“Tum hi to ho Saeen”

Application of Socio-cognitive model by  VanDijk

on the song “Tum hi to ho Saeen”

Teun A. Van Dijk suggested his Socio-cognitive model in order to explain and formulate the guidelines and main features he observed while doing CDA as it gave the multidisciplinary orientation. While illustrating his views about the model he also emphasized that this model could be change; an analyst can add or discard anything from it as it is not a definite model. Van Dijk expressed his views regarding his model as:

“I dislike labels (because they are reductionist and because I have many times changed my area of research), I have few quarrels with this one, especially since it emphasizes that- unlike many of my colleagues in CDA I value fundamental importance of study of cognition in the critical analysis of discourse, communication and interaction.” (Wodak and Meyer)

According to him any discourse is influenced by society and cognition. He gave us a triangular model of society, discourse and cognition:

From this model it is clear that all these three things occur together and has influence on each other, more precisely all three are interrelated and cannot stand alone. So we can say that they are constituted at the same time they are also constitutive an example for this could be the tradition of wedding in Pakistani society. The way we celebrate the wedding is that we adopted from the society as we watch it on the television. On the same time we are also shaping the society as we are representing that how to celebrate a wedding. At the same time it is also demonstrating that how we are thinking, feeling, evaluating and planning the wedding in Pakistani context. It is impossible to apart these three things because we cannot say that first society shapes the discourse, then discourse shapes the cognition because all three processes are occurring together at the same time and also influencing each other. It is as hard as to say that what camefirst egg or hen.

“Discourse is communicative equipment including conversational interaction, written text, as well as associated gestures, frameworks, typographical layouts, images and any other semantic or multimedia dimension of significance.” From this definition it is comprehensible that a discourse is not limited to any single thing. It is consists of many things as they play a vital role to make communication successful. To analyze a discourse Van Dijk gave us two types of discourse structures first one is macro-structures and second one is micro-structures. Macro-structures are the global meanings or the topics that represent what a discourse is about. As for example the macro-structure in the song “Tum Hi To Ho Saeen” is that every Pakistani is madly in love with cricket especially when it is world cup tournament people get crazy about it.

Micro-structures means “the selection of the words by the speakers in their mental models, events and their socially shared believes…” (Wodka and Meyer), meanings of these chosen words as well as the meanings of the structures of propositions.Active-passive voice, euphemism, adjectives, identity or collective identity, generalization, emotional language, presupposition, implication and the identity of Us and Them etc. all are observed by the means of these selected words and come under the heading of micro-structure.

Words choice:

The selection of the words through which singer has imposed an ideology of cricket on Pakistanis. He says:

“ har Pakistani k dilmein, hain teen cheezainzaroor

Bijli, ball or balla, baqi sub fazool”

The word “har” explains that he is talking about each and every Pakistani who only thinks about three things which are “bijli”, “ball” or “balla”. It is because without electricity people would not be able to watch the cricket match. But question here is that is it really true that every Pakistani need only these three things and nothing else. The answer is definitely “no” because there are many other necessities in the life that Pakistanis are in need whereas these three things are only the means of pleasure.

“businesssy important ziadahy ye toss,

Dukanain sari band hein, bhalay ho jay loss,

Biwikidaantsybhiitnanairoya,

jitnamaninudaashuajbapna batsman khoya”

The word choices like “business, toss, dukaanain, loss, biwi, daant, batsman and udaas” are not only creating an ideology but also shaping a society as well as explaining the cognition process. Business and shops are the means for the people to earn money but when singer says that business is less important than the toss he is giving more credibility to cricket. It is because according to singer cricket is more valuable than the profit of the business to the businessman.

            Although the example of “biwi” in the song is used just to create humor because in our context it is used as in-jokes for a male it is a shameful moment to listen the menace from his wife because of the male dominance of the society. It is the matter of their ego to have control on the wives otherwise people around them would not accept them as “men”. It is easily presumed that the words used in the song that are creating the discourse as well as shaping the society at the same time it is also showing the cognition process of males in our context. They have shown the females in the society only for the purpose of objectification that is how mostly men think of women as.

