Persuasive power concerning COVID-19 employed by Premier Imran Khan: A socio-political discourse analysis

Abstract

The researchers investigate Pakistani Premier Imran Khan’s (IK) addresses to the nation concerning awareness about the causes, effects, precautions, and solutions of the Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19). Till the date, experts are not sure whether the vaccine will get developed or would we have to live with this as we did with HIV or Dengue. Consequently, leaders would need to address their nations, focusing specifically on precautions. The present research employs Aristotle’s persuasive and rhetorical devices, integrating them with Socio-Political Discourse Analysis (SPDA), to understand the social and political convincing style employed by the premiere. The researchers analyzed the data employing a qualitative approach. There are reliable findings to suggest that IK has used stable linguistic features to persuade the minds of the people, convincing them to follow the precautionary measures as ‘the only cure.’ The defending arguments about semi-lockdown or smart-lockdown were well-defined persuading the individuals; for instance, he suggested the smart-lockdown during his first address and faced criticism from the opposition. Later, the opposition and the world appreciated the policy of IK, the Premier of Pakistan, even being a developing country in the sight of the world. After one month of the first patient of the corona case reported in China, the policy of smart-lockdown was followed by most of the states fighting against COVID-19. Moreover, The Premier successfully persuaded the international financial organizations – IMF, World Bank, Development Banks, convincing them to waive off the pending payments of developing countries for the upcoming year.Keywords: COVID19, Persuasion, Socio-Political Discourse Analysis, Speeches, Linguistic Features

Persuasive Political Power Employed by Premier Imran Khan to Deform Identity: A Political Discourse Analysis

“…Political Discourse can be counted as a prerequisite aspect that supports in building implied and accurate meanings in the text (van Dijk, 2006;2005;1997b;1998) that is under the target, especially in a context that is social and political based (van Dijk, 2018). Although it describes the social practices, relations based on power, and abstract based considerations, furthermore, it is a way of communication in a speech by using powerful and persuasive words (discourse) or composed structure (written form) (Iqbal et al, 2020;Baig et al, 2019). A Language that is brought into utilization, having the final target of communication with other people in the form of a written text or with the usage of speech sounds to transmit ideas, feelings, and emotions, is called discourse (Sharififar & Rahimi, 2015).…”

“…Conversation can be analyzed or observed in different manners with different endings when it is set, translated, and depicted, and even it needs to get clarified in a sense that in which way and why it shows or perform different functions (Rogers & Schaenen, 2014). Discourse is considered an integral portrayal of the language concerned with actual practice possessing a specific approach, and it intends to deal with each type of person's intellectual ability (Iqbal et al, 2020). On the other hand, discourse analysis is a type of technical form possessing objectivity considering the material of discourse or any framework of basic necessity, and it deals with any way of communication to study the text in its context (Sibtain et al, 2020;Sharififar & Rahimi, 2015).…”

“…It additionally unhides the systems of belief and relations of power, mostly found in political discourse. Additionally, PDA is a combination of supposition recognized with human science on a small scale, society, and power (van Dijk, 2001;Kirvalidze & Samnidze, 2016;Sibtain et al, 2020;Iqbal et al, 2020). It is a typical method for clarification during the investigation of the discourse.…”

“…It is a typical method for clarification during the investigation of the discourse. There are a few critics who describe that there is not any method that might exist for PDA or to gather informative elements through PDA (Iqbal et al, 2020). Instead of this, it is a raw material to analyze content adopting an exemplary setting.…”

A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF CRITICAL STRATEGIES in COVID-19 CORPORA

“…The mentioned issue is relatively new since the experts are more interested in analyzing the medical perspective problem than a linguistic perspective, incredibly pragmatic perspective. Iqbal et al (2020) investigate Pakistani Premier Imran Khan's (PKI) towards the national awareness of causes, effect, and precautions based on COVID-19's issue. This problem is carried to respond to the unsureness of the vaccine's development made by the experts.…”