A Corpus Study of Hedges and Boosters in the Final Investigation Report of Joint Investigation Team of Panama Case

Study of Hedges and Boosters in the Final Investigation Report of Joint Investigation Team of Panama Case

Abstract

This article investigates split infinitives in Pakistani English and British English using Kachru‘s (1985) concentric circles framework. Beginning with a brief description of split infinitives, the article explores the most common ‗breakers‘ in Pakistani English (outer circle) and their variations in terms of use as compared to British English (inner circle). By using sketch engine, findings reveal that the use of split infinitives in innercircle and outer circle Englishes exhibit similarities and differences. In Pakistani English newspaper corpus, ‗immediately‘ appears to be the most frequently used breaker in split infinitives under ‗RB‘ adverb tag whereas in BNC (Newspaper), the most common breaker is really‘. The seemingly contradicting data indicates that the split between inner and outer circle Englishes is not same as initially hypothesized by Kachru.