Asif Aziz - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Asif Aziz

Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Research, 2020

M aize (Zea mays L.) is an important cereal crop and cultivated under divergent climatic conditio... more M aize (Zea mays L.) is an important cereal crop and cultivated under divergent climatic conditions of spring and summer seasons in Pakistan (Tariq et al., 2002). Being monoecious crop and very much sensitive to high temperatures (Ullah et al., 2020) which causes severe irreversible changes in Abstract | Temperature is a very important factor that affects crop yield. Maize, a monoecious plant, is adversely affected by high temperature during anthesis. Asynchronous fertilization and pollen desiccation reduce maize yield by reducing grain number and their size. Spray of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2), salicylic acid (SA) and ascorbic acid (AsA) may induce heat stress tolerance. Spray of SA, AsA, and H 2 O 2 increased chlorophyll, relative water and nutrient contents, membrane stability index (MSI) and antioxidants activities in heat stress. Moreover, foliar application of chemicals during normal and late planting improved the grain yield by increasing both the grain number and size. Foliar spray of SA, AsA and H 2 O 2 may induce heat tolerance by improving antioxidant activities which stabilized membrane and maintaining relative water, chlorophyll and nutrient content in ear leaves of maize during heat stress.

Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences, 2019

The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is amongst the most serious problems of honey bees, Apis mel... more The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is amongst the most serious problems of honey bees, Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae) around the world including Pakistan. The present study estimates the mite density through powdered sugar roll method and evaluates the effectiveness of five miticides (fluvalinate, flumethrin, amitraz, formic acid, and oxalic acid) on A. mellifera colonies in German modified beehives. The results indicated that by treating the bees with one strip and two strips of fluvalinate per colony; the mite population remained below the economic threshold level (ETL) for 14 days and 25 days, respectively. Treatment of flumthrin @1 strip and @ 2 strips per colony resulted in mite population suppressed for 14 days and 39 days, respectively below ETL. Application of Amitraz @ 2 mL per 1.5 L water after every three days interval on sealed brood effectively controlled mites below ETL for 21 days. Formic acid @10 mL per colony applied through plastic applicator proved effective (below 3 mites per bee sample) for 24 days and oxalic acid applied through shop towel method resulted in mite population control for fifteen days. Use of powdered sugar roll method for easy sampling of Varroa mites and application of acaricides on precise economic threshold level during different seasons of the year for integrated management of Varroa mite is hereby advocated by current studies.

Chili anthracnose damages chili fruits extensively at pre-and postharvest stages causing anthracn... more Chili anthracnose damages chili fruits extensively at pre-and postharvest stages causing anthracnose lesions. Even very small lesion of anthracnose on fruits of chili reduces the market value of chili crop. Fungitoxic effects of methanolic plant extracts were tested in vitrothrough poisoned food technique. There was a significant decrease in mycellial growth of the fungus with an increase in methanolic plant extracts concentration in all the tested methanolic plant extracts over the control. The fungitoxicity of methanolic plant extracts varied greatly among each other and their concentrations. In general, there was a decrease in mycelial growth Colletotrichum capsici with an increase in concentration of methanolic plant extracts. However, when growth of the fungus in response to various methanolic plant extract concentrations after an incubation period of nine days at 28 ± 2°C was compared, neem leaf extract proved to be the best as it had given the maximum control (64 percent) followed by datura leaf extract (63 percent) on 1000 µg/ml concentration. While eucalyptus leaf extract was proved to be the least effective (45 percent) at highest concentration (1000 µg/ml). None of the tested methanolic plant extracts has completely checked the mycelial growth of Colletotrichum capsici at any of their concentrations. Although there was an overall trend of reduction in mycelial growth of Colletotrichum capsiciwith increase in the concentration of methanollic plant extracts.These plant extracts can be used to controlanthracnose of chilies to reduce the use of fungicides, as plant extracts are safer than synthetic fungicides.

LINGUISTICA ANTVERPIENSIA, Dec 25, 2020

Revista Amazonia Investiga, 2020

The current study investigates grammatical and syntactical functions of auxiliaries in Urdu and E... more The current study investigates grammatical and syntactical functions of auxiliaries in Urdu and English to draw certain distinctions regarding the behavior, syntactic representation and semantic content auxiliaries add to the main verbs (Vs) through the X-bar theory as a theoretical framework within the minimalist program (MP). The data of the current research were collected from authentic sources (Urdu and English text books and grammars) to consider a diverse range of possible usage of Urdu and English auxiliaries. 200 sentences extracted from textbooks and grammars were analyzed grammatically in terms of morphology, and syntax (through tree-representation and their movement). The findings indicate sharp differences related to the syntactic position of auxiliaries in Urdu and English. In Urdu, auxiliaries always occupy their position after the main verbs in a sentence and their position is fixed and also have the ability to mark number (singular & plural) and gender (masculine & f...

