Portraying Inflation in Pakistani and Sri Lankan English Newspapers: A Corpus-Assisted Comparative Discourse Study

Abstract

This study investigates how inflation is depicted in Pakistani and Sri Lankan English newspapers. For this purpose, the researchers have compiled a corpus of 152,917 tokens retrieved from the official websites of the Dawn (Pakistan) and the Daily mirror (Sri Lanka) newspapers. The data has been analyzed using a mixed method approach through the Sketch Engine software. Moreover, the metaphors used to portray inflation have been categorized into four types as defined by Lakoff and Jhonson: orientational, conceptual, ontological, and structural. However, the statistics indicate that the reporters have effectively used conceptual metaphors (with a frequency of 15 times in Pakistani newspaper and 62 instances in Sri Lankan newspaper) while portraying inflation in their news reports. In addition, the study has also found common discursive patterns and linguistic elements connected to the representation of inflation through keyword extraction, concordance lines, and collocation analysis. It has also been found that the discourse on inflation is shaped by socio-political elements and underlying beliefs. Hence, the findings of this comparative study add to our understanding of how print media in both these countries portray economic phenomena such as inflation, as well as the role of socio-cultural and political factors in shaping economic narratives in various contexts.