SHAPING OF ATTITUDINAL POSITIONING THROUGH GRADUATION IN BURKI’S AND COWASJEE’S JOURNALISTIC DISCOURSE

Abstract

The current research paper is exploratory in nature, as it aims to investigate the use of graduation resources by two prominent Pakistani writers i.e. Hameedullah Burki and Ardshir Cowasjee for intensifying their political stance and shaping their attitudinal positioning in journalistic discourse. The study has used QUAL-Quan model of mixed method research. In this regard, 20 journalistic articles from each Burki (2004) and Cowasjee (2011) were collected through purposive sampling about various political issues and personalities in Pakistan for appraisal. A three-dimensional appraisal framework was used to annotate and analyze the data qualitatively through UAM Corpus Tool Version 6.2 in the light of Martin & White (2005) Appraisal Theory. The three dimensions consisted of Attitude Types, Attitude Polarity and Scaling through Graduation. The current study, being part of a larger study, is limited to investigating the patterns in the use of only third dimension i.e. graduation resources by Burki and Cowasjee that shape their attitudinal positioning. The UAM Corpus Tool generated automatic results, which depict valuable findings about the frequency, percentage and chi-square value of various graduation resources used by Burki and Cowasjee. The statistical results and various patterns in the use of graduation resources highlight some important similarities and differences in attitudinal positioning of Burki and Cowasjee in their journalistic writings. Moreover, the findings of the study depict that there is a significant difference in the overall use of graduation resources by the two writers, as Burki has constructed his political stance with more vigour and emphasis by using a larger number of graduation resources.