Appraisal Analysis of Verbal Discourse of Educationists Regarding Honour Killing

Abstract

Honour killing is probably one of the most significant socio-cultural issues in Pakistan, which is based on patriarchal attitudes and cultural concept of family honour. Extensive research is already available on cultural, legal, and social aspects of honour killing. However, limited research is available on how conceptions regarding honour killing are reproduced or challenged within the education sector. Thereby using appraisal theory and appraisal model current study aims to explore the conceptions regarding honour killing in the verbal discourse of educationists in Pakistan. The findings of the study show that the use of emotive vocabulary is common to show sympathy to the victims, condemnation of violence, and a conflict between cultural sensitivity and moral outrage. Judgmental vocabulary is mostly employed to morally judge perpetrators, households and cultural patterns, some educationists label honour killing a cowardly, unjustified or inhuman act, and a few replicates culturally engrained concepts of honour and decency. Regarding the aspect of “Graduation”, participants sharpen their judgments by using lexical choices of high force (e.g., “extremely brutal, deeply rooted), which is creating the sense of further seriousness of the problem and foregrounding the urgency of the situation; softening tactics are in effect at other moments when speakers are afraid to openly go against the common cultural values. The study concludes that the discourse of educationists is both an expression of opposition to honour-based violence and a trace of transformative conceptions.