Studies in Linguistics and Language Education
Volume 2, Numéro 1, Pages 195-208
2026-06-30
Use Of Interactional Metadiscourse Markers In Pakistani Newspaper Editorials: A Corpus-based Study
Authors : Ahmad Muhammad . Mehtab Amna . Mehtab Fatima .
Abstract
Interactional metadiscourse refers to linguistic features that help writers maintain coherence and actively engage readers within a text. This study investigates the use of interactional metadiscourse markers in Pakistani newspaper editorials using Hyland's (2005) framework. A corpus of 1,000 editorials, comprising approximately 473,382 words, was compiled from four major English-language publications, The Dawn, The Frontier, The News, and The Express Tribune, covering the period from January 2020 to December 2022. From this corpus, 250 editorials drawn from The Dawn and The Frontier were selected for detailed analysis, as these two newspapers represent contrasting editorial identities at national and regional levels. AntConc software was used for quantitative frequency analysis, supplemented by manual qualitative examination. Log-likelihood tests confirmed statistically significant variation across the five interactional marker categories: hedges, boosters, engagement markers, attitude markers, and self-mentions. Results indicate that hedges are the most frequently used interactional feature overall, with The Frontier displaying notably higher hedge density than The Dawn. Boosters are more frequent in The Dawn, while engagement markers and self-mentions are more prominent in The Frontier. These findings highlight distinct rhetorical strategies across publications and suggest implications for research on metadiscursive practices in South Asian journalistic writing.
Keywords
interactional markers, metadiscourse, corpus-based study, Pakistani English, journalistic discourse, Hyland's model
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