The most significant word of this song is “saeen” which is repeatedly used it is because in our context there are many different connotations of this word. Literally it means “a pious person or saint” (humariweb.com) But normally people use this word for the person who is simple minded or a little bit mentally upset or unpredictable. If we visit Sindh area there this word is a“title of respect that Sindhi men use for each other, denoting that the person is a gentleman, but has been mistaken as synonymous with feudal, the social class of landowners in the rural areas of Sindh, or even crudely, a king” (Bina Shah). Sindhi also use this word as to make fun of the person who act as a high and mighty and want to draw the attention of other people. So in the song it is really difficult to say that which connotation is rightfrom my own understanding singer used this word in negative meaning against the people who feel themselves as a very highly people because media and people use many emotional epic words for cricketers like “Pakistani Shaheen” etc. this word “Shaheen” is used in Iqbal’s poetry for muslims which explains the bravery of muslims. It also means that muslims must behave and live as high as this bird live as it flies above the clouds basically poet used it in term of moral supremacy. But mostly readers take it literally. Singer has use the word “saeen” for cricketer just to make fun of them as whenever the media shows the supremacy of them in the very next match they lost the game so we can say that Pakistani cricket team is unpredictable just like a “saeen”.

Implication:

“cricketnaihysirf is awaam k liyekhel,

Ye hy in ka passion is k samnysb fail”

Through these lines implication is clearly observed because the singer is just imposing on the people that cricket is a passion for them. In fact cricket for some people is only a game not all of the people are crazy about it. Another place he used the word “larai” (fight) for cricket. Fight is a negative impression that is used for it and it is also constructing the negative identity, because in fight people got injured and die. But cricket is only a game in which one team wins and other lost.

Emotional language:

Singer has use emotional language just to make viewers his play-mates words like “passion, fail, Yorker, swing, topi, saeen, and the adjectives like “silakoti bat and khaladi ye kacha” are all use to make viewers and listeners more emotional and touchy towards this game. These words also represent the society and cognition process as mostly young generation love to use these kinds of words in their normal conversation.

Generalization:

“Ticketnamily to darakhtprbhicharhjaein,

Halkanalein in friends koyunWaseembhai.”

Here generalization is used to make every Pakistani equally emotional and passionate about this game but is reality not all the people are passionate about it especially females because they cannot bear curiosity so they avoid to see match their only concern is to know whether Pakistan has win or lost.

Active/passive voice:                    

Throughout the song singer has used the passive voice to hide the identity just to avoid the criticism against him but in fact he used many associate words to make it clear that he is talking about cricket like; ball, balla, swing, toss, bat, batsman, bowler and Yorker etc. This identifies the main topic of the discourse. The most significantly the direct reference and appearance of WaseemAkram who is known as a legend cricketer of Pakistani cricket, in the song. His appearance and rapping in song make it more popular and emotional as people mostly think that he is supporting the national team. But it also means to make people bias and passionate enough to take a simple game as the matter of their lives.

Van Dijk defines the society as “society meant to include both the local microstructures of situated face to face interaction as well as more global societal and political structure variously defined in terms of groups, group relation, movements, institutions etc.”

As the discourse is divide into macro structure and micro structure a society could also be categorized as micro/local level and macro/global level, “firstly at the level of interaction and situations through the social representation of social members about the social structures” (Wodak and Meyer). As for example through this song we can observe that the situation/event is cricket match and the social members could be the singer and the dancers in the video. If we analyze it through discourse then the wording of the song is also used in the normal life of social actors in streets, offices, schools and other social institutions; which also shapes the society and the mind set of social members.

            “Macro level notions may include power and domination” (Wodak and Meyer) as through the song male domination can be observed through the line of “biwikidaantsybhi main itnanairoya”. It is understandable that singer has used this type of line just to create humor but on the other hand it also seems mocking and dominating. It is because it’s always a man who has higher authority in the society rather than a woman. And a man who is less authoritative is known as a coward person who cannot handle his wife it shows the stereotypical thought of society which is male dominated. Another thing is that this song is especially composed for the national male cricket team not for the national women cricket team, which also concludes the male dominance in the society. This also shows the societal structure at macro level as male domination is a global issue. Here we can also discuss the society through the discourse because without words it would be impossible to discuss about it. So we can conclude that discourse and society both has a deep connection between them as discourse constitutes the society and society constitutes the discourse. At the same time it also explains the specific and stereotypical mind sets of the society. The actual study of this global/ macro notion takes place at local/ micro level as the discourse is used by the people which also create the ideology. As through the discourse of the song as ideology of cricket is represented it is macro level notion which is presented thro micro structures of discourse.

            Van Dijk gives us the definition of cognition as “cognition could be both personal as well as social, it refers to ‘believes and goals as wellas revolutions and emotions and any other mental or memory structures representation or processes involved in discourse and interaction.”

