A Study of the Patterns of Noun Phrase in Pakistani English Journalese: A Syntactic Perspective

Abstract

The present research pioneering a new trend would espouse the contemporary theories of generative grammar, i.e. a study of noun phrases in Pakistani English (PE) of journalese applying universal and generative theories of grammar, especially X-bar theory. The analysis will also have another specific advantage by moving the focus from sentential to phrasal level and constituent level in a generative perspective. The sentential/phrasal explanation in PE is unquestionably in line with the concept that ‘movement in constituents’ is arranged as an ongoing series of lexical items. However, ‘movement’ in constituents is espoused, i.e. the changes in positions are observed, and the order of their occurrence is discussed in reference to peculiarities in the occurrence of constituents in NP according to ‘parameters’ to suit a communicative purpose. Therefore, data analysis is being done quantitatively by measuring frequencies concerning the occurrence of NPs using an adapted multi-method approach, especially for the study of descriptive linguistics preferred by de Mönnink (2000). To date, ‘movement’ in phrasal constituents has been investigated using self-made examples by many linguists (see de Mönnink, 2000) in the case of Standard English. Adopting the formal approach, the researchers have investigated movement and discussed it through analyses in the generative framework. Thus, an utterly transformational approach toward a more surface-structure perspective has originated; the number of movement rules to one broad movement principle (move a) has shrunk. The directionality of ‘move a’ to leftward movement has been restricted in the framework of this study. The study shows that weight and information value are the basic principles that explain movement from a functional perspective. When discussing how to treat NP movement, the most famous constructions are focused on the formal and functional approach (i.e. discontinuous AJPs, FDPM, and [floating] deferred determiners). In addition, fronted pre-modification is analysed because that is the only NP structure that involves movement to the left of an Immediate Constituent (IC). The study's findings fully conform to the view that a language learner would learn and teach a language better with a clear understanding of constituents.