Critical Discourse Analysis 1

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Imran Khan’s Victory Speech of Election

2018

Abstract
The study aims to critically analyze the Imran Khan,s victory speech of election 2018. The study

is based on critical discourse analysis in the sub branch of political discourse. For the purpose, I

chose Norman Fairclough model of critical discourse analysis, also known as 3D model. The

analysis is done on three levels of dimension, textual, discursive and sociocultural. The analysis

reflects his ideologies related to state affairs and his choice of discourse to take greater support

of audience. The study reveals his persuasive strategies by analyzing his persuasive and

ideological components.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, political speech, 3D model, election 2018

Introduction:

Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is a famous politician and former cricketer and captain of

Pakistani cricket team. He is the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and after the struggle of 22

years he is currently serving the duties of 22nd prime minister of Pakistan. He was born in upper

middle class Pashtun family in Lahore; he graduated from Oxford University where he studied

Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He is one of the most powerful and popular leaders especially

among youth. (wikipedia)

Politics is the practice of power by putting social, economical and political beliefs in

practice through the use of language in domains of power. It is a practice of transferring ideologies

and paradigms by using strategic discourse in social practices. This paper analyzes political

discourse reflecting political ideologies namely by Imran Khan during his first speech after taking
 Critical Discourse Analysis 2

victory in 2018’s election. As the prime minister of Pakistan, his words are of political significance

and it is very important to analyze ideological and persuasive components in his speech. The paper

will examine the hidden ideologies, agendas and other components of the speech.

Theoretical framework:

Discourse:

According to Fairclough (2003) discourse is specific language that is in use or an element

of social life or associated with other elements. In the domain of critical discourse analysis

discourse can be termed as social practice, written or spoken, though context of its use is decisive.

It is further argued that social context is not only affected by discourse but discourse is itself

influenced by social context. (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997)

Ideology:

According to new world encyclopedia, the concept of ideology is given by Karl Marx who

defines ideology as a false consciousness of ruling class who presents its ideas as universal truths

and only serves to its member. It is a set of beliefs and ideas used as a tool in politics by twisting

the political and social realities.

Critical Discourse Analysis:

Critical discourse is a contemporary approach to the study of language and discourse in

social institutions. It focuses on how social relations, identity, knowledge and power are

constructed through discourse. According to Fairclough (1995) CDA is a model for studying

language in relation with identity and power, especially to those who are struggling against

dominance and oppression in the form of language. According to Van Dijk (1993) CDA is not just
 Critical Discourse Analysis 3

a model, school or any idea rather it is a shared view for linguistics, semiotics and discourse

analysis. Fairclough (1989) argues that critical study of text and discourse facilitates for

uncovering the unseen agenda which are hidden from people. It is further argued that hidden

determinants and hidden effects of these determinants can also be explored through critical

analysis. (Fairclough, 2001).

Norman Fairclough Model:

Norman Fairclough assumes that any case of language is communicative event. He

developed three dimensional model, the model consist of three categories i.e. text, discursive

practice and social practice. According to Fairclough (1989),

1. Text or Description: This stage includes the analysis at word level and concerned with
the formal properties of text.
2. Discursive practice or Interpretation: It involves the production and constitution of text
and concerned with the relationship of text and interaction. It views text as the result of
process of production and as a resource for interpretation.
3. Social practice or Explanation: It is concerned with text in social structures or the
relationship between interaction and social context with the social determinants of the
process of the production and interpretation and their social effects.

Fairclough’s dimension of discourse and discourse analysis

Method
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This is the analysis of Imran Khan’s speech, the very first speech he gave after getting

victory in general elections 2018 but before the official announcement of new prime minister. The

speech was taken from Youtube.com and express.co.uk uploaded on 26 July 2018. The speech is

chosen because of its appreciation and popularity among people, as it was first address of newly

prime minister.

Features Points
Length 28:40
Sentences 88

Result and Clauses 193 Discussion:

Textual Analysis:

The first dimension in Fairclough’s model for critical discourse analysis is textual analysis.

By applying this analysis to data, the one M.A.K Halliday offered i.e. transitivity analysis.

According to Wang (2010) Michael Halliday’s approach is important key factor in critical

discourse analysis and other studies. Halliday (1960) study the relationship between language and

its social function. He identified that language represents three types of meaning in any social

setting i.e. ideational, textual and interpersonal. Though, in this analysis we are restricted to

ideational function that better serves textual analysis by analyzing the features of the text.

