Ideology In Political Discourses: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Pakistan Democratic Movement Leaders’ Speeches In 2020

Abstract

The present study explores the in-group and out-group ideology in political speeches of two leaders, Bilawal Bhutto and Moluna Fazal-ur-Rahman.These speeches were delivered by these speakers from the platform of PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) which was founded to destabilize Imran Khan’s government. The present research has analyzed four speeches of each speaker. The speeches were delivered from Oct, 2020 to Dec, 2020. For this research, the researcher has used Van Dijk’s (2006) research model in embedded form. The prominent categories that have been used in the present data include; actor description, authority, distancing, number game, polarization, hyperbole, and history as lesson, evidentiality, and repetition. The levels of analysis include word class, sentence and discourse level. The findings show that the speakers have used different linguistic forms such as noun, pronouns, verb and adjectives; rhetorical devices such as number game, hyperbole, and repetition to construct the discursive strategies such as actor description, authority, history as lesson, evidentiality, polarization, and distancing. These linguistic forms, rhetorical devices, and discursive strategies were employed by PDM leaders to propagate their ideologies to represent in-group positively and out-group negatively. The research concludes that political discourses are the best sites to propagate desired ideologies.