People usually express their feelings and emotions positively to others when they have happy occa... more People usually express their feelings and emotions positively to others when they have happy occasions. However, the ways of expressing congratulation may vary because the expressive speech act “congratulations” is not the only way to express happiness and share others their happy news. The present study investigates the congratulation strategies of Pakistani ESL learners and British English speakers under the influence of social distance variable. For this purpose, 120 participants were recruited, and who were further divided into four different groups: 30 British English speakers, 30 Pakistani ESL learners in the elite class, 30 Pakistani ESL learners of the middle class, and 30 Pakistani ESL learners in the lower class. For data collection, a Discourse completion test (DCT) was used as a tool. The findings reveal that the most frequently used types of congratulation strategy are IFID followed by overlapped strategies (a combination of two), an offer of a good wish, expression of ...

SAGE Open

The present study aims at establishing grammatical constraints on the borrowing of nouns (Ns) and... more The present study aims at establishing grammatical constraints on the borrowing of nouns (Ns) and verbs (Vs) in Urdu and English by adopting Noam Chomsky's Methodological Naturalism within the field of generative grammar as the theoretical framework of the study. For this purpose, the corpus of Pure Urdu and Pure English sentences from textbooks and the Oxford Dictionary of English was used in this study. The data were analyzed in the light of Minimalist Program, and the findings of the study reveal that there are certain grammatical constraints on the borrowing of Vs in Urdu from Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Hindi as compared with English. It is observed that whenever Urdu borrows Vs from other languages such as Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit, it adds its little v with the fossil form of borrowed verbs in order to retain the grammaticality of the sentence while in English Vs borrowed from Latin, old English is said to be used in their fossil form and can be used with the inflection of the English and has no effect on the grammaticality of the sentence. The reason observed is the drop v phenomenon. Urdu does not drop its little v due to which whenever it borrows Vs it adds its little v along with root form of borrowed Vs otherwise the resulting structure is considered as ungrammatical. If we talk about the borrowed Ns, there are no grammatical constraints on their borrowing because they can inflect with inflectional morphology of Urdu and English language.

International Journal of English Linguistics

The present study aims at presenting a comparative study of Urdu and English in terms of Wh-movem... more The present study aims at presenting a comparative study of Urdu and English in terms of Wh-movement in the light of the minimalist program (MP) as the theoretical framework of the study. For this purpose, Urdu and English data related to Wh-expressions is used. The empirical evaluation of data reveals that Wh-movement is mandatory in English while, non-mandatory in Urdu. Furthermore, it shows that the movement of tense markers in English is obligatory along with the movement of Wh-phrase as compared to Urdu in which it is optional. The movement of tense markers is covert in Urdu as compared to its overt movement in English. The findings of the study show that the feature of [+WH, EPP] stimulates the movement of Wh-expression in order to check these features. The findings of the study are expected to prove helpful for students and researchers in understanding the nature of syntax in general and Wh-movement particularly.

International Journal of English Linguistics

This paper investigates pragmatic transfer in Punjabi EFL learners’ realization of the speech act... more This paper investigates pragmatic transfer in Punjabi EFL learners’ realization of the speech act of congratulations. For this purpose, 120 participants were asked to take part in the study, who were divided into four groups having 30 participants in each group: 30 native English (NE) speakers, 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the elite class, 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the middle class and 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the lower class. To elicit the data, a DCT having 12 situations based on social power and distance was used and for perception data, these situations were analyzed on the basis of four contextual variables (degree of familiarity, power, difficulty, and obligation in expressing congratulations) in the form of SRQ. The criteria for the analysis of negative pragmatic was set on the differences found in the responses of the participants and the positive pragmatic transfer was based on the similarities between the responses of the participants. The data was coded and analyzed unde...

