Journal of Communication and Cultural Trends

Analysis of Distortion and Fragmentation in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake

Muhammad Ajmal — 2024-03-31

The current study examined the elements of distortion and fragmentation as post modernistic deconstructive techniques in James Joyce’s ‘Finnegans Wake’. He used structurally and grammatically incorrect phrases and sentences in his works to represent the anarchy of traditional literary norms. The current study employed a literary close-reading approach to assess the disruptive traditional narrative structures and linguistic conventions of modern day literary texts. This study demonstrates Joyce’s uses of distortion and fragmentation to convey the themes of cyclical nature of history and the fragmentation in the novel. ‘Finnegans Wake’ by James Joyce is a semantically challenging novel since it is difficult to read and hard to interpret, with many scholars and readers proposing different theories about its semantic significance. The novel seems to be an example of avant-garde experimentation and a well written and recorded commentary on Irish history, culture, and politics. Moreover, the study also draws on critical and theoretical frameworks, including postmodernism and deconstruction, while contextualizing Joyce's use of distortion and fragmentation within broader literary and philosophical traditions and norms. Therefore, this current study contributes to the ongoing critical conversation around the selected novel ‘Finnegans Wake’. Additionally, it also offers new insights into Joyce's innovative and challenging literary style as how masterfully he knits fragmentation and distortion to depict anarchy and chaos in society, particularly, and in world, generally.

Lexical Stylistics Analysis of Surah Ar-Rehman and its Urdu Translation

Maryam Alvi — 2024-03-31

Like all other religious scriptures, the Holy Quran is a sacred book written in Arabic language and read worldwide by people of diverse languages. Moreover, the Holy Quran has also been translated into multiple languages by numerous scholars to cater the needs of its readers. The translations of Quran into diverse languages have employed various methods, ranging from word-to-word translation to interpreting the text's meaning. Multiple translations of Quran are available in Urdu language as well. While, initially, style was not a significant consideration when translating a text into another language, the relationship between stylistics and translation has gained recognition worldwide in recent times. The current study aimed to conduct a stylistic analysis of Surah Ar-Rahman along with its Urdu translation, focusing on lexical stylistics, to explore the similarity in style between the original text and its translation. Surah Ar-Rahman was purposefully selected for this study due to its aesthetic and stylistic profundity. The Urdu translation by Hafiz Salahuddin Yousuf was chosen based on an oral survey conducted beforehand. Among various aspects of stylistics, the current research delved into lexical stylistics, specifically examining lexical parallelism. This qualitative and exploratory research first analyzed the Arabic text for instances of lexical parallelism, followed by an analysis of its Urdu translation. The findings were then compared to identify the retained features and those lost in translation. The results revealed that the lexical parallelism features present in the original text were mostly retained by the translator, with occasional instances where repetition led to the omission of certain words in the translation. The current study further reinforced the notion that translation can never fully replicate the original text, as the style and stylistic features of the original text are inherently challenging to be translated entirely.

Phonemic Modification Strategies Used by Pahari ESL Learners while Learning English Consonant Clusters

Kokub Khurshid Abbasi — 2024-06-26

The current study attempted to examine different modification strategies used by Pahari ESL (English as Second Language) learners. Pahari ESL learners use different types of modification strategies to acquire consonant clusters that are not found in their native language. The data was collected by providing a list of 216 words which were various combinations of the place of articulation and manner of articulation. About 10 participants were selected from the district Bagh. The participants belonged to intermediate academic background. The learners were asked to pronounce those clusters three times. These recordings were analyzed by using Praat software. For acoustics analysis, three participants were selected from them. The current study showed that Pahari learners use deletion, lenition, and fortition as modification strategies to deal with the consonant clusters that are not found in their language. This study further indicated that learners used spirantization, approximentization, voicing, change in manner, stopping insertion of consonants, devoicing, and lengthening of vowels as well.

Appraisal Analysis of Women Representation in Matrimonial Advertisements

Sumbal Sarwar — 2024-03-31

The language employed in matrimonial advertisements has a considerable impact on how people perceive marriage and gender roles. In addition to reflecting and reinforcing societal norms, values, and gender roles, the language used in matrimonial ads may have an impact on how individuals and families view themselves and one another in the setting of marriage. The current study explored linguistic choices in marriage ads to depict women in traditional gender roles and how they contribute to the representation of women. Matrimonial websites and social media platforms were used to compile a corpus of matrimonial ads. The current study utilized Systemic Functional Linguistics' appraisal theory to explore women representation in matrimonial ads. About 43 matrimonial ads were analyzed by using the ATLAS.ti software, for lexico-grammatical choices pertaining to judgment and appreciation. To identify the linguistic features and patterns, the textual content of matrimonial ads was analyzed linguistically. This analysis concentrated on lexical choices, linguistic structures, and presence of evaluative language, all of which align with appraisal theory concepts. The study determined that women are mostly categorized in terms of their physical attributes, such as beauty, height, weight, their age, occupation, education, character, and nature.

Metaverse as Medium: Understanding the Revival of McLuhan's Notion 'Medium is the Message' in the Emergent Virtual Reality Landscape

Muhammad Rashid — 2024-06-26

This research aims to explore the advent of Metaverse as a medium in the emergent virtual reality landscape. It draws on the work of media theorist Marshall McLuhan related to the relationship among human beings, society, culture, and technology defined under the term “the medium is the message". The study examines the possible revival of McLuhan’s notion in the Age of Metaverse, as well as in other virtual worlds. Metaverse is an emerging technology of shared virtual spaces that combine virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and other immersive technologies. Following the notions of medium theory and technological determinism as analytical frameworks, the study provides detailed insights about the influence of new technologies reshaping people’s perception as well as theunderstanding of new communication tools and media. The research is based on the systematic literature review method. The findings present the current state of research on Metaverse and virtual reality including their usage and applications within the framework of McLuhan’s media theories. The review identifies several themes that emerge from the literature, including the Extension of Man, the Global Village, McLuhan’s new medium, and the medium is the message in the virtual age. The results suggest that Metaverse, as a new form of immersive medium, continues to emerge and shape human communication and social interactions.