A Pragmatic Analysis of Married Couples Conversation in a Television Serial ‘Nijat’

Language is the basic feature of any society which reflects its social norms and culture. The language patterns vary from culture to culture and the concept of gender is the key factor in this scenario. There is an immense diversity in the language behavior of men and women. The current study aims at finding out the language patterns of both men and women with particular reference to the Pakistani society. Generally in a Pakistani society, men enjoy more power in all affairs of life whereas, women have a secondary status in different domains of life. A famous Pakistani television serial ‘Nijat’ is taken as a sample to explore the differences in language used by married couples belonging to upper and lower social classes during their conversation. The sample is taken from the media keeping in mind the fact that media is representative of the realities of life prevailing in the society. The findings of the present study show that males from the lower class in the role of husband use more FTAs, initiate and ask more questions, whereas females from the same class in the role of wives use more FSAs and submissive language while talking to each other. On the other hand, husband and wife belonging to upper class enjoy equal status and use FTAs, initiate questions on the equal basis during their conversation.