Discourse Analysis

Political Discourse

Political Discourse AnalysisReja Fatima

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Politics

– The activities associated with

the governance of a country or area,

especially the debate between parties

having power.

Discourse

– According to Fairclough (1989) the term refers to

“the whole process of interaction of which a text

is just a part” (Fairclough, 1989, p.24).

Political Discourse

– Political discourse can be simply marked as the discourse of politicians, i.e. their text and talk, and their professional activities. The topics discussed usually come from public events that require collective decision-making, policies, regulations or legislation. (Van Dijk 2001. 4)

Political Discourse

– According to Schaffner (1996), political discourse, as a sub-category of discourse in general, can be based on two criteria: functional and thematic. Political discourse is a result of politics and it is historically and culturally determined. It fulfills different functions due to different political activities. It is thematic because its topics are primarily related to politics such as political activities, political ideas and political relations.

Domains of Politics

– Political Systems

These systems are among the most obvious commonsense categories of the domain of politics: Communism, dictatorship, democracy, fascism, or the social democracy.

Domains of Politics

– Political InstitutionsThe domain of politics is typically analyzed as consisting of a number of political institutions, which, top down, organize the political field, actors and actions, such as the State, Governments, Parliament or Congress (the Legislature), city councils, state agencies, and so on.

Domains of Politics

– Political Organizations

Less (legally, constitutionally) official are the large number of political organizations that structure political action, such as political parties, political clubs, NGOs, and so on.

Analysis

– The present study deals with the analysis of political discourse of the speech used by Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime minister of Pakistan (1988-1990 and 1993-1996). The political speech under the study is the last speech of her life. The speech has got great influence over the public .

Analysis The following headings and subheadings have been identified from the contents of the speech for analysis.

1- emotional attachment

2- Mind Control

3- Mitigating evidence and Bhutto’s legacy

4- Glorification of the party

5- contradiction

6- Historical distortion

7-Rehtoric art of speaking

8-Creating enemy images

Emotional Attachment

“These are the slogans as I have come to Rawalpindi today, I understand this is the city of brave and sacrificing people; I consider Rawalpindi as my second home. When Bhutto Sahib was a minister, I used to live here; I used to go to a school at Rawalpindi. I have seen moments of joy and gloomy times in Rawalpindi. I must say that the brave people of Rawalpindi have been with me in moments of happiness; brave sisters and brethren of this city stood by me in hours of our sadness; they have never let me alone”.

Emotional Attachment

speech starts with city name people usually have great affiliation with their home town second home, positive image motivates public they were with her in good and bad people with her in future

Mind Control“The people of this city love democracy and have never bowed their head before autocratic regimes. Gen ZiaulHaq came and let the reign of terror loose; young people were persecuted and sent to jail; young Abdul Hameed burnt himself to death and Idris Tooti was hanged. Thousands of workers were flogged and made to face brutal treatment at Lahore’s Shahe Fort. Yet, they did not leave their sister and the Pakistan People’s Party.”

Mind Control

– control people from by quoting from past who are unaware of past

– they believe the information in the discourse tends to be right and accurate.

Mitigating Evidence and Bhutto legacy“Quaid-i-Awam Shaheed Bhutto established the Pakistan People’s Party for the poor, hopeless and the oppressed people. He worked for the welfare of the down trodden in his government. He made the defense of Pakistan inviolable and the comity of nations held our country in esteem and respect.”

Mitigating Evidence and Bhutto legacy

speaker’s party is for poor and helpless, if they will vote , party will keep addressing them.

she portray's the picture of her father,

keeps legacy

bhuttoism

through her surname

Glorification of Party

“the country cannot be said to be strong in defense and security no matter if it has nuclear power or missile technology. Such a country is always vulnerable to the dangers and conspiracies of the elements that are unsavory in approach and attitude towards the country; they will exploit the situation to their benefit.”

Glorification of Party

If is used for poor people

country’s poor people + nuclear power

Historical distortion

“When the daughter of the Quaid-i-Awam came to power…the Pakistan People’s Party always made hectic efforts to make Pakistan strong… And when you elected your sister you did not only elect a prime minister but also the first woman head of government in the whole of the Muslim world… whenever the Pakistan People’s Party came into power; it has held progress, development and improving the economic lot of the people in the highest priority… We have made strong governments and this strength was bestowed upon our governments by the people… People’s Party governments established peace in the region.”

Historical distortion

her party's achievements

glorifies her past

she hides corruption in her time

Rhetoric Art of Speaking “We understand that with this programme in practice, we will be able to fulfill the promise of the Quaid-i-Awam and the People’s Party”. Benazir Shaheed then raised the slogan -- roti, kapra and makan, mangrahahaidharinsaan (bread, clothing and home for all) and the people responded with the full throat slogans, “Zinda Hai Bhutto Zinda Hai, KalBhi Bhutto ZindaThaAajBhi Bhutto Zinda Hai, Nara-i-Bhutto, Jiye Bhutto, Jiye Bhutto. “

Rhetoric Art of Speaking

One of the major techniques is used in the above excerpt to control the audience. That technique is repetition operations of sentences at the high level of sound. These sorts of repetitions attract the audience towards the speaker.

Content Analysis of frequently used words

Content analysis of frequently used words by the speaker was done to find out the influence of these words over the whole speech. The speech consists of about 3,450 words where the word You was used most frequently for about 54 times which refers to the audience. The frequent occurrence of this word is a sign of Speaker’s influential way to attract the audience.

Words Repeated Intended meanings

you 54 The most repeated word ‘You’ shows that influential art of speaking to show the concern of the speaker towards the audience. To give importance to the audience.

I 28 Personal attribute shows the subjective approach of the speaker in speech

Bhutto 20 Depicting Bhuttoism and showing Bhutto legacy.

Rawalpindi 13 Trying to get the attention of people by an emotional attachment.

Conclusion

The content Analysis of most repeated words in the above table shows the word I was used for 28 times, the word Me was used for 07 times. The word Your sister was used for 07 times. The word Daughterwas used for 03 times. The word We was used for 20 times. Adding all together speaker speaks of herself for 65 times.

conclusion

The way historical references are cited in the speech is the deliberate attack on the minds of the audience to control them. Most of the audience is unaware of the past events and they do not have sufficient knowledge about the past events to challenge the speaker’s information so they take the information in the discourse as right and accurate.