Pragmatic Study Of Invitation Strategies/Moves: Analysis Of Wedding Invitation Cards (Barat) In Pakistan

Abstract

Invitation strategies vary from culture to culture, society to society and from language to language. Invitations are the speech acts that every individual use to produce utterances, to invite someone directly and indirectly. Wedding invitation cards are the most common type of invitations that are used by almost in all societies. Every society used different strategies in making invitation cards. The purpose of this study is to analyze that what type of strategies/moves used in Pakistani wedding invitation cards (Barat) and also to analyze that how these strategies/moves are similar or different in case of Urdu and English language. Data was collected randomly by using different invitation cards printed in both languages (Urdu & English). Total cards that were selected for this study were seventy (70) in numbers, thirty-five

(35) in Urdu and thirty-five (35) in English. The qualitative research method was used to do this study. The data was analyzed by using Swales move-analysis model and textual analysis. Results of the study showed that there were different strategies and moves that were used in the making of wedding invitation cards of Barrat in Pakistan. The findings showed that there are ten different moves in the wedding invitation cards of Barat function in both Urdu and English. Three common differences are present in the wedding invitation cards in Urdu and English language.