Ideational meaning of language can be analyzed by identifying the function of verb performed in

a clause. According to Halliday verb performs six types of functions i.e. material, mental,

behavioural, relational, verbal and existential. I analyzed text of Imran Khan’s speech and found

the following results.

Types of process Number percentage

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Material process 52 26.94

Mental process 80 41.45

Relational process 44 22.79

Existential process 09 4.66

Verbal process 07 3.63

Behavioural process 01 0.52

Total 193 100

Table: 1 Transitivity figures of speech

The above table shows that the most used verbs are those that perform mental functions

(41.45%), the second is material function (26.94%) and third is relational function (23.31%). The

most used functions in the speech are further studied below.

Mental function:

This process is associated with feeling and thinking. It involves the clauses of thinking,

wanting, feeling and perceiving. The participants of this process are sensor, mental and

phenomenon. For instance:

No Clauses

1. I wanted Pakistan to become the kind of country

2. I want the whole country to think like this

3. We have seen in Pakistan so far

4. I pledge to my Pakistani nation

Table: 2 the transitivity of sample speech on mental process

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Speakers use mental process in their discourse because they know that people’s emotions

are connected with their senses. Therefore, leaders try to use more mental process so they can

connect and transfer their ideologies among people. Wang (2010) also stated that mental function

is a function of sense and feeling and it attaches the feelings and emotions of listeners with political

beliefs and ideas of speakers. This can be seen through the above example that how Imran khan

(speaker) wants to tie emotion of viewers with his political beliefs and ideologies, he wants his

audience to follow him and think like him.

Material Process:

A material process is a process of doing and happenings or performing physical actions. It

mainly includes doing verbs and participants are actor (subject), material process (verb) and goal

(object). For example;

Actor Material process Goal

I, Ikram Gandapur, we, Came, killed, do, Politics, suicide

governor houses. establish, used. bomber, political
victimizing, supremacy
of the law, public.
Table: 3 the transitivity of sample speech on material process

This can be clearly seen from the above table that speaker mostly used ‘I and we’ as actors

in his speech. The actor ‘I’ represents the ideology of speaker that he considers himself superior

among the other leaders and best for the nation. However, the use of ‘we’ represents that he wants

to connect with people, make relations with them and make them believe that together we can

achieve many things. This is also the kind of strategy to get a greater support of public in his

upcoming government and policies. Wang (2010) believes that using material process in discourse
 Critical Discourse Analysis 7

the speaker can tell audience about previous governments, current government policies, its

achievements and its aims to serve in different state affairs.

Relational Process:

The main purpose of the process is to relate the two participants. This is a characteristic

feature of intensive verbs or relational verbs like be, become, appear etc. For example in Imran

Khan’s speech;

No Clauses

1. This election is a historic election in Pakistan.

2. That is my inspiration

3. If India’s leadership is ready

4. We have the second youngest population in the world

Table: 4 the transitivity of sample speech on relational process

This process helps the leaders to create the relations of existing beliefs with his beliefs.

Imran Khan employed this process to strengthen his ideologies among people and to create sense

of understanding for the existing ideas. Through this process he wants that public hold his

paradigm so his ideas can easily be accepted in audience.

Discourse Practice:

Discourse practice is the process of text production, distribution and consumption.

(Fairclough, 1995). Discourse practices helps to discover how and where text is produced. This
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means the discourse practice in critical discourse analysis can be traced back to text producer and

text consumer.

Imran Khan is a most famous former cricketer and captain of Pakistani team. He always

had led the team from the front grounds and was loyal to his team and nation. During his whole

cricket career he had never gone through any type of allegations related to his career and generally

he is famous as nationalist. Apart from this, he is investor and investing in many businesses and

he struggled for 22 years to come into power. His proclaimed political manifesto includes Islamic

views, liberal economies, implementation of anti-corruption laws and ensure the clean

government.

