Episodes of ideological concern related to honour norms and construction of social meanings depicted through paintings are pertinent in foregrounding the social realities of Pakistan. This paper analyzes the grammar of paintings from the perspective of gender roles assumed in the context of honour. The grammar of the visual design of five paintings painted by male and female Pakistani painters belonging to different areas of Pakistan have been qualitatively studied in the light of the social semiotic framework suggested by Kress and Leeuwen (2006). The results show that women are represented as helpless, outcast and oppressed beings; while men have been depicted, indirectly through signs, as oppressors. Paucity of research in this area and implications of the analysis for gender studies, anthropological linguistics, violence studies and visual literacy, make it a significant contribution to the existing literature.

English as an international language has left its impact on all the languages being spoken in the world. This impact has led to a worldwide language variation on a large scale. This variation can be evidently observed in the form of code-mixing and code-switching. The study explores and analyzes the frequency of code-mixing in the TV ads broadcasted in Pakistan so as to determine the level of variation that took place in Urdu due to English. Seventy commercials that have been shown during the years 2011-2015 have randomly been selected and the frequency of English words has been checked. The results show that so far as the language of commercials is concerned, Urdu has clearly been influenced by English due to multiple reasons such as fashion, ease and technological advancements etc.

The technical and non-technical presentations made in English by the undergraduate engineering students at the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore include lab and survey report presentations, project presentations, mid-term or final term presentations in English. The goal of the study was to figure out the engineering students’ reasons behind feeling anxious while giving presentations in English at UET Lahore. For this purpose, 518 undergraduate engineering students from UET, Lahore filled a questionnaire and responded to an open-ended question to determine the causes of anxiety. The data was coded and categorized using in vivo coding system. Findings indicate that the participants mainly experience anxiety due to poor proficiency in English, fear of judgment by the audience, lack of confidence, lack of exposure to speaking English and making presentations in English at school or college level, poor preparation or practice, and insufficient linguistic input. The study has implications for specific lingual assessments, English as a foreign language, and psycholinguistics.

What remains invisible in the discourse, contributes to perpetuating multilayered inequalities through discourse. Stereotypical representations, under-representations, hyper-representations, or misrepresentations regulate rape myths, and consequently, particular ways of seeing and behaving of those inside or outside the cultural boundaries. It has, therefore, been studied if and how rape victims and perpetrators have been visually represented and framed in the digital illustrations on rape in Pakistan. Discrepancies concerning identity construction of the rape victims and rapists as well as the depiction of multifarious socio-semiotic dimensions of rape have been analyzed. Thirty-five digital illustrations appearing in 32 blogs and news articles published on rape cases in Pakistan have been purposively selected and studied based on ideational metafunction suggested by Kress and van Leeuwen. Results reveal under-representation of rapists and perpetrators, law enforcement, survivors, and existing myths regarding revenge rape, child abuse, gang rape, marital rape, and gender-based victimhood. The study has implications for semiotics, rape studies, gender studies, and digital discourse.

S o ci ology a n d C ri min ol o g y : O p en Acc es s