CONSTRUCTING IDEOLOGY THROUGH PRONOUNS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PERSUASIVE AND MANIPULATIVE STRATEGIES IN IMRAN KHAN’S SPEECH

Abstract

In the current paper, the author analyzes the ways Imran Khan develops ideology, power relations, and political legitimacy in his April 16, 2022 post-ouster speech by use of personal pronouns and associated discursive methods. Although past literature has examined the subject of pronouns in political identity in various countries and in Pakistan, most of the studies concentrate on the pre-regime-change speech of Khan including the elections campaigns, UN addresses, victory speeches, and the dharna speeches. Little has been focused on the use of pronouns as persuasive and manipulative instruments during the time of political crises. This paper examines how the ideological meanings of victimhood, resistance and legitimacy following the removal of Khan to power are constructed by use of inclusion/exclusive pronouns, deletion of agents, use of evaluative expressions and interdiscursivity under the three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis model proposed by Fairclough. The results indicate that pronouns not just distinguish between allies and opponents but also rebuild collective identity, blame, and mobilise the popular sentiment by affixing ideological accounts to the 2022 sociopolitical landscape in Pakistan. Through combining pronoun use with a detailed CDA methodology, the study fills a major gap in the current study of Pakistani political rhetoric and emphasizes how seemingly simple grammatical decisions can be used as potent tools of ideology, sense-making, and influence.