From the victory speech that he gave after elections, we can analyze that he talked about

his struggles and sufferings that he had gone through during his political career. He also talked

about current economic and social crises of Pakistan and criticized the previous government and

its policies. He also mentioned the issue of taxes by saying that our previous rulers spend money

on them and don’t pay taxes and promised to protect people’s tax money. He also said that we will

strengthen our anti corruption departments and talked foreign policy. He mentioned that we want

to learn from China how they brought 700 million from poverty and for relations with America he

said that we want mutual relationship with them. By looking closely to his speech we came to

know that his beliefs and promises only work if the process of making the deal runs well. This is

the positive point of Imran Khan that he knows whom he is talking to and how to derive them on

his side. He mainly chose the topics to talk about, which are close to people’s heart.
 Critical Discourse Analysis 9

Discursive practice is a bridge to connect the textual analysis with socio-cultural practice.

He gave a compelling speech and produced a text on the best strategy of Halliday to connect with

people. Broadly, the text is well constructed as a form of discursive practice.

Sociocultural Practice:

According to Fairclough (1995) this dimension of the approach can be analyzed by three

aspects of sociocultural context of a communicative event i.e. economic, political and social.

Eriyanto (as cited in Sulistyo & Khristianto, 2017) Situational, Institutional and Social are the three

levels of sociocultural analysis of a discourse. Situational analysis examines the text in a situational

context of its production. Institutional analysis considers the political and economical value of the

issue. Social analysis keeps in view the economical, political and cultural aspects of society.

Imran Khan’s speech is reflecting two major aspects of his ideology, state affairs i.e.

political, economical, domestic and other is foreign policies. At situational level, he talked about

the burning issue of the country i.e. corruption that how rulers looted the state’s money and

transferred into their accounts. He pledged to people that he will bring that money back and will

make the institutions strong enough to stop corruption. He also claimed that accountability will

start from him, then his ministers and it will go from there. These were the things that people never

heard before from previous leaders and made them to listen him carefully. Another issue which he

picked for situational level was foreign policy, though it was not something new to talk about

foreign policies in speech but it was his victory speech, right after election which caught attention

of the audiences. He claimed that we want to learn from China that how they brought 700 million

people from poverty level, how they fought against corruption and arrested 400 ministers there.
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He also claimed that we want mutual relationship with USA previously it was one way relationship

which was not beneficial for the country. He also mentioned that he wants to make this country

like Madina. These aspects of his speech are showing his underlying strategies that he knows what

point can hit the people’s mind. At institutional level he talked about the current social, political

and economical conditions of the country, the challenges and crises the country is facing. He talked

about the measures he will talk in response to these crises. He talked about the poverty,

unemployment, hunger. Most importantly he claimed that his government will cut all their extra

expenses, they will use PM and other governor houses for public purpose and will follow

simplicity. He successfully used the institutional strategy by portraying the economical and social

conditions of Pakistan to take greater support of nation especially youth.

Conclusion:

Imran Khan’s victory speech successfully reflecting his ideologies about economic,

political conditions of Pakistan. His speech is reflecting his ideology for state that he wants state

like Madina and about corruption that he will not tolerate any kind of corruption and dishonesty

with country. His choice of text shows that he is a smart person who knows about his audiences

and how to persuade people with discourse strategies. He successfully connected his textual

practices with social and discursive practices and is successful in transferring his paradigms to

people, along with their great support.

References
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Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. London: Longman.

Fairclough, N. & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical Discourse Analysis. In T. Dijk (Ed.), Discourse
Studies. A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Vol. 2. Discourse as Social Interaction. London: Sage.

Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. Newyork:
Routledge.

Fairclough, N. (2005). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of language. Essex:
Longman.

Imran Khan's victory speech. Elections 2018. 92NewsHD. Available at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkaYR3QMqfs

Imran Khan's speech in full: READ new Pakistan leaders complete victory speech in English.
Express: Home of Daily and Sunday Express. Retrieved from
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/994714/Imran-Khan-speech-today-in-full-English-
Paistan-election-result

Sulistyo, B.A. & Khristianto, K. (2017). Political Discourse Analysis on Trump’s Ideology.
JSSH (Jurnal Sains Sosial dan Humaniora), Vol. l, No. 1, ISSN 2549-9505. Retrieved from
http://jurnalnasional.ump.ac.id/index.php/JSSH/article/view/1035

Wang, J. (2010). A Critical Discourse Analysis of Barack Obama’s Speeches. Journal of

Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 254-261. Retrieved from
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/47716111_A_Critical_Discourse_Analysis_of_Barack_
Obama’s_Speeches

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/ideology