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Article published In:
Cultural Linguistic Contributions to World Englishes
Edited by Hans-Georg Wolf, Frank Polzenhagen and Arne Peters
[International Journal of Language and Culture 4:2] 2017
► pp. 170–196

Matrimonial adverts in Indian English

Notes on the contextualisation of a text type

 | University of Heidelberg
 | University of Heidelberg
Our paper readdresses the Kachruvian notion of ‘contextualisation’ from a cultural-linguistic/cognitive-sociolinguistic perspective. We provide an exemplary analysis along these lines, using data from a corpus of Indian-English matrimonial advertisements as our empirical basis. Taking the dimensions of contextualisation distinguished in Kachru’s original framework as a matrix, we show that instances of nativisation detected in the data can be fruitfully spelled out in terms of their underlying cultural conceptualisations and are often interrelated against this background. Furthermore, we suggest that the notion of contextualisation can be profitably applied to entire text types. At a general level, we argue that an analysis that addresses cultural cognition at group level can overcome limitations of descriptive approaches in the study of L2-varieties and provide common ground for a joint endeavour of various research paradigms and disciplines.
Keywords: L2-varities of English, Indian English, contextualisation/nativisation, cultural conceptualisations of marriage , matrimonial advertisements
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Notes on the text type “matrimonial advertisements”
    • 2.1Definition, classification and function of matrimonial adverts
    • 2.2A sketch of the history of matrimonial advertisements in Britain and India
    • 2.3Linguistic characteristics of the text type “matrimonial advertisements”
  • 3.Dimensions of contextualisation
    • 3.1Contextualisation of lexical material
      • matrimonial
      • marriage
      • girl/boy
      • issueless/no issue
      • wheatish
      • clean-shaven
    • 3.2Contextualisation of content
    • 3.3Contextualisation of speech functions
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.4.2.03pol
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