011. This study investigates the differences between Pakistani and American ways of using politeness strategies in external parts of business letters e.g. Opening and Closing of the letter. The Brown and Levinson (1987) model of politeness strategies has been adapted according to PBEL instances. The software ANTCONC 3.2.4 has been used as research tool in this study to calculate the frequent politeness strategies used within Pakistani Business English letters. This study is very insightful for teachers and learners regarding the usage of politeness strategies in business communication. It will also lend a helping hand to the textbook writers as it will acquaints them with the differences of using politeness strategies for intra-national and international business communication. Keywords: cross cultural communication, Pakistani business English letters, external strategies, politeness strategie

Punjabi: A Tolerated Language Young generations’ attitude

Language is one of the important symbols of identity and status for the speakers of that language. Pakistan is a linguistically heterogonous country where speakers do not share a single language.  A large population in Pakistan speaks Punjabi. In the recent years, Punjabi language is losing its status in Punjab, Pakistan, because people are shifting their language from Punjabi to Urdu according to their needs and requirements of modern age. People are having different attitudes towards their mother tongue, especially the young generation; they have stopped speaking this language. They are not interested in the preservation of the language of their forefathers. This paper seeks to investigate different attitudes of people of Punjab towards Punjabi language. To explore this phenomenon, a survey research was conducted.  The data was gathered from Government College University Faisalabad to explore the attitudes of young generation towards Punjabi. The sample consisted of 60 young graduate and post-graduate students. The results have shown that the Punjabis have not a very positive attitude towards this language. Punjabi language is losing its place and shifting towards Urdu. This study concludes that Punjabi is a tolerated language as it is neither promoted nor proscribed according to young generation’ opinion. Keywords: Punjabi, status, tolerated, young generatio