ABSTRACT
This study examines the lexical features of Pakistani English as used in the selected works of Pakistani Anglophone literature. Since English, in a linguistically and culturally diverse Pakistan, has become a Pakistani language. Therefore, one of the most important aspects of any claim for Pakistani English as a distinct variety of World Englishes is, clearly, the literary dimension, which this study explored, with the use of textual analysis method, in the selected works of four Pakistani Anglophone writers to ascertain its lexical features. The study highlights variety of innovative methods, such as borrowing, affixation, compounding, hybridization, loan translations, conversion, and archaism, used by the Pakistani Anglophone writers to express the Pakistani identity of their works, in a language compatible with their sociocultural realities. The study concluded that the English, albeit non-native variety has developed a distinct identity of Pakistani language, with facility and correctness of literary expression. The study’s results, thus, emphasize the demand for these lexical features to be codified in Pakistani English books and dictionaries.
