An Evidence from Pakistani Newspapers

A Genre Analysis of Obituaries and Death Announcements

The life of humans is noted to revolve around birth, marriage, and eventual death

Death is announced in different ways such as, epitaphs, tributes, dirges, and obituaries (Moses & Morelli, 2004)

OBITUARYAs said by Campbell (1971), an obituary

contains minimal information including: the deceased’s name,date of birth,place of living,date of death sometimes, cause of death.

As presented by Fernandez (2006), the term ‘obituary’ is derived from the Latin word ‘obitus’, meaning ‘going away’ (a common euphemistic word for death)

Components of ObituaryObituary includes record of announcement

of death or deaths, especially in a newspaper, brief biographical sketch of the death person

Aspects of ObituaryThere are two main aspects of obituarycreate griefevokes admiration for him or her (Askildon, 2007; Fernandez, 2007;

Bryant & Peck, 2009)

Obituary is written for the famous person, that is why it is written by an expert of a publishing firm, and it is free of cost

Pre-written by the particular individual

Types of ObituariesThere are two types of obituary as

Fernandez (2007) distinguishes them between Informative obituariesopinative obituaries

Informative obituaryThe informative obituary includes

important details about the death the deceased, place and time of funeral, and next of family connectionswithout any prejudice aloof language brief expressionobjective styleNot use of hyperbolic language

Opinative obituary‘opinative obituary’ is

written by a relative, friend or the funeral home staff

more emotive and intimate account of the deceased by “means of consolatory and laudatory tactics” to satisfy and lessen the feelings of surviving family members.

Subjectivea greater part of the obituary is devoted

to the ‘family stage’.

Moves(steps) of Obituaries Watson (2008) describes four moves of

writing an obituary. 1. introduction, comprises the name, age,

date and place of death as well as course of death.

2. biography3. list the surviving relatives4. ‘‘additional information’’, which includes

place and time of wake (optional) and address of where donations, condolences and gifts can be sent.

Harold et al. (2009) present five moves which obituary writers must adopt.

1. Basic pieces of informationi. name of the deceased and ii. cause of death

2. Biographical informationi. includes information like date and place of

birth, schools attended, ii. notable awards received and iii. important hobbies.

3. Survivor informationi. which includes people who survive ii. inheritance of the deceased

4. Immediate family members (spouse, children, parents, siblings,

step-children)secondary family members (aunts, uncles, grandchildren, close

cousins).

5. scheduled ceremonies – a note of where and when important ceremonies

such as wake, grave-side burials and memorial services will take place.

6. The final move is a note of where people can make donations.

Analysis

Caption. In this move, the

reader gets to know about the nature of news in the newspapers, through various linguistic items

He has passed on (declarative)His glory has come (declarative)Stop killing journalists (imperative)

List of Members of Family, Clan, Organizations and other  It is not important that list comprises

only the family members of the late but also other relations, families or organizations who were the part of the deceased’s life while he/she was alive.

A nominal pattern is followed to present the list of names.

It must be noted also that it is the part which actually announces the death of a person.

Contains the names of people like the heads of family (elders),a member having higher status, religious leaders, top political parties and political leaders, and the name of the

member of family who belong to leading associations or organization.

Foreigner newspaper examples identified contain the following:

… announce the glorious home call of their beloved Cosmos Osei Forson…

… announce the death of Edward Kwame Agbenyega.

… regret to announce the sudden death of … … with regret, wish to inform the general public of

the death of their beloved… … announce with deep sorrow the home call of…

It is at the start of death announcements but is not found in Pakistani obituaries.

Profile of the Deceased  

Full formal name of the departed is written. The surname is written in a more prominent way

and to highlight the family name and background, by bolding or capitalizing it.

Cluster of adjectives are added with the name or title(s). modification, which explain the place and date of death,

and their social status.Photograph

age and status

Pakistani obituaries and death announcements surname is not written in a prominent way to

highlight the family name and background; all parts of the name are in the same font

size Cluster of adjectives are added with the

name as shown above in the messages

Photograph we find 40% of this phenomenon Most of the obituaries lack photographs. On the other hand in death announcements the

photograph ratio is 63%In all of the messages in which we found photograph

were in single in number mostly of the old age or the recent taken picture

Funeral ArrangementStart with some linguistic expression like

‘funeral program’, ‘funeral announcement’ or ‘funeral announcement are as follows’.

Not every obituary and announcement has this part because some obituaries are written long after the death that is why funeral arrangement part is not the necessary anymore.

This part tends to be followed by adverbs of place, adverbs of time, and purpose phrases. In this part the thanksgiving expression are used.

Out of twenty messages only one death announcement starts with linguistic expression like ‘marhoom ki namaz e

janaza’ means ‘funeral program’.

This part is mostly found in ‘death announcements’ not in all of the obituaries.

Followed by adverbs of place, adverbs of time, and purpose phrases i.e.

‘His funeral prayers would be held in Rahmania Masjid on Tariq Road after Friday prayers’.

It is the important part in this way that it provides the direction or information

List of Family Members (Survivors)Last move of the

obituaries and death announcements

It is a list of nominal items which are the names of the deceased’s family

In this move we analyze that Pakistani Obituaries and Death announcements differ from the foreign rules prescribe by different authors.

The list of the family is not the nominal one rather in most of the obituaries the names is not mentioned.

Only the number of the survivors is given.

Thanks