SAGE Open

The present study aims at establishing grammatical constraints on the borrowing of nouns (Ns) and... more The present study aims at establishing grammatical constraints on the borrowing of nouns (Ns) and verbs (Vs) in Urdu and English by adopting Noam Chomsky's Methodological Naturalism within the field of generative grammar as the theoretical framework of the study. For this purpose, the corpus of Pure Urdu and Pure English sentences from textbooks and the Oxford Dictionary of English was used in this study. The data were analyzed in the light of Minimalist Program, and the findings of the study reveal that there are certain grammatical constraints on the borrowing of Vs in Urdu from Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Hindi as compared with English. It is observed that whenever Urdu borrows Vs from other languages such as Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit, it adds its little v with the fossil form of borrowed verbs in order to retain the grammaticality of the sentence while in English Vs borrowed from Latin, old English is said to be used in their fossil form and can be used with the inflection of the English and has no effect on the grammaticality of the sentence. The reason observed is the drop v phenomenon. Urdu does not drop its little v due to which whenever it borrows Vs it adds its little v along with root form of borrowed Vs otherwise the resulting structure is considered as ungrammatical. If we talk about the borrowed Ns, there are no grammatical constraints on their borrowing because they can inflect with inflectional morphology of Urdu and English language.

International Journal of English Linguistics

The present study aims at presenting a comparative study of Urdu and English in terms of Wh-movem... more The present study aims at presenting a comparative study of Urdu and English in terms of Wh-movement in the light of the minimalist program (MP) as the theoretical framework of the study. For this purpose, Urdu and English data related to Wh-expressions is used. The empirical evaluation of data reveals that Wh-movement is mandatory in English while, non-mandatory in Urdu. Furthermore, it shows that the movement of tense markers in English is obligatory along with the movement of Wh-phrase as compared to Urdu in which it is optional. The movement of tense markers is covert in Urdu as compared to its overt movement in English. The findings of the study show that the feature of [+WH, EPP] stimulates the movement of Wh-expression in order to check these features. The findings of the study are expected to prove helpful for students and researchers in understanding the nature of syntax in general and Wh-movement particularly.

International Journal of English Linguistics

This paper investigates pragmatic transfer in Punjabi EFL learners’ realization of the speech act... more This paper investigates pragmatic transfer in Punjabi EFL learners’ realization of the speech act of congratulations. For this purpose, 120 participants were asked to take part in the study, who were divided into four groups having 30 participants in each group: 30 native English (NE) speakers, 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the elite class, 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the middle class and 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the lower class. To elicit the data, a DCT having 12 situations based on social power and distance was used and for perception data, these situations were analyzed on the basis of four contextual variables (degree of familiarity, power, difficulty, and obligation in expressing congratulations) in the form of SRQ. The criteria for the analysis of negative pragmatic was set on the differences found in the responses of the participants and the positive pragmatic transfer was based on the similarities between the responses of the participants. The data was coded and analyzed unde...

Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Research, 2020

M aize (Zea mays L.) is an important cereal crop and cultivated under divergent climatic conditio... more M aize (Zea mays L.) is an important cereal crop and cultivated under divergent climatic conditions of spring and summer seasons in Pakistan (Tariq et al., 2002). Being monoecious crop and very much sensitive to high temperatures (Ullah et al., 2020) which causes severe irreversible changes in Abstract | Temperature is a very important factor that affects crop yield. Maize, a monoecious plant, is adversely affected by high temperature during anthesis. Asynchronous fertilization and pollen desiccation reduce maize yield by reducing grain number and their size. Spray of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2), salicylic acid (SA) and ascorbic acid (AsA) may induce heat stress tolerance. Spray of SA, AsA, and H 2 O 2 increased chlorophyll, relative water and nutrient contents, membrane stability index (MSI) and antioxidants activities in heat stress. Moreover, foliar application of chemicals during normal and late planting improved the grain yield by increasing both the grain number and size. Foliar spray of SA, AsA and H 2 O 2 may induce heat tolerance by improving antioxidant activities which stabilized membrane and maintaining relative water, chlorophyll and nutrient content in ear leaves of maize during heat stress.

Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences, 2019

The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is amongst the most serious problems of honey bees, Apis mel... more The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is amongst the most serious problems of honey bees, Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae) around the world including Pakistan. The present study estimates the mite density through powdered sugar roll method and evaluates the effectiveness of five miticides (fluvalinate, flumethrin, amitraz, formic acid, and oxalic acid) on A. mellifera colonies in German modified beehives. The results indicated that by treating the bees with one strip and two strips of fluvalinate per colony; the mite population remained below the economic threshold level (ETL) for 14 days and 25 days, respectively. Treatment of flumthrin @1 strip and @ 2 strips per colony resulted in mite population suppressed for 14 days and 39 days, respectively below ETL. Application of Amitraz @ 2 mL per 1.5 L water after every three days interval on sealed brood effectively controlled mites below ETL for 21 days. Formic acid @10 mL per colony applied through plastic applicator proved effective (below 3 mites per bee sample) for 24 days and oxalic acid applied through shop towel method resulted in mite population control for fifteen days. Use of powdered sugar roll method for easy sampling of Varroa mites and application of acaricides on precise economic threshold level during different seasons of the year for integrated management of Varroa mite is hereby advocated by current studies.

