A Critical Discourse Analysis of Punjabi Language Marginalization in Pakistan's English-Language Print Media

Abstract

This study explored the linguistic portrayal of marginalization of the Punjabi language in three dominant newspapers in Pakistan namely Dawn, The News International and The Express Tribune. The qualitative research design was employed. This study utilized Socio-Cognitive Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework by Van Dijk (2008) to analyze a corpus of twenty-one editorials and opinion articles from 2010 – 2025. The analytical approach is based on three levels: macrostructure (global thematic and ideological significance), microstructure (lexical choices, metaphors, suppositions, syntactic structures), and superstructure (organization of the genre and the distribution of voice). The results revealed that all these newspapers have a deficit approach towards constructing Punjabi while they simultaneously show sympathy towards the language and reiterate the ideological hierarchy that prioritizes Urdu and English. But there are marked differences in newspaper types: Discourses in Dawn are most often structurally critical and polyphonic, with institutional/class-based explanations for marginalization being foregrounded; The News International is the most often cultural/soft power framing; and The Express Tribune is the most often identity stigma/historical nostalgia framing. All three newspapers, however, in the end naturalize Punjabi's ban from institutional spaces. The results of this research help add to the body of knowledge in the field of language ideology, media discourses and linguistic inequality in multilingual societies in South Asia.

Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, Van Dijk, Punjabi language, marginalization, print media, language ideology, Dawn, The News International, The Express Tribune, Pakistan