DefinePK

Abstract

This research explores the syntactic and pragmatic aspects that condition word order flexibility in Pashto and English, comparing how the two languages communicate emphasis, focus, and topicalization. This paper compares the flexibility of sentence structure allowed by Pashto’s case-marking system in comparison to English’s rigid SVO word order, drawing on data from the Pashto National Corpus (2022) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English. The findings reveals that Pashto facilitates much more fluid rearrangements according to pragmatic needs for sentence parts, such as focusing on the subject, object, or verb, while in English, auxiliary structures and cleft sentences are used to achieve the same. This research concluded that though both languages use pragmatic variables for adjusting word order, Pashto’s case-marking system has a syntactic advantage which makes word order changes more fluid and easier. This study highlights the syntactic restrictions in English that call for additional structural mechanisms in order to modify word order. These findings are helpful for understanding of cross-linguistic syntax and pragmatic variations as well as how syntactic structures and communication needs affect word order flexibility.