Chili anthracnose damages chili fruits extensively at pre-and postharvest stages causing anthracn... more Chili anthracnose damages chili fruits extensively at pre-and postharvest stages causing anthracnose lesions. Even very small lesion of anthracnose on fruits of chili reduces the market value of chili crop. Fungitoxic effects of methanolic plant extracts were tested in vitrothrough poisoned food technique. There was a significant decrease in mycellial growth of the fungus with an increase in methanolic plant extracts concentration in all the tested methanolic plant extracts over the control. The fungitoxicity of methanolic plant extracts varied greatly among each other and their concentrations. In general, there was a decrease in mycelial growth Colletotrichum capsici with an increase in concentration of methanolic plant extracts. However, when growth of the fungus in response to various methanolic plant extract concentrations after an incubation period of nine days at 28 ± 2°C was compared, neem leaf extract proved to be the best as it had given the maximum control (64 percent) followed by datura leaf extract (63 percent) on 1000 µg/ml concentration. While eucalyptus leaf extract was proved to be the least effective (45 percent) at highest concentration (1000 µg/ml). None of the tested methanolic plant extracts has completely checked the mycelial growth of Colletotrichum capsici at any of their concentrations. Although there was an overall trend of reduction in mycelial growth of Colletotrichum capsiciwith increase in the concentration of methanollic plant extracts.These plant extracts can be used to controlanthracnose of chilies to reduce the use of fungicides, as plant extracts are safer than synthetic fungicides.

LINGUISTICA ANTVERPIENSIA, Dec 25, 2020

Revista Amazonia Investiga, 2020

The current study investigates grammatical and syntactical functions of auxiliaries in Urdu and E... more The current study investigates grammatical and syntactical functions of auxiliaries in Urdu and English to draw certain distinctions regarding the behavior, syntactic representation and semantic content auxiliaries add to the main verbs (Vs) through the X-bar theory as a theoretical framework within the minimalist program (MP). The data of the current research were collected from authentic sources (Urdu and English text books and grammars) to consider a diverse range of possible usage of Urdu and English auxiliaries. 200 sentences extracted from textbooks and grammars were analyzed grammatically in terms of morphology, and syntax (through tree-representation and their movement). The findings indicate sharp differences related to the syntactic position of auxiliaries in Urdu and English. In Urdu, auxiliaries always occupy their position after the main verbs in a sentence and their position is fixed and also have the ability to mark number (singular & plural) and gender (masculine & f...

People usually express their feelings and emotions positively to others when they have happy occa... more People usually express their feelings and emotions positively to others when they have happy occasions. However, the ways of expressing congratulation may vary because the expressive speech act “congratulations” is not the only way to express happiness and share others their happy news. The present study investigates the congratulation strategies of Pakistani ESL learners and British English speakers under the influence of social distance variable. For this purpose, 120 participants were recruited, and who were further divided into four different groups: 30 British English speakers, 30 Pakistani ESL learners in the elite class, 30 Pakistani ESL learners of the middle class, and 30 Pakistani ESL learners in the lower class. For data collection, a Discourse completion test (DCT) was used as a tool. The findings reveal that the most frequently used types of congratulation strategy are IFID followed by overlapped strategies (a combination of two), an offer of a good wish, expression of ...

SAGE Open

The present study aims at establishing grammatical constraints on the borrowing of nouns (Ns) and... more The present study aims at establishing grammatical constraints on the borrowing of nouns (Ns) and verbs (Vs) in Urdu and English by adopting Noam Chomsky's Methodological Naturalism within the field of generative grammar as the theoretical framework of the study. For this purpose, the corpus of Pure Urdu and Pure English sentences from textbooks and the Oxford Dictionary of English was used in this study. The data were analyzed in the light of Minimalist Program, and the findings of the study reveal that there are certain grammatical constraints on the borrowing of Vs in Urdu from Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Hindi as compared with English. It is observed that whenever Urdu borrows Vs from other languages such as Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit, it adds its little v with the fossil form of borrowed verbs in order to retain the grammaticality of the sentence while in English Vs borrowed from Latin, old English is said to be used in their fossil form and can be used with the inflection of the English and has no effect on the grammaticality of the sentence. The reason observed is the drop v phenomenon. Urdu does not drop its little v due to which whenever it borrows Vs it adds its little v along with root form of borrowed Vs otherwise the resulting structure is considered as ungrammatical. If we talk about the borrowed Ns, there are no grammatical constraints on their borrowing because they can inflect with inflectional morphology of Urdu and English language.

