Stylistic Analysis of the ‘Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961’

Abstract

Stylistics is the scientific study and interpretation of the texts in relation to their linguistic and tonal styles. It analyzes the texts through different stylistic features/levels i.e. graph logical, semantic and syntactic. These features/levels distinguish a standard writing from the substandard one. In this paper The Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961 of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has stylistically been analyzed on different linguistic, textual and contextual levels. The thorough and careful analysis of the said ordinance shows that it has been formed and composed of according to the nature of the legal and constitutional writings. In it, numerical recurrence has been used for the numbering of various sections and subsections. The analysis also shows that different stylistic techniques such as font style, paragraph formation, logical connection between different words and sentences, section wise division etc. have also been employed in the composition and the formation process of the said ordinance. This is going to be the first attempt in its nature as no work has been done before. It can be very helpful for the practitioners of law in their legal practice and the Muslim community to understand its matrimonial rights. It can also prove helpful for the researchers of linguistics in general and of stylistics in particular in proper understanding of the legal compositions.