            It is interpretable from the definition that any mental process related to believes and goals which explains one’s or group’s feelings and emotions counted as cognition process. So, the personal cognition process that a singer used to write the song could also be the social cognition process because the song also expresses the thought of a society too. We can again categorize the cognition as local context and global context. A local context is basically specific knowledge related to any field like politics, and business etc. which is understandable for the specificpeople like in the song singer has used the word “Yorker” this term is specifically used in cricket which means “a is ball bowled in a way that it pitches immediately under the bat” (oxford). Now these kinds of jargons can only be comprehensible to the people who are related to cricket field who are local in the world of cricket.In the song we can analyze the flexible adaptation of normal discourse which explains the local situations like “sbdekhaingyt.vmaila ho ya mummy daddy”. From this one can easily imagine a picture of the TV longue where whole family (who actually have the knowledge and know the jargons of cricket) is gather to watch the match and also express their emotions, believes and goals through different ways and all these reactions are the result of cognition processes. This local situation has been depicted by the singer in a very rhythmic way. We can also observe the same situation at the global level when hundreds and thousands of people gather in the stadium or any other open place to watch the game they belong to the different areas, different countries of the world. They also have different terms and tradition of their living styles and they speak different languages too but as they watch match they express their emotions, feelings, and curiosity to which we can say social cognition process at global context.

             In concluding the discussion the model that Van Dijk proposed to us Socio-cognitive model has explain in detail that discourse, society and cognition are interrelated. These three things are constituted as well as constitutive. This song “Tum HI to Ho Saeen” which was released in 2012 at the event of T20 World cup tournament by Ufone imposes an ideology about cricket match on the nation of Pakistan. As we have discuss it in detail that how micro structures and macro structures create a discourse equally influence the society and cognition.

Work Cited

Shah, Bina, “Saeen tau Saeen”.  Binashah.blogspot.com. Sunday, July 1, 2012. Web 27 apr. 2014.

“Saeen.”Copyright © 2014 HamariWeb.com. web 27 apr. 2014.

Wodak, Ruth and Meyer, Micheal.Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis.London: Sage Publication, 2002. print

“Yorker.”Oxford University press’s dictionary.Oxfordictionaries.com. web 11 May. 2014.

Appendix

Ali Gul Pir Tum Hi Tou Ho Saeen

Har Pakistani KeDil Main, Hain Teen CheezainZarooor
Bijli, Ball AurBalla, Baqi Sab Fazool
BuzurghHoonYaJawan Sab Match KeLiye Ready
Sab DekhainGeyTv, Maila Ho Ya Mummy Daddy!
(How’s That)
SaeenKa Yorker BhiSaeen (How’s That)
SaeenKe Swing BhiSaeen (How’s That)
SaeenKe Fans BhiSaeen (How’s That)
Tum Hi Tou Ho Saeen
Business Se Important Ziada Hai Yeh Toss,
Dukanain Sari Band Hein, Bhalay Ho Jaye Loss,
Biwi Ki Daant Se Bhi Main ItnaNahiRoya,
Jitna Main Udaas Hua Jab Apna Batsman Khoya,
Cricket Nahi Hai SirfIssAwamKeLiye Khel,
Yeh Hai In Ka Passion Is KeSamney Sab Fail,
(How’s That)
SaeenKa Yorker BhiSaeen (Howzzat?)
SaeenKe Swing BhiSaeen (Howzzat?)
SaeenKe Fans BhiSaeen (Howzzat?)
Tum Hi Tou Ho Saeen
Boss Ke Call Hai (How’s That)
Koi SoochoAchiTopi
SochoAcheeTopi X8
WasimAkram: “Cousin KeShadi Hai YaBeemar Hai Teri Phoophi”
(How’s That)
SaeenKeTopiBhiSaeen (How’s That)
SaeenKe Swing BhiSaeen (How’s That)
SaeenKe Fans BhiSaeen (How’s That)
Tum Hi Tou Ho Saeen X2
SaeenKa Yorker BhiSaeen (Howzzat?)
SaeenKe Swing BhiSaeen (Howzzat?)
SaeenKe Fans BhiSaeen (Howzzat?)
Bowler Ke Appeal Se Pehley, Hum Cheekein ->How’s That
Umpire tu Out day ->DikhaonSialkoti Bat
DosraChor Main TujheTeesra Swing Karwaon
Wasim Bhai Ki Swing AurDaadoKaJaduKaDekhaon
Parchi Per Aya Hai KhildaiYehKacha Hai
BolAisayRaha Hai Jaisey Chairman TeraChacha Hai
Ticket Na Miley TuDarakht Per Bhi Char Jayein
Halka Na Lein In Friends Ko Yun Wasim Bhai
Pakistani Fans Ko Bata Doon – Mushkil Hai YehLarai,
MagarSaeenTouSaeen, Saeen Ki Team BhiSaeen!
(How’s That)
SaeenKa Yorker BhiSaeen (Howzzat?)
SaeenKe Swing BhiSaeen (Howzzat?)
SaeenKe Fans BhiSaeen (Howzzat?)
Wasim: Bara Ho Kar Kia Banay Ga?Saeen…