International Journal of English Linguistics

The present study aims at presenting a comparative study of Urdu and English in terms of Wh-movem... more The present study aims at presenting a comparative study of Urdu and English in terms of Wh-movement in the light of the minimalist program (MP) as the theoretical framework of the study. For this purpose, Urdu and English data related to Wh-expressions is used. The empirical evaluation of data reveals that Wh-movement is mandatory in English while, non-mandatory in Urdu. Furthermore, it shows that the movement of tense markers in English is obligatory along with the movement of Wh-phrase as compared to Urdu in which it is optional. The movement of tense markers is covert in Urdu as compared to its overt movement in English. The findings of the study show that the feature of [+WH, EPP] stimulates the movement of Wh-expression in order to check these features. The findings of the study are expected to prove helpful for students and researchers in understanding the nature of syntax in general and Wh-movement particularly.

International Journal of English Linguistics

This paper investigates pragmatic transfer in Punjabi EFL learners’ realization of the speech act... more This paper investigates pragmatic transfer in Punjabi EFL learners’ realization of the speech act of congratulations. For this purpose, 120 participants were asked to take part in the study, who were divided into four groups having 30 participants in each group: 30 native English (NE) speakers, 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the elite class, 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the middle class and 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the lower class. To elicit the data, a DCT having 12 situations based on social power and distance was used and for perception data, these situations were analyzed on the basis of four contextual variables (degree of familiarity, power, difficulty, and obligation in expressing congratulations) in the form of SRQ. The criteria for the analysis of negative pragmatic was set on the differences found in the responses of the participants and the positive pragmatic transfer was based on the similarities between the responses of the participants. The data was coded and analyzed unde...

SAGE Open

The present study aims at establishing grammatical constraints on the borrowing of nouns (Ns) and... more The present study aims at establishing grammatical constraints on the borrowing of nouns (Ns) and verbs (Vs) in Urdu and English by adopting Noam Chomsky's Methodological Naturalism within the field of generative grammar as the theoretical framework of the study. For this purpose, the corpus of Pure Urdu and Pure English sentences from textbooks and the Oxford Dictionary of English was used in this study. The data were analyzed in the light of Minimalist Program, and the findings of the study reveal that there are certain grammatical constraints on the borrowing of Vs in Urdu from Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Hindi as compared with English. It is observed that whenever Urdu borrows Vs from other languages such as Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit, it adds its little v with the fossil form of borrowed verbs in order to retain the grammaticality of the sentence while in English Vs borrowed from Latin, old English is said to be used in their fossil form and can be used with the inflection of the English and has no effect on the grammaticality of the sentence. The reason observed is the drop v phenomenon. Urdu does not drop its little v due to which whenever it borrows Vs it adds its little v along with root form of borrowed Vs otherwise the resulting structure is considered as ungrammatical. If we talk about the borrowed Ns, there are no grammatical constraints on their borrowing because they can inflect with inflectional morphology of Urdu and English language.

International Journal of English Linguistics

The present study aims at presenting a comparative study of Urdu and English in terms of Wh-movem... more The present study aims at presenting a comparative study of Urdu and English in terms of Wh-movement in the light of the minimalist program (MP) as the theoretical framework of the study. For this purpose, Urdu and English data related to Wh-expressions is used. The empirical evaluation of data reveals that Wh-movement is mandatory in English while, non-mandatory in Urdu. Furthermore, it shows that the movement of tense markers in English is obligatory along with the movement of Wh-phrase as compared to Urdu in which it is optional. The movement of tense markers is covert in Urdu as compared to its overt movement in English. The findings of the study show that the feature of [+WH, EPP] stimulates the movement of Wh-expression in order to check these features. The findings of the study are expected to prove helpful for students and researchers in understanding the nature of syntax in general and Wh-movement particularly.

International Journal of English Linguistics

This paper investigates pragmatic transfer in Punjabi EFL learners’ realization of the speech act... more This paper investigates pragmatic transfer in Punjabi EFL learners’ realization of the speech act of congratulations. For this purpose, 120 participants were asked to take part in the study, who were divided into four groups having 30 participants in each group: 30 native English (NE) speakers, 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the elite class, 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the middle class and 30 Punjabi EFL learners of the lower class. To elicit the data, a DCT having 12 situations based on social power and distance was used and for perception data, these situations were analyzed on the basis of four contextual variables (degree of familiarity, power, difficulty, and obligation in expressing congratulations) in the form of SRQ. The criteria for the analysis of negative pragmatic was set on the differences found in the responses of the participants and the positive pragmatic transfer was based on the similarities between the responses of the participants. The data was coded and analyzed unde...