Pakistani Visiting Cards as a Genre: Linguistic and Semiotic Insights into Professionalism

Abstract

This study examines the ways in which linguistic duality is navigated through the linguistic and semiotic features of Pakistani Urdu and English business visiting cards, reviewing them as tools of professional and sociocultural representation. By adopting a genre-based analysis, this research explores how Pakistani professionals use a blend of Urdu and English languages on business cards to reflect both global and local identities. Data were collected from a sample of 30 business visiting cards across diverse industries, and analyzed using Swales’ and Bhatia’s model (1990) of move analysis framework alongside multimodal semiotic analysis that utilizes Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) semiotic framework to analyze non-verbal symbols, colors, and layouts that contribute to the visual semiotics of professionalism. Findings reveal that the use of English often conveys formality and international affiliation, while Urdu elements reinforce national identity and cultural and especially professional values, creating a unique bilingual identity that caters to both local and global audiences. This study contributes to the understanding of bilingualism in professional settings by demonstrating how language choice and design elements on business cards encapsulate professional status, sociocultural background, and intended audience perception. The findings hold implications for linguists and professionals alike, offering insight into the symbolic capital of bilingualism in Pakistani business contexts. There are moves and steps according to Bhatia’s and Swales’ models, they both generally include : Names ,credentials, services, contact information, consultation hours ,address, purpose and audience, communicative purpose, lexical and visual features ,and last but not least needs of the discourse community. These moves and steps are taken from the business visiting card of a doctor, and similarly these moves and steps vary from one visiting card holder to the other.