Open Linguistics 2019; 5: 354–368 Musarat Yasmin*, Farhat Naseem, Ayesha Sohail Religious and Socio-cultural Influences on the Pakistani Wedding Invitation https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2019-0019 Received October 28, 2018; accepted July 10, 2019 Abstract: The Wedding Invitation is one of the significant text genres. Following genre analysis approach and discourse analysis (DA), the present research analysed the wedding invitation genres in Pakistan to explore generic structures, as well as the role played by the broader socio-cultural norms and values in shaping this genre. Therefore, a corpus of 50 wedding invitations in Urdu and English was randomly selected from cards received from January to June 2018. The results of this genre analysis revealed seven obligatory and one optional move in Urdu, while six obligatory and one optional move in English invitations. Through discourse analysis, it has been uncovered how religious association and cultural influence in Pakistani society shape textual selection. Little variation was displayed in the invitations of the two languages, presumably due to regional cultural reflections and recent influence of western values. A comparison of Pakistani and UK invitations showed differences not only in move selection but also in lexical choices which are shaped by the respective cultures. Keywords: wedding invitation; genre analysis; discourse analysis; religious influence 1 Introduction The wedding is one of the most remarkable days in a person’s life. Wedding in each culture demands several arrangements, and the wedding invitation is one of these preparations. Wedding invitation cards are socially constructed and conventionalised genres. Invitations can be delivered through a card, or verbally. Written invitations include certain generic features not found in spoken invitation. These written invitations include more specific information, for instance, the names of people involved, venues and the time of the wedding. There are various types and manners of invitation cards. Pakistanis use a distinct manner in providing invitation cards for their wedding ceremonies. Invitation cards analysis will explain the underlying norms ingrained in Pakistani and Islamic traditions, as well as primaces of the couples and their families. The current research goals are defining the constituent move about the Pakistani wedding invitation cards. 1.1 Theoretical underpinnings The current study draws on the framework of Swales (1990). Researchers from different backgrounds characterised genre differently. The most influential definition has been attributed by him as follows: “A genre is a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes. These purposes are recognised by the expert members of the parent discourse community, and thereby Research Article *Corresponding author: Musarat Yasmin, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan, E-mail: musaratalvi@hotmail.com Farhat Naseem, University of Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan Ayesha Sohail, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, Pakistan Open Access. © 2019 Musarat Yasmin et al., published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Public License.