Development Discourse and Womens Empowerment in Sindh

This research paper investigates and introduces the idea of development discourse and women empowerment question in Sindh. Based on the investigation and analysis of the writings by Sindhi intelligentsia in the Sindhi print media and book publications that present the discourse of development, progress, prosperity, and social change in Sindh, in this paper we engage with and call attention to the question of women empowerment. By integrating women empowerment and rights in this paper, we aim to set the research agenda and draw attention to gender and development theory and practice. In a way, this paper takes up and supports the gender-sensitive research approach to development discourse, public policy, and planning in Pakistan. It prioritizes gender and women's empowerment framework in research, teaching, and development practice.

Syntactic Deconstruction of Becketts Dramatic Texts: A Discourse Perspective

This study examines the dominant elements of Transitivity (Ideational meaning), and the lexical features of Samuel Beckett’s dramatic texts with special reference to Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days, All That Fall, and Krapp’s Last Tape. The significance of the linguistic features of these texts has also been explored. The study also attempts to investigate the conformity of linguistic interpretation with the Existential interpretations of Waiting for Godot. The analysis of data was conducted by using computational tools like UAMCT, MAT, SUAS and AntConc. However, UAMCT was used as the main tool and the rest of the tools were just used to ensure validity of results and to supplement some areas of analysis which were deficient in UAMCT. The study has found that Beckett’s dramatic texts have a considerable amount of Material processes going on in the world of the plays but these processes are less directed to a Goal and are even agentless too. The processes are also not spatially and temporally situated. The linguistic analysis reveals that his dramatic texts are a linguistic paradox; lexically simple but structurally complex. The linguistic features of Waiting for Godot establish certain themes like, ‘Alienation’, Directionlessnes’, ‘Ambivalence’, ‘Nothingness’, ‘Existence’, ‘Skepticism’, ‘Boredom’, and ‘Pessimism’. These themes conform to the Existential interpretations of Waiting for Godot. We find a linguistic spontaneity of Existential themes in the play. In a nutshell, Beckett has not narrated the predicament of Existence but made it happen linguistically in Waiting for Godot. The study finds that Endgame, Happy Days, All That Fall, and Krapp’s Last Tape also exhibit similar syntactic and lexical features as that of Waiting for Godot. It has also been found out, as a result of this study, that Waiting for Godotand the other four plays of Beckett (Endgame, Happy Days, All That Fall, and Krapp’s Last Tape) have communicative qualities of an extempore interactive oral text. Beckett’s plays also have some qualities of a narrative text. It is due to these qualities that the plays are able to make a mark on the minds of their readers. The present report consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 describes the scope and nature of the study by providing introduction to Beckett, Waiting for Godot and Existential context of Beckett. This chapter gives a detailed background of the problem, states the problem, aims of the study, research questions, significance, methodology and limitations of the study. Chapter 2 presents the survey of the related literature in the areas of SFL, application of linguistic theory to the study of literary text, application of computational tools to the study of literary and nonliterary texts. Chapter 3 encompasses the procedures and methods of data collection and analysis. Chapter 4 presents a detailed analysis and interpretation of the texts of Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days, All That Fall, and Krapp’s Last Tape. Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes the results produced through data analysis and interpretation in Chapter 4. Discussion, implications and conclusion of the results of the present study are also given in the same chapter.