Sociopragmatic Variations: Addressing Practices of Pakistani English Speakers in Multilingual Academic Setting

Abstract

The study aims to identify the set of address forms used between Pakistani bi-/multilingual faculty members in university settings when speaking English. We highlight the impact of sociocultural and bi-/multilingual identity in English on the speakers' choices in formal and informal contexts. We have limited our data between teacher-teacher interactions through a questionnaire-survey of 90 participants. The data were analyzed through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) v.20; a descriptive test was performed on the obtained data along with ethnographical observation. The result indicates the impact of the cultural and pragmatic variations in the use of address forms while interacting in English. Moreover, the multilingual situation influenced the addressing forms as observed when participants selected the native language's terms of address based on symmetrical and asymmetrical contexts. The faculty interactions showed differences in the styles of communication based on the interlocutor and the situation. These findings have large implications in sociolinguistics, sociopragmatic, academic discourse, and intercultural communication.