Comparative Study Of Logical Meta-Functions In Pakistani High And Low-Graded Argumentative Essays

Abstract

This comparative corpus-based research aims to investigate the taxis and logico-semantic relations in Pakistani High-graded argumentative essays (HGAEs) and Low-graded argumentative essays (LGAEs). The study utilizes Halliday & Matthiessen's (2004) system of clause complexes as the analytical framework and collects 100 argumentative texts from the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE). The texts are categorized into high and low-graded argumentative essays by using the Cambridge O-Level rubric, and the annotation task is conducted by employing the UAM corpus tool. The findings reveal that Pakistani writers of both datasets employ a combination of paratactic and hypotactic taxis and utilize various logico-semantic relations. The comparative analysis demonstrates that high-graded argumentative essays exhibit prevalent clause complexes, a balanced mix of paratactic and hypotactic relations, with a notable emphasis on mental processes and causal relations. In contrast, low-graded argumentative essays favour clause simples, lean towards hypotactic constructions, and demonstrate a higher usage of conditional relations. Noticeably, both datasets did not show significant differences except hypotactic, hypotactic negative and paratactic causal relations. These findings provide valuable insights into the writing patterns of Pakistani students in argumentative essays and help to improve the ESL written discourse.