Boosters in Pakistani English Newspaper Editorials: A Corpus-Based Study

Abstract

Boosters have been the focal point of many researchers as these devices are handed down for insurance, surety, and to involve the reader in an argument. The present research aims to study the boosters in Pakistani English newspaper editorials using a corpus-based methodology. 100 editorials are used for this purpose, 50 from the Dawn newspaper and the other 50 from The Frontier newspaper. The corpus data was analysed quantitatively and then qualitatively by using AntConc software. The list of boosters was prepared using Hyland’s (2015) interactional metadiscourse model. The results demonstrate that Dawn newspaper editorials are more reader-friendly, engage readers more, and show the writers’ certainty by their excessive use of boosters compared to those in The Frontier. The conclusion is that boosters play a role as interactional discourse markers in both newspaper editorials, which engage their readers in arguments while being read by the writers.