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

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.