Sensationalized Representation of Fear in Pakistani English Newspapers: A Comparative Study through Transitivity Analysis

The first presentation was scheduled in VIP hall and Dr Priya introduced the speaker through his impressive profile and requested Dr Sultan to address the audience.

During the first presentation, Mr Mohammed systematically made his audience conversant with two significant points. The first one was language through Systemic Functional Linguistics and Transitivity and the second one was Application of Transitivity on a News Item. He provided interesting interpretations of the word “language” and reminded the audience about how experiences can become immortal or die without the use of language.

Mr Amir gave an interesting description of how a language works. He described language as a combination of grammatical structures, forms, sounds and lexical terms. He emphasized that a good command of these elements of language will be immensely helpful while applying them to narrate different experiences.

One interesting perception that caught the attention of the audience was “language is a medium through which a speaker’s/writer’s perception of reality is expressed.” He also explained the subtle differences between “reality and the reality represented” and generated further interest in the audience.

He also gave a quick snapshot of how language works in the modern world and described it as an effective weapon to control the minds of the receivers.

Mr Mohammed presented a remarkable point of linguists who believe that (media) texts, spoken or written, are prejudiced and laden with ideological underpinnings. He further highlighted that transitivity is an important research tool in modern linguistics. He also listed seven approaches of linguistic frameworks for the study of media discourses.

The presentation also threw light on Systemic Functional Linguistics as conceptualized by Halliday and different aspects of theory of transitivity. Briefly, he explained how transitivity analysis analyzes content (grammar) of the clause to elaborate the experience/idea of the speaker/writer.

The second session started with a quick recap of the first presentation and it gained momentum through the specific terminology related to transitivity. The three words – processes, participants and circumstances were the core of second presentation. The interpretation and application of these words fascinated the audience making them curious to know more.

The third session focused on interesting news items from Pakistani newspapers, which served as interesting examples to understand transitivity analysis. The audience participation was high and the interaction was rich with interesting perspectives. The three presentations changed the outlook of the participants towards print media; gave them some interesting theories of transitivity analysis and tips to analyze the news items. They also had guidelines to employ the methods of transitivity analysis while teaching ESP (English for specific Purposes) to the second language learners. The participants were benefitted immensely